got my gym shorts on! ;; V

Winter never thought she'd be here, ever. It was a little before dawn, and the beach was chilly, especially for a small girl with gym shorts on, but she was here for a reason. Ever since she had started jogging with her teammates at the track her legs become stronger and her endurance better. So good that she started jogging with her coach on the beach. He was a great coach too. Encouraging and praising her when he'd notice that she was getting better. All sorts of nice stuff. They were actually getting to know each other better too. She told him about her future plans to become a doctor or pharmacist, and he told her about his giant family and what it was like to be a teacher. She never thought she'd become so close to Coach V like the other students, but she was happy that they were.

She began to stretch and run in place while she waited. The sky was a blend of colors, going from blue to purple, and the clouds in the sky were wispy and white. It was definitely going to be a beautiful day today. Maybe later she could see what Aran or Skye were up to.

V was surprised to see that Winter was already on the beach, as he crossed over the cool sand. He usually beat her here in the mornings, but today he must have been running late.

"Hey, Winter!" he called, stretching his arms and walking towards her. The sun was just breaking over the horizon, and the beach was still pretty dark. Veil was nestled on his shoulder, unwilling to exert herself until she needed to. AKA when her crazy clio started running on the beach.

When Winter saw him walking toward her, she got a little flutter in her tummy. Weird.

"Hi Coach!" she replied cheerfully. "I hope you had your breakfast this morning!"

Winter decided to ignore the weird feeling in her tummy and instead focused more on stretching. It was important to warm your body up before a run after all! She hadn't been this happy in forever. She was making new friends, getting stronger, and she had even been keeping away from parties and boys. She would see him around from time to time. (He still lived near her parents home.) But she tried to ignore her former babysitter. Life was too good right now to come crawling back to him, no matter how wanted he made her feel.

Enough with the depressing stuff, she chided in her head.

"I want to try and run farther this time," Winter said out loud instead. "Maybe I could be a long distance runner."

V smiled at Winter as he approached her. She had grown a lot in the last month or so, and he was proud of her. She seemed a lot happier, too. It was nice watching her go from a depressed loner to someone who he caught chatting with her teammates during school hours.

The two made small talk as they warmed up, doing line drills and stretches on the sand as the sun slowly rose over the ocean.

Winter wrote:"I want to try and run farther this time. Maybe I could be a long distance runner."

"Hmmm," V responded, finishing his leg stretches and standing up. "I could see that. I think you'd really be good at that," he told her honestly. Winter had been running sprints during practice, but her best was the 400. And that was practically a distance race, anyway.

"We could try running to the lighthouse today?" he asked. Usually he didn't go that far while he was running with Winter, but he was pleased she was trying to push herself, and he was happy to accompany her as she did so. "You've gotten so good so fast-- I'm happy you stuck with it."

If it was possible to shine with pride and happiness, Winter would be doing that right now. Or maybe it was just her hair. Either way her coach and teammates made her feel more confident then she ever had before. If he had asked her to jog to the lighthouse weeks ago, she would have looked at him like he wanted to murder her, but now she looked at him with determination.

"Let's do it!" she cheered, as she began to take off in the direction of the lighthouse.

V laughed as Winter took off running, not waiting for him. Her confidence radiated off her in waves, an almost visible thing. V was surprised she wasn't Aite, whatever that was.

He started after her, pacing himself and feeling the last cool breeze of the morning waft around him. He realized as he trailed Winter how much he enjoyed these early runs with her. It was one of the better things in his life, currently. A nice way to begin each day, talking and laughing as he exercised.

Veil was fluttering behind him, doing her best to keep up with her clio as he raced across the beach. I'm not sure I like where this is going, she chastised him. If she had been speaking out loud, her words would have sounded out of breath. Do daemons need to breathe?

Where what is going? V thought back.

He finally caught up with Winter, and the two of them started running next to each other, their footprints left in tandem in the sand. He grinned over at her as they ran, letting her know she was doing good. She would definitely make it to the lighthouse.

That! Veil said loudly in V's head. That right there! That grin! I've seen that before, Quinn!

V shrank a little when she said his first name. She didn't do it often--only when she was upset. Suddenly I'm not allowed to grin at my students? He asked back, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.

Winter grinned back at her coach, feeling that flutter in her tummy again while being completely oblivious to it at the same time. Wesley was burrowed deep inside of her thick pony tail, glad that he didn't have wings like V's did. Wesley also noticed the grin, but he wasn't sure what his take on it was just yet.

Finally, they reached the lighthouse together, and not once did Winter need to stop. She was so proud of herself she was grinning from ear to ear and practically glowing with confidence. She plopped her butt into the sand with a big breath and sat there for a minute to catch it.

"I can't...believe...I did that!" she gasped excitedly.

"I can!" V exclaimed, plopping into the sand next to her. "You've been working really hard, Winter! You've proven that you can do anything you set your mind to."

He was so proud that she was finally coming into her own. She was a completely different clio than the one that he had guilted into track a few months ago. "I'm glad that smile is making its appearance more often," he told her.

Winter blushed when her coach mentioned her smile. She couldn't look at his face anymore, it was getting too awkward and embarrassing. Why did she have to be so shy sometimes?

"Well, it's all thanks to you," she told him while pretending to be distracted by something on her shoe. "If you hadn't of encouraged me, who knows where I'd be right now!"

Wesley had made his way from Winter's hair and sat next to his clio in the sand. He was watching Winter and V carefully, and if a mouse daemon's face could have expressions, his would be a wary one.

Ignoring her daemon's concerns, Winter grabbed the water bottle she had with her, threw her had back and drank deeply. She never thought being all sweaty and out of breath from running would be a good feeling.

V stretched out his legs in the sand and double over, stretching out his muscles.

"You think you're up for the mile this weekend?" he asked, referencing the meet they had coming up. Winter was definitely ready for the challenge, and V thought she would probably do really good at that race.

Winter took a few more gulps of her water and sat there thoughtfully. Thinking about the next track meet made her nervous. She had been doing really well running at short distances, but she wasn't sure if she was ready yet. Sure, she had no problem jogging around the track with her teammates, and running the beach with her coach, but this was different. Other clio would be there, watching. They cheered for her when she won a few medals, but she wasn't running at long distances.

Oh stop being so negative! She heard Wesley chide. You're doing so well now! You can do it!

Maybe her daemon was right. "Do you really think I'm ready?" She asked V. "I'm kinda nervous..."

V nodded at Winter confidently. "You're definitely ready."

He stood and then offered his hand to Winter who was still sitting in the sand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet. "Race you back," he said with a wink, taking off and running back to the populated part of the beach.

"Hey!" Winter called after him. Smiling, she took off running. She wasn't able to keep in stride with him, but she was also able to keep up. She stayed right behind him, until finally they reached their destination.

"You're a cheater," she said through her breaths. "But one day I'm going to beat you!"

She loved all of this confidence she was getting. Joining track was a really good idea.

"I'm not sure I would go that far," V teased, also sounding a little out of breath. "But because I cheated, and it was wrong of me, I admit!, how about I buy you some breakfast ice cream?"

Yep, I definitely don't like it, Veil twittered silently. She'd taken up residency back on V's shoulder, happy she no longer had to fly like a maniac to keep up with him.

Veil, V thought, I buy the other girls ice cream all the time.

When you're all together, Veil emphasized.

V wrote:"How about I buy you some breakfast ice cream?"

Just the two of them? Winter started to feel a little shy and awkward. It wasn't like she felt uncomfortable around her coach, it was just weird to eat ice cream with a teacher who bought it for you. Like it was one thing if she was with the rest of her teammates, but this was too personal.

I don't think it's a good idea, piqued Wesley.

Winter decided to ignore her daemon. She didn't want to seem rude or hurt V's feelings. Plus it couldn't be too bad, it hasn't been awkward this whole morning, why would it be awkward getting ice cream with him? "Okay!" she said cheerfully. "Let's go!"

"Great!" V said happily. He bent over to touch his toes to give his muscles a little bit of a stretch. The two of them did some cool down exercises and then walked together over to the little ice cream shack on the beach.