Jordan felt a buzz in his pocket as he slung his laptop bag around his shoulder and shut the locker door with his foot. He waved to a passing friend and fished out his phone.
New Message :
Sorry J, meeting got cancelled. Mr. hart didn't show up so student council cant meet today --
Reply/Ignore
He groaned and leaned against the wall to respond.
Thanks for telling me. Can you send the homework for math? I left class early to get something for the meeting.
Jordan had told his father that he'd be staying late, and his old bus subscription had expired at the turn of the year. He'd have to wait until 6 for his ride to come unless he car pooled with a friend.
He absentmindedly gnawed at his lip while he thought. He
could
use the gym and study at school. He could work out and review the physics unit they'd been working on at school just as easily as he could at home. The small room next to the gym had some treadmills and other machines to work with, and it was open until 7 everyday. He'd prefer to swim of course, but the pool closed after school on Fridays.
Jordan sat at an empty table in the silent library, laying out his books on the heavy wooden surface. He reread the chapter and began working through some practice problems, referring to some science related forums online whenever something stumped in. Jotting down the most important formulas, he worked until one of the staff told him that the library was being closed. He realized he was the last one in the room, apologized, and left.
Jordan adjusted the straps of his backpack as he headed to the stairwells for the downstairs locker rooms. He passed by the Girl's shower room and the yellow "Reconstruction -- No Entrance" sign that had been up for the past few days, and pushed the door into the Boy's locker room. He dropped his stuff on the bench and stripped to his briefs. He spun the black dial on his locker, unlocking the yellow door and pulling out its contents. He pulled up the loose exercise shorts, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
Curly brown hair fell around his lightly tanned faced. The dusting of freckles under his green eyes had been picked up from swimming outside almost every weekend. He had a lean and strong build, nothing spectacular, but fit all the same.
He slipped a white jersey over his head and jogged up to the gym. He nodded to the older janitor as he turned the corner. Stepping into the enclosed gym, he flipped on the fans and pushed his earbuds in. He went through his stretch routine, pressing against the polished concrete wall. Then, attaching the safety clip to his shirt, he set up a medium difficulty run on the treadmill to loosen up.
Boston
,
Styx
, and
Florence + The Machine
filled his ears as he worked. He had a good view of suburban homes near the International School and city in the distance. The sun was low on the horizon, the sky near it fading from yellow, red, to a vibrant purple and finally blue and black. Streetlights flicked on all at once, lighting up the veins of the city as cars rushed across the web of roads.
Jordan spotted motion out of the corner of his eye as he dropped down from a pull up bar. Beyond the glass wall of the gym, a figure strode towards the door. He did a bit of a double take when he realized who it was. Ms. Diya, the World History teacher, dressed in running shorts and a running bra.
The first thing that Jordan thought was that seeing a teacher dressed that way was somehow indecent. The second thing he thought was that he didn't give a shit. Kali Diya was in her mid-40s, and was built like a
jaguar
. Hard muscles laid beneath dark, taut skin. Her smooth, shoulder length hair curled slightly at the ends, forming a perfect frame for her exotic face. She stood a head taller than Jordan, who was a respectable 5'11" himself.
Jordan suddenly wondered how he never noticed the woman's beauty. She practically screamed sex!
He averted his eyes, realizing he was staring. The door swung open, the cool evening air filling the room. "Hello," Jordan croaked, before saying it again clearly.
"Good evening Jordan. I'm didn't expect to see you here, given the time," she replied. Her tone was always strong, with a feeling of take-charge to it. Not gruff, quite the opposite! It was smooth, rich, like strong coffee. But it nevertheless had the authority of someone who knew how to command.
"Yeah, my dad's going to pick me up at 6. We were going to have a meeting today for student council, but Mr. Hart wasn't there," he said, somewhat breathless afterwards.
"Hmm. That surprises me, because it's 6:15 now, and the parking lot is empty," she replied, a thin eyebrow raised in interest.
Jordan's eyes widened slightly, and he pulled his phone out. A message from his father was on the top of his alerts list:
New Message :
Hey bud, work's running late. Probably won't be there at 6, not sure how long it's gonna take. We can get pizza out, if that's alright with you? -
Reply/Ignore
Jordan tried to smile as he faced the woman. His nose twitched as her scent met him. Strong, musky, powerful, but not unpleasant, despite the fact the woman had obviously been exercising recently. "Yeah, turns out he's running late. Guess I'll just wait for him outside."
He started to stand before she said, "No need, it's rather cold out. Just stay in here until your father comes to get you."
And that was that. Jordan knew instinctively that that was the best choice and the only one he had. He wasn't sure if that really meant anything, but some part of him knew it did.
"So, you run a lot?" he asked tentatively, trying to start some small talk. She turned away, picking up a pair of dumb bells nearly twice as heavy as the one's he'd used.
"Yes, it's one of my favorite past times," she began, curling the weight with ease, "I try to run five or six miles every day if I have the time, longer when I can."
Jordan nodded. "I love swimming. I'm trying to start a swim team for the school, but they disbanded the last team a few years back and don't want to divert funds from the soccer team." He felt a bit more comfortable talking about the subject, but he's normally confident manner seemed to have deserted him as soon as Ms. Diya had entered the room.
"That's a shame," she said, frowning. "I always enjoyed swimming when I was in high school. I was the captain, actually. Won a few tournaments."
Jordan smiled for real. "Really! I never knew you liked to swim, Ms. Diya. Were you here when the old team was active?" Jordan asked. He noticed she had passed him in repetitions with the dumb bells.
"No, I think they were disbanded the year before I came here," she responded, moving onto the elliptical. She keyed in a routine, and began moving, a bit faster than Jordan remembered doing himself.
Jordan tried to think of something else to say. He watched her work for a bit, pretending to read his phone. Despite the duration and intensity of her exercise, she showed no signs of fatigue. She wasn't even breathing harder.
"Where did you teach before coming here?" he asked.
"Oh, I didn't teach before this. I was an athlete in Uganda before moving to Germany to study History," she responded.
"Wow," Jordan said, impressed. "You really got around."
She smiled to herself, her eyes staring beyond the glass wall. "I have many friends. People are quite willing to help each other, you know."
He nodded, though she wasn't looking. He flipped through a number of social media sites, reading messages from friends and tidbits of news from around the world. What his real focus was, however, was the Amazon in the room with him.
"I see you forgot to reset the machines, Mr. Scott," she said curtly, glancing at him.
"Ah, my bad," he said embarrassedly. "I'll fix them now," he continued, standing.
"No need," she said quickly. "I'm still going to use them; there's no point of doing it now.