"What am I doing here?" Peridot repeated with a not so well hidden streak of nervousness. How could she not be nervous? Oh, Stars, she should not have been as surprised as she was to see the gym teacher, Jasper Chalcedony, in the weight room. The woman already looked like all she did was lift weights if the muscle she was packing was any sign. "I… I'm here to work out, obviously! Why else would I be in a weight room?"

Jasper raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest as she stepped away from the punching bag to draw closer. "You can't really expect me to buy that you, the worst student I've ever had, who hates gym, came here to work out," she drawled and her eyes ran over Peridots body, taking in her appearance from head to toe before her gaze settled back on Peridots own face, and a slightly amused look came over her, "Besides, you aren't dressed for it, at all. Unless you plan to work up a sweat in your hoodie and jeans."

Cheeks turning hot, Peridot knew she couldn't get out of this one. Anyone else and Peridot might have a chance to make them believe that she really came here to work out and not hide from her teacher and crush. But she wasnA't going to lie to herself into thinking she could make Jasper believe her. "I'm… I'm here to hide, okay?" she admitted as she sank down to sit on the floor, "Happy? I'm in this smelly room because I'm hiding."

"Hiding? Aren't you a bit old to be playing hide and seek?" Jasper asked.

Peridot shot her a glare, but she wasn't able to put any heat behind it. She was too tired from the past hour to even get angry. "What are you doing in here?" She returned instead with at least some bite, "Don't teachers have paperwork or something to be doing during school?"

"I'm free until the seventh period," Jasper answered easily, "As for why I'm here? To blow off steam. Got into a pretty bad fight with someone; it's better for everyone if I'm in here letting out that anger than taking it out on the students."

"You mean you're not already?" it was a weak attempt at a joke, but it was enough to get a low laugh from the teacher.

Neither of them said anything after that, a silent agreement that there was nothing else to be said. Jasper did not question her anymore, instead, she turned back to face the punching bag she'd been working on before Peridot came. The student watched as she readied herself; her stance squared and her legs spread, knees bent. She watched as those dark arms, thick with muscles, raised and leveled themselves. For a moment, Peridot felt a bit of pity for the beatdown the punching bag was about to get from the woman.

Her punches were quick and sharp, jabs so fast that Peridot almost didn't catch most of them. The weight room was filled with the sound of dull, heavy thuds as her fists collided with the thick bag, a faint squeak from the chain every time it was pushed back. Jasper had a rhythm, a tempo to her punches. Peridot could see a type of discipline in her form, not something she'd see in a fistfight between students. But, even more, apparent was the anger behind each punch she threw at the punching bag. It was in the force she used, in the way her brows narrowed and her teeth bared occasionally.

If she did this every time she was angry, Peridot was kind of scared to see what class would be like if Jasper came to it pissed off. She would probably die from exhaustion and exertion from how much harder the teacher would push the students she was already pushing to the limits.

How long had Jasper been in here, going at it with the punching bag? The blonde was surprised there wasn't a large, fist shaped hole beaten into it yet. But, it was probably just a matter of time.

The minutes went on, fading into one another. Peridot wasn't sure how long she sat there, watching Jasper as she hid from Lapis and from her own problems. But, eventually, Jasper stopped and grabbed the bag to steady it from it's shaking and trembling caused by all her punches. Her dark skin was glistening with the sweat she'd worked up and she'd grabbed a towel she had hanging from a nearby weight stand to wipe her face off.

It was around then that Peridot decided she'd dare to speak and ask.

"Ms. Chalcedony, you said you got into a fight, what was it over?" she asked, her voice unsure, as though asking might bring down the wrath of a war god. But, she figured listening to Jaspers issues might be a good enough distraction from her own.

The large teacher glanced up at her and shrugged, "Adult things," she answered as she grabbed a bottle of water.

"I am an adult," was the automatic response she said in her most monotonous voice. She saw a small grin forming at that from the woman who shook her head, "I mean, maybe talking it out can help just as much as beating up defenseless bags? I promise I won't tell anyone, I'm not really into the gossiping thing anyways. You'll probably also kill me if I do, and I value my life too much to risk it."

Jasper glanced at her and then looked away, "I doubt you'd understand. It's relationship problems."

Oh. So Jasper too, huh? She couldn't help but give a deprecating laugh as she shook her head and sank deeper where she sat, "We're in the same boat then," the girl said out loud. What, was the weight room the general hiding spot for girls who happened to have problems with romance? Must be if there were two at once with their own love problems.

The teacher glanced at her curiously, raising a brow at Peridot, "You're having problems with a relationship?" She repeated, and Peridot could see the look in her eyes. The silent demand for details as she took a few steps towards Peridot.

"I… um… not so much a relationship, it's complicated," Peridot admitted in a mumble, she could feel her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. She doesn't want to talk about it, she wanted to forget about it all. She shouldn't have said anything at all because it looked like she'd really caught Jaspers curiosity on the subject.

But the large woman gave a smile, a large smile baring teeth. It wasn't gentle, it was borderline menacing even if that was not the intention. "How about a deal," Jasper said as she came to sit down on the floor beside Peridot. She smelled faintly of sweat, but it wasn't so strong that it made it unbearable for Peridot to sit near her, "You tell me what it was that has you up here hiding, and I'll tell you about my relationship trainwreck. That way we can satisfy each other's curiosity," she offered to the smaller woman.

Peridot raised a brow at her, "Are you sure that's a good thing to do, being a teacher and all?" she asked her. "That's not much of a teacher-student conversation, you know, delves pretty deep into the personal lives."

"Says the one who wanted me to talk about why I was here, but, do we have a deal or not," Jasper responded with a light bite of minor annoyance.

Peridot hesitated but gave a small nod to her to show her agreement. Maybe… maybe talking about it would help ease her frayed nerves on the situation. Couldn't hurt anything.

How was she supposed to even start that sort of conversation, anyways? "I'm in love with my art teacher and I'm panicking" wasn't exactly the best way to go about it. But, she had some time to think, Jasper was at least being polite enough to give her time to sort out her words and thoughts rather than pressing her to start talking there and then.

A few minutes passed in silence before Peridot sighed and drew her knees up closer to herself, "Well… I realized I may have a sort of…. Crush on someone today." she admitted slowly. It still felt so weird to be saying it out loud, especially to a teacher. She had to be careful how she worded it, Lapis could get in trouble if she named her, "I was supposed to meet up with them for lunch, but when I saw them I fled, and here I am, hiding."

The athlete frowned, "Why would you run from them?" she asked, "If you have a crush on someone, you should push to be with them."

"It's someone I'm not supposed to have feelings for, that's why," Peridot practically snapped as she gave a small glare to the woman, "I shouldn't like them, and if I spend more time with them, I might end up screwing up and getting in trouble for it. I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want them to be in trouble because I got a stupid little crush."

There was a moment of silence before Jasper sighed and looked up at the ceiling, contemplating her words before answering, "This person is a girl, aren't they?" she asked and Peridot flinched a little at how easily she guessed it, "Usually it's a girl with how you phrased it. Parents homophobic?"

At the question, Peridot frowned and lowered her head, was her mother homophobic? She wasn't sure, she didn't spend nearly enough time with the woman to know and never had any conversations that the topic had ever come up. It wouldn't surprise her if her mother was.

"Might be, she never talks about it so I don't know," Peridot answered instead.

Jasper nodded and gave a small hum, "If she's not, and if the others parents aren't homophobic, I'd not worry too much," Jasper said and then sat up straighter, "Even if they are, don't let them bother you, it's your love life, not theirs."

She sank down further into the floor, looking at her feet as though they were the most interesting thing ever, "That's… that wasn't ever the problem," she mumbled burying her face in her knees.

"Then what is?" Jasper asked, it was just soft enough to be considered gentle, but still had that demanding tone.

Peridot hesitated to answer the question. How much should she actually say? Gripping herself tighter she didn't dare raise her head to look at the gym teacher, "She's… an older woman," not to mention her teacher.

"Oh. Mother Complex."

Her head shot up at that, eyes wide with panic and her mouth began spluttering out words faster than her brain could process them, "Wh-what? No! She's not that much older than me! The age gap isn't massive- I don't have a Mom Complex !" Peridot screeched, her face burning a blaze of embarrassed glory. But, Jasper was laughing, a deep, full-bellied laugh as though she'd only meant it as a joke. Still red in the face, Peridot slunk back down, "She's out of high school and all that, in her twenties. But still, she's older than me by a bit."

"Well, you're eighteen, aren't you?" Jasper asked and didn't even wait for Peridots reply, "Sure, it'd be a bit of a problem if you were seventeen or younger, but, you're not. You are a legally consenting adult." she was almost sounding like a teacher as she said that, giving out words of wisdom and advice rather than yelling at everyone to keep running and that if they could still stand they could still move like she did in the gym. "You just gotta be careful is all, plenty of adults who'll take advantage of you because you're eighteen. You're legal, but you're just young enough to still have the naivete of a minor, and those people will just use and abuse you."

Peridot knew what she meant. Not every adult was some morally upstanding citizen. "She wouldn't… she's not a bad person," Peridot said.

"If you think she's a good person, and if you know she's attracted to women, I'd say give it a shot," Jasper said giving her a rough pat on the shoulder, "What's the worse that can happen? If she says no, it won't be the end of the world."

No. It just meant Peridot would have to drop out of her class, transfer schools and never show her face in this city again for as long as she lived. It's not like Peridot could just avoid Lapis the rest of the year if she confessed and got rejected. Not that Peridot had any plans of confessing, ever. There was no possible way it would end well. She wasn't taking that risk,

"Maybe," she said instead, staring at the dirty floor.

They still had maybe an hour before class would resume for Peridot, and she wasn't really hungry. Her appetite was long gone for the day after all. But, she also had no intention of leaving the weight room and risk running into Lapis. She wanted to be able to avoid her for the rest of the day, so staying out of the halls for as long as possible was her plan. But still, she needed something to pass the time with.

Her eyes settled on Jasper who was still seated next to her, though there was plenty of space between them to fit a few more students if any came in. Now that she was having an actual conversation with her, she was a lot different than what Peridot had originally assumed. Not nearly as terrifying as she is when teaching. She frowned as she accessed the gym teacher, "I told my story," she said after a moment, "Now, are you going to tell me why you're here?"

She laughed and gave Peridot a lopsided grin, "I was kind of hoping you'd forget that side of the deal," she admitted as she stretched, back arching, "You sure you want to hear?"

"It's only fair."

"True," Jasper agreed and looked up, "So, like I said; relationship problems," she said stiffly.

Peridot waited patiently for Jasper to gather her words, much like what Jasper had done for her. She watched from the corner of her eye as Jasper tensed and relaxed over and over and over again, gnawing on her lip as she thought. After an eternity she looked up at the ceiling as though now knowing what she wanted to say.

"My ex and I, we broke up a while ago, but, I'm still trying to get us back together," she explained calmly, "I ran into her earlier today, I asked her if she'd like to get dinner with me, catch up for old times sake and all that. I didn't even have any ulterior motives, I literally just wanted to have a meal with her and see how she's been doing since she's been fucking avoiding any and all contact with me outside of work since we broke up."

"That seems a little excessive," Peridot added. They work together and her ex didn't even bother to give a friendly 'hello'? How bad could their breakup have been to warrant that kind of cold shoulder? It wasn't like there was any harm in having a friendly chat with someone.

Jasper nodded, a low growl coming out, "I know, right?" she threw her hands into the air in exasperation, "I even got a really nice place for dinner, too! The kind of restaurant she loved to go to while we were dating! But no! She had to go ballistic at the idea of getting dinner with me! Like she'd rather dine with Satan than with me!"

Peridot let out a soft 'yikes' at that, not even sure what else to say, but thankfully she didn't as Jasper continued talking.

"She started yelling at me, I started yelling at her. We got into a pretty bad argument," she explained, lowering her arms and looking very bitter at the memory, "and now I'm here, letting out my anger on the gym equipment."

She supposed it was better the equipment than the students Jasper released all that stress onto.

"If you don't mind me saying," Peridot began as she glanced at the large woman, "Your ex sounds a bit... harsh," she finished lamely. Maybe there were factors into play that she didn't know, but, from what Jasper was saying, whoever it was she had dated sounded rather unreasonable. Maybe she could ask some other time about why her ex didn't want to spend time with her... or maybe not, she doubted Jasper would actually tell her that much, "Is she always like that?"

Jasper gave a lopsided grin, "She is," she agreed, "But, I love her."

Peridot frowned at that, "Maybe you should find someone else?" she suggested and shrunk back when those sharp eyes fell on her with a look like she'd said something taboo, "I mean, why keep pining over someone who sounds like she hates you?"

She half expected Jasper to snap at her or something, but the woman let out a deflated sigh and leaned against the wall, "It's really not that easy, runt. The two of us? We got a pretty heavy history," she explained with a shake of her head, "It's not something I can just let go and forget at the drop of a hat. Not something I want to let go of and forget."

"Oh…"

Well, in that case, Peridot hoped that Jasper and her ex could get back together if the relationship was so important to her. She had to wonder, though, who was it that Jasper had dated? Try as she might, no name really stuck out to her as a likely candidate. Maybe it was one of the science teachers. Probably not.

She was a bit too deep in thought that she hadn't noticed Jasper get closer until a heavy hand slapped her in the back and nearly sent her flying forward. The startled squeak she let out had Jasper laughing that deep laugh again as she stood up, offering Peridot a hand.

"Well, since we've still got time to kill, and you probably want to stay hiding, why not make the most of the remaining hour?" she offered as she pulled Peridot up to her feet. At the questioning look on the blonde's face, Jasper grinned, all teeth bared, "We can use this time so I can whip you into shape. Make you less of a pathetic mess in my class."

"Wow, glad you think so highly of me," was the sarcastic respond Peridot let out, it got another laugh. But, she didn't decline at least. A bit of exercise wouldn't kill her, and it wasn't like Jasper could go full force in here like she did in the gym. Hopefully. "Just try not to break me, I still have classes after this."

"I make no promises, now get out of that hoodie and let's start doing stretches."

This chapter would have gone very differently if they realized they were both talking about Lapis