[FIN] Getting Started

[BlackFireKitsune]

As he listed off each item she would need, Nicolette did her best to commit them to memory so she wouldn't forget any of them. Shirt, shorts, shoes, knee pads, elbow pads, hair tie. That was everything, right? Except maybe full arm pads, but those sounded a little excessive. "Okay!" She said with a sharp nod, her tone and expression determined as they arrived in the athletic department.

After some time, and some assistance from a helpful associate, Nicolette had managed to find some clothes, and disappeared into the fitting room to try them on. She emerged rather hesitantly a scant few minutes later, wearing a tank top and shorts she'd picked out and that fit well, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Um," she started uncertainly, a little uncomfortable wearing such an outfit, "is this okay..?"  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo was not typically the patient sort, but he was somewhat at home in the athletic department and easily found ways to busy himself by browsing the various displays set up here or there. It probably wouldn't have kept him occupied for very long, but fortunately Nicolette was quick, and Shoyo answered her with a thumbs up and a wide smile, "Yeah, looks great! That'll be a whole lot more comfortable!" The fact that she didn't look at all comfortable currently went far over his head.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With a nod and an "okay" she returned to the fitting room to change back into her normal clothes, which took less time to do than trying on new clothes had. That done, and with her new clothes as well as a set of knee and elbow pads tucked in an arm, Nicolette next headed towards footwear. It didn't take long at all for her to find a pair of comfortable white sneakers to go with her new outfit, and after paying for all of it, looked to Shoyo. "Okay, do I need anything else?" She thought she got everything, but it always helped to double-check to be sure.  

[Suudonym]

He crossed his arms and tilted his head to a side as if the posture would help him to think better. After spending a moment that way, he brightened again, shaking his head, "I don't think so! I've got a ball and the court's got a net, so I guess we can head back!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Okay!" She responded brightly, nodding once as she turned and headed back towards the exit, her bags held tightly in her small hands. Once outside, she went back over her purchase in her head, happy that that one store had everything that Shoyo had listed off. Minus the full arm pads that she didn't particularly need. "I'm glad I got everything I needed!"  

[Suudonym]

There wasn't any particular need to hurry, but Shoyo was restless and excited and couldn't stop himself from grabbing Nicolette's wrist and breaking into a run towards the community center with an encouraging, "come on, come on!" called over his shoulder.

It wasn't far in the first place, but at the pace Shoyo set, they reached their destination even faster. He released Nicolette's wrist and bounced up the steps, waiting for her to make her way up the small flight as well before entering the lobby. "We're down this way, to the left - court E," he said, looking down the hallway past the reception desk. "And the locker rooms are there," he pointed to a sign that indicated the direction more descriptively. "I'm gonna check in and go ahead to the gym!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She did not at all expect him to grab her wrist, and such an act startled her at first until she realized what was going on and what he wanted, and so she attempted to match his pace as she hastened towards the building. It made the short trip even shorter, and even served to warm them up - or it did for Nicolette, at any rate, especially in this heat - and she made her way up the stairs after Shoyo, though not nearly as quickly or energetically as he did - not that she was worn out just yet though, of course. "Court E," she repeated with a nod, committing it to memory, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Locker rooms... What were those? Check in and go ahead-- "Oh, ah, where should I change?" Nicolette asked hesitantly, shifting her grip on her bags uncertainly.  

[Suudonym]

"In the locker rooms," he said, pausing to answer before addressing the receptionist. "You can store your stuff in there too, in the lockers. It's convenient!" Maybe not as convenient as arriving already dressed to go, but surely the next best thing.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Oh! Oh, okay," she responded and nodded. That made sense, she supposed - there must be individual rooms in the locker room to change in, then. "I'll go change and then meet you in the court!" Which was it again - E? Yes, that was it, court E. With that said, she offered a wave before turning and hurrying off in the direction he'd pointed to.

Contrary to what she'd thought, the locker rooms did not have a bunch of little individual rooms, but they did have a bathroom, luckily, and it was there that she changed before stashing her belongings in one of the many lockers before heading back out. She made sure to check the lobby on her way to the court, in case Shoyo was still there, but he wasn't, so she continued on her way. The outfit, while light and comfortable, was still foreign to her and showed much more skin than she was used to showing, and attempting to pull at her nonexistent sleeves or tug at the bottom of her tank top did practically nothing to solve her discomfort. Regardless of how useless the actions were, she continued them absent-mindedly as she passed by various rooms, eventually coming upon one labeled 'court E', the door of which she pushed open and peeked inside, because presumably that's where Shoyo was, but who was to say there wasn't some mistake and it was full of a team of people already or something?  

[Suudonym]

Checking in wasn't a significant ordeal - it was a little past the scheduled time, but since there hadn't been any walk-ins looking for a volleyball court, it wasn't a problem - and Shoyo proceeded happily to the gym he had reserved. As requested, it had been set up with a women's-sized net and the floor had been taped with the proper boundaries for a volleyball court. Excited all over again, Shoyo dropped his bag at the door and seated himself, digging out his pads and tugging them up over his knees. The sound of his shoes on the shiny flooring was nostalgic and invigorating. He eyed the net eagerly.

When Nicolette arrived, Shoyo was in the middle of his third jump: He swung his arms back and then forward, rising sharply from the floor and drawing up his legs to increase his height. He peaked with his waist above net level before descending again, a shrill squeak indicating that his feat had hit the floor. He turned to Nicolette, delighted, "Nicky! Did you see?! The net's so low it feels like I could almost jump right over it!" Of course the net was nowhere near that low, but at nearly a foot shorter than the nets he was used to playing with, it certainly felt like it.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She had indeed seen his jump, and the height of it coupled with his own excitement served to make her at least temporarily forget her discomfort, and she entered the room fully so she could jog over to him, "Wow, you jump really high!" Could he really jump over the net? It looked really high to her, but then, he looked like he'd jumped really high, as well. "Were you practicing spiking, or just jumping?"  

[Suudonym]

He beamed proudly at her comment; his jumping ability and speed were his best talents, and there was a certain satisfaction in having those talents acknowledged by others. "Just jumping," he answered, "getting a feel for the height of the net. Oh! Since we have a net, do you wanna learn about serving? Or, wait, first is warming up." He raised his arms, bending one over his head and grabbing the elbow, "You always gotta stretch first, or you could hurt yourself!" He wasn't really sure what the correlation was between stretching and getting hurt, but that was what everyone had always told him, so he believed it well enough.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It sounded like they could start with a lot of things, but warming up it was. She was familiar with this concept, at least, if none of the others, because of her history of riding, though she had to wonder how different the two would be... Regardless, she nodded her head and shifted her stance to copy Shoyo, stretching her arm above her head and grabbing her own elbow.  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo's stretching regimen put a lot of emphasis on limbering up the shoulders and knees, though it wasn't a bad routine for an all-around warm up either. It stopped far short of being the kind of warm up that would bead sweat upon one's forehead, but it wasn't as though he needed to be ready to run out onto a court and play a serious game; he was just teaching some basics.

"Okay!" He retrieved the two volleyballs he had dropped off by one of the net's supporting polls, tossing the blue and yellow one to Nicolette and keeping the red, white, and green one for himself. "The easiest serve is probably the underhand serve. You hold the ball like this," he got into position, holding the ball in his nondominant hand, "and then swing your arm back, and then forward, and then pow!" He moved through the steps he roughly described, dropped the hand that was holding the ball so that it was in midair at just the moment that his dominant hand came up to hit it. The ball bounced up into the air and soared a ways away, and he moved to retrieve it as he spoke, "When you're serving normally, you have to stand at the back line and hit it hard enough that it goes over the net, but for now just get a sense for the feel of it, and you can try it with the net later!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

This bout of stretching was a lot more than she normally did for riding, she couldn't help but notice - and focused on different areas than she did for riding - but that only served to remind her how much more physically taxing volleyball was in comparison.

Once they finished stretching and Shoyo threw her the ball, she caught it in both hands and listened attentively as he instructed her on the underhand serve. "Okay," she said with a short nod, her tone and demeanor determined as she shifted to copy his posture. Just swing your arm back, and then forward, and then.. pow!

She did as instructed, and though she succeeded in hitting the ball, she succeeded in shooting it at a severe angle off to the side, rather than forward.