"You should join," Aya insisted, pulling her strawberry blonde waves back in a ponytail. "You don't have to run for speed in cross country. It's just stamina." She started to stretch, her faded green t-shirt riding up slightly.
"Yeah, no." Yukiko replied, shuddering at the thought. "I'd much rather spend my time playing WoW with the Akatsuki like I usually do. I'm only waiting for you to get done with practice 'cause you're my ride home." The two girls had lived in the same neighborhood since childhood, one of the reasons they were such good friends. They switched off weeks driving the other to school, that way they didn't spend all of their hard-earned money on fuel.
Aya rolled her eyes. "So why not join instead of wasting your time here?"
Before her friend could answer, they heard a familiar voice calling everyone to order. They turned to see Kakashi standing in front of the group, wearing a pair of black gym shorts and a gray Under Armor t-shirt along with his mask and bandana. "You have ten minutes to stretch," he called. "Then I'll give you directions for the route we're going to take today. Any questions?" With the silence that answered him, he turned and walked into the track shack.
Yukiko turned to look at Aya, only to notice the look of distress on her friend's face. "What's wrong?"
"I feel uncomfortable with him seeing me like this!" Aya hissed, having an inner debate on whether or not it would be too extreme to go get the pair of sweatpants from her car to wear in place of the black, barely there, shorts that exposed her toned legs.
"Oh my gosh," Yukiko gasped, comprehension alighting her features. "The last time I saw you this flustered was last year when you started wearing makeup because of your crush on Sas-gay. You have the hots for sensei!"
"I do not!" The taller of the two defended herself as she went into a split, deciding that it would be too conspicuous if she put on sweatpants. The vibrant blush coloring her cheeks and her flustered behavior as she tripped getting up from her split gave her away, however.
Her embarrassment was ignored by the arrival of a distraction in the form of a tall red-head.
Yukiko clutched at Aya's arm, her eyes going wide. "What's he doing here?" She hissed.
Aya raised an eyebrow. "Well," she said, taking in Gaara's black t-shirt, red mesh gym shorts, and black Nikes. "Seeing as he's dressed in workout clothes and he's stretching, I'll hazard a guess that he's on the team." She let her eyes linger on his muscled legs. "I wonder if he's any good." Yukiko just continued staring at the boy until Aya pushed her jaw shut with her fingertip. "You're letting flies in."
"Shut up," Yuki muttered, blushing. Aya rolled her eyes and stretched down, resting her forearms against the ground. The shorter girl's eyes remained locked on the other teen across the track. A tiny 'oh' escaped her lips, her eyes bugging slightly as Gaara tugged off his shirt, tossing on the ground next to his bags.
"Oh my dear sweet baby Jesus…" Yuki commented as she looked him over. His muscles rippled as he stretched, a slight sheen of sweat from the afternoon heat making him all the more sexy to her. For a moment she considered joining in the hopes of seeing him na-
"Hey!"
Yukiko was pulled out of her mesmerized state by the sound of a familiar voice yelling. She turned to see a boy wearing a dark green muscle shirt and matching sweatpants that clung to his legs. His ebony hair was cut into a bowl-like shape around his head. His wide, black eyes were alright with happiness as he ran toward them.
"Hey L-," Yukiko was cut off as her cousin ran past her. He instead grabbed Aya by the waist, lifting her into the air and spinning around before setting her back on the ground.
"Lee-chan!" Aya squealed, pulling him into a hug.
Lee smiled as he returned the hug. "Hello, Ichigo-chan. How have you been?" Ever since the first time Lee had heard Aya refer to her hair as 'strawberry' blonde, he had affectionately taken up calling her 'Ichigo.'
"Hello, remember me? Your blood relative?" Yukiko raised an eyebrow as she took in his outfit. "And why on earth are you wearing neon orange leg-warmers over your sweatpants when it's still eighty-something degrees outside?" Aya just laughed and patted Yuki on the shoulder before pushing Lee towards the track shack.
"Hey, Yuki, if you change your mind, there's extra practice clothes in my bag." She winked at Yuki before running off with Lee. The shorter girl sighed and picked up Aya's bag, rummaging through its contents.
"How the hell did I get talked into this?" Yuki said, trying to pull her shorts down to a reasonable length. Since the shorts were too big, Yuki had rolled them up so they wouldn't fall off. The only problem with that was that now they showed entirely too much leg in her opinion. Not to mention that the tank top she'd found in Aya's bag was actually a mid-drift on her friend, thus showing the top of the shorts and the bottom of her stomach. Giving up she turned her attention to the track shack where Lee was clutching Kakashi's shoulders and shaking him violently. Aya was sitting on the ground laughing as Lee screamed about Gai-sensei being the track-coach and asking what had happened to him. Yuki tried to stifle her laughs as she walked up and whacked her cousin on the head.
Lee looked back at her with tears in his eyes, obviously expecting the worst possible answer from Kakashi on Gai's whereabouts.
"Yuki-chan, something horrible has happened to Gai-sensei! Otherwise he'd be here and-" He hadn't realized it, but at some point Lee had taken up the chore of shaking Kakashi senseless again. Kakashi, obviously growing tired of the game, grabbed Lee's wrist and pushed him back.
"Gai is perfectly fine, Lee. Due to an agreement we had, he's decided not to coach track anymore, thus I'm taking over for him. He's still teaching here, he's not injured, and he'll still be picking you up after practice like always." Lee wiped his eyes, relief that Gai was alright washing over him. "Now then," Kakashi continued. "Gather 'round and I'll tell you the route."
Aya snickered as Yuki tried yet again to fix her outfit. Yuki just glared at the older girl.
"I don't know why you're fussing so much, Yuki-chan, you look fine." Aya stuck out her tongue. Yuki just sighed.
"Kill me now." She shook her head. "And stop lying. I'm way too scrawny to pull this off. Not to mention too pale. I'm surprised you can look at me without being blinded by the reflective surface that is my face." Aya rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. You just keep on downing on yourself, and I'm just gonna tune you out and run next to you." Yuki laughed and punched Aya, who'd started humming loudly, in the arm.
The ran in silence until the school came back into view.
"Ne, Yuki-chan~" Aya said smirking. Yuki rolled her eyes.
"Oh god. This is gonna end badly, I know it. What, Aya-chi?"
"Wanna race to the school?" Yuki shook her head.
"You know I don't run that fast." Aya shrugged.
"Not for long distances, but you're a great sprinter. Come on, Yuki-chan." She whined playfully. "Pleeeeease?"
"Bah, fine." Aya smiled happily as they counted down and took off. Aya won of course, with Yuki close behind. Aya's curly hair was threatening to fall from the tight bun she'd managed to tuck it all into, Yuki's red-black locks also falling from their ponytail. They smiled and drank from their water bottles before turning to look at Lee, who was ecstatic at seeing his cousin actually do something physical. Gaara came up next and Yuki realized that her shorts and shirt had both ridden up during her run. Mortified she hurried to pull them both back into their proper place, catching a glimpse at Gaara's face before he ran ahead. Her face turned scarlet as she saw he'd been looking at her. If she wasn't so intelligent, she would have sworn that he'd been blushing as well.
"What's got you all flustered, Yuki?" Aya smirked knowingly. Yuki flushed a darker shade of red and focused on retying her shoe laces.
"Nothing, Aya, I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm just fine, never been better." Lee raised an eyebrow at Aya, feeling as if he'd missed something.
"Your cousin's got a crush~" Aya sang teasingly. Yuki snapped up straight, looking between the two.
"I do not have a crush on Ga-" She stopped as she realized Aya hadn't said who she had a crush on. Fuck. Double fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Aya snickered and started off towards the changing room. Yuki trudged along behind her, dreading talking to Deidara once Aya told him she had a crush. Opening the door to the gym Yuki almost screamed. Gaara had stepped out in front of her, effectively scaring the hell out of her. He smirked and took a step closer to her, towering over her small frame. He leaned in close enough to unsettle her.
"You're cute when you're scared." He turned on his heel and walked into the boys locker room, leaving Yuki stunned, heart racing and face beet red.
Aya was already dressed and waiting for her when Yuki managed to finish the journey from the gymnasium door. Yuki stripped down to her underwear and shook her head at Aya's raised brow.
"Be right back." She said, grabbing a towel out of Aya's bag and stepping into the shower room. She pulled her hair down and fluffed it out before removing her last articles of clothing and stepping into the cold water. She shivered and began to rinse her hair. She was about to step out when Aya decided to make her presence known.
"What happened once I left?" Yuki jumped and squeaked, glaring at Aya who was lounging on a bench on the other side of the room. They each had the same parts so neither of them particularly cared that the staff always 'forgot' to replace the shower curtains in the locker rooms.
"Nothing." Aya sighed.
"Yuki, you're my best friend, I know when something's got you upset, now what is it?" Yuki wrapped the towel around herself and walked back into the locker room, Aya following behind. "Come on, Yuki. You know you can talk to me." Yuki smiled and pulled on her uniform skirt and a white wife-beater style tank top.
"I know I can, but it's really nothing. I just ran into Gaara and he got me a bit flustered." Yuki put her face down, blushing as she thought about what he said. It might not have been much, but he had at least called her cute. "It was kind of embarassing honestly..." Aya laughed and patted her friend on the back.
"Still gonna try and say you don't have a crush on him, Yuki-Chan?" Yuki rolled her eyes as she pulled up her socks and slid her feet into her uniform shoes.
"Shut up, Aya-Chi, 'fore I mention to Lee that you've got the hots for the guy that took Gai-sensei's job as track coach~" Aya's eyes widened as Yuki started to the door with her bag in hand.
"Oh you can't be serious...Yuki!" Yuki laughed and took off, Aya running behind her to her car.