* * *
"Oh, good, you’re back," Shin said as we walked through the door. "Philip, did you see Nat? She was acting weird."
"No, did she ask for me?" Philip took off his jacket.
Shin shrugged. "Not really, she muttered to herself about looking for something."
"I thought she looked familiar," Taliesin whispered. "She's new, in the advanced contortion class."
"I'll try and call her later," Philip said with a tight smile. "So what are you guys up to?"
"Well, we finished practicing for tomorrow night, and this fool bet everyone he could do more handstand push-ups than anyone else,” Shin answered running his fingers through his blue and black bangs.
"It is the true test of awesomely superior strength," said a man with short blond hair. His brown eyes sparkled with mischief.
The heater clicked on. I looked up and, finding a vent, went to stand under it, sighing in pleasure as warm dry air flowed over me.
"Any of you want to join us?" Shin asked.
"Of course," Gavin said. "Come on, Kayin, you can help me represent the New York school."
Kayin walked over, swinging his arms. I assumed in order to warm them up.
"Okay, everyone line up. On the count of three, into handstands and begin." Philip raised his arms over his head.
I took slow breaths, and tried to focus on strengthening my feeble attempt at creating a bubble to keep out other people's emotions, while the six men and three women popped up into handstands then lowered their noses to the floor and pushed back up.
How in the world could they do that? I could barely do a regular push-up. Once they did five, people began to fall out. The first a man and woman I didn't know, then Kayin and Anali came down after their eighth. The blond guyand the other girl stopped at ten. Philip and Gavin grunted, shook, and cursed their way to fifteen before collapsing to the floor. After which Shin and Taliesin gracefully came down from their handstands. Both of them were sweaty but calm.
"So what did that prove?" I muttered under my breath.
Anali giggled. "That youth always wins."
"Come on, I'll order some pizza for dinner," Gavin said once he'd caught his breath.
Taliesin sighed. "I need to call my mom, she was expecting me home by now."
"I can give you a ride home if she wants," Gavin offered.
Taliesin rolled his eyes. "She's a bit over-protective sometimes, she'll probably come to get me."
I felt Taliesin's embarrassment and irritation at his mom, but I couldn't help feeling jealous. He didn't know how lucky he was.