2018.08.12 - Stretches and Ball-Handling

Social,

*Just an ordinary after-school workout. Nothing at all unusual going on here at all!*

September 2015

Forks High School

After school hours, clubs and sports take center stage with those who elect to stay around for them. Naturally, the physical education coach is essential personnel for that, though today's session seems to be more general exercise and fitness than any specific sport. Running laps, throwing a ball and catching it, jumping rope, stretching of course...a selection of more fun activities than anything too pressing or pressuring.

Derek wears track pants and a tank top, a whistle hanging around his neck. In one hand he holds a clipboard, with who knows what on the sheets of paper clamped to it. Presumably it's his roll call and notes, although the nature of those notes is a mystery to everyone. His general quiet helps to maintain that air of mystery around him; most of what he communicates is in nods, looks, hand gestures, or general body language.

Selena is one of those kids that hangs around after school for the athletic activities. She comes out of the girl's locker room wearing a simple set of snug fitness capris with a matching sports bra covered by a white open-sided white tanktop that has seen better days. She carries a bottled water in one hand as she makes her way over to the kids that are stretching and then just sort of stands there awkwardly fiddling with the water bottle.

Stiles, dressed out in his Forks High School gym sweats and a t-shirt, doesn't look thrilled to be here. (It's especially annoying that Scott gets a free pass on being here, thanks to his asthma. Lame.) Still, as Stiles plans to try out for the lacrosse team, he's snagging extra workouts where he can, and school has the benefit of being free. Plus, he figures the coaches will see him working hard, which might earn points in his favor. Having finished his stretches, he's now doing... something. It's hard to say *what* it is, really. It looks almost like he's having a little freak-out, swinging his arms around and jogging in place a little. Truth is, it's just a little routine that gets him warmed up, but it *looks* really odd.

Derek watches the students starting stretches and so forth. Good, he seems to say without speaking, nodding as he walks slowly across the room, over to the big water cooler there. He fills up two large sports cups and places their lids on them, first crossing the distance to Selena and motioning with his head to a small group of students exercising that seem to know what they're doing. It's a silent suggestion as he hands her one of the cups of water -- important to keep hydrated he knows. He won't push, of course. Everyone exercises at their own pace.

Then, when he notices Stiles doing his...spaz warm-up, he frowns slightly in a mixture of confusion and concern. Holding up a hand to Selena, silently excusing himself, Derek walks over to Stiles and stares at him for a short time. Seconds pass, until finally he clears his throat and offers the cup, ice clacking inside against the plastic. "Why don't you join us for some stretching?" It's not really a question so much as it is a sort of statement phrased a certain way. He clearly indicates Selena. These two seem to be the ones that need guidance in fitness.

Selena turns a little bit of a scarlet shade as Derek walks up and offers her the glass and the nod toward the other kids. She fumbles with the glass a moment, nearly dumping it three times. Finally she manages to steady it with only a slight sploosh of water ending up on her shirt somewhere around the stomach area. She winces and then tilts her head slightly, catching Stiles' spaz-tastic-warmups and she actually grins just a little. Her eyes flick between Derek and Stiles and when Derek nods Stiles in her direction, she lifts her hand and kind of does a wave with the water cup hand ending up with a bit of water in her face. She frowns and takes a long drink of the water, hoping to drain it down enough that she won't dump it on the wooden--- is that really wood?-- floor. "H-... um... Hi--- I thought you were having a seizure."

Stiles gives Derek a vaguely scandalized look at the quiet (if insistent) suggestion, and he starts to explain, "Oh, I already..." But he trails off, noting Derek's expression, and says, "Uh. Sure, Coach." He accepts the cup of water, sipping at it a bit, and pulls up short with only a bit of a jerk when he nearly bumps into Selena. Blinking at her a few times, he says, "Oh. Uh. Nope, just..." He rolls his shoulders vaguely and swings his free arm back and forth some. "Y'know. Loosening up some. He manages not to stare at the various wet splashes on her shirt, and even more importantly he manages not to say anything stupid about them. Instead he looks over to Derek a bit lamely and says, "So, um. Stretching?" Then he sips more water. Awkward is his life.

Derek makes gym clothes look good! He doesn't seem to be aware of this fact, but his tank top is plastered over his upper body and might as well be body paint for all the purpose it serves. It's fair to assume that he might look *less* suggestive without it, but it's probably some school policy. Official functions, shirts and shoes, et cetera. Whatever.

The coach escorts Stiles over to Selena and looks between them once before taking a few steps away and waiting for them to settle into their places. Wherever they want to stay, once they're in place, he spreads his legs to shoulder distance apart and starts some arm stretches, one arm pulled across his chest by the other. That's a good start. He works his way down to the hands and even stretches them and the wrists. "These are good for tendinitis," he explains, voice rumbly and quiet, but easy to hear even with the din of chattering behind it. "Try to do them every day." That seems to be directed at Stiles. For some reason.

Selena forgets to look at Stiles. Nope. There's Derek in a tight shirt and she just stares. When he starts moving like he wants them to follow, she jumps and looks down at her bottle of water and her cup and then looks around. She moves over and sets them down on the floor then sort of slippy slies back over toward Stiles' side, bumping into him with soft oof. "S-- sorry." She mutters, eyes trailing back over to muscles, er ... Derek. She slides her feet apart and does something of a distracted stretch... oh... look... arms... her cross over arm drops down to her waist slightly and she turns crimson again. "Uh... streching. Yeah."

Stiles blinks at Derek, and he opens his mouth to ask why he'd say such a thing, then shrugs and shakes it off. He figures out what to do with his cup of water--*not* chug it, or he'll get a brain freeze in front of the whole group--and sets it down safely on a nearby bench. He returns just in time to collide with Selena, flushing visibly, and says, "Shit--I mean, sorry!" He manages not to stare at her (again, wet t-shirt, *not fair*) but only ends up looking at Derek again. He makes a soft, strangled sound in the back of his throat and just... tries looking squarely at Derek's nose. That should be safe, right? Armed with this plan, he manages to continue following the stretches for a while without falling over.

Derek is reasonably sure that he made possibly the worst choice of any two students to instruct in stretching, but everyone else seemed able to figure it out or had some routine. Not so for these two. Taking in a deep breath, filling his chest and pulling his shoulders back, he demonstrates toe-touches for a while, then steps closer and lowers himself to sit on the floor, spreading his legs. "Foot to foot," he directs them, motioning to both. They can create some sort of...triangle...star...thing.

Once that's sorted, Derek begins to demonstrate leg stretches and more, lower body stretches bolstered by the resistance provided from their positioning. For a man with that kind of build, he's also remarkably flexible, but that's probably to be expected with an active sports coach and PE instructor.

Selena looks at Stiles as they crash into each other and she makes a choked sound, lifting one hand and wiggling her fingers dismissively. "Oh-- uh-- yeah-- ok. No... No problem." She flashes a distracted grin, eyes flicking to muscles again for a long up and down look... then flick back to Stiles, then the ceiling. Right up until she hears Derek's-- command? She looks down suddenly. Oh no. She has to TOUCH him? Her eyes nearly pop out of her head. Granted, it's only his foot... but STIL! She drops down onto the floor and spreads her legs wide, almost gingerly touching just the toes of her shoe to Derek's, then ducking her head so that her hair hides her face a bit... she does a very quick version of Derek's leg stretch before sitting upright and eyeing Stiles in a silent 'well get over here and help me even though you don't know me from adam!' kind of look.

Stiles scrambles over to join Selena in Derek's stretching formation, following through the motions with perhaps surprising grace for a guy who seems like just walking across the floor could lead to a prat-fall. Maybe it's because he's distracted, and his thoughts aren't getting in the way as much. Or maybe he actually got his Adderall dosage right today. Who knows? As they continue stretching, Stiles does his best not to stare at either of the others, going over case notes (see previous scene with the mysterious vigilante) in his head to try to avoid making any huge displays of awkward...er...ness. Finally, he can't help it any more and he speaks up, saying, "So, uh, no 'free play' today? Is this like a boot camp thing?" Ugh. Even he cringes little at that failed attempt at humor. Nope, this is not his day.

Derek watches the stretching and demonstrates a few more times before figuring that it needs verbal coaching as well as physical. "Try to touch your head to your knee," he advises, voice so calm and even. He has a reputation for being demanding but fair, though he seems to show more that he's determined not to raise his voice or be intimidating...and it would be so easy for him to intimidate just about anyone here by his stern looks alone.

Once Stiles and Selena pair up to help each other with stretching, Derek rises and goes first behind Selena, gently but firmly applying pressure to her shoulders, to help her stretch farther. Then he does the same with Stiles and gives him a little shoulder-rub for a few seconds after he asks his question. "You looked like you needed some help."

Selena... for all her awkwardness, may surprise Derek as she doesn't seem to have much resistance, if any at all in her body when he helps to push her down, she lays down on her leg like she sleeps that way every night. Although he may feel tension slide through her spine about two seconds after he touches her and she wrinkles her nose and her whole head turns crimson. She might just pass out. The look on her face is a mixture of horror and something akin to sheer bliss all balled up into one. She sort of blinks at Stiles' question and glances at Derek out of the corner of her eye... then chokes softly before muttering softly "Yeah like 911."

Stiles' face shifts through a quick montage of emotions, from startled to puzzled, before settling on a decidedly goofy expression. (Hey, it feels *nice*, okay?) He pulls himself together after and glances over at Selena, coughs a couple of times pointedly, and then gives Derek a sheepish look. "Can we, uh, take a break now for some, uh... something else? I think we're both feeling, um... winded. Yeah. Definitely feeling all kinds of winded, here." He manages to mostly control his blushing, shakes his head, and then looks to Selena pointedly, hoping to catch her eye, with a *go with me on this* expression.

Stiles looks goofy, Selena looks like she's a red lamp -- Derek has no idea how this happened. "Maybe...we should take a break. You both look a little...winded." Clearing his throat, Derek puts on an only slightly awkward smile, patting his clipboard on his leg as he scoops it up from the floor. He stands around for a few seconds afterwards, watching the pair. Can they get to their feet? He's not sure. "We can practice throwing and catching?" With the big, soft, red ball that otherwise is commonly used for things like dodgeball. Without waiting for a yea or nay, the coach goes over to the basket where these are kept along with the basketballs and medicine balls, bouncing his a few times on the way back over and looking...cautiously hopeful.

Selena stares at Stiles and coughs softly to hold back a laugh at something he said. She catches the look and her eyes widen then she gives a little squeak. "YES!" She almost shouts. "I... Uh..." She lowers her voice down to aaaalmost a whisper... but more of a squeaky one. "I think I pulled something." Yes. That should do. She gives a little nod and rolls back a bit to pull her knees up to her chin. "Is it hot in here? I think it's hot in here." No. That's probably just the heat coming off of her ears. Wet t-shirt? She hadn't even noticed. Thankfully thin cotton dries pretty fast! She jumps to her feet and moves over, grabbing Stiles' arm if she can and tugging. See? She can help him to his feet! He's got this. "Oh. Hi. I'm Selena, but my friends call me Lena and oh my gosh!" She stares at the coach's retreating.... back.....side.

Stiles, thanks to Selena's help, gets to his feet with minimal scrambling. Straightening up some, he brushes off the front of his shirt and sweats, bobbing his head in a friendly nod. "Cool, and thanks. I'm Stiles." He whirls suddenly to look where she's looking at her expression of apparent surprise, and then he too is blinking after the retreating form of Coach Derek Hale. His eyes widen some, and his jaw drops... and then he's biting his lip and looking up at the ceiling, shaking his head a little as if at some higher power. This, clearly, is the only safe place to look. Still, as Derek returns, Stiles clears his throat, nods, and says with determination, "Sounds good. Throwing a ball around should be nice and low key." Putting on a grin, he lets his mouth get ahead of a brain and says, "Back on the team they always used to say I should definitely work on my ball-handling."

She tries to hold it in. She bites her lip, BOTH of them. She even lets go of Stiles and puts both hands over her mouth..... and a snort escapes through her nose and that's all she wrote. Selena cackles. Yes... an all-out-true-to-form witchy type cackle. She bends at the waist all the way down and hugs her legs, struggling to hold the laughs in. "I--- N-n-n-need.... to work.... on mine... t-t-t-tooo!" Tears blur her vision and she cackles even harder. "Oh.. Oh... ow... hooomigooosh. Ow."

"Oh, you pulled something? I'll be right back." Derek bounces the ball in Stiles's direction, with perhaps a bit more energy and force than he intended, though he stares for a moment before turning when Stiles talks about...ball-handling. Either he's not sure how to reply to that, or...he's giving Stiles some modicum of dignity after such a remark. The coach walks off, back to the office, and he's gone for a few minutes. Which, thankfully, makes his absence coincide with Selena totally losing her cool.

When he returns, he's carrying a box not for first aid but apparently for therapy. The therapy box! He pops open the top and starts to rummage through it, coming up with a jar he presents to Selena. "Here, apply this to the pull. Keep up your stretching, you're very flexible." And he tries, he tries as best he can, to keep himself stoic and with a vaguely cool expression as he turns to look at Stiles. "So. Ball-handling." When the coach clears his throat, it's just different enough from trying to hide a light chuckle to be plausible in its deniability. "Why don't you work on that? I think you two have your work cut out for you."

Stiles catches the ball Derek bounced at him with, ironically (considering their conversation), little trouble. He turns to Selena, then his face falls at her reaction, and he finishes in a half-mumble, "...on the JV lacrosse team." He watches, cheeks yet again flushed, as Derek returns and offers Selena the jar of ointment or cream or whatever-it-is. He frowns pointedly at the coach and his suggestion, then sighs resignedly and says, "Yeah, I guess we can do that, but maybe it's a bad idea. Lena here looks like she might be one bad pun away from the nurse's office, and I'm..." He sighs laboriously. "I'm just watching my social life go up in flames before it even really starts." He wishes Scott were here. Then, reflecting upon it, maybe it's best he wasn't. Considering the asthma and based on the rest of all this, Scott might have had an attack and had to go to the hospital by now.

Selena is still cackling a bit when Derek returns. But! At least it's got her mind off of muscles for a moment anyway. She manages to straighten up as she takes the container from the coach and looks at it. "What... is it?" She asks worriedly, then she grins over at Stiles. "Well... I kinda like you so... I mean I am kind of..." She glances around at her lack of a girl-possee. "Not exactly a social butterfly but..." She shrugs helplessly and flashes a mischievous grin that almost screams 'this girl is trouble.' She looks over at coach and nods again, struggling to keep her eyes right on his nose. "Um. Yeah I... I'm kinda good at gymnastics... but I don't know if there's a team here yet or not. I... I'm new... if you couldn't tell."

That explains it! She's new. That explains a lot. Derek slowly nods, looking between them. "It's balm," he belatedly explains. "Here." And then he hands her a cloth. "Wipe it off your fingers after you're done." There's a pause, for timing. "So you don't get it all over the balls."

He can be absolutely wicked sometimes. It may be news that he can actually have a little fun, especially for those who have yet to see him even crack a partial smile so far. Derek sets the box down and holds up his hands, looking to Stiles expectantly. It's clear he wants to be thrown the ball, and just as clear that he has *zero* intention of letting Stiles squirm out of this free play session.

Stiles stares at Selena. Then he stares at Derek. Then he alternates between the two of them for a moment, almost looking like he's about to have some kind of outburst--and then he just sighs, shakes his head as if to clear it, and turns to Derek, carefully bouncing the ball back to him. Without looking at Selena (so he doesn't catch a ball to the face, which would be just his luck) he says, "Well, cool. I'll introduce you around to my friends and stuff. Some of the kids here are really cool." Of course, he really only has one friend--Scott. Though, maybe he can count Alice now? She's really nice. That Jacob kid seems too weird, but... well, Alice has a big family, right? He sighs inwardly. God, his social life is a tragedy.

Selena does an almost Smooth Criminal-esque leeeeean over against Stiles' side and whispers... quite loudly... "I think he wants you to put your balls in his hands." Then she leans back and gets some of the goop on her fingers and .... stands there for a minute, looks around, shrugs her sholders and stuffs her hand down her pants, rubbing the cream on her left thigh... then belatedly thinks about it and sort of waddle turns so her back is to the two guys.... much to the delight of guys across the way who begin to hoot and cheer. Selena groans and shakes her head a little, then straightens up and wipes her hands on the towel. "Thanks.. coach." She mumbles as she turns back around.

Selena grins brightly at Stiles' offer and nods. Though she's more watching for his reaction. "That would be cool. I met this kid Mason, he's pretty great."

"TWENTY LAPS!" Derek snarls at the boys making noises at Selena. It's remarkable how much louder his voice can get, especially in that large, open space of the gymnasium. It must have echoed, resonant in the air. It's enough to make some people turn and look, as if they had never noticed Derek before in the room, and others cringe like they're expecting an explosion.

Naturally, the boys sigh and huff (*very* quietly), but obediently start jogging around the track.

Derek sticks up his hand and catches the ball, then bounces it back to Stiles. He shows remarkable restraint, too, for not commenting on what he absolutely heard Selena whisper. And once his hands are free, he takes the jar and towel and replaces them in the therapy box, intending for Stiles to take the opportunity to bounce the ball to Selena. "Glad to see you two here. Keeping fit is making an investment in your future." Oh god, he's going to go into the whole physical education spiel!

But fortunately, he doesn't. Derek dusts off his hands and waits for the ball to be bounced in his direction, looking surprisingly contented considering a moment before he was practically roaring. "We have some free exercise groups that meet every week after school in the gym. If you're looking for friends, I'll get you the schedule."

Stiles just doesn't know where to look. First he glances at Selena when he hears her speak to him, and he barely manages not to stare overtly at her legs the way she's--but that doesn't last long, thanks the comment that immediately follows, leaving him flustered and sputtering, so much so that when Derek bounces the ball back, Stiles wildly scrambles to catch it and fails. Instead, the ball bounces off his chest, off his chin, goes rebounding toward Derek, and Stiles is sent back to land, sprawling, flat on his ass. As he sits up slowly, blinking, he idly checks his nose (fortunately, not bleeding) with one hand and says, "Damn... don't piss off Coach." He starts to get dazedly to his feet, but if someone approaches to offer their help, he'll definitely take it.

Selena jerks hard at the roar to the boys and she blushes faintly. That actually seems to have embarrassed her more than their cat-calls. She shifts from one foot to the other rather nervously as she catches the ball and bounces it over to the next person in the bouncy ball circle. "Oh... thank you." She says sincerely. Cheeks flushing again faintly for no immediately apparent reason at all. She watches the train-wreck that happens to be Stiles and she grins even wider. She does move over and offers a hand. "Definitely seizures." She mutters with faint nod of her head, then flashes a grin at Stiles before looking back to Derek. "So... no official gymnastics team though?"

Mason Hewitt arrives from Forks High School - Corridors.

Derek moves at first, on impulse, to help Stiles up...but Selena is there first, so he lets her do it. That'll be good, he thinks. Stiles could use more friends, and Selena obviously could stand to know more people. He dribbles the ball once it's close enough, getting it quickly and easily under control and watching the pair get themselves back standing again.

"Oh...no, but we do have some facilities. There's a gymnastics group, but it's not an official competitive team." Derek smiles a thin, vaguely apologetic smile, standing there in the middle of the gym. Most of the students around are doing free exercise, but the coach seems to have taken to these two and is currently...helping...them on their fitness path. Or something like that. And of course, he's in school color track pants and a tank top, which is very nearly obscene on him. But he seems to be keeping his professional attitude! He's the coach!

Once Stiles is up, he bounces the ball to him.

Stiles just accepts the hand up, gives Selena a grateful look--which evaporates into a mildly disgruntled look at the renewed mention of seizures--and then just sighs again and settles into the rhythm of bouncing the ball. He'll just keep his eye on the ball--*no jokes, goddamnit*--and maybe that will keep things from getting even more awkward and embarrassing than they already have been. Mercifully, "free play" doesn't last forever, and eventually Stiles gets to go home.

Eventually...

Derek finally gets the two awkward teens to actually do some stretching and limbering up without falling all over themselves OR him for a short while at least. A while later after everyone has had time to wind back down from their workouts and off to shower, people are slowly wandering out in different directions. Selena comes out of the girl's locker rooms with a towel around her neck and her gym bag on her shoulder and she makes her way toward Derek. "Um... hey coach? Do you have that schedule for me? Of the athletic stuff you mentioned earlier?" She turns and looks around, trying to see if she can spot Stiles, or if he's already gone.

Stiles may have already wandered off, with a little encouragement from Derek to make him feel better. There's something...familiar about their interactions. But it's a good bit more familiar to Derek, who very specifically encountered Stiles earlier. Not that Stiles was aware of it, at the time. But he might become aware of it, and that's a very real possibility. It's made the coach more contemplative, which he's jarred out of when Selena returns and addresses him directly.

It takes Derek a moment, but he finally shakes it off and nods his head a couple of times, reaching down to gather up his clipboard again and plucking a sheet from it to present to her. "All the clubs are co-ed, so show up to any you want. They'll be happy to have you." He hasn't even really worked up a sweat. His time for exercise comes later.

How long was Mason watching from a distance... Probably too long considering he had his phone out and had been taking pictures. He finally decides to approach since he hasn't met the coach yet, he doesn't have any gym classes this semester. Though coach problem has seen him in the bleachers watching the gu.... teams practice. He's totally there for team spirit.... Honest.

"Hey Selena what's up?" he says casually, and is definitely not trying to casually check out the coach... Nope not at all.

Selena takes the paper with a sigh. "It's too bad they are just clubs. I'm going to miss that... you know, competing." She shrugs her shoulders and folds the paper in half, tucking it into her bag. "Thanks..." She studies the paper for a moment and then she hears a familiar voice and her face lights up. "Mason!" She squeals happily and spins on her heel and does a little toe-run toward him, arms out.... girly hug imminent!

"You could go out for basketball, soccer, softball...even volleyball. A solid foundation in gymnastics would give you a pretty great place to work from with any of them." Derek keeps his tone so even, almost musical with its steady notes and consistent rumble. He's trying to be encouraging, inspiring, and he gives her a nod and a pat on the shoulder...before she's running off at Mason.

Wearing his consistent, pleasant expression, Derek walks over with measured pace and taps his clipboard on his own hip. "You look like you keep fit," he comments, then lifts the clipboard and takes another sheet from it, holding it out to Mason. "Selena might be interested in some of the sports clubs we have after school. You're welcome to show up too." It's a schedule of the informal, non-competitive groups. They might still do contests and matches, but not in any regulated league or anything. There's no ranking, it's just for the love of the sport.

Mason grins and says, "Thanks but I'm not really a sports player. I'm more the jog on a tread mill lift weights and watch sports type of person." Its easier to stare at cute guys if they're playing a sport and you're less likely to get tackled while you're busy staring if you're not playing. He grins and gives Selena a hug and says, "Hrm I saw Stiles but no Scott... Probably meant to meet up." He keeps smilign almost as much as coach, though his is more bemused as he's made more friends with upperclassmen that he even knows freshmen by name.

Selena grins and gives a gooood squeeze. She smells good- shower fresh! And of course that means wet hair again. Tut tut! She leans back and laughs at Mason's comment. "Yeah just so long as you share uh..." Her eyes flick toward coach and she blushes a little... "You know... your experiences watching from the sidelines with me." She winks at Mason and bounces on her toes. "Yeah I was thinking maybe about volleyball, but I don't know about basketball or softball they're... I don't know. Not my sports I guess."

"Well, keep it. Think about it. There's a weightlifting club." Derek points to one of the places on the schedule. Lifting weights, jogging, that seems to fit right in! Derek smiles a little wider, keeping it a thin, muted smile. Selena's interest in a specific sport just helps the coach to maintain his general cheer. "I'm sure the volleyball team would be happy to have you. If you want me to, I can put in a good word for you." Of course, the gym is open most days after school for just general exercise. As long as students don't get in the way of practicing teams or clubs, it doesn't matter, and of course Derek will be there to help people organize and go where they need to go.

Looking between the two again, Derek gives a nod and raises his hand, waving the clipboard in his other hand and starting to walk back off, towards the office. "I'll be doing my end-of-day paperwork, so if you need anything, just shout."

Mason watch's the coach walk off... Totally not staring at a certain body part as it walks away... nope not at all. He looks over the Selena... "Do you EVER have dry hair? Like I know it rains all the time, but I dont' see any other girls with terminally wet hair. Like seriously is that a thing?"

Selena grins and nods her head. "Yes, please, thank you. That would be great. Thanks again Coach." She says and then laughs at Mason's question. She follows Mason's gaze... checking a couple of times to make sure she's seeing right and she grins wider still. "You should totally take a picture." A little nod of her head is given and she laughs again. "Uhh... I think you just have the worst timing with me. I think you like seeing me with my hair wet. It was DRY until like thirty minutes ago. I had to shower after working out." Mostly to cool down after staring at coach the whole time.