Structure is the essence of fun | OPEN |

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle sighed as she skated over to the side of the rink and reached out to grab her bottle of ice cold water. Not that she needed it to be cold, it was already plenty cold on the ice, but the refreshing jolt of ice from her cold, metal bottle seemed to give the young girl an additional jolt of energy, which would be invaluable to help her keep her focus during her time on the rink. She was just practicing today. Alone, it appeared. She wasn’t sure why her partner wasn’t here. But she just shrugged it off. He didn’t have to be here today, it was Sunday, after all, their day off. Normally, on their days off, Belle would chose to spend her time working on Gymnastics or having fun with a little ballet. How ironic, she thought to herself, that her idea of fun included so much structure. The young skater glanced around her, the hall was empty, but she knew that beyond the large, white doors and though another set of large white doors there were a group of muggle girls practicing Gymnastics with one of Belles old coaches. Belle was always welcome in the Gymnastics hall. She was always welcome to whatever she wanted in the club building (lord knows her parents paid enough to make her as welcome as she was, Belle had learned to take advantage of it).

Belle stepped off the ice and slid guards over her skate so she could walk to the bench to take them off. Belle unlaced each and gave a small grunt as she pulled them off of her feet. They had to fit perfectly; otherwise, the risk of injury was too great. She then laced her skates together and tossed them over her shoulder. She proceeded barefoot through the single brown door to the communal locker room. Belle had had the same locker in the club building since she was 6 years old. She shoved her skates and her bag into the locker and reached up onto the shelf to pull out her perfectly folded and pressed spare leotard. She always kept it here in case she had an urge to practice Gymnastics. Belle probably owned a hundred of them, most of which she got when she was in her early years of Hogwarts and was still able to fit into. Thanks to her constant exercise, Belle had remained very small. Once the blue, slightly glittery leotard was on, Belle tied her hair up into a pony tail and took her gym bag and her water bottle into the Gymnastics room. A handful of girls and a sprinkling of boys were already doing some activity or another. Belle walked over to a bench and set her bag down. She sat down as well and began to stretch out her legs with her eye on the balance bar. It had been a while since the girl had used it and she had a sudden urge to balance and flip at the same time.

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In general, Evie didn't really do physical activity. It just wasn't her thing. She wasn't very good at it, and experiences at trying it had made her feel embarrassed or foolish.

But she did care about her figure, and couldn't just not eat anything. So she had had to find some sort of activity that she could do that made her feel like she wasn't completely uncoordinated, and at the same time helped to prevent her gaining weight. And a couple of years ago, she had discovered a place that offered both ice skating and gymnastics, two things that she really thought she would like to get into.

The ice skating had definitely taken her a while. She had needed a lot of help to actually be able to stay up on her feet, but eventually she had gotten okay at it, and was now quite good at keeping her balance. The gymnastics she had taken to a little more naturally, as her balance was generally reasonably good. She was pleased at how over the two years she had built up some core strength, and she actually felt a little more toned now than she had when she first joined up.

She always found a lot of the other people who went there quite intimidating, as a lot of them could do really amazing things, and Evie only came along to keep fit, not to do the amazing skills and things like that. But she admired the others, even if she had no desire to get up to that level.

Her favourite thing in the gymnastics room was the big trampoline. She loved the feeling of being airborne, and with practice had gotten to the point where she could do flips quite comfortably. She was on there at the moment, bouncing around, trying to go from forward flips to backward flips on consecutive jumps, and string as many of them together as she could. Her best so far was four in a row, but she wasn't sure if she was going to manage to get any more than that or not. She was getting pretty tired, too.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle had started with Ballet and Gymnastics when she was two years old. Since then, her skills had grown exponentially and she was able to do tricks that even some of the most accomplished athletes had problems with. She racked it all up to practice and experience. She had been practicing for 12years. Ballet had faded into the background and now was only really used to warm up or to cool down. She practiced ballet with Adam on occasion. It was a nice way to form a new routine for their skating without being on the ice, when there was none available. Though, there was always ice available to Belle. She had converted an empty Hogwarts classroom into an ice rink for goodness sake. She wasn’t going to get to the Olympics without practice.

Of course, the club building had more than just the two rooms. There were regular weight rooms, and dance studios in which all the walls were mirrors. When Bell was younger, it creped her out to dance in a room where she could see herself at every angle, but now, she liked it. If only she could have mirrors on the ice. It was a nice way to make sure that all your moves were fluid and tight. Needless to say, Belle was a perfectionist. In more ways than one. She liked every move she made to have purpose and to flow with the routine. The dance was a scarf, and every move was just another thread that kept it together. If one move was out of place, the scarf would unravel. Her skating coach had told her that, it was an incentive for her and Adam to keep in rhythm with each other when they were first starting out as 11 year olds.

A sudden shriek filled the air and a girl had fallen off of a high-low bar during a flip, landing directly on her wrist a few inches from the soft pads that were placed under everything to help avoid things like this. Belle sighed. She had seen plenty of injury during her time. She had never gotten seriously injured though. Swollen ankles, a bruised butt, jammed fingers. Sure, all of those came with the acts, but never had she broken anything, her first gymnastics coach had taught her how to fall. “Ouch.” Belle said as the girls’ coach ran over to tend her. Though, like most others, it was no concern of Belle’s and she stood up and walked over to her balance beam. It was a 12 foot block of polished wood. Belle dipped both of her feet in chalk and then used her arms to pull her up, swinging around to stand on the bar in a crouched position then standing seconds later after she had got her Barings. She looked around for a moment as she stood on the beam as though it was nothing. There were two girls near her on their own beams, both in lilac leotards with LCG printed on the back. London School of Gymnastics. Of course, the school had its own practice area, but on holidays (which they were forced to take) a lot of girls practiced here at the elite muggle club. There were two other girls and one boy at the high-low bars and the girl with the injury had been escorted to the side wand was awaiting medical attention. There were two boys on the vault, taking turns with doing their tricks. There were four girls on the floor with white headphones plugged into their ears and their music devices on the arms. And there was one girl on the trampoline. Belle took a double glance at her, she looked oddly familiar. Beyond oddly Familiar. Belle knew her. She was a witch, in her house and in her year. One of Belle’s roommates, even. What was she doing here? Belle had never seen her here before.

((OOC: Hope it's okay that i said she was one of Belle's roommates. it seemed fitting that they would know each other already being in the same house and same year))

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When Evie saw the girl hurt herself, she quickly got down off the trampoline and ran over there to see if she was okay. She didn't know the girl but she hated seeing people get hurt. But soon there were some other people who came over to help the girl to the side of the room where they waited for a doctor. Evie thought about waiting with them but she didn't know the girl at all, and some of the other people who were there were her good friends, so she thought she wasn't needed there anymore. "Stay strong, okay?" she asked with a smile, squeezing the girl's good hand before heading off again. The girl gave her a thankful expression and then winced in pain again, her other wrist seemed like it might be broken.

She thought about going back to the trampoline, but then noticed someone who she hadn't seen here before. Well, that was most people, really, she didn't tend to know many people here. But this person she definitely recognised. She walked up to the balance beam. "Belle?" she asked. She knew that Belle did gymnastics and ice skating but had no idea it was at this place too.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

(That's totally fine. It makes sense!)

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Some would say that Belle was rude and self-centered, but unless it was a person from her team or (more importantly) Adam, Belle never ran to help a person who had gotten injured. Her first Gymnastics coach had taught her right: everyone was competition and what did it do to her if a few went out of the competition if it wasn’t at her hand? Belle played fair. She never sabotaged an opponent. She had, however, placed a bucket of water over Adam’s dressing room door once after an easy skating competition. But that was a joke, and their coach had been in on it. Jacelyn (their current and longest coach, whom they have had since the summer after their second year) was a strong man, he was firm and he was hard headed, but he always knew how to smile and have fun with his students. Hers’ and Adams’ mothers had gone to the extreme to find a wizard coach for the two of them. Both were very dedicated to the success of their children. However, if it had been a teammate of Belle’s who got hurt (another girl from her skating team, coached by the same man, or a girl or boy whom she had practiced Gymnastics with) Belle would have been the first to run over. Her team was her family.

Belle jumped a little as the girl came over and spoke to her, not because she had been frightened, mostly because she had gotten caught up in her own thoughts and hadn’t seen her come over. “Evie?” she asked and raised her eye brows a bit. She hadn’t even known that Evie practiced Gymnastics. Let alone that she was a member of the club. It was very Elite, but all you needed to do to get in was pay the fines. Athletics like this were about as cheap as they were easy. The girl crouched down on her balance beam again, “I didn’t know you did Gymnastics.” Belle admitted. It was a well-known fact that Belle and Adam were serious athletes, but she supposed that she hadn’t taken the time to get to know many of her other Hufflepuffs well enough to know most of their interests. As much as Belle wanted a social life, she knew that she had to put her goals first. The Olympics weren’t far off. By next year, she would be in the running, and depending on which event she qualified in, she would either be going to the Summer or Winter Olympics. Maybe both. She wanted to go to both.

[Deleted]

Evie smiled at Belle when she realised who it was. She knew that Belle was really good at gymnastics and skating - like, really good. But she had had no idea that it was this place that she trained at - that was exciting, a point for them to bond over. "Yeah, I do! Not that much, though. Kind of mostly as a way to stay fit, not like you," she said with a note of admiration. She had never seen Belle do any gymnastics or skating but knew that she was up there in terms of Olympic selection for both of those. "So how long have you been coming here for? I joined up about two years ago, usually come like once a week over the summer break," she explained. It was nice to see someone she knew here.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle couldn’t help but smirk a little when her friend told her that she came here about once a week. Belle was here every day when she wasn’t at school, and then, she was in her empty, restored classroom with Adam working on whatever routine that their coach had taught them and was trying to get them to perfect by their next free weekend. They weren’t allowed to train with Jacelyn on school days. They were however, allowed to see him on weekends. And Belle took advantage of this and forced Adam to do the same. They needed the practice, they needed the time together to practice and they definitely needed the guidance of Jacelyn. “Since I was seven or so.” Was her answer. She had done most of her armature classes at community centers and small owned and ran dance studios. It wasn’t until; she started doing gymnastics and got really serious about it that her parents bought her a membership. “I’m here almost every day.” Belle said in her normal voice, which had always been a tad emotionless. Not that she didn’t hold emotion. She did. She cared about people whom she loved. But, she had spent her whole life on structure and it had an effect on the girl. “I’m surprised that I haven’t seen you in here before.” She said, but she knew that she shouldn’t really be surprised. If she was in the gymnastics studio, it was as a warm up for skating and it would be very early in the morning. She was only in there today because it was one of their mandatory days off and skating by yourself wasn’t as good as skating with your partner. She needed Adam if she was going to make any skating headway.

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Evie knew that Belle was dedicated, having known about what her dream was. But she hadn't quite realised how much work that would put in. So she had been coming here since she was seven, and was here almost every day - that was intense. "Wow. I mean, I knew you were dedicated, but I didn't realise how much time it must take up," she commented. "Yeah, it is kind of surprising. I guess we just haven't crossed paths before. It's kind of a big place," she noted, looking around the room. There were a lot of people around, it would be easy to come here quite a few times and not see another particular person.

"So do you have a particular training plan for each day? Or do you get to do what you feel like you want to do when you get here?" she asked Belle curiously.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle was only here on holidays of course, during the school year she practiced in her empty classroom. Jacelyn came and met them there to work out kinks in the routine or help them train. Belle liked discipline. She liked getting up at sun rise every day and working until every muscle in her body screamed. It used to make her feel like she was doing something important with her day, now, she just felt like it was helping her be who she was and it would be how she would accomplish her goals. “It’s weird how that happens, isn’t it?” Belle asked her roommate, who, any normal person would have known everything about by their 5th year together. This was another one of those times when Belle felt bad about her entire life being focused on her skating. Even on her days off, she had been skating. Or, doing Gymnastics. She never went to the mall or out to get coffee or just hung out and watched movies or talked… not with anyone but Adam at least. She didn’t really know anyone else well enough to be asked to do any of those things, let alone chose doing them over practicing. She figured it would always be a struggle for her. “Normally I go Gymnastics as a warm up from like 5:30 to 7 in the morning and then Adam and I skate for the rest of the day.” Of course, they took breaks to eat and go over moves on paper before trying them on the ice. And they weren’t always on the ice. They practiced in the Ballet studio as well. Belle jumped down off of her balance beam, figuring that she wouldn’t be using it anyway. “That probably sounds crazy to you, doesn’t it? Like I’m ental?” she blushed.

[Deleted]

Evie laughed a little. "Yeah, it is weird. I mean, we've known each other for a long time but never even realised we came to the same place here! That's really funny, actually," she said, her eyes showing the amusement she felt. "I would suggest we practice together but I think that would look a lot different for each of us - there's no way I could handle any of the stuff that you do," she said with an admiring tone.

When she explained what she normally did, and how it went over pretty much a whole day, Evie's eyes widened significantly. "Wow. That's so intense. No, I don't think you're mental... I mean, I admire your dedication. I don't think there's any way I could spend that much time doing it, but if you have a dream and you're following it, that's really great," she said assuringly. Belle had made her own choices and Evie admired that a lot.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle was at least glad to know that the girl didn’t despise her because she didn’t know anything about her. Actually, Evie seemed to admire her a little for some reason that Belle could only imagine had something to do with her being a dedicated athlete on her way to the Olympics. She couldn’t really blame the girl. What Belle did every day was rather impressive and few people actually had the skill to do it, but at the exact moment, it was nothing to fawn over. Once she was an Olympian, sure, she wouldn’t object to having a fan club and having roses tossed down to her on the ice after her and Adam’s performance. But, as good as they were and as much as they practiced, they still had a while to go before they would qualify for the Olympics.

“I should make more of an effort to get to know you better… and our other roommates. Adam probably should too…” she realized. If she didn’t have friends and spent all of her time with Adam, than the odds that Adam had friends other than her weren’t exactly in his favor. “I was just in here for a cool down, actually. It’s our day off.” She admitted. They were required to take at least one day to rest a week, but that didn’t mean that Belle wasn’t allowed to practice by herself. She hadn’t really had a day off since she was a child. Well… a day off of her own choice. Her parents had forced her to rest with them, of course, and she spent days off with her family and Adam and his family doing various activities to bond them all together. And whenever they traveled to events, Belle had to take time off, but she almost always found something to do to keep her body from getting sore from lack of activity. “Gymnastics is a great skill to have, if you can do it, you can do anything athletic.” She said.

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When Belle said she should make more of an effort to get to know Evie and the other girls, she shrugged a little. "Maybe, but that shouldn't stop you working hard at this. I mean, it's good to follow your dream, and you shouldn't let us get in the way of that. But whenever you're not practicing, you should totally come and hang out with us," she said, referring to her and the other Hufflepuff girls. "Adam? Is he in Hufflepuff too, or a different house?" she asked, not knowing if she knew him or not. His name didn't ring a bell to her.

When Belle said it was her day off, but she was still here, Evie looked at her a little strangely. "So it's a day off... but you're not taking a day off, you're still here!" she commented, curiously. Maybe it was just that she was doing her own thing instead of training with someone else. She laughed at Belle's next comment, though. "See, you would think that, but I can do some gymnastics now and I'm still hopelessly uncoordinated with other things. Especially if they involve balls, my hand-eye coordination is really bad."

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle liked all of her roommates and most of her other house mates and year mates as well. She liked being social and she liked hanging out with friends, just not so much at the cost of losing prime practice time. Skating and Gymnastics weren’t just a hobby for her; they were a full time job. As a professional skater, Belle and Adam were already being sponsored by a few different businesses and they had to keep up with their professional image and continue to win like they did to keep their sponsors. Getting to the Olympics one day would, of course, boost those sponsors and probably keep her pretty set for life, especially if she didn’t just stop after one Olympics, but continued until she was too old and needed to retire from the sports. That would probably happen at around 35 years of age. “Adam is a Hufflepuff too. And he’s in our year. Though, I don’t blame you for not knowing who he is… he’s my skating partner and is just as dedicated as I am.” The two of them really did hide out more than they should have.

Belle looked around, girls and guys alike were still swinging around and flipping like it was second nature for them. It was second nature to most of them; it undoubtedly was a second nature to her. “It’s hard for me to take a day off…” she admitted, but then she took a deep breath. “Though it could be good for me. Wannah go get changed and then get some coffee around the corner?” she asked her friend… well, her new friend. Or, so she hoped at least.

[Deleted]

When Belle mentioned Adam was another Hufflepuff in their year, suddenly it clicked for Evie. She knew the people in her year by faces at least, but just not all of them by name. "Ohh, yeah, him! That's cool. I guess I just haven't really had the chance to meet him yet," she replied. It was a bit easier to go five years without getting to know one of the guys in her year - with the girls, that couldn't have happened because they were generally all roommates with each other.

"Yeah, that sounds good! I'd love that," she said with a smile. She had been here for a while already today, so getting out for a break sounded good. "Do you need to have a shower or anything before we head out?" she asked. Evie usually took a shower in the changerooms after she finished out on the floor, as she worked up a bit of a sweat usually.

BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY

[BELLE GENEVIEVE PURCEY]

Belle was a little hesitant to take a day off. However, her mother had always insisted that having some time to think about other things and let her practice sink in while she focused on other things. Sometimes, Belle had felt lonely, but she never let it get to her, during those times, she would just cling to Adam and he normally made her feel better, no matter what was happening to her. He had that effect on her. She had got into the state of mind that he was all she needed. And while that was a comfort, it also probably wasn’t very healthy. "Yeah, I do." she nodded when Evie asked about the showers. Belle had her own, personalized Locker at the club, one she had had since she was 7. "Let’s go to the locker room." she insisted and walked with her friend to the locker room. Her locker was filled with pictures of her and Adam during competitions. Two of her Gym bags were sitting comfortably, one on top of the other and she shoved her Gymnastics bag in there as well, taking out her towel and her shampoo. She took her shower and then changed into a pair of black spandex pants and a red, flowey tank top. She laced up her soft sole ballet shoes and then went over to find her new friend. "I’m ready when you are." she smiled to the girl.