Life after tests...[Brody,Donovan,Tony]

[savior]

[For: Brody, Donovan, Tony - It's my first attempt so hope it is okay]

Visual Aid

Ash was standing by the rails outside of the cafeteria after writing one of the hardest papers of his life, Engineering Drawings 1. The sun was shining a bit too much, and he could feel the sweat at the back of his neck. Ash was waiting for the guys to show up, but without even realizing it he was using his abilities to block out the sound immediately around him. His mind was focused on the events that happened before his paper. His veins were throbbing, his knuckles glowed with a crimson pain and if that didn’t give it away then the shiner on his face would.

Ash was late for his exam this morning. When he woke up his dorm room was locked from the outside. All the rooms in his corridor were locked. Some kid stole the spare keys and jammed the doors close from the outside. These types of pranks were common around this time of year, and everyone hated them. The people in Ash’s corridor where shouting for help, many getting aggravated trying to break the door down. Ash could hear laughing from outside of his window; the kid was outside rolling on the floor with amusement. Ash’s room was on the second floor of the building, he surveyed the height and knew that with his martial arts training he could make the jump. He grabbed his bag, put all his tools and drawing utensils in it and tossed the bag out of the window. He climbed through himself and jumped…

Thud

Ash landed confidently on his feet, he did expect to fall. The laughing kid got up and looked worried when Ash darted in his direction. The kid was running and Ash followed in pursuit. Across the fields and quad, past buildings and dorms, it looked like he knew where he was going, but Ash didn’t care. There was only one thing on his mind, to teach that kid a lesson. They entered the Pharmacy sector, and the kid ran behind one of the more shady buildings. When Ash turned the corner he was stopped by two considerably bigger guys. It seemed that the runt had friends; Ash knew he couldn’t back down now, so he gave the first shot, a punch straight to one of the big guys’ stomachs. He quickly turned and snap kicked the other in the face. They both came at his together, but his speed was enough to out do them. He dodged their hits and gave them blow after blow. Size without speed was never going to work for them.

Just as they seemed to give up, Ash was grabbed from the back by a third guy who came to join in the action. He was now trapped; they came at him full force knowing he was being restrained. “Not so tough now, are we?” are the words he remembered coming from the arrogant kids mouth. They beat him up completely and left him there lying on the floor. After a while he got his strength back together, lifted himself up and motioned to the nearest bathroom. There he cleaned himself up, and checked that he still had all his belonging intact. He noticed the clock at the top of the mirror ahead.

“Oh shit, I’m late for the test”

He quickly put his stuff together and ran out of the building. The drawing office was on the other side of campus, and he knocked into many a crowd as he ran past. When he finally arrived he was 30 minutes late. He did what he could, but knew inside that it wasn’t enough to pass the subject.

“Sorry,” a girl that bumped into him, brought him back to reality. He was still waiting for Brody and Donovan, and was wondering what was taking them so long. If they didn't arrive soon, he would probably go take a run on his own even though he has probably had enough running for the day.

[brody]

Course work; the bane of every student’s existence. Or, almost every student. Brody Hathaway didn’t mind the continual assessment being made of him over the year in the slightest. Sure, he and the other Sports Science majors were being watched like hawks, both in class and outside, but it was definitely worth it. See, there were a few perks to the job at hand, and one of those was the practical, ‘hands-on’ approach to the part of the course that had them all being personal trainers over the last term of the year. Some, of course, were more lucky than others when it came to the people they were training. Some were paired with volunteers from the public, some with students from other fields, and some were paired with junior athletes. And if they were really lucky, like Brody, for example, they would be paired with a member of the finer half of the species.

Honestly he deserved sainthood for managing to behave as much as he had. His trainee was an eighteen year old Italian girl who had signed up for a free helping hand to get her into shape. She wasn’t much of a challenge - the type of trainees that really needed the care and attention were kept for second to forth years - and working with her was rather pleasant, if truth be told. Today he was being shadowed as part of his end-of-year assessment but he really couldn’t see what was so challenging about telling a girl like Danni to ‘correct her form’ and ‘be careful of her breathing’ as she swam lengths of the pool. Not that he’d complain. There was something infinitely compelling about watching move through the water, and it wasn’t just the pride in a job well done that had a sparkle in his eyes when she pulled herself out of the pool five minutes before lunch break. Well, he had to enjoy it while he could, right?

“Nice form,” he complimented her, handing her a towel as she wiped the excess water from her face. She knew as well as he did about his very hands-off rule to the hands-on approach, having met Elannia some weeks before, but there was no denying the suggestion in his flirtatious words. As soon as he said them though he remembered that today was part of his examination, and in a breath had lost all playfulness in his tone. He walked with her towards the locker room and showers, giving her lists of what she was doing wrong, how to correct them, and what he expected from her the next time, fully aware of the shadow of a man walking not two paces behind them.

Danni muttered a few words of thanks and good luck before disappearing into no man’s land of the ladies’ locker room, and for the first time that session Brody turned and acknowledged the examiner. The man was huge, easily twice Brody’s weight, and he fought the urge to recommend that he could do with a few sit-ups too. But the man barely looked up from his clip board as he scribbled who knows what onto the slightly curling pages or white. “Lunch?” Brody offered, and the man’s upper lip stiffened as he moved on to what Brody guessed was his lunch time session. Sad, really, to think that someone as ‘big boned’ as he was would be missing out on his daily Big Mac with cheese and extra Mac.

Rolling his eyes in tired amusement, Brody walked back to where he had been sitting near the pool, and grabbed his bag before heading towards the door. He checked his watch, knowing before he did that the class was about to run out. He had said he’d meet up with Ash, Donovan and Tony to do something for the hour, but he had already spoken to Tony and Donovan, and both had said they’d meet up with them later if they could.

It was like a maze of doors and rooms and tiny corridors before he could get outside, and he was exasperated to find that the air outside was as stiff, muggy and warm as the atmosphere inside by the pool. Mediterranean summer; four years later and he still wasn’t used to it. It took him about five minutes to walk from one building to the next and right the way through to the cafeteria, and immediately he spotted his friend just outside. Blonde eyebrows furrowed in confusion and then rose in amusement at the site of Ash’s badly bruised face.

“What the hell happened to you?” he chided when he was close enough to be heard. “Finally found your balls and made a move on some girl, only to find out she was the girl you thought she was?”

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OOC;; Sara [Donovan] and Robby [Tony] might be a while to join for various reasons… Sara definitely anyway… So unless one of them tags to post next, go ahead Zee.

[savior]

Bruised, Asher's body could take ten times more punishment that was dealt to him that morning, but he wasn't sure if his pride could. He barely smiled at the comment Brody made about him and some girl, he was angry. Asher wasn't used to losing, even more so he wasn't used to people ganging up and not fighting fair. His mind was still recalling the event when he realized Brody was waiting for an answer.

Asher turned to face him, using all his strength to hide the searing pain attacking his ribs and back. "Don't worry it's nothing much, just got into a little scrap with those Pharm Boys this morning. I showed them a thing or two." Asher wasn't all that good at lying, his fist were clenched and even though he trying to smile, he was getting angrier and angrier by the seconds. When he couldn't hold it anymore, he turned around and drove his fist hard into the railing in front of him.

"Damn!', Asher's voice echoed in his immediate surroundings, but only loud enough for him and Brody to have heard it. He turned to Brody, Ash never kept anything from him. He told Brody everything, from the incident at the dorms where he jumped from the window to the three guys restraining him and pounding him to the floor. When Ash told him about his exam, he realized that Brody had had one as well. Calming himself he asked Brody, "How did your practical inspection go? Did you give that girl extra special care this time."

Asher smiled at his own joke, but then quickly sank back to his prior demeanor when he noticed some of the Pharm Boys inside the cafeteria getting themselves lunch. He knew it was over, that if he had to act it would just get him into trouble. But regardless he pointed out the guys to Brody, telling him to watch out for them. Asher was always a better person when Brody was around. "Do want to get out of here? I'm not in the mood to eat here anymore," asked Ash with his eyes focussed on the guys in the Cafeteria.