[indent] [/indent][h3][hr][color=PaleTurquoise]Merja “Mer” Aaltonen[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Evergreen Gymnasium   ||  Thursday Evening[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
“Maintain your distance!”

Sibella’s voice rang over the sliding and clanging in the gymnasium as fencing practice went on, the captain herself patrolling the outskirts as the various duos attempted engagements and change of engagements with their blades. While the gymnasium did its job housing the basketball team, being tall and spacious with its foldable stands, the floor had proven too slippery for proper fencing, forcing the team to resort to mats that they rolled out and cleaned up for every practice. Though the team had been requesting their own room for some time now since both the dance and cheer teams had their own practice rooms, the school had largely stayed silent. In recent years, though, they seemed to be more receptive to the idea, and just last year they said that they would be willing to look into the project provided the fencing team continued to bring in titles as they’d done. 

This was, of course, only one of the reasons why Sibella was pushing the team so hard, the other being that it was her default nature. As the newly-appointed captain of the team, she was the one in charge of motivating the group when the coach wasn’t around, and her strictness went a long way to keeping the team in line when the coach wasn’t around. Mer, for one, hated to get on her bad side. She’d been on the receiving end of Sibella’s silent disapproval before, and while that was never pleasant, even worse was her penchant for—

“You. Campbell. Do you not understand how to maintain distance?”

The room stopped, turning to look at where the dark-haired captain had stopped in front of a training duo, one arm set on her hip. As her back was turned on most of the team, Mer couldn’t see her expression, but from the way Campbell cringed, Mer could guess.

“Byrne. Give me your sword.” 

Sibella held out a palm towards the boy across from Campbell, who quickly turned over his blade and backed away. 

“Now, everyone, distance is important. So important that it should be called common sense,” Sibella said, giving the blade a slight flick. “It’s one of the first things a fencer learns, and if you don’t keep your distance…”

She rushed forward, her sword sweeping towards Campbell, who tripped over himself in his haste to dodge her. He landed on the mat, his sword sliding away from him, and Sibella turned around, handing her sword back over to its owner.

“Your opponent gets to use that to their advantage. So, if you don’t want to get attacked off-guard, make a habit of keeping a safe distance.”

While sweeping over the team, Sibella’s eyes caught on Mer’s and stayed there, prompting Mer to nod emphatically when Sibella finished. The last thing Mer wanted to do was fall out of favor with Sibella, which was strange to even think. After all, just last year she’d been the one Sibella tended to pick on, but the now-captain seemed to have changed her mind about Mer sometime during her rise to captainship. Whatever it was that made her stop choosing Mer as her ‘training dummy,’ Mer was grateful for it.

“Continue on,” Sibella said, and the room did.

[hr][sup][i]Courtyard   ||  Friday Noon[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
The courtyard was spacious enough to disperse the sound of the many students that sat and chatted in it at lunch, and Mer barely registered the din of other conversations in the background as she bit into her sandwich. Next to her on the bench was Holly, who was currently picking through her pasta salad disinterestedly, glancing at the tables around them. Their other friends sat across from them and were currently engaged in some heated debate about something philosophical, which was Addison’s specialty, which meant that at the current moment he had all but set his food aside in favor of reciting some quote anyone else would have paraphrased.

“He’s at it again,” Holly said, spearing a piece of pasta with her fork. “I really thought he’d change before his final year, but nope.”

[color=PaleTurquoise]“Addison still really likes philosophy,”[/color] Mer said, taking another bite of her sandwich. 

Holly rolled her eyes. “And you’re still deflecting. I wasn’t talking about his love for philosophy, I was talking about his rambling, and you know that.”

She sighed, pushing the piece of pasta off her fork in favor for a piece of carrot. “Well, some things never change, like my mom’s supremely unhealthy pasta salad. Is it too much to ask that she buy whole wheat? Or lay off the butter?”

[color=PaleTurquoise]“She might think it tastes better that way,”[/color] Mer tried.

“And she’s lucky I’m still living at home. I can’t wait for when I can graduate and move.”

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, and the shuffle of Evergreen students packing up for class broke out. 

“Say, Mer, you have Roscoe right? For psych?” Holly asked.

Mer looked up from where she was stuffing her lunchbox into her bag. [color=PaleTurquoise]“Yeah, why?”[/color]

“Well, funny thing, I heard from a friend that some girl a couple years ago got suspended because of him. Apparently she called him a creep or something. ”

[color=PaleTurquoise]“Creep?”[/color]

“Crazy, right? I never had him, but from what I’ve heard he’s pretty cool.”

[color=PaleTurquoise]“Yeah, he’s pretty cool,”[/color] Mer echoed as she slowly zipped up her bag.

“Well, thought I’d bring it up because it was interesting. See you tomorrow,” Holly said, leaving with a wave. 

[color=PaleTurquoise]“See you,”[/color] Mer said, waving as well. Then, adjusting her backpack strap, she headed to class, a frown on her face.

[hr][sup][i]Courtyard   ||  Friday Afternoon[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
Mer spent her afternoon, as usual, somewhere on campus studying as she waited for fencing practice. Though she used to dislike the time slot her sport occupied, she’d gradually gotten used to it, and now she was even thankful for it. While it made heading home a hassle, having practice later in the day encouraged her to stay at school longer, and she found herself naturally inclined to spend that time doing homework and studying. That she had people around her at all times motivated her to keep her focus, and Mer was pretty sure that the afternoon was now when she was most productive. 

Currently, Mer was looking over her notes for chemistry, trying to piece together the necessary bullets to solve the homework problem she was stuck on. She flipped a page, flipped back, then sighed, sitting back on the bench and looking around. Maybe she’d take a walk and refill her water bottle.

A pair of familiar silhouettes caught her eye, and she paused, staring. From the height difference and pale hair, they looked to be Alex and Ava, since those were traits Mer tended to associate with the duo. However, the two were gone the next moment, having turned the corner, and Mer dismissed the thought. There was no reason for them to head to the school offices, after all.

The appearance of a fedora-wearing boy, though, took Mer aback, and she watched as he too disappeared around the corner. Judging by his pace, it seemed like he was following the two that turned the corner earlier, and though Mer wasn’t sure that those two were Ava and Alex, she was pretty sure that there was only one boy who sported a fedora at Evergreen, and she’d met him on Monday with Ava and Alex.

Packing up her stuff quickly, she rose, heading towards the corner all three had turned. She had a whole afternoon of time, after all, so a little break here couldn’t hurt.