Get Your Head In The Game (Ella)

Usually Aeri wouldn't really come visit the gymnasium seeing how she's the principal and all; the only time she would ever visit the gym is to speculate on how the students are doing and... that's pretty much it. What she should be doing right now is to host meetings about the academy, maybe ways to improve it or plan events. That's the kind of stuff she should be doing as being the main figure of this academy and all, but of course there's always a time where you just need to relieve stress in some way.

And that's why Aeri was here: to relieve tiredness and weariness with the power of basketball. Basketball was something she always adored and it was her original dream to become a women's basketball player, right before she had to do training to become some sort of MMA fighter, but luckily not only she didn't join the MMA world, but also trained a lot in terms of workout, and being well-rounded in most sports, as basketball being her best sport.

Aeri just gotten out a basketball out from a bag which had other balls like soccer balls, footballs, etc. She figured it'd be alright to shoot some hoops for a little bit. It was something she likes to do in her own yard rather than in the gym of the academy. But hey, she did have some free time in her hands at the moment, which was why she came here in the first place.. She was in her usual professional attire which was a white blouse, black blazer, and a skirt. The only difference was she was wearing sneakers, so she didn't have to worry about tripping in her heels.

The hoop she was looking at was in fact far, which was perfect. Instead of just standing close in front of it and just shoot, she decided to dribble the ball around while running. From speed dribbling to low dribbling to crossover dribbling, Aeri basically ran around the gym as fast as she could as if she was in a real basketball game. Finally when she made it to the hoop, she slammed the ball on the floor near the rim. As the ball bounced up high, Aeri quickly hopped up in the air, grabbing the ball in both of her hands and performing a slam dunk right through the net, making a score.

Landing on her feet, she gave herself a fist pump of victory. Still got it. Aeri thought. Of course she still got it. At least, that's what she thinks. It could be a fact, though. Anywho, picking up the basketball, she repeated the same actions she did before to get some adrenaline going in her body.

Today was a moderately-busy day, but that didn't mean that she couldn't find the time to do something a little healthy for herself.

Most of her time earlier had been spent cataloging various things for the drama department; make-up kits, costumes, props, old set-pieces...it was certainly exhausting stuff in its own right, but Ella was one who usually had energy to spare, so it didn't so much as put a damper on her mood. Rather, it gave her something to distract herself with temporarily.

With that done for now, though, she'd taken a moment or two to sit back and brush some dust off her pants (hey, some of those sets were pretty old, alright, she's not responsible for that). Almost everything was neatly sorted away, finally, and she could probably deal with the last little bit in a relatively short amount of time, but...she'd been cooped up indoors all day and she didn't have any real obligations to take care of right now...

And so she wandered off to the changing rooms of the school's gym, clothes bag in tow. At the very least, she could fit in a brisk jog, no? She was quick to slip into a pair of shorts and a jade-colored tanktop before putting up her hair in its requisite tight ponytail and clipping her bangs up above her forehead with a simple barrette. Shutting the locker door and hopping along on one foot as she finished pulling on her tennis shoes, she nonchalantly hummed some nursery rhyme or other as she made her way out of the locker bay and in the direction of the gym's main exit. What route would she take today? She could do some laps of the campus, but there was that quaint park nearby that she'd been kind of eyeballing...

She was about halfway across the floor of the gym before she shook herself out of her semi-mindless stupor and realized that there was, in fact, someone else in the gym as well. Turning her head to get a better look, her upper body followed as she rested a hand on one cocked hip and watched the woman shooting hoops with her heavy-lidded eyes. From her bystander's viewpoint, it was quite impressive; the odd attire the woman was in registered for a split-second before she dismissed it. Who cares if it seemed odd? She certainly looked like she could rock it, and Ella had experience in people's reactions to the more outlandish sections of her wardrobe, so she could certainly understand the simple idea of wearing whatever you felt like.

It slowly dawned on her, as she traced the woman's movements under her usual half-mast eyelids, that she was the Principal of Fukui. Her boss, in rather stark terms. It wasn't because she was slow on the uptake, but because sometimes half-baked thoughts took precedence over immediately connecting new faces and names.

Watching Aeri perform yet another dunk (and coming away with the funny mental image of her sticking her tongue out), she finally decided to take the opportunity to speak up. Perhaps her jog could wait a little while longer. Her accent, much like her voice, was soft, but it was still pretty evident if you listened with any bit of attentiveness. Especially the way she stressed some words, like 'athletic'.

"No one ever mentioned to me how athletic my new boss is..." Like most things she said, there was a playful tone to the words she spoke. "This seems like something I should have been made aware of much sooner."

And another slam dunk was given from Aeri. Already she began to sweat a little just by running around the gym with all of her energy. She wasn't really tired at all, just a little sweaty but it never really bothered Aeri, for now. She watched the ball roll on the floor for a moment as she tried to catch her breath. To be honest wearing a blazer, blouse, and skirt wasn't really all that comfortable to play in, but it was at least more tolerable than trying to play in heels. As interesting as it sounds, there was a good chance she'll just fall on her ass, and that wouldn't be a pretty experience for Aeri either.



With a small sigh, Aeri walked over to the rolling basketball as she picked it up
, bouncing it once. It'd be nice to actually play against someone; someone who's fairly experienced in basketball to make a worthy challenge for Aeri. She didn't mean to brag or anything, but she was confident enough to say that she was very skilled in the sport, considering not only it was one of the first sports she played but also she was just well-rounded in most sports overall.

Before she would continue playing, she heard a voice being spoken. Speak of the devil! Looking around, Aeri spotted a woman and began to examine her from head to toe. It looks like something Aeri would wear when she's going to the beach. Hell, it looks like someone Aeri would wear as pajamas. Still with such a simplistic outfit, it looked a little cute. The principal took it as a compliment on her athleticism and couldn't help but curl a small smirk on her lips. 

"Please. I'm more athletic than you think." Aeri spoke, as she dropped the basketball. As the ball bounced, she caught the ball in between the gap of her ankle and toes as she then turned around and launched the basketball to a wall with appropriate power with her foot for it to bounce off of the wall and over to the rim. The ball at first bounced on the rim, but luckily enough the ball leaned forward to pass through the hoop. Aeri made a cocky smile before turning back to the other woman, going back to her small smirk. "So, I'm guessing you're going to... exercise, maybe?" She assumed, tilting her head to display some curiosity.

Or maybe... just maybe...

"Or do you wanna play some ball?"

Being an attentive little spectator, she watched the demonstration being given to her in response to her statements. It was certainly a trick that she hadn’t seen before, and if the intent had been to impress her, then surely it had succeeded. Her eyebrows raised in approval, though for the moment her eyes remained half-shut as Aeri turned back around to face her. Instead, to show her appreciation she lightly clapped before loosely clasping her hands together, letting them hang in front of her as she smiled in return. ”So you are! I don’t believe I’ve ever known someone who could do something like that.”

And then came the invitation to join in, which - although she probably should have seen it coming - was sort of unexpected. Her eyelids shot up as her hands momentarily tensed up, wanting to look fully alert now that something was being asked of her. ”I- well, I was just planning on going for a jog somewhere, but...maybe? Yes?”

”It’s been a long time since I’ve even touched a basketball, so I’m afraid I won’t be much competition, but I’d be willing to. If you don’t mind that, of course.” She settled on twiddling her thumbs as she over-explained her answer, hesitant to actually move before there was some other kind of confirmation.

It felt good to hear someone praise her athleticism. Of course she could get cocky with it but at the same time just hearing someone compliment her was more than enough to burst her ego, which caused her smile to grow just a little bit wider. And a job, huh? Aeri remembered her young days where she would always go out for morning jogs, but that was just from the sake of being forced by her parents. It's not that she didn't enjoy jogs, she just never enjoyed morning jogs.

"Don't worry about it. I just need somebody to play with is all." Aeri said with a small shrug. While she didn't show it at all as she really wasn't expecting it, she was slightly disappointed with the woman not being too experienced in basketball. Then again, Aeri could definitely poke some fun at Ella for her amusement. Other than that, having someone to play against was good enough.

With that said, Aeri walked off to pick up the basketball, then back to Ella. "But if you want to start now," She started off as she then held the basketball in arm rose above her head as high as she could. "Try snatching this basketball out from my hand." She said. That was simple enough, right? It wouldn't be so hard than to try and push her down and snatch the ball. But then again, Aeri did have a strong built after all, so some pushing, shoving, or even walking backwards would get involved.

The reassurance helped to quell whatever small amount of hesitation she held about participated. "Well in that case, sure, I'd be happy to~"

She watched as Aeri walked over to where the basketball had settled, expecting there to be some frenetic surge of energy...and then being slightly puzzled when she walked back to stand in front of her. The point quickly became clear, though, as she blinked her heavy-lidded eyes once or twice between Aeri's face and the ball above it. Right! A test. That, uh, seemed simple enough?

Although she was never a very physical person even when it came to sports, so her first inclination was just to leap into the air and reach out with her outstretched fingers in an attempt to knock the ball away. She wasn't very short, so it wasn't so much a question of whether or not she could reach it, but rather would she be allowed to. At the moment, all signs were probably pointing to 'no'.

Don't get Aeri wrong; she figured if Ella hasn't really played basketball in a while, she assumed she was at least in some way athletic. Plus, she wasn't short and was somewhat to be close to Aeri's own height so this wouldn't be too much of a problem for the other woman. It was a simple task for anyone who has enough energy and athleticism to take the ball down. It couldn't be that hard for anyone who can show a lot of effort into doing the task.

Though as Ella tried to jump in the air with an attempt to knock the ball out of Aeri's hand that was just raised above her head, all she did was simply move back. By all means, it was already fun watching the other woman try to knock the ball out of the principal's hand. She did appreciate and acknowledge the effort being given though.

"Come on, you can do it! I have faith in you!" Aeri said, giving a little bit of at least some motivation to keep trying harder. Although while Aeri didn't have complete faith in Ella, it was at least good to see some effort.

The outcome was to be expected, though she couldn't keep the little formations of a pouting expression from starting to creep up on her face. They didn't stick around for long at all, however; Ella was never one to feel dejected for too long before bouncing back. Aeri issued a rejoinder, some words of encouragement, and she resolved to try again - though even if they happened to be facetious, she'd still try again. She'd already decided to do this instead of her jog, yeah? She was determined to get her daily exercise one way or the other.

There was still the question of how to go about trying to get the ball away from Aeri - it had been a meek attempt at best, but obviously just trying again wouldn't be getting her anywhere. And just straight-up trying to elbow or bodily shove someone didn't seem like her bag, from the time she used to play...plus her boss looked to be in much better shape than she herself did, so it would likely be a David and Goliath situation. But maybe she could try a slightly different approach.

Moving quickly to keep stepped up to her, Ella once again reached with her fingers outstretched, itching to touch the ball - though this time, her feet didn't leave the ground. Instead she tried to subtly slip her fight foot behind one of Aeri's.

Aeri couldn't help but chuckle at the expression she was slowly making. It looked like Ella wasn't going to back down just yet, which was some good sportsmanship this woman had. By all means Aeri actually saw her own words of motivation more or less of a taunt than something to motivate, or at least that last part of her sentence sort of contradicts what she was attempting to do. It's not like she had any doubt for Ella to give or anything, but of course thought that Aeri herself would have more of an advantage in terms athleticism

Already, Aeri assumed Ella was going to pull the same move with regards to knocking the ball out of her hands again as she caught up with the principal's pacing and stretched out her hands again. She wasn't too sure if the woman would bother try doing that again from the first attempt, but who knows? Second time could be charm. However as soon as Ella got close once again with Aeri automatically backing away, she felt something blocking her foot from behind, causing her to stumble back a little.

Now usually Aeri wouldn't take a stumble backwards so lightly but due to failing to react quickly to it, she fell right on back, releasing the ball as soon as she hit the ground, not to mention her head was also a victim of the impact. She didn't fall hard to the point she could of been left unconscious, but damn it did kind of hurt. "Damn it!" She hissed to herself, holding her head. "I said knock the ball off, not me!" She barked for a moment, rubbing her head.

As soon as the pain started to slowly fade away, all Aeri could do was just sigh. It was a good thing she wasn't someone who would hold a grudge easily at times or have a stick all the way up their ass, so she decided to just let the issue go. "Well, you knocked the ball out of my hand so I'll give you credit for that." She chuckled, getting back up to her feet and stretching out her arms for a moment, she then looked at Ella. "I'll admit though, that was pretty smart." She complimented with just a small smile. Despite Aeri felt that was more of a cheap shot, she would cut a lot of slack for thinking up that strategy.

"Well, since you passed the test, you can actually start us off with our actual game."

There was a momentary look of elation on Ella’s face as her trick worked - she wasn’t quite quick enough on the draw to make an attempt to take the ball out of the air, but she did break from Aeri with the intention of chasing after it. She’d managed to take a few steps in that direction before she heard the sound of something more rigid connecting with the gym floor, and she looked back over her shoulder to find out what had made such a noise with a mortified expression.

NO NO NO I DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT HER OR ANYTHING I JUST-

oh I’m so fired

One of her hands, which had shot up to cover her mouth, hesitantly dropped as Aeri massaged the point of impact. ”Sorry! I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry, I didn’t think and I shouldn’t have done that and- and-” A flustered Ella was largely an uncommon occurrence, but there was a very clear reason in this instance. She eased up a little bit when Aeri got to her feet, but she still had a train of anxious thought. How hard did she fall how badly did she hit her head could she have a concussion don’t they say not to move somebody if you think they may have a concussion-

If her body language and tone were to be believed, though, Aeri was fine. And, well, she wasn’t yelling anymore. So maybe things were okay?

Merely nodding in response, she dutifully walked off to retrieve the ball before returning to the spot in front of Aeri and dribbling once or twice, trying her best to relax and remember how she’d played back then. Even if she hadn’t decided earlier to substitute this for her daily exercise earlier, she kind of owed it to her boss now to make a serious effort.

Bouncing the ball again off the hardwood floor, she made a feint left with her upper torso before breaking right with the ball, already feeling the tiniest bit more comfortable on the court.

(do you want to thread out their game, or should we skip ahead a bit? personally I know painfully little about basketball but I can make the attempt. :x)

Aeri placed her hands behind her head as she watched Ella retrieve the ball. While the principal was at it, she rubbed her temples as she still felt some pain pounding in her head. While it was true that she's been training almost her whole life to become athletic for the sake of her parents' dream that still didn't stop the fact that this pain in her head hurts like hell and couldn't go away. The somewhat good news about it was she went through a lot worse than a simple back fall on her head so it didn't bother her too much. Then again, it still hurts like hell.

Coming back in front of Aeri, the woman then went for the first move as told to. The principal only waited for a few seconds to gain some distance between her and Ella. Right after the distance between the two seemed right, Aeri make a break for it as she chased the other woman in a swift. As soon as she was behind the woman she would then take another step to the side of her to slap the ball out of Ella's hand as she dribbled the ball. As the ball rolled, Aeri quickly sprinted for the ball as she picked it up and began dribbling the ball towards the other woman. She might as well poke some fun just for the hell of it, or to see how Ella's skills are. If there was one sport Aeri was mostly prideful of, it was basketball.

Coming back in front of Ella, Aeri would do a crossover a few times as she stagged back and forth and side to side as fast as she can, followed by bouncing the ball right through the gap formed by Ella's legs if there was an opening for the principal to do so. She would continue bouncing the ball through the legs from all the directions Aeri can in a fast motion until Ella would stumble around and result into a trip, showing that it was a form of payback for making her trip. She just hopped the woman wouldn't take a hard fall as much as the principal did.

If Ella falls, Aeri would then perform a speed dribble across the other side of the gymnasium as she would then stop midway to jump and launch the ball out of her hands, shooting the ball right through the hoop. As soon as it dropped from the new, Aeri would immediately chase after it and run back to Ella. "Step it up!" She called as a taunt as she would then bounce the ball with aggressive force back to Ella so she can make her move again. And of course, Aeri would try to repeat the same method she did before, only a little bit quicker.

And after quite a few scores and playful taunts given from Aeri, she decided to announce an end to their game. "Alright, I think that's enough. Good game." She called, taking a few small breaths at the other side of the gym. As expected from someone training their whole life to get to where they are, it was no doubt that Aeri won. While she was entertained at Ella, she wouldn't brush off the woman's efforts like it was nothing as much as she would. She also appreciated the fact that she tried her best, which was better than having literally almost no experience in basketball or even the knowledge of it. "I think it's safe to say that I'm the winner of this game, unless you want a rematch." Aeri added with a chuckle, shaping up her cocky smile on her lips. Of course while she didn't mind a rematch, she felt like this woman needed just a little more practice instead.

"You know," Aeri started off, walking back in front of Ella. "I don't mind teaching you some of the basics and tricks of basketball again, seeing as you have some form of experience but extremely rusty in a way. That is, if you want you." She offered. Really, she didn't mind at all. It's been long since she actually helped someone with a sport like basketball. The last time she actually taught someone was her gym teaching days back at a middle school. It is safe to say that she "still got it" as a principal and at this age, at least.

To say that Aeri had humiliated her in this match-up would’ve been some very strong wording, but ‘embarrassed’ was probably pretty apt. Over the course of time she’d steadily warmed back up into the swing of things, but she was still obviously outclassed by her boss. Which wasn’t even a bad thing, really! She would’ve been surprised if she’d done any better herself, actually. She hadn’t really expected to retain much of her ability, given how long it’d been since she had attempted any competitive sport at all.

Odd as it may have seemed, she even laughed a little when Aeri expertly tripped her up and caused her to stumble backwards. Her prat falling instincts had kicked in and she’d arched her back slightly so that she only rocked back a little bit instead of hitting her head in a parallel to earlier, but the message that she chose to take away from that was “and now we’re even”. The taunting served to make her clamber back to her feet as she received the ball, but it wouldn’t be long before it left her control...

By the time Aeri finally called the game (Ella hadn’t been keeping score herself, but she was sure it was close to a shutout) she had to take a moment to catch her breath, her hands on her knees. “Hah, no arguments from me! I don’t think I’m ready for a second round quite that fast anyway.” Having managed to regulate her breathing, she stretched out her back to make sure no awkward kinks had settled in before brushing her hands off on her shorts.

The offer for some coaching took her by surprise, but she answered it with her usual lackadaisical smile; in the brief moment of rest, her eyelids had returned to their default resting position. ”That sounds like a good idea - I mean, as long as you’re willing, I’m up for some lessons.”

"Of course I am." Aeri chuckled, her eyes on the ball as she began bouncing it up and down for a moment, then looked back at Ella. In her opinion, there was a lot that needed to be worked on. Dribbling, stance, shooting, etc. She wouldn't say every aspect needed special attention for Ella or anything since she did mention she played basketball before, and also to add on that she actually didn't do too bad. Aeri wouldn't say she was a challenge coming from her cocky side, but she did do good on her part so some kudos were given.

"Well just to be safe, we're gonna see how well you know the basics." Aeri explained, giving Ella the ball. Once she's taken the ball, the principal would then continue. "Stupid it may seems, but I just want to see how well you're good at it. Since there's different types of dribbling in basketball, we'll start off with a simple one: a high dribble. Basically you're just going to bounce the ball around while running, or walking if you're still sort of tired from that last game." She explained with a shrug.

Pointing at a hoop across the gym, "I want you to dribble from here, to that hoop, and back. Simple enough, right?" She instructed. A simple task it was, but she just wanted to make sure if there anything Ella needed to improve or fix. Still, it wasn't something too hard to do or something to easily mess up on, right?