sun, sand, and sweat :: winter

V lived to run. Feeling the burn in his calves as he ran along the sandy beach gave him such an adrenalin high. The sun on his bare back, the gulls screaming overhead. It was one of the main reasons he had decided to move to Martha's Vineyard full time, rather than commuting to work.

As summer came to a close he was trying to get in as many runs as possible. School had started the previous week at Red Fern, and as the weeks picked up he knew he would have less and less time to devote to his passion.

His pace came to a slow and he bent over on his knees, feeling the sweat drip down his back and forehead.

"Wipe your shoulder off!" Veil instructed, wanting a perch. It wasn't her fault her clio was an exercise junky. And yet she was punished for it-- flying for miles every day when she would rather ride around on his shoulder and relax.

"Shh, featherbrain," V said, taking a few more moments to breathe. Letting out a breath, he ran his hands through his hair, twisting some of the dampness out of it first, before straightening up and finally wiping his shoulder for his daemon.

She delicately landed on his tanned skin. "You made great time!" she told him. For such a complainer, she really was proud of him.

"Eh, it could have been better," he said, as he turned and started to walk out into the water. It wasn't much cooler than the air, but the sea water felt good against his body.

The beach was crowded with this years selection of boarding school students. For those that came from Eilemaiden inland on Amelia, the beach was something they looked forward to. It would be crowded for a few weeks until the novelty of it wore off and the weather started getting cooler. Until then, V would have to share south point with his students.

And one of his students was dying on the beach right now. Okay, so Winter wasn't actually dying, but she sure felt like it! For whatever reason, Winter had decided to join the track team. It could have been because she wanted to be stronger, or maybe she wanted her endurance to grow, or maybe she wanted to make friends, or it just might be because one of the hottest professors at Red Fern also happened to be the track coach. Either way, she was kicking herself for it.

Winter was a bookworm, so she didn't get out much unless she was partying or hooking up, so her endurance was awful, and that was only putting it lightly.

"Stop forcing yourself!" Wesley squeaked from her shoulder. "You're going to end up killing us both!"

Winter ignored her tiny daemon and trekked on. She could have ran on the track at school, or even on the trails of Happy woods, but she was hoping to run into a certain someone at the beach today. And lo and behold, there he was in all his shirtless glory. Coach V wading into the water. She took a deep breath, straightened her back, and kept on running. She knew there was no way a professor would ever look at her the same way the clio her age did, but she could at least impress him, right?

Veil fluttered her wings and hovered a bit above V's head, knowing he was about to submerge himself and not necessarily wanting to get herself wet in the process.

As soon as her feet left his shoulder, V did just that, and slid under the surface. He popped up almost immediately, and shook his hair out, glad to be rid of the sweat. The breeze coming off the ocean gave V goosebumps when it blew against his wet skin. He sighed contentedly. It was a perfect afternoon.

Veil landed back onto her perch as her clio waded around in the water. She did love the sun and how it felt against her feathers.

"When are you starting track practices?" Veil asked. Track meant running at Red Fern instead of the beach. A trade she didn't make willingly.

"Probably next week, after the students have a while to settle into their classes," V answered. "I don't want to overwhelm them with so much going on at once."

Besides track, V also co-coached the element sparring classes, and taught the class about Earalas during the school day. He knew what overwhelming felt like, and didn't like to catch his students up in too much at once.

He ignored me! He didn't even SEE me! Winter thought, feeling disgruntled. Maybe if I just turn around and jog toward him again...

But first, Winter needed to stop, like right now. Her legs were starting to feel wobbly, and her lungs felt like they were on fire. "Wes..." She said between breaths, "Wes...I'm dying!"

She stopped in her tracks, sighed loudly, and dropped. It wasn't a dramatic fall, but it was enough to get the attention of others, and later, Winter will remember it as one of the more embarrassing moments of her life, but right now all she could focus on was her breathing, or lack there of.

Winter was gasping for breath, and really regretting not bringing a bottle of water. She had that wide eyed, mouth gaping look of a fish that had been ripped from it's watery home, and she felt like one too.

We're dying, aren't we? she thought, Goodbye cruel world!

Shakily, she lifted her arm and covered her eyes. The last thing she wanted to see before her untimely death was definitely not the smirks of her peers.

V was in the process of wading out of the water when he saw a running passerby fall to the sand. The girl looked familiar, though he couldn't see her daemon to make sure. Maybe she was in one of his classes at school.

"Is she alright?" Veil asked, cocking her miniature head.

The pair watched as the girl flung her arm over her face dramatically.

V laughed a little to himself. "She looks fine to me. Perhaps a little worn out is all."

"Well I think we should check, don't you?" his daemon asked, more worried than he. "Not everyone has your stamina, you know!"

V didn't think the girl needed help. Maybe she needed a little water, but V thought that all this situation called for was just a little attention. But, to make Veil happy, he walked over to where the redhead lay on the ground.

"You doin' alright down there?" he asked, when he was standing over her.

As if this situation couldn't get any more embarrassing, there was Coach V, squatting over her.

Please Amelian Gods, she started to beg in her head. Please kill me now!

Winter smiled up at him, but it probably looked more like the lopsided grin of a person suffering from a stroke. Slowly, she sat up and took a couple breaths, swallowed once, and sighed.

Stop staring at him like a freak, she thought. Say something!

"Hey Coach!" she let out with another breath. "I'm fine! Just a little worn out is all!"

She shifted herself, to sit up more at a better angle, and smoothed her hair back nervously. She felt bits of sand slither their way down the back of her tank top and sports bra, and began to brush herself off. It was all over her, due to the fact that she was all sweaty. How cute, sweaty and sandy.

It was Winter Rainie, a student he had had a few years ago in his Earalas I class. She hadn't been settled yet, back then. Most students take the first class of an Eilemaiden to see if they want to settle as that. She must have chosen something else though, because she never did enroll in Earalas II or III. He had, however, seen her more recently when she joined track. It wasn't often that someone joined their senior year, but V was glad she had. Though she had been a good student in his class, her reputation preceded her, and he thought it would be good for her to be around her teammates. V had watched most of them grow up, coaching them throughout their years at RF. She'd do good to take a few life pointers from them, and he hoped they'd rub off on Winter and not the other way around.

"Trying to get some extra practice in before the season starts?" He asked with a grin. He offered her his hand, and when she took it he helped her to her feet.

"Might be a good idea to start on solid ground and not the sand," he said, winking at her. He wasn't that close with her yet, as this was her first year on the team, so he wanted her to know he was kidding.

Winter's face was ten times more red than her hair. She felt so humiliated. Not only was he attractive, but he was her track coach. Her freaking track coach just saw her practically die from over exerting herself. And she was only jogging for like thirty minutes! She was probably going to be kicked off the team, it was pointless to join. She might as well quit now before she got in too deep.

V wrote:"Trying to get some extra practice in before the season starts?"

"Umm..." Winter started to reply, "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Should she just quit now? Or wait till she was at school? But he was smiling, and he was being so nice. What if she disappointed him? Plus, she's never given up on something before, it would be pretty shameful to give up on something so simple. Oh, but jogging was awful.

V wrote:"Might be a good idea to start on solid ground and not the sand,"

Winter laughed nervously at that. I told you we should have been doing this at the track! she heard Wesley lecture.

"I guess I just...wanted to get tanner?" she replied.

But who was she kidding, Winter was pastier than the season she was named after. Curse her fair, freckled skin!

V smiled. He wouldn't be surprised if Winter showed up looking like a tomato rather than the golden brown she wanted.

"You should make sure you're putting sun screen on if you're going to be running out here, at least," he told her. He wasn't sure if the red on her cheeks was embarrassment, or the sun already starting to stain her pale skin. Probably a mixture of both.

"But in all seriousness, a beginner like you should be running around campus or the track. You're going to pull a muscle running out here-- the sand won't be good for you just yet." V couldn't tell if it was disappointment or something else on her face when he told her, and he was afraid it had come off as a lecture.

"You know what, why don't you let me hook you up with some other girls that run around campus in the evenings when it's cooler?"

V wrote:"You should make sure you're putting sun screen on if you're going to be running out here, at least,"

Winter stared down at her feet, almost shamefully. "Yeah," she mumbled. "I probably should..."

Of course, sunscreen was ALWAYS the last thing young clio thought about. It was like uncool to wear sunscreen. Like you were a nerd or something because you were protecting yourself from the sun. Only mothers and their children wore sunscreen. Winter's shoulders were already feeling warm, but she wasn't sure if it was the sun or just the heat from her jog.

Winter was still staring at the sand as Coach V lectured her about running on the sand. She knew he wasn't annoyed, or trying to be all teacher-like, but she still felt stupid. In all seriousness, she had been kinda hoping to run into him there. Now that she had, she wish that she hadn't.

V wrote:"You know what, why don't you let me hook you up with some other girls that run around campus in the evenings when it's cooler?"

Her head finally snapped back up at his suggestion. Didn't he know that other girls picked on her? No, he couldn't know...otherwise he wouldn't have come up with that. Winter knew it was probably a good idea to try that, who knows, maybe she'd actually make girl friends, wasn't that one of the reasons why she joined track? Why did she join track? She can't run, she can't make friends. Maybe she really should quit...

"Oh Coach..." she sighed. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea..."

V had seen how the other students at RF treated Winter, but his girls were different. He'd watched them grow up, as members of his track team.

He smiled at her. "I think it's a great idea," he told her. "I think they'd help push you, and you'd stretch your limits."

Mostly he thought it would be good for her, to make a few friends her own age.

V wrote:"I think it's a great idea," he told her. "I think they'd help push you, and you'd stretch your limits."

Oh Amelian Gods, what have I gotten myself into?!

But instead of protesting further, Winter mumbled some sort of agreement. Maybe she should just quit, who cares how it'll look to her parents, her transcript, or Coach V. Track was awful, and a stupid idea.

Ugh.

Finally, she sighed. "Maybe I should just quit."

There, she finally said it out loud, although she regretted it immediately.