Ice

5-'yeah, you do stink pretty bad'

The pair continued for four weeks like this, each attending one another's favored activities (no matter how much they disliked it). After that four weeks, though, Spring Break began and the ice at the park was deemed too thin for skating. Gabe did find himself slightly upset by this, much to his surprise.

However, four weeks before this, Hemera attended one of his last basketball games. Right after coming out of the locker room, he spotted her. A smile lit up his features before he could stop it, but it did not matter; it dissipated by its own means soon enough. Hemera was smiling too, but not at him. She was smiling at and sitting next to Alex...

Who had his arm around her.

Gabriel averted his eyes to the court. He followed his teammates out onto the court and began warming up with them, throwing the ball back and forth and tossing it toward the hoop every now and then. "Adams!" a gruff voice hollered not long later. "Get with your team!"

Not realizing it, he had stayed out on the court after the whistle cuing the game's beginning had been blown - much longer than could be taken as a simple hearing issue. With his face heating, he jogged over to the other teenagers clad in red-and-yellow jerseys. "Sorry, Coach," he muttered as he joined the huddle. A few heavy hands slammed down on his back when he entered their circle. Around him he could hear his teammates' excitement, could hear them hyping one another up.

Without meaning to, Gabe allowed his eyes to drift back to the stands. This time, Hemera (whose lips had been colored a vibrant red for the occasion) was looking at him. She beamed when they locked gazes, waving frantically. He smirked and raised one hand in response.

"Hey, Gabe, get your eyes off your girlfriend and your head in the game," one of the red-and-yellow boys, Jimmy Heff, ordered. "We're playing the Dolphins, you can't blow this off." Gabe shook his head, providing another muttered apology. He wanted to say, Hemera's not my girlfriend, but he thought it would be a pointless argument. Just a waste of time.

Of course, that's not what he really thought. He just knew that everyone around him would think it, and would only tease him further. So he let it slide.

Another whistle blew, and a small group of the players migrated onto the linoleum floors. They stood across from the group in purple jerseys, and Gabriel felt his heart beginning to pound; he heard the blood rushing in his ears; he felt a determined expression overcoming him-

And then he looked to Hemera again, and he wondered if this was how she felt when they were skating. He could see Alex talking to her, but she was focused on the game that was about to begin. She was trying to be interested, more than anything he had tried while they were skating.

One more whistle echoed throughout the gymnasium, and people all around him began moving. He ignored the squeaking shoes all about him, narrowing his gaze to the orange ball bouncing in the hands of a purple-jersey-wearing teen. His own shoes squealed as he sped closer to it, and closer, and just close enough to hit it mid-bounce into his own path.

Gabe spun around and began to run, the ball bouncing between his feet. Members of the audience shrieked, and from every side red-and-yellow boys called his name. He stopped running just before reaching the hoop, turned away from an invasive purple-jersey, and chucked the ball at Jimmy.

Jimmy caught it, took a step away from three yelling purple-jerseys. For no more than ten seconds Jimmy looked at the net before throwing it. It bounced off the backboard and straight into the net, causing another wave of roaring to arise in the crowd.

Jimmy hollered in triumph, ran to Gabe for a high-five, and then retreated to his respective station on the court. The game continued with alternating scores achieved by the teams. By half time, Gabe's team was down by two points. He didn't really mind, it wasn't much to make up for in a basketball game. Nonetheless, everyone on the team seemed upset. They entered the locker room smelling horridly of sweat and blaming each other for the lack of success.