American Girl : B2S Issue #2 (Open - One Teacher, New Students)

[Banner Laverick]

Banner Laverick had been at Cullens' exactly one week. She attended all of her classes, sitting silently at the back of the room before going back to her "Fortress of Solitude". Her room had been redecorated to look nearly identical to her room back home, with newly printed photos of her and Felix in several frames about the room. Her nights were spent online or on the phone, keeping in touch with Felix and her friends. Sometimes she'd meet up with Taya for lunch, but other than that, she hadn't gone out of her way to meet anyone else.

Untill now.

Banner grumped her way to the basketball court - forced interaction with her fellow "newbies", under the direction of one of the schools' professors. As she approached, it was painfully obvious that she did not want to be there...

[Freight Train]

As Banner walked down the hall towards the gym, a noise like a drunken, clog-dancing centipede floated out to meet her, mixing and fighting with the electronic music that she had likely heard clear across campus. In the gym itself, standing dead-center in one of the 3 basketball courts that made up the majority of the space, was a tiny little girl in a Pistons jersey.

She was 4'6", with short black hair and a skin complexion that said "I go outside a lot". She was handling the ball in a tricksy fashion, dribbling between her legs and rolling it down her arms and shoulders, and whatever else you'd likely see the Globetrotters doing. She barely paid Banner a moment's notice, being so absorbed in her music (which was blaring out of a huge boombox at one end of the court) and her crazy basketball routine.

[Taya Robbins]

On the bleachers sat a distinctly feline girl with her enormous, padded feet propped up and an open sketchbook in her lap. Taya Robbins's head bobbed to the beat of the basketball player's music while her pencil scratched rapidly over the page.

She'd started with the girl on the court, since she was the only person available when she'd come in. It was hard to capture a reference who was so constantly in motion, but Taya had settled on an exaggerrated pose of the girl flying through the air for what looked like a meteoric dunk. But clearly she needed some form of competition, and, for whatever reason, Taya's muse had settled on giant robots...

She was blocking in several huge, mechanical arms when Banner came in. But Taya didn't even notice. She was lost in her fit of artistic inspiration.

[Ethan Evans]

For two years, Ethan Evans had played small forward for the Apple Valley Vipers. The teams jersey was white and red and, although it now looked a little worse for wear, he wore it still with pride. The basketball court inside the institute had been a regular haunt of his since arriving at Cullen's, though today was to be the first day that he got to take part in a real game, instead of just running drills by himself. Throwing his gym bag down at the side of the court, he picked up a ball and started a little warm-up, shooting a few lay-ups until the Professor in charge of the game arrived.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

A group of three identical men, wearing identical t-shirts, athletic shorts, and sneakers arrived in the gym. The man in the middle held a basketball. Vipul gave the ball a few dribbles, feeling comfortable with the act from a few years of recreational play. He'd played a few years in a social league in New Dehli, and found it to be a refreshing hobby. It was interesting to see Americans on the court, and the blonde haired guy seemed so much taller.

"Hello everyone."

Vipul greeted the kids in the gym, and began to stretch in unison.

[Twitch]

Joe wasn't wearing anything fancing like Jock Patrol in his school uniform, just a pair of baggy cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Joe knew one thing: he was slower. He grabbed the ball after it dropped through on the layup, dribbling it steadily to the 2nd arch. He'd been on the basketball team, too, before everything went crazy.

He turned and popped up a rainbow that arched through the air and nearly kicked the net out of the basket.

Highschool was crap. Anyone who clung that hard to something that had so little to do with what happened afterword was a damn fool and needed some learnin'

[Banner Laverick]

"Cute drawing."

She plunked her butt on the hard wood of the bleachers, one seat up from Taya. Banner made a face as she watched the others start playing b-ball, the theme song to Fresh Prince humming in the back of her head.

"UGH, sports?! They're making us play SPORTS?!"

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"There is nothing wrong with a little physical competition to improve the health and spirit."

Vipul addressed the dissenter politely, passing himself the ball a few times as he did so.

[Freight Train]

Freight Train heard nothing but the Chemical Brothers coming out of her boombox. Galvanize was well on it's way into the second verse, and she was immersed in it.

Dont hold back! If you think about it too much, you may stumble, trip up, fall on your face...
Don't hold back! You think its time you get up, crunch time, like a sit up, come on keep pace...
Don't hold back! Put apprehension on the back burner, let it sit, don't even get it lit...
Don't hold back!

She finally looked up from her crazy drill to do her real drills, only to find that her gym had mysteriously filled with people. And two of them can freakin' play!

"Oh my God, marry me," she muttered as she watched Twitch and Quarterback make their shots. So far she hadn't met anyone else who gave a rat's patootie about basketball, or sports in general. She blamed it on her roommate situation, and the fact that she's middle-school curriculum, not high-school like these guys. She paused to see who else was here.

Some triplet guys were warming up to the side, and two girls were sitting up in the bleachers, huddled around some notebook. The short girl shrugged; it wouldn't be the first time she was the only girl on a team of guys.

Train chose a goal away from where the guys were playing to do her practice, just so they wouldn't get in her way, and started to practice her freethrows and lay-ups. The goals were higher than she was used to, and she was still working on compensating for her horrible shortness. Her first shot, a simple free-throw, bounced off the rim. She tried again, with a little extra oomph, and put the ball through the hoop without touching the sides at all. Awesome. Her luck with the lay-ups was pretty bad; she just couldn't jump high enough to get the ball past the rim. She growled irritably, backing up slowly to get enough distance to try it at a run.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Another Vipul stood toward the center of the court, speaking up so that others could hear.

"If I could have every student's attention directed to me if you would be so kind so that we can begin our game."

[Ethan Evans]

Ethan caught the ball on its descent and gave Joe a smile. The guy had quick reflexes and looked as if he'd made decent competition. With that thought in mind, he moved towards the man – or rather men – who was in charge of the game, walking the ball in a slow dribble.

[Taya Robbins]

"Hey, Banner. Thanks."

Taya didn't look up, but she grinned when Banner took a seat behind her. And then added some motion lines behind the flying girl and the flailing robotic arms. Then she closed up the sketchbook and stuffed it into her backpack.

"You'd rather do some sort of group counseling thing?" she asked as she stood up. "I know - whoever misses a shot gets to tell us all one new thing they learned about being a mutant."

She winked at Banner and stepped nimbly down the bleachers, bench to bench, until her bare, padded feet landed on the hardwood floor. She eased into the circle between Ethan and the basketball-playing girl and strrreeeetched, popping several vertebrae on the way.

[Freight Train]

She ran at the goal from half-court, leaping and throwing the ball at the perfect point to score her lay-up. Too bad for her, then, that the ball rolled around the rim twice before falling to the outside, then bounced off towards where the group was gathered. She tried to slow her momentum and had a poor time of it, colliding with the wall before she could stop completely. She pushed off it and wandered over to her ball, collecting it before joining the group just ahead of Taya.

She nodded to everybody, though she couldn't stop looking at Taya, for the moment. From a distance the young athlete had mistaken Taya's fur for clothing; now she was amazed at the person standing next to her. Not to mention, now that she's down here, Freight Train is curious about what the cat-girl had been writing up in the stands.

"Welcome to the court," she said while the rest of the group convened. "What were you doing up in Boringville?" She indicated the bleachers with a wave of her free hand.

[Taya Robbins]

Something about the girl's impact with the wall had made Taya's ears stand straight up. That hadn't sounded like an eighty-pound girl hitting the padding.

She shrugged lackadaisacally and twisted her hips, earning one more joint pop. "Just doodling," she said off-hand. "You're pretty good. How long have you been playing?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Pffft. I just hate sports. Period. End."

She didn't bother getting up, remaining seated in the stands as the rest of the group gathered round.

"Besides, I already know how to use my powers. This is just fascist "yay we love school" type crap."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"This word fascist I do not think it means what you may think it means."

Vipul dribbled the ball as he spoke to Banner.

"Teamwork is an important fundamental lesson in play as it is in life."

[Banner Laverick]

"I can fly. I can pick up everyone here and juggle them in the air if I really felt the need to, so I don't see why I would need a "team" do anything. But whatever, let's get this over with."

Banner hopped over one step, floating gracefully down to the gym floor in front of Vipul.

[Twitch]

"Uhuh." Joe mumbled. He looked up at Banner, somewhat bemused. His polite guy was coming off. Basketball was something he was good at, and certain of.

"Not really sure you could touch me if I didn't want ya to. Always someone better, or different enough that whatever you've got doesn't matter." He said.

[Banner Laverick]

"Yeah, cos I'm sure I'm going to fight a super villian or criminal who's gonna challenge me to a game of one-on-one."

A smirk crossed her face as she recognized Joe. "Too bad we're not playing hockey. It'd give me an excuse to knock into you again."

[Ethan Evans]

Ethan watched the bristling interchange between Joe and Banner. Somehow he got the impression that this would not be the most friendly of competitions. He eyed Taya for a moment and, finding that his brain was having difficulty assessing what he was looking at, reverted back to a line of conversation he knew well.

“How about we get this game started? Save all this energy for the court.”

He looked towards the Vipuls for instruction.