Page 49 of Liberating Water

Lailah

Mr. Creed wentover a few more things with us and gave me two more books to start looking over before we left his study. Now I needed to go back to my room and change to meet with Tony for my assessment down in the humongous gym. There was a full weight room, a boxing ring, basketball court, and even an indoor track.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me there was an INDOOR TRACK??” I demanded when I caught sight of it, turning to glare at the guys.

“Ah…” Parker said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, sorry Trouble, I totally forgot we had that down here.”

Jay walked up to me and pulled me against his chest with a little smirk on his lips. “I didn’t tell you because I like having alone time with you. If we run here, they’ll turn up.” He motioned with his head.

“Okay, that’s kind of really sweet, but it’s been two months since I’ve been able to run outside! Why didn’t you tell me then?” I countered, trying to still be irritated with him but failing.

Jay shrugged his shoulders and looked at the track. “I hate running underground.”

“The gang’s all here! Hmm, I don’t remember telling you guys to come for an assessment?” Tony smirked as he entered the gym with Cami right behind him.

Tony was a large, buff black man with warm brown eyes. His thick black hair was cut to the skin on the side and left about an inch on top. Today he looked much more relaxed in his basketball shorts and t-shirt versus his security uniform.

“I believe you owe me twenty bucks, big man.” Cami grinned, holding out her hand.

Returning her grin, he slapped her hand and kept walking. “I never said I agreed to the bet, short stop. I try not to lose money to you unnecessarily.”

“What the hell are you doing here, ankle biter?” Micah asked, arms crossed.

“Did you forget so soon, flame boy? We have a match to settle things between us, or are you too scared to lose?” Cami taunted.

“Oh, it’s on, bite-size. Prepare to get your ass burnt,” Micah tossed back.

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing as they tossed insults back and forth, standing toe to toe, with Cami’s hands on her hips, glaring up at him. The size difference between them made it that much more funny.

“Easy now, you two. We are going to deal with that a bit later when I’m done with Lailah. I’m glad you’re all here—I thought it might be fun to start the new year with a little tournament, test your skills and see what needs work,” Tony interjected, pulling Cami away by the back of her shirt. “Now, you guys entertain yourself until I get this assessment done.”

The group split off to do their own workouts, leaving me with Tony.

“Alright, now Cami tells me you were on the track team. Did they have you working with free weights or just drills on the track field?” Tony asked me, looking over his clipboard.

“Typically we did a lot of drills on the field, but when it was winter we worked out more in the gym. Hard to run in snow and ice.”

Tony nodded his head and stopped at the edge of the stretching floor. “Let’s warm up and see what your flexibility is like. Kill two birds with one stone. First, I have to ask—are you okay with me assisting you and adjusting your form?”

“Yup, not a problem,” I answered, waving off the question. “I’d rather you help me fix something that I’ve done wrong before I hurt myself than freak out over an assist.”

“I hear ya, but I want to make sure you are totally comfortable, and I don’t need five pissed off dudes with magic powers coming after me.” He laughed. “Alright, follow my lead.”

It was nice to be back in the gym and working out, and I really needed the stretching after all the crazy of the last few days. Then, once I was warmed up, we headed to the weights and worked out my whole body. We didn’t push it too far, just tested to see when I reached my limit. Finally, we got to the best part—Tony wanted to see how fast I could run.

“Look, I know you’ve been off a few months and haven’t really been training, so don’t go crazy. I just want a gauge of where your stamina is. We are going for distance, not just speed, although I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I was going to time your 200 meter dash,” Tony said as he pulled out his stopwatch.

I lined up and got into position on the starting block, my body all too willing to fall right back into the swing of things. The sound of a buzzer signaled the start of the race, and I took off down the track. I felt myself let everything fade away as I focused on the goal at hand, the sound of my feet on the ground accented by the beating of my heart all I could hear. This was my safe place, the one thing I could do to let the world fall away and just be. I didn’t worry about time or how long I was going to run. I just let my body’s instincts take over, trusting it to know just how far I could push myself. Finally, when my legs started to burn and my breath was sawing out of my lungs, I started to slow down and did another lap at a more leisurely pace so I didn’t cramp up the moment I stopped.

“Holy shit Lala, that was crazy!” Cami exclaimed when I returned to the starting point where everyone was waiting. “What distance was that, even?”

Tony looked down at his clipboard, adding something up before he looked at me wide-eyed. “You just ran a 10k in a little under an hour without any prior training. Woman, what were you like on your track team?”

“Oh, well that time would be a little slow for me when I was competing. I typically could do that in forty-five minutes, sometimes a little less. Before you guys get really impressed, the Olympic level is like thirty minutes, okay,” I said blushing.

“Well, I surely don’t need to worry about you being able to run away fast enough if something bad goes down,” Tony said with a smile. “Now go stretch out while I get this little tournament figured out with these idiots.”

Nodding, I headed over to the side and flopped to the ground to start my cooldown. When I sat up from a stretch, a water bottle was hanging in the air by my face. Grabbing it, I looked around and saw Jay with a smirk on his face. Had he just used his air powers to send me over a bottle of water? Then he winked. Yup, that confirmed it—Jay was showing off, and I quite enjoyed it. Confident that I wouldn’t cramp up from my workout and the run, I headed back over to the group, heading right to Jay.