Chapter 4: Competition
Korra and Kuvira stepped into their dorm room drowsily, collapsing onto their beds as they both moaned from the pain in their legs.
"Kuvira!" Korra whimpered over to her dormmate.
"Hm?" Kuvira moaned back with her eyes closed.
"it hurrrttttsss!" Korra cried.
Kuvira rolled over in her bed pulling her legs up to her chest and cried softly, "I knoowww!"
"Do we still have epson salt?" Korra asked as she slowly sat up in her bed.
Kuvira rolled back over to face her, "No I used the rest of it up last week."
"Ahh Kuvira what the fuck!"
"Sorry." Kuvira apologized pitifully.
Korra shook her head and rose to her feet, Kuvira watching her cautiously. "Looks like I'm gonna have to take an ice bath before I can take a shower." Korra said as she started to get her shoes and coat back on.
Kuvira rose to her feet, "Are you going back to the locker room?"
"Yeah because we don't have any ice in our dorm room, and there are showers there too sooo just gonna kill to birds with one stone." Korra shrugged.
"Oh, that makes sense." Kuvira scrambled to grab her stuff, and followed Korra out the door.
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The field house locker rooms were quite spacious and lavish for both girls and boys. The athletes had their own personal lockers with their names engraved in them, a living room that had plush chairs with a 50" flat screen TV and PS4 for the gamers, along with a kitchen for the late night snackers. And to make sure no one, but the athletes themselves, entered the locker room they all had their personal key….their finger print.
When Korra and Kuvira entered the locker room they were greeted by the rambunctious cheers of their fellow teammates as they played on the PS4. They both walked past the rowdy bunch and rounded the corner to the ice bathes.
Korra began to fill two bath tubs up with water, while Kuvira grabbed a big bucket and filled it with ice from the freezer. "Yo you got the bongos?!" Korra asked as Kuvira poured ice into the tubs. (The "bongos" was Kuvira's Bluetooth speaker, Korra called them "bongos" because of the sound it makes when you connect to it)
"Hell yeah I got the bongos, be right back!" Kuvira responded as she ran out of the room to retrieve the speaker from her locker.
Korra took her jacket and shoes off, leaving her in just her spandex and sports bra. As she was easing herself into the tub Kuvira returned with the speaker.
"Ooo hold up let me connect!" Korra begged as she grabbed her phone from her coat pocket.
Kuvira laid the speaker in between their two tubs, "Sure but don't play no boof shit."
"Pfftt I never play boof music." Korra connected to the speaker, holding in a laugh when the sound of the bongos played. I'll never understand why that always makes me laugh. "You ready for this?" Korra asked as she scrolled through her music.
"Lay it on me." Kuvira said as she eased herself into the ice bath.
Woo, woo, woo, woo
Woo, woo, woo, woo
Dance with my dogs in the nighttime (wroof)
"Ayyyye!" Kuvira yelled as she did a little dance in her bath, Korra right along with her as the song went on.
In the kitchen, wrist twistin' like a stir fry (whip it)
Hold them bands down (hey)
Hold your mans down (hey)
Who told you come around? (who?)
This that trap sound (trap)
Designer clothes (clothes), fashion shows (shows)
Trap house (house), made of gold (gold)
Control the bag now (control it)
No need to brag now (no need)
Ayy, put the mask down (mask)
We livin' fast now (fast)
Finest hoes (finest), wrist froze (froze)
We can go (we can), coast to coast (coast)
Watchin' me…
"Who in God's name is playing that trash?!" Coach Bei-Fong yelled as she entered the ice bath room.
Korra quickly paused the music. "Oh, sorry coach we thought you went home for the day."
"Oh, I don't care that you guys are being rowdy in here, it is your locker room after all. I just want to know why you thought that was music?!"
"Ahh not this again coach." Kuvira groaned.
"Alright I get it you don't want an old geezer to bore you. I just came to talk to all the girls about the upcoming meet before I talk to the boys." Bei-Fong said as she pulled up a chair between the two.
"What's up coach?" Korra asked.
"Well I'm just gonna cut straight to the point, no sense in beating around the bush. I need a new anchor for the 4by4."
"Uhh what do you mean by "new" coach you already have Leah as the anchor." Kuvira said.
"That's the thing Leah hasn't been at practice for the past 2 weeks and her grades are plummeting. She's not dead, sick, or out of town because I have my sources that tell me that she attends frat and sorority parties."
Korra and Kuvira gave each other the side look already knowing what was to come. "You want one of us to take her spot?" Korra asked.
"To sum it all up yes. Indoor states are coming up and it needs to happen soon. I plan on doing a run off at practice in about 4 weeks from now. The two of you will do workouts to prepare you for the run off, and the person who comes in first is the new 4by4 anchor. For indoor states and for the outdoor season." The coach said as she looked at the girls shocked faces.
Korra and Kuvira fixed their faces changing from surprised to determined as they both nodded their heads to their head coach. "Challenge accepted coach." Korra said with a modest smile.
The coach smiled at her star runners. "Good I'll see you ladies tomorrow, rest up." And with that she left the room to leave them with their thoughts.
Korra and Kuvira looked at each other with grit, already knowing form this day forth they were in competition with each other.
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After an hour of ice bathing Korra headed for the showers, Kuvira going in the opposite direction after she received a booty call from her boyfriend Baatar. "Wash your ass!" Korra had yelled but Kuvira just gave her the finger and left the locker room.
She entered the shower room towel in hand but stopped abruptly when she heard a beautiful voice.
Mark my words, that's all that I have
Mark my words, give you all I got
In every way I will
You're the only reason why
Oh I don't wanna live a lie
Mark my words
Mark my words
Korra followed the voice all the way down to the last shower. She leaned against the wall beside it and sang along with her.
So you heard it all before
Falling in and out of trust
Trying to rekindle us
Only to lose yourself
But I won't let me lose you
Korra didn't know why she felt so bold. It doesn't matter any way I already know who this voice belongs to.
The person in the shower stopped singing and peeked through the shower curtain. "Oh, thank god I thought it was sum creep trying to take a peek." Asami said as she hugged the curtain closer to her body.
"No just me. Justin Bieber huh?" Korra teased.
Asami blushed a little, "Says the one who sang along."
"That's like the only song I like by him."
"haha, what are you doing here Korra?" Asami asked.
"I'm here for you." Korra said slyly as she leaned in.
"Hm slick, but no why are you really here?" She asked again, closing the curtain to continue her shower.
Korra pouted she was sure that would have earned her a kiss. "I was here to take an ice bath, and now I'm going to take a shower, practice was brutal today."
"Sucks to be you I just had to do and hour run outside." Asami said as she finished up in the shower, wrapping a towel around her body she opened the curtain.
Korra pouted again, "Lucky, I don't get to do that till Saturday."
"Oh yeah that's right you don run on the towpath on weekends." Asami said as she made her way to her locker with Korra right behind her. "Do you want to by any chance-"
"Want to go running together? Yeah sure I would love to." Korra responded before Asami could get it out, smiling like dork.
"Ok I guess it's a date." Asami said biting her lip, the images from their make out session in the bathroom stale earlier flashing through her head.
"A running date." Korra said cunningly.
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Tuesday
The next day Korra and Kuvira made a deal with each other. The deal was that they weren't going to let the up coming weeks events put a burden on their friendship, even though they were in competition. They both promised that they were going to give it their all everyday on the track, and they weren't going to hold back on one another. Saying that in the end when everything is said and done they would be happy for whoever was the winner.
On the track we are not friends, it's just you me and the finish line that's it. Korra thought to herself as she stretched at the starting line, getting ready for the workout the coach was about to give her and Kuvira. She had been telling herself that all day to get her mentally prepared for today's practice, not wanting any setbacks.
Kuvira was to the right of her rocking her body from side to side as she stared blankly at the track ahead of her. "C'mon girls lighten up this isn't the run off this is just a regular practice day." Coach said shaking her head. The rest of the sprinters gathered around them at the line as they waited for the coach to give them their separate workout. "Alright here's what we got."
Korra took a deep breath.
"For the short sprints. 250-200-100 at race pace gonna do 4 sets of those, with 5 minutes rest in between each set." Some of the sprinters sighed with relief, it wasn't an easy workout but it could've been worse. Korra saw Bolin amongst the short sprints doing a little dance. "And now for the long sprints." Coach said as she looked at Korra, Kuvira and the other three boys that were 400 runners, "You guys have a ladder, 400-300-200-300-400 with 10 seconds rest in between."
Korra heard the sprinters behind her suck in a sharp breath as one of the 400m boys began to speak. "Hold up so let me get this straight, we have 10 seconds rest in between each run?" He asked.
"Yup so you run a 400 you got 10 seconds before you hit the next one." Coach answered nonchalantly.
The boy looked on slack jawed. Korra and Kuvira weren't phased at all they knew the workout was going be ruthless no doubt about it.
"This is what its gonna take to make it to indoor states so suck it up! long sprinters you're up first!" The coach said before blowing her whistle.
Korra took a deep breath to relax her last-minute nerves. We are not friends on the track.
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AN: I know that Kuvira's personality is like the complete opposite in the show then the way I portray her in this story, but I'm comparing Korra and Kuvira's friendship to my own friendship with one of my best friends. This is how we act when we are together obnoxious, loud, and we insult each other for laughs and giggles XD. You know you got a real friendship/relationship if you can just insult each other and not get offended lol.
~thoughts are appreciated : )