Disclaimer: I own none of the CotT characters. The only character I own in this story is Armelle. Enjoy!
Pairings: AxAxOC JxT
oOoOoOoOoOo
Meeting Armelle
"Bye guys, see you in a few
minutes!" Theresa called out cheerfully, heading towards the
girls' lockers with Atlanta. The guys trooped noisily into the
boys' lockers, getting ready to change for their daily
after-school training regime.
In
the girls' lockers, 2.00pm:
Theresa
threw her bag down on a bench and took out her usual sports attire –
a white tank top and pale green shorts before disappearing into a
cubicle. Atlanta followed suit, entering the cubicle next to her
best friend's.
"So, Theresa," Atlanta said casually, holding back a snicker. "How's it going with you and Jay?"
Silence greeted her as she wriggled into her black tank top.
"W…What's supposed to go on between us?" A tentative reply came floating back. "We're just friends, like you and I."
"Oh yes, friends with benefits I suppose. Like holding hands when you think no one's looking, cuddling together when it gets 'a little bit cold' and oh how about sharing an ice cream because the horrible person behind the counter wouldn't sell you guys another one?" Atlanta opened the cubicle door and came face to face with an embarrassed Theresa. "That, m'dear was the worst excuse I've ever heard."
"Well, I couldn't think of anything else!" Theresa blurted out before realizing that she had just admitted to it. "Oh crap." Atlanta couldn't help laughing at her friend's red face. Theresa sidled a little closer to Atlanta, a smirk slowly spreading across her pretty face as she combed her long orange hair into a ponytail.
"And I was just thinking, 'Lanta. What about you and a certain purple haired guy over in the guys' lockers?" Atlanta froze and furrowed her brows. Nothing had been happening between the two of them as far as she knew. They had been racing each other down the halls, back to the dorm, to the supermarket, yup, everything seemed pretty normal. She conveyed this to Theresa.
"That's what you think but I think there's something more than that," Theresa mused, tucking her clothes and comb back into her bag. "I think you and Archie like each other."
Atlanta simply burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all, saving her the trouble of giving her friend a reply. Yet as she followed the older girl out of the lockers, she wondered if her friend was right. But she didn't like Arch that way….
Did she?
In the boys' lockers, 2.00pm:
The guys made their way to different corners of the room and simply stripped right there. I mean, they were guys after all, what did you expect? Alright, except maybe for Neil, who locked himself in a cubicle. Soon enough, they heard him talking to his reflection again, "Ooooh NEIL! You look handsome today, must be that new face cream you used. Ah yes, cost you a bomb didn't it but hell yea, it's worth it…"
"And I thought true love didn't exist… until I met Neil." Archie scoffed, taking off his sweatshirt. Behind him, the rest of the guys snickered. Odie placed his laptop loving atop his bag and hastily changed into his track suit. Unlike the rest of the guys, his muscles were… shall I say, a little undeveloped.
Just then, the door to the locker rooms burst open and someone shrieked in horror. Surprised, the guys turned to the door. A (pretty) girl stood there in open-mouthed shock, a stack of books clutched to her chest. Her black hair hung at her shoulders, streaked with red. She was dressed in a black dress, cinched in the middle with a red belt, accentuating her tiny waist. Herry squealed and held up his shirt to cover his bare chest. (A/N: Okay, I know that's like highly unlikely but I just thought it'd be a bit of a change.)
"Oh… Oh god I thought this was the… Oh I'm so sorry!" The girl stammered turning to leave… before her eyes settled on Archie. Having just pulled his white muscle shirt over his head, he was quite oblivious to what was going on. The girl's obsidian eyes traveled lightly over his bare back, taking in the muscles. Her eyes flickered to his arms, appreciating the sight they provided as his muscles flexed while he struggled to pull his shirt on. She giggled. Archie whipped around at that unnatural sound in a boys' lockers and his narrowed eyes widened in surprise when he saw the girl. Her mouth formed a small 'o' as her feet sent her running into the hallway. He turned to the rest with an utterly confused look on his face, causing them to erupt into fits of laughter. Neil emerged from his cubicle at this moment to stumble upon the weird scene. He turned to Archie with a similar confused look on his face. Archie could only shrug.
"Archie, Archie, Archie," Odie began before his body convulsed with laughter once more.
"Seems like you made quite an impact on that girl back there!" Herry continued, picking up his backpack, still vibrating with contained laughter.
Jay smirked, running his fingers through his hair, "She looked like she was going to have an or… Okay, she looked like she was going to drool just looking at you."
Archie narrowed his eyes at the still-chuckling-away trio. Seemed like they were into another bout of weirdness. He made his way out of the lockers with Neil, their laughter still ringing away.
In the hallway:
Five out of the seven of them made their way to the track, walking in their usual positions. Jay and Theresa were walking a distance before the others, whispering to each other and trying not to appear too close. Herry and Odie followed, with Herry bombarding the smaller boy with questions from his Maths homework. As usual, Neil trailed behind admiring his reflection in his three-paneled mirror again. If you are wondering where our double As are, they had earlier raced on ahead to the track and were probably racing each other around it already.
As the five of them dumped their bags onto the grandstand, they spotted a red spot in the distance zooming around the track, with a purple dot following close behind. Jay and Theresa joined them while the others strolled lazily towards the track.
"Running sucks, Odie! Why can't we just like, exercise our leg muscles by walking around the mall all day?" Neil whined, pissed off at having got to leave his mirror behind. Odie silently agreed with the blonde boy, although he was leaning more towards the stay-at-home-and-meddle-with-his-laptop idea. Herry had already broken off into a slow jog.
"Neil! Odie! Hello," Atlanta ran past them, not even breathing heavily.
"Nice to see that you guys are running so hard!" Archie continued, running after her. Neil scowled at the violet-haired boy, he saw no sense in getting oneself sweaty and urgh, stinky. Odie and Neil continued strolling around the track, chatting to the nines about god knows what.
An hour later:
"Gloops! I'm exhausted!" Theresa panted, her white tank top soaked with sweat and her ponytail dripping wet.
"Gloops? What kind of a word is that?" Atlanta commented, tossing her the bottle of 100plus she was drinking from. The red-head wasn't even exhausted yet. She nudged her other best friend, second only to Theresa, "You wanna race round the track?"
Archie looked up at her from his spot on the grandstand. He sat up and groaned, "Wasn't 25 rounds good enough for you?"
"Ha, you're just trying to wriggle out of it because you know you can never beat me!" Atlanta shot back with a grin, leaping off the steps and onto the track. "Says who?" He retorted, joining her in a flash. Suddenly a giggle came from the grandstand. The guys sat up immediately.
"Hey hey, look who's here, Archie." That line came from Jay, who was grinning at his male best friend.
Herry chortled, "Your not-so-secret admirer's here to watch you run!"
"Won't you come over and say 'hi'?" Odie joined in the fun, noting the look on Archie's face. The girl who had accidentally burst into the boys' changing earlier on, went forwards and stopped in front of Archie. Archie looked down at her petite frame, unsure of what to say. His hair was too drenched in sweat to remain in its usual style, instead, he had a fringe hanging down over his eyes. Through the curtain of hair, he could see three of her friends hanging at the back, checking him out.
"Hello, Archie. I'm Armelle." She smiled at him again. "Care to exchange numbers?"
"Wha…?" Archie stammered, looking towards Atlanta for help. She gave him an insolent grin and took off to sprint around the track.
"JUST GIVE HER YOUR NUMBER, ARCH! She's pretty hot anyway," Jay called over, watching the new entertainment in delight before noticing Theresa's glare. "Er, I meant, I meant that the weather was… no, is, umm, really… hot. Yea."
"Henpecked." The other three guys mumbled, loud enough for their leader to hear. Meanwhile, on the track, Archie was reluctantly entering his number into her cellphone. She laughed as he handed her her cellphone back, "You are cute." He blushed a light crimson, looking away. "An you look even cuter when you blush. I'll call you. Ta!"
Archie watched her leave with her friends, before looking at the grandstand again. His friends were collapsed in a heap, laughing at him. Well, except for Theresa, she had this really irritated look on her face. Who knows? Maybe the drama queen had a little humanity in her after all. He scowled at them, making them laugh even harder. Atlanta dashed up next to him, amusement written all over her face. She slung an arm around his shoulders.
"So, Arch, how was the babe?" She whispered into his ear, chuckling as his face flushed red once more. "How'd she persuade you to give her your number anyway? The last time a girl did that, you turned tail and ran across half the town." Archie's face turned even redder. "Of course, leaving me to explain to her that you had this weird muscle disorder which causes your limbs to react at stupid times." Atlanta's best friend shrugged her arm off and stalked off towards the toilet, his face a red even darker than her hair.
"Aren't you jealous, 'Lanta?" Theresa asked as the red-haired beauty plunked her body down next to her.
"Huh? Jealous? What for?" Atlanta looked genuinely confused at Theresa's question. The older girl shook her head and looked into the distance. Shrugging, Atlanta finished off the bottle of 100plus.
Watching her younger best friend, Theresa sighed. You have no idea how oblivious you are, darlin'.