Strike A Pose
“”Hey!” Samara complains as she hides behind the shade of a tree in the schoolyard. “I hate the sun! Why are we having class outside today?”
“That’s because I thought it was nice outside today! Also, it isn’t that hot!” Angella says as she turns towards the rest of the class.
“Speak for yourself!” Samara says as she peers out slightly from behind the tree. “You have light powers! Of course you don’t feel the heat as much as we do!”
“...I mean…” Zypp responds as their palm rests on their chin. “You did choose to wear an almost completely black outfit today. I think that might just have something to do with it. That being said, it does look cute on you so I’m not exactly complaining.”
Samara grumbles to herself with blush on her face as she slowly walks out from under the tree and immediately covers her face and hisses once she steps out into the sunlight.
“See, it’s not that bad!” Angella encourages as Samara slowly makes her way over to the rest of the group. She gently places Poe on the grass next to her feet and steps in line with the other students of Class B.
Angella wasn’t wearing her usual white toga style dress that she usually did and was instead wearing a white tank top and gray sweatpants and had her long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail.
All of her students were wearing outfits that were similar to what Angella was wearing with each being color coordinated to the clothes that they would all usually wear (which were of course made by Rose!)
“So!” Angella says enthusiastically as she claps her hands together. “You all know that training both your body and your mind is good for you so today we are going to do something that trains both at the same time! That is why we are going to be doing yoga today!”
“Can I listen to music while we do this? It helps me…center myself…” Takeru says with a hopeful look in his eyes even though he was trying to play it off like he didn’t care either way.
“As long as you’re also listening to me then that should be fine.” Angella quickly responds to his predictably frequent question.
“...Cool…” Takeru says as he puts one of his earbuds in.
Jazmine also raises her hand.
“...Yes…same goes for you Jazmine…” Angella says with an exasperated sigh.
“Yes!” Jazmine says as she pumps her fist and also puts one earbud in.
“Anybody else have any questions or can we get started now?” Angella asks with her arms crossed in front of her.
All of the students shake their heads no.
“Alright!” Angella says as her smile returns to her face. “Then let’s get started! This one’s called warrior one!”
Angella’s legs go into a lunge as she sticks her arms straight up above her head.
All of the students follow suit.
They proceed to mimic a myriad of different yoga poses that Angella was striking. This started out with mostly easy ones like warrior two, tree, and triangle.
Zahid, Shiro, Zypp, Takeru, Jazmine were recreating the poses without issue, but Samara quickly started to struggle.
“...How…” Samara says as she catches her breath between words. “...How are you all so good at this?”
“It’s just that the rest of us spend a lot of time working out and you…spend more time writing self insert fanfiction…” Zypp says as they stand back to a center stance before the group moves onto the next pose.
“Hey!” Shiro interjects. “Isn’t that a little harsh?”
“What?” Zypp quickly says as they put their hands on their hips. “That wasn’t an insult. I was answering her question. Also, her fanfics are actually quite good!”
“...You…” Samara says as a blush covers her face. “...You read my fanfics?”
“Yeah!” Zypp says as they prepare to recreate Angella’s next pose. “They're admittedly quite self indulgent and a bit rough around the edges, but all things considered the romance is surprisingly compelling and it’s also obvious that you are passionate about what you do which shines through in everything that you write!”
“...Thank you, but…how did you find them?” Samara says as she starts grabs Poe and uses him to cover her face. “...I’ve never told anyone about that…”
Zypp just responds with a seductive wink as an ever bigger blush appears on Samara’s face.
“...Can…can you tell me what her AO3 username is?” Shiro whispers as she leans over towards Zypp as her curiosity is peaked.
“...Yeah…give us the deets…” Jazmine also says in a whisper.
Zypp just gestures as if they were zipping their lips shut in response.
Samara sighed in relief as Shiro and Jazmine both sighed in disappointment.
“Next up, this is called downward dog.” Angella says as she recreates the pose.
This one involves bending down and touching the ground as you arch your back into a v-shape.
All of the students follow suit.
After Zypp successfully recreates the pose, they turn around to see Samara struggling to do the same as a massive blush covers her face.
“...Like what you see?” Zypp asks with a seductive smile on their face.
“...Yes!” Samara says way too enthusiastically right before her arms buckle and she falls face flat on the grass. “...I…I mean…no…maybe…SHUT UP!”
After Angella goes back to center and then walks over to Samara and kneels down next to her.
“Don’t worry if you can’t recreate every pose perfectly! All I care about is that you are giving it your best effort. If any of the poses get too hard for you don’t get ashamed if you can’t do them.”
“...Thanks…that’s good to hear…” Samara says as she gets up off the ground and sits on the grass. “...Good thing I’m more of a ranged fighter…”
“That doesn’t mean that it’s not also important to train your body!” Angella says as she ruffles Samara’s hair before heading back to the front of the group.
“These are easy so far!” Shiro confidently claims. “When do we get a challenge?”
“Are you questioning our teacher’s methods?” Zahid says as he shoots Shiro an almost neutral yet still noticeably stern expression. “I’m sure she’s planned her lesson like this for a reason.”
“...Whatever…” Shiro says as she rolls her eyes.
“Did your previous master forget to teach you respect?” Zahid says as he furrows his brow.
“Shut up! You don’t know anything about me or my master!” Shiro suddenly shouts.
“...I guess that answers my question…” Zahid says with a scowl before he looks back towards Angella.
Shiro growls in frustration and punches the ground.
“...Hey…” Angella says as she walks over towards Shiro and puts a hand on her shoulder. “..I get what you’re saying, but even if you’re ready to do some of the more advanced poses some of your classmates might not be…Just take a deep breath…”
Angella proceeds to take a deep breath and holds it for five seconds before exhaling.
Shiro sighs before closing her eyes and does the same breathing exercise her teacher just showed her.
“...In…and out…In…and out…just like that…” Angella says as she meets her students gaze as she finishes her breathing exercise. “...Do you feel better now?”
“...Actually yes…thank you…”
“Don’t mention it. I’m just doing my job.” Angella says before she pats Shiro on the shoulder before heading back to the front of the classroom “...Anyways…That was just the warmup.”
Angella immediately backs up this statement by doing a handstand.
Samara doesn’t even attempt this pose, Takeru and Jazmine begin to struggle even though they still complete the pose, and Zypp, Zahid, and Shiro are still making things look easy.
Shiro and Zahid started to compete with one another to see who could hold each pose for longer.
“...Whew…” Jazmine says after she completes the pose as she falls backwards onto the grass. “I get how Shiro and Zahid are able to do this because of them being trained in martial arts and all that, but how are you so good at this Zypp?”
Right after Jazmine finishes asking her question Angella proceeds to the next pose. This one is the scorpion pose which involves a person resting on their forearms as their legs curl forward in a position that makes it obvious why the pose is called what it is.
“...I guess I’m just naturally flexible, what else can I say…” Zypp says as they give another seductive wink while they perfectly recreate this pose.
“...Fair enough…” Jazmine says as she blushes before turning away from the nonbinary beauty and rubs the back of her head.
Angella then continued with a few more difficult poses including the king pigeon pose, the crow pose, and the half moon pose.
At this point Takeru and Jazmine joined Samara in not even attempting the poses anymore, but Zypp, Zahid, and Shiro continued to do them with ease.
“Okay!” Angella says as she claps her hands together. “This next pose will be our last, but it is also one of the hardest yoga poses so only attempt if you’re confident enough in your abilities to do so. This one is called the Eight Angle Pose!”
Angella plants her arms on the ground and does a handstand, but then swings her legs to the side and wraps them around her right leg while holding them straight out.
“...Nope…” Jazmine says as she wipes sweat from her brow. “...I’m not even gonna attempt that one…”
Takeru nods in agreement as he folds his arms behind his head and lays back on the grass.
Samara was also laying with her back against the grass while hugging Poe as she tried to catch her breath from the workout.
“Alright! I think that’s enough for today!” Angella says as she goes back to center position as Zypp follows suit.
…Shiro and Zahid were still both doing the pose though…
Angella loudly clears her throat.
“Zahid! Shiro! I said that we are done for the day!” She says as she puts her hands on her hips.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that Angella!” Shiro says as she glares at Zahid. “I need to beat Zahid!”
“Yoga isn’t a competition.” Angella says with a sigh as she places a hand on her cheek.
“It might not be for you, but I need to prove that I can do this!” Shiro says as she grits her teeth as her pose begins to falter.
Both of them continued to hold this pose for the next five minutes.
Eventually Zahid decided to break the silence as he continued to do the pose perfectly.
“...I’m sorry about insulting your master earlier…you didn’t deserve that…”
This catches Shiro off guard.
“...I…um…”
Before Shiro could finish saying what she wanted to say her pose fell apart and she fell backwards onto the ground.
Zahid quickly undoes his own pose, stands up, and reaches out his hand to help Shiro to her feet.
Shiro had half a mind to swat Zahid’s hand to the side, but decided against it and allowed him to help her back up.
After Shiro was back up on her feet she huffs.
Zahid sighs again and awkwardly rubs the back of his neck.
“...If I’m being honest I’m not very good at talking to other people…I’m genuinely sorry about what I said before…”
“...Really?” Shiro says as she cocks her head to the side. “...but you always seemed so level headed and cool to me? I thought you were just a man of few words…”
“...I mean…while those things are also true, I spent so much time training when I was younger that I didn’t really focus all that much on making friends…”
“...You know…that makes a lot of sense…” Shiro says as she folds her hands behind her back. “...I’m sorry…for being rude earlier…”
Shiro then turns towards Angella.
“...I’m also sorry for insulting your teaching methods earlier…”
“Don’t worry about it!” Angella says as she folds her arms. “I’ve heard far worse things than that. It comes with the territory of being a teacher.”
Samara sits up on the grass.
“...Can I go back inside now?”
“Sure. I think you’ve all done enough today. Class dismissed.”
“Yay!” Samara says as she somehow finds the energy to sprint into the shade.
All of the other students of Class B follow suit and make their way back to their dorm rooms.