Lincoln

"Something told me I'd find you here."

Cali's melodic voice had me turning away from the punching bag. Her petite frame stood a few feet away from me, engulfed in an oversized sweater. Her worn book bag hung off of her shoulder. She looked like she had just gotten out of class. The tips of her fingers were red—matching the colour of her full cheeks. Sometimes I forgot about how cold the weather was outside now that fall was transitioning into winter. Most of the time I wore shorts right up until the first snowfall of the year.

I dropped my gloved hands, trying to steady my breathing. My lungs were greedy for air, my arms searing with the tearing of muscle fibres. I probably appeared wild to her—feral even. I didn't need a mirror to realize that I was slicked in sweat and had an unruly head of hair.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, wiping the moisture off of my forehead with the back of my arm.

Cali smiled. "I figured now would be as good a time as any to get some studying in."

I scoffed at that. "Yeah, okay." Moving a few steps towards the boxing ring, I grabbed my towel off of the ropes. I patted at the back of my neck before moving to my shoulders. "Why are you really here?"

Cali's tongue darted out across her bottom lip. It was a nervous twitch. An innocent action that I noticed that she would occasionally do when she was deep in thought. It wasn't the first time I'd seen her do it. But for some reason, this time a feeling erupted somewhere in the pit of my stomach. I turned back to the ring, hanging my towel up as an excuse not to continue looking at her.

What the hell was going on with me?

"I wanted to try something."

I tensed, listening to her take a couple of steps towards me across the rubber flooring.

"Are you sure you want to bother trying it with me?" I said in a rough tone. In all honesty, the sound was a little more aggressive than I would have liked, but there was no taking it back now.

"I'm sorry," Cali mumbled, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I was frustrated the other day and I took that out on you."

"Because I was what was making you frustrated."

The corners of her lips twitched upwards. "Yeah, but I still shouldn't have said what I did. I'm not the only one under a shit ton of pressure. I need to do a better job of remembering that."

"Yeah well," I said while removing my gloves. "It would help if I wasn't so difficult to work with."

A teasing smile graced her smooth face. "As long as you realize that."

I rolled my eyes at her. I guess I had walked myself into that one. "What is this thing that you wanted to try out?"

Cali's face brightened at the question.

"You know how you sometimes have a hard time focusing during our study sessions?"

I scoffed. "I always have a hard time focusing during our study sessions."

"Well, I was doing to research—"

"Of course you were."

"And there are these things called learning preferences. Some people have an easier time absorbing information when they watch videos or demonstrations, some people prefer to read or discuss the details of a lesson, others—"

"What are you getting at, California?"

"I'm saying that I might have been going about this tutoring thing the wrong way," Cali said, throwing her hands out as if she'd made an ingenious discovery. "I've been teaching you in ways that have worked for me, but I wasn't considering what might work for you."

Was this girl seriously putting all the blame on herself?

"Did you ever think I'm just a shitty student?"

Cali shook her head. Her long, chestnut waves swayed with the movement. "Everyone learns differently."

Something stalled in my brain. I'd never had someone believe that I wasn't the problem. While I managed to get by in elementary school, high school was hell for me. It wasn't unusual for a teacher to turn up their nose at me when handing back a marked assignment or test. In their eyes I was always a problem. Trouble. Not worth their time. The fact that Cali thought differently sparked a flame within my chest.

"What do you think my learning preference is then?" I asked, nudging my chin towards her.

Cali grinned, rummaging through her bag as she closed the distance between us. She pulled out a polka dot folder, a stack of printed pages resting inside. "According to the VARK system, there are four types of learning preferences. In the original study they labelled them as learning styles, but recently—"

"Cut to the point, California."

"Oh... right," she scanned through her pages again before continuing. "The four types of learning preferences are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading or writing."

"I definitely can't study by reading a textbook," I informed her. It was like pulling teeth to get me to read anything in high school, and the odd time I did, I wouldn't retain the information anyways.

"I thought that would be the case." Cali slapped the file closed and pointed it at me. "Which is why we're going to try kinesthetic learning."

"And kinesthetic learning is...?"

She bent down, switching the folder for a copy of my anatomy textbook.

"Learning through doing."

The skin on my forehead wrinkled. "Are we going to dissect a dead body or something?"

"While that's one way to activate kinesthetic learning, that isn't the only way." She motioned towards the gloves I had discarded to the floor. "Put those back on, will you?"

→

"And what was the insertion of the flexor carpi radialis again?"

A low grunt pushed past my lips as I hit the boxing bag. The chain it was on rattled under the pressure. "The metacarpal."

"You got it!" Cali cheered. Even though I couldn't see it, I could hear the grin splitting her face. "Okay, take a break. I think we should probably call it a day."

Throwing off my gloves, I picked my towel off the ropes of the boxing ring. That simple movement was difficult. My arms felt heavier than they have all week. I don't know if it was the studying, or the fact that I had an audience, but I hadn't pushed myself that hard in a long time.

I grabbed my bottle off the edge of the ring and took a long drink. "I think your method might have actually worked."

"Seems like it," Cali said. "If you keep this up, you're sure to ace that midterm next week." She was sat cross-legged in the ring, her arms resting on the lower ropes. Before today, I couldn't imagine her fitting in like this—a future scholar in a dimly-lit, BO infused gym—but she looked perfectly in place. I rubbed at the back of my neck, banishing the thoughts from my mind.

Cali appeared pleased with herself. She clapped the text close. "Apparently when you do any type of intense physical activity, it causes blood to flow to the brain. This fires up neurons and promotes cell growth, particularly in the hippocampus—"

She paused before sending me a coy smile. "I'll spare you the specifics, but science suggests that a simple 20 minute workout before studying can improve concentration and help retain new information. I decided to have you box while studying because you tend to fidget a lot when we're sitting in the study rooms."

"Well look at you," I said, leaning my arms on the ropes next to her. "You studying to be a scientist or something?"

Cali shook her head, a slight smile on her face as she glanced down into her lap. "I want to be an NP." When I raised an eyebrow at her she elaborated. "A nurse practitioner."

"I know what an NP is," I said. "I'm just impressed, that's all."

Cali peered up at me through thick lashes. "Yeah?"

I nodded, gazing off towards the other side of the gym. It was inching towards nine o'clock now and the place was empty. Even Coach Whitmore had long since gone home.

"My mom's an RN. That's why I occasionally have to take Sadie around with me. Shift work can be demanding." I let the silence settle over us for a moment. "If you have any questions about nursing I'm sure she'd be happy to mentor you outside of your placement. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse."

"Thanks," Cali said softly.

In the lapse of sound, a muted grumble erupted from her. A rose-coloured blush stained her cheeks.

I bit back a smile. "Hungry?"

"No," she responded, clearing her throat. After an elongated moment, she parted her lips again. "Okay, maybe a little. I passed on dinner to put together my learning preference pitch and come find you."

I let out a whisper of a laugh. "You felt like you needed to prepare a pitch in order for me to agree?"

"If you haven't realized, you're a hard person to convince."

Pushing away from the ring I circled back to our earlier conversation. Now that I mentioned it, food was all I could think about. Punching a bag for almost two hours straight can do that to someone.

"I'm hungry too," I admitted. "Did you want to go get something to eat?"

Cali hesitated. Her doe eyes were narrowed slightly—calculating—as if she was trying to figure out the answer to an exam question. She blinked once. Twice. Then her features softened, and her eyes brightened, back to her usual warm expression.

"Sure." She slipped out from her position behind the ropes and gathered everything back into her bag.

"Where did you want to eat?" Cali asked, her feet moving to keep up with my long strides.

"I've got the perfect place."

* * * * *

author's note:

I think someone is catching feelings... (:

Give me your best guess! Where do you think they're going to go?

Have a great weekend!