Unlikely friends

Chapter 3

Tuesday morning, first period was Gym. I hated it with a passion. I mean, it's not much the class, it's more the fact that all girls have to get changed in one big empty room whilst our pervy, butch P.E. teacher 'supervises.' One day I had come up with this seemingly brilliant idea to wear my gym kit under my clothes, but I got a caution for being 'unhygienic.' It was first period for Christ's sake, it's not like I'd worn it all day.
I entered the cloak room and dumped my bags on the floor. Ms Greenway stood in the corner, glasses on the end of her nose, her arms crossed against her large chest, sporting her usual black adidas tracksuit with the holes in the knees and her short, black, greasy hair pulled back into a pony tail. I put her out of my mind, wrapped my long blonde hair into a messy bun on the top of my head and quickly rummaged in my bag, pulling out a pair of shorts and a black tank top.
As I pulled my tank over my head, I got the burning feeling that somebody was watching me. I figured it'd be Ms Greenway, but when I pulled it down and glanced over, she was watching someone else. I followed her eyes over to Tori, who was leaning against the far wall in a pair of slim grey Nike joggers and a white tee - that girl worked out alright, her heavily tattooed arms were so toned, I bet she had killer abs... I'd been staring way too long, imagining way too much, only then realising that she was looking right at me. I glanced away quickly and felt my face heat up.
Ms Greenway's voice boomed around the room. "Alright you group of hormonal teens, we're going to train today but you're going to be in pairs. As you all know, we've got the yearly sports day against Ridgeway at the end of the month, and I don't want you girls blackening our four year win. This means you girls need to get in shape, and get in shape fast. Working in pairs will help you to get your posture right and work your little asses off. I've already paired you so, Alice and Lucy you two are not working together." The girls groaned and let go of one another's arms. My stomach tensed, I hated working in pairs. I walked over to the list Ms Greenway had pinned against the notice board and scanned for my name.
Stella and Anna
Lauren and Morgan
Alice and Remmie
Tia and Lorna
Macayla and Lucy
Ola and Tori
Brilliant.
I stood and stared at the list, willing it to change with my mind.
"Looks like it's me and you." I turned around to see Tori, standing there grinning with her hands stuffed in her pockets. I rolled my eyes and turned on my heel, making my way over to the main hall and plonking myself down on the bench sulkily. At the back of the room there was various equipment laid out; Dumbbells, skipping ropes, yoga matts, resistance bands and some other stuff I wasn't even sure of.
Ms Greenway gave us the quickest gym induction I had ever had, and assigned our pairs to a yoga mat with a list of exercises and how many repetitions to aim for. I rolled my eyes at the first, push-ups (25). I couldn't even do one of those with out collapsing, and I'm sure Tori was going to put me to shame, what with her toned arms and all.

Tori went first, and of course she completed all twenty-five. I watched her tricep muscles bulge with every repetition and admired the way her hair never moved out of place. Her face remained calm, as if she wasn't doing a thing, her skin still smooth and radiant - not like the blotchy red mess that usually painted my face when I decided to do a little exercise, and I mean a little.
"See something you like, Swann?" I jumped back in a start, not realising that Tori had paused where she was and was smirking at my no doubt, very hot face.
"No!" I shot back, scowling.
"Could have fooled me..." I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around the room to see if anybody else had witnessed my embarrassment, thankfully they hadn't. I paused for a moment.
"Sorry, what did you call me?" She looked away and smirked, adding extra push-ups to her workout as she answered me. "Swann. That's you're name isn't it?" I nodded and looked away, still wearing my scowl. How did she pick up things so quickly? It made me feel a little uneasy, yet curious all the same. I risked a look at her out of the corner of my eye just as she was dusting her hands off and standing up.
"Your turn then." Butterflies whizzed around my stomach. This was only going to be the single-handedly most embarrassing moment I'd had since slipping over during a track race last year. Why I was so bothered, I don't know.