P.E

Leisurely walking through the hallways of Palisades Middle School, a 13-year-old boy standing at 5ft 4 approached the auditorium. Although the boy wasn't tall or intimidating, people avoided looking at him and whispered behind his back. Hearing and seeing the blatant gossiping, the boy's cyan eyes twitched.

Arriving at the auditorium, he didn't hesitate to open the door and enter, immediately shutting out the constant stream of gossip directed at him. Setting down his small duffle bag, Zephyr began getting changed, ignoring the looks he received from his classmates

[Time Skip]

The coach blew his whistle, attracting the attention of all the boys. "As you all know, for today, all of you are swimming, so I hope all of you got swimsuits. If you don't have a swimsuit, raise your hand so we can send you home". The coach looked around, giving a satisfied nod upon seeing that everyone got their swimsuit. Clapping his hands, the coach said, "Good. All of you go and change and meet me at the pool".

[Time Skip]

"Did you hear? The boys are going to do swimming", a girl muttered.

"Do you think coach will let us watch them?", another girl gossiped.

"I hope so", a girl prayed.

"How hot do you think Michael looks shirtless?", another girl asked.

"I want to see Raul", the girl next to her muttered, "Have you seen those arms?"

"He's a goalkeeper so it's expected", a girl diagonal to her muttered, "I want to see Paolo though".

"He's pretty hot", a girl said, "but I doubt any of them come close to Zephyr".

"I almost forgot about Zephyr", the first girl muttered, "But Michael is soo dreamy though. Have you seen his green eyes? They give me shivers"

"If you want to talk about eyes, have you seen Raul's?", one of the girls exclaimed, "His red eyes are so hot".

"Zephyr's eyes are so beautiful though", one of the girls mumbled, "They remind me of the ocean".

As the girls continued to gossip away, Alex, who was standing a few feet away from them couldn't help but frown when she heard how they were talking about Zephyr. "They just like his looks", she muttered under her breath, "They don't know anything about him". As she was about to continue her internal rant, their coach blew her whistle.

"Okay girls", the coach said while clapping her hands, "We're going to be playing dodgeball today". Hearing her words caused all the girls to cheer, with the coach shaking her head in disappointment, knowing their reason for being excited. The dodgeball court was right next to the swimming pool so the girls could watch the boys.

Carrying a large bag with dodgeballs, the coach and the girls made their way over to the dodgeball court. The court wasn't too big, but big enough to allow the girls to have plenty of space to dodge and not run into each other. Halfway through the first game, the boys exited the changing rooms, most of them wearing swimming trunks and opting to go shirtless. Some girls squealed in excitement when they saw the boys, especially the more eye-catching ones. Shaking her head, the coach blew her whistle, snapping their attention back, and shouted, "Focus on the game!".

[With the boys]

"Before we begin swimming, I want you all to jump in and get used to the temperature", the coach said. Nodding their heads, all of the boys entered the pool, some opting to jump straight in while others chose to slowly dip themselves to allow their bodies to adapt to the lower temperature.

After a few minutes, the boys had gotten adjusted to the temperature and the coach instructed, "Get in groups of two".

At his words, all of the boys got into groups of two. Raul, a tall boy around 5ft 6 with short brunet hair, paired up with Michael, a blonde with green eyes. Zephyr was paired up with Paolo, who had long black hair and brown eyes. The coach nodded and said, "Now, decide which of you will be number one and which one will be number two. After that, get out of the pool and stand on opposite ends of the pool".

It took less than 2 minutes, but soon enough, the pairs decided on their numbering and stood opposite each other. "Good. When I blow the whistle, I want all the number ones to dive into the pool and swim to the number twos. Once you've reached the number twos, they will then dive and swim to where the opposite end of the pool".

All the boys nodded when they heard this and the coach blew his whistle, with all the number ones jumping into the pool. Amongst them were Paolo and Raul. Although both of them were really fast, Raul was ahead of Paolo which meant that Michael was the first number two to jump in the pool. A few seconds later, Zephyr dived into the pool, his form the definition of perfection, generating a very small splash. As though at home on the water, Zephyr blitzed past Michael and reached the end of the pool first. A few seconds later, Michael reached the end with the rest of the boys following soon after.

"Bro, you were so fast there", Michael said, "How'd you do it?"

Zephyr shrugged his shoulder, "Just had a lot of practice".

"That must've been a lot of practice", Michael commented.

As Michael and Zephyr conversed with each other, they were unaware of the envious looks they received from some of the boys. "Man, this is so unfair".

"I know right", another boy commented, "How come all the athletic boys are so hot".

"At this rate", another added, "there won't be any girls left for us".

"I know man", one of the boys said, "Zephyr's always stealing the limelight from us".

"I hear you bro", the boy next to him agreed, "He's good at soccer and swimming. He's a good cook apparently and to top it off, he's one of the top 5 hottest boys".

"At least he's with that nerdy girl", one of the boys muttered.

"Yeah", the boy agreed, "Her name was Alice or something".

[Time Skip]

Walking down the street, Alex and Zephyr were conversing with each other. Normally, they would both go home in their parent's cars, but today was one of the rare days where neither Claire nor Phil nor Matt were available to pick them up from school. As they lived quite close to each other, Alex and Zephyr decided to walk home together.

"How was your day today?", Zephyr asked.

"It was okay", Alex answered.

Zephyr looked at her face for a moment and questioned, "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?", Alex questioned, looking away.

"I can tell you're upset or angry at something", Zephyr answered, "So tell me what happened".

"How'd you even know?", Alex asked.

"You talk less when you're upset or angry and you make this face", Zephyr said while making a serious face that looked funny.

Alex laughed a bit when seeing this, but managed to recover and exclaimed, "Hey! I don't make that face!"

"Yes you do", Zephyr retorted, "So go on. Tell me what happened"

"Ugh", Alex groaned, "It's Haley. She thinks I read her journal and now she's being really annoying about it. Mom and Dad are also being really weird and whispering, which is really irritating".

"Did you read her journal?", he asked.

"No", she answered, "But I'm pretty sure I've seen Dad or someone snooping around in our room near Haley's side".

"That sounds rough", Zephyr commented, "Knowing your family, you'll all sort things out by the end of the day".

"You're that confident?", Alex questioned.

"I've seen what your family is like on numerous occasions. No matter what problem comes up, more often than not, you resolve it by the end of the day", Zephyr answered confidently.

"You have been coming around a lot", Alex said, while thinking about it.

"Don't act like you haven't come over to my house either", Zephyr muttered.

"Ugh. Whatever", Alex replied, "So how was your day?"

"It was pretty good. P.E. was fun because we did swimming and I absolutely crushed everyone", Zephyr proudly declared.

"Despite how arrogant you are, for once you're right", Alex mumbled, "You were the fastest in the pool".

"Oooooh", Zephyr teased, "Were you looking at me in the pool? I know I'm hot and all, but I don't want to have my godly form desecrated by your perverted eyes", he dramatically said.

In response, Alex lightly shoved him, "Don't call me a pervert". Hearing her words, Zephyr began laughing. "Hey. This isn't funny!". However, Zephyr just ignored her words and continued to laugh.

Once he managed to calm down, Zephyr asked, "How was your day then?"

"Maths and History were okay, but P.E. wasn't too fun", Alex answered, "We were meant to play dodgeball but the girls were too interested in watching the guys swimming and in the end, the teacher gave up".

"Doesn't sound too bad", Zephyr replied, "You don't take P.E. that seriously to begin with".

"Yeah", admitted Alex, "But all the girls were doing was gossiping about which of the boys looked the hottest and it got annoying".

"Sounds like the girls in our year", Zephyr commented.

"I know right", Alex complained, "They're all so annoying. They check their make-up every minute and complain when it's slightly off".

"I know what you're talking about", Zephyr said, "Have you seen how when they're in a group, they point at different boys and giggle? It gives me shivers".

As their conversation continued, they made their way home, and before they know it, they had arrived at the Dunphy residence. Before opening the door to her house, Alex turned around, "Thanks for listening Zephyr".

"Don't worry", Zephyr answered, "we're friends, so your problems are my problems".

[Time Skip]

As soon as he entered the house, Zephyr was met with the sight of Matt sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee right in front of him. As soon as he saw Zephyr, a large Chesire grin appeared on Matt's face, "So, how was it?"

"How was what?", Zephyr questioned.

"Your walk home with Alex?", Matt clarified.

"Oh. It was nice", Zephyr answered before stopping in his tracks, "Wait. How do you know?"

Hearing his words, a sheepish smile found itself on Matt's face, "There's no evidence. I mean, I don't know what you're on about".

Zephyr sighed, "So you stalked us?"

"Stalk is such a negative word", Matt defended, "I prefer the term coincidental meeting".

"That doesn't change what you did", Zephyr deadpanned.

"Hey. Did you hear? I think someone's calling me", Matt said as he stood up and escaped from the room.

Rubbing his forehead, Zephyr muttered, "You know, sometimes I wonder which one of us is really the adult".