Who: Callisto and Melanie What: First meeting and showing off Where: Gym When: Thursday evening Rating: PG, mention of drink and violence. Status: Complete
Callisto didn’t like routine. Sure her social worker as a kid had told her it was a good idea for her, but Callisto preferred spontaneity in her life. Where was the fun in knowing when she was going to do what. Which is what led her to the gym this evening. She’d had nothing better to do, and after restraining her look of disdain for the trainer’s attempt at creating an exercise plan for her she had begun her stretches.
She was just finishing off stretching her quads when she noticed a young girl walk in and drop her bag.
Melanie had a full day of classes, the last of which had been theory, which meant she now felt the need to work off some of her energy. She spent quite a bit of time there, mostly classes as she felt that the actual gym wasn’t fun. But today the call of the cross-trainer was strong. Her legs needed more work, especially if she wanted to start leading more hikes in the future.
Dumping her bag down, she began her own set of stretches, her natural flexibility obvious to anyone watching her, though she wasn’t taking any notice of her surroundings.
Callisto watched the girl for a minute, admiring her flexibility. She have herself a little smile and once her stretches were done, she decided to try her own skills out. Leaning back, she placed her hands on the floor over her head in a crab position, doing a mini press up to test her strength. Then she kicked off with her feet and steadied herself in a handstand before splitting her legs front and back.
Melanie saw the woman’s impressive display and grinned a little before doing a slow cartwheel and leading into the splits. It actually was a lot of fun and she couldn’t help throwing the other woman a smile.
Callisto smiled back, accepting the challenge and swapping her legs around while keeping the split position, then bent her knee, touching the back of her head with her right foot.
Melanie tilted her body back and swung her leg around, over her head before coming to a standing position.
Callisto brought her left leg back to her right leg, bowing her back to help keep her balance before flicking them both forward, adding a half twist to land on her feet.
“You’re good,” Callisto smiled as she stretched her arms a bit more. “Where did you learn?”
Melanie smiled as she twisted to stretch her back out. “School gymnastics team,” Melanie replied, “Then my university sports club. I’m in my final year. And you?”
“Taught myself,” Callisto told her. “Didn’t have the luxury of going to college,” she turned to smiled at the girl. “I’m Callisto, just moved here,” she reached out to shake the girl’s hand.
Melanie shook the hand offered to her. “I’m Melanie, pleased to meet you,” she replied. “And I have to say I’m very impressed, you are obviously naturally athletic.”
“Thanks,” Callisto smiled. “What do you study then?” She took her hair down from it’s ponytail, shook it out then put it back up in a high ponytail
“Kinesiology,” Melanie replied. “I’m in my last year so just a few weeks to go and with no idea what to do next,” she grinned wryly.
“Cool,” Callisto replied, although a little confused. “But how do you not know what you want to do afterwards? Seems a bit…specific a subject is all.”
“Oh well, I know I want to do something like personal training or group outdoor activities but exactly what or even if there are any jobs out there I don’t know,” Melanie explained and her course only seemed interested in helping find training jobs, which she wasn’t sure she wanted to do.
“So something self-employed then?” Callisto asked. “Works for a lot of people. Cross-trainer?” she gestured to the machines on the far wall.
“Maybe,” Melanie replied. “To be honest I’m just going to wait and enjoy having my life back for a few weeks,” she nodded at the cross-trainer suggestion.
“Fair enough,” Callisto agreed, stepping up onto the machine. “Bit of advice, kid,” don’t get tied down by the system. It’s boring and you can’t answer back,” she imparted as she pressed buttons to increase the resistance. “Unless you’re into that sort of thing in which case: go for it,” she said as she began moving on the machine.
“Yeah,” Melanie said starting up her own machine with her settings. “I’m really not so good with rules and regulations. Never really got why punching someone in the head isn’t an option y’know?” she replied. “So what do you do?” she asked.
“Punch stupid people,” Callisto returned, matter-of-factly, keeping her eyes forward with a hint of a smile.
Melanie glanced over at Callisto, “Just for fun or does someone actually pay you?”
“Both,” Callisto shrugged non-chalantly. “I’m a stunt co-ordinator and fight choreographer by day and a girl who likes guys to letch on her then punch them in the face by night,” she told her, casting a wink over at Melanie.
That caused Melanie to laugh. “Now that sounds like an awesome job and hobby,” she grinned.
“It pays the bills,” Callisto shrugged. “And the bail,” she joked. “And I can pretty much do whatever I want, when I want so works for me. Still waiting on getting settled, so waiting for something to turn up.”
Melanie nodded, ”Sounds like you’ve got it sorted. I hope that’ll be me at some point. My sister’s always known exactly what she wanted to do, but for me I guess I’ve always wanted to try things and be kind of adventurous.”
“Good,” Callisto nodded. “Then there’s no reason we can’t be friends,” she decided. “So what’s the best place for a drink around here?” she asked. “I feel like punching an idiot in the face,” she grinned at Melanie.
Melanie chuckled. “I don’t really drink much, scandalous I know,” she joked. “But I’ve seen a girl on the Net mention a club called Always and there’s a number of other places around, if in doubt ask online, everyone seems to be quite helpful in that respect.”
“I really shouldn’t,” Callisto admitted. “It gets me into trouble, but I rarely do things I should…it’s boring. Yeah, I put a post on-line to ask about activity groups and stuff and people were really helpful. Someone mentioned a hiking group I wanted to try out, heard about it?”
“Oh that was me,” Melanie told her. “I’ve just started it up. Got a great reaction from people and there are some really good trails in the area.”
“Well, whatdya know,” Callisto smiled. “Serendipity is alive and well. I didn’t realise that was you, but thinking about it, it’s kind of obvious I guess. That’s great, and you can count me in for the next one, just drop me a message.”
“Oh I will, that’d be great,” Melanie told her. “We had a few novices but if we get enough people who are experienced I thought setting up different walks might be a good idea,” she mused.
“Excellent,” Callisto smiled. “I’ll see if I come across anyone while I’m working.”
“Oh that would be great,” Melanie said enthusiastically. “I’m really hoping it’ll be popular. I quite like leading the groups,” she wasn’t a huge people person, but as they were all there with a common interest she found she could deal with them without too much bother.
“No worries, in my field people are always looking to keep fit and it’s nice to see an enthusiastic young leader coming up,” Callisto complimented her. “And if anyone gives you any grief just point me at ‘em and I’ll sort ‘em out,” she told her.
Melanie grinned, "Thanks, I'll be sure to keep that in mind"
"I'm sure you can handle yourself, I just enjoy bashing knuckleheads together," Callisto joked as her cross-trainer went into its cool down phase.
Melanie laughed, "As long as you leave a couple for me" she replied, her own criss trainer on a longer track. She needed to get her legs sorted if she was going to lead regular hikes.
"Right, I'm heading onto the rowing machine," Callisto told her. "Going for a quick all over today then probably a run through the park when I get home," she told her. "I'll leave my cell number on your bag, drop me a call when you organise the next one, ok?"
Melanie nodded, "I will" she promised with a smile, "Have a good workout"
"You too, dearie," Callisto smiled, waving as she stepped down from the machine and headed to grab her towel from her bag before using the rowing machine. She liked Melanie, they could bash knuckleheads together afterall.