Saint Joseph School

'What the hell was I thinking?'

Anna trudged into the gym early one Saturday morning, a Dunkin' Donuts iced latte in one hand, her gym bag in the other.

'8:30.... I should still be in bed....'

She had made the mistake of scheduling practice for her Power Ball team at 8:30 in the morning. It seemed like a good enough idea at the time; get everyone up bright and early, get some good exercise in, have some fun.... of course, Anna hadn't considered the fact that she was going to have to force herself to get up at 8:30 too. And on a Saturday. She wasn't much of a morning person, and for Anna, morning lasted from 5 a.m. to at least 2:00 p.m., maybe 1:00 if she was in a good mood. Groaning, Anna tossed her gym bag towards the bleachers, following suit.

As she sat down, she unzipped her bag, riffling through it. She sighed as she pulled out her clipboard, flipping through the pages she had put on it. One devoted to each team member's powers, one for different pre-established strategies and tactics, one for the positions each person would be playing and what they'd be doing there...

Aha! Practice drills. Taking a large sip of her iced latte, she scanned over the list of everything she'd need to put these guys through to get them ready. She snickered to herself, reveling in the limited but still sufficient power that came with being team captain. Anna usually wasn't a very power-hungry person, but she had to admit to herself, she enjoyed being able to order her friends around a bit. It wasn't something she got to do often, so she figured she might as well take advantage of this opportunity.

She was too lost in her train of thought to hear someone calling her from the doors of the gym. The whistle from right next to her, however, caught her attention; that is to say, it scared her half to death. Looking around, Anna grinned at the blond guy standing to her right, elbowing him in the side.

"That was way less funny than you think it was, Bran..."

It was about 8:35 when Mal showed up, still quite sleepy and wearing the only "exercise" clothes that he had, not counting his combat armor: his gym shorts and shirt. He yawned, nudged a basketball on the floor with his feet slightly, and sat down the bleachers.

"Mornin' Annie. Guess we'll start when everyone gets here, unless you had somethin' you wanted to talk about."

Brandon had been up since six, as usual. He'd already had breakfast and run two miles without his powers, also as usual. He sat down beside Anna, breathing easily and grinning. "But it WAS funny. Mission accomplished."

He waved to Mal. "Hey man, good to see you!"

Matt plodded in shortly after Mal, yawning widely, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He glanced around, then went to join Mal to sit on the bleachers.

"Hi everybody." He yawned again. "Morning?"

Arlina also walked in shortly after matt's arrival, all smiles and dressed in some casual gym clothes of the garishly pink tshirt and shorts variety, waving cheerfully to her teammates.

"Morning guys, rough nights? You all look like you just got out of bed."

Continuing to grin, she headed over to the others, stretching

Mal rummaged around in the extra large pocket in his shorts, and produced a prepackaged honey bun. He tore it open, and began munching on it.

"So, boss" Mal said to Anna between bites. "What's the plan? Are we clear on what the other guys can do?"

Lina glanced over at mal, pouting cutely.

"Now I remember what I forgot to do. Eat."

Lina sighed and headed over to the side of the gym, opening her backpack and pulling out a cupcake to snack on while they got ready for practice

Anna grinned at her teammates as they arrived and sat down on the bleachers. She was admittedly comforted to see that most of them looked more awake than she was.

Anna flipped through the pages on her clipboard, showing the ones that applied to the topic to Mal. "Yeah, I've got some ideas, but obviously they're not telling me much, so for now they're mostly just guesses. 'Course, it's best we make sure we're prepared for everythin' and anythin' they could throw at us. Hopefully not literally, but ya know, who knows...but! First things first."

Anna smirked, jumping up and standing in front of her team. She rolled her eyes at Mal and Arly, smirking. "What're you guys doing with those foods? A honey bun for breakfast Mal, really? C'mon, you should be eating fruits and stuff!", she said with an exaggerated sigh.

"um...well, Sugar's good for energy, and in Mal's defense, honey is totally healthier for you than like..high fructose corn syrup"

Lina paused, realizing she just incriminated her own food choice, then shrugged and giggled.

"Anyhow, i need energy and I havent eaten since like..5 AM when I got breakfast after I woke up"

Anna chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Well, bring fruit or somethin' next time. Anyways, once you two are done, I figure we'll start with..."

She flipped through the papers on her clipboard, finding the Practice drills once again. "... I guess we'll start with a fifteen minute run around the gym. You guys ready?"

*grins and starts out, running laps with an easy, ground-eating lope* So how long until the game, anyway?

Lina giggled, dropping in on pace behind Brandon, finishing her cupcake as she took off "Not even a blueberry muffin? It's got fruit!"

Chuckling, Anna semi-shouted after them as they started off. " We've only got a few weeks, Bran, so make sure you're not slacking off with your exercise. And no muffins! Just blueberries are fine though! Oh, and I'll totally let you eat a muffin or something if you bring me some grapes one of these days!"

Anna turned to Mal and Matt, folding her arms and grinning. "You guys ready? I'm not starting until I've got whole team running.... in a total not-fear related way."

Mal slowly started jogging behind the others. His pace was steady, if not fast, at least.

Matt yawned again, then hopped up and start running. He quickly caught up with the others and then kept pace with ease.