Survival Of The Fittest

Thread for Jason Harris & Nathan Choultard, although others are welcome.

((Jason Harris continued from Pumping Iron))

Jason hurried after the form of Nathan who strode out of the gymnasium with the single mindedness he always seem to possess. Or at least that's how Jason saw it. The dark brown haired boy gripped his bag tightly around the strap as he caught up with Nathan. He knew there wasn't much to say at this point. Even so he ransacked his mind for conversation topics anyway.

"Nath, you ever think, that there's something more out there than all this? You know, the school, these competitions, even everything after. Seriously, we graduate, go to uni, get our degree, get a job and then what? Same thing every day? What kind of life is that?"

Jasons mind flickered with memories from his time in Japan on the slopes in Niseko, the pure freedom he had cruising through the endless snowscape, slipping past trees with no reason or need to be anywhere, do anything or be better than anyone, it was just being. The boys' pace had slowed as they passed the stone and brick buildings that comprised the science classrooms.

"Don't you ever just want to get away, you know explore and not have to worry about anyone's expectations? Be your own man."

Jason supposed he was heavily influenced by the movie he watched the other day, Into the Wild, and he guessed his wanderlust was in part because he was tiring of the mundane once more. The two walked on in silence for a short time as their footsteps echoed down the mostly empty halls, Jason doggedly following Nathans lead.

It felt good for him to have someone to talk to, plus Nathan was a born leader, he would definitely have some insight. The guy could do anything if he put his mind to it, sometimes he just needed a little nudging in the right direction, to take his mind off... other things. Jason smiled slightly as he waited for Nathans response arching his head up to take a look the ceilings, something, he had noticed, not many people did.

((Nathan Choultard continued from Pumping Iron))

Nathan moved slowly down the halls as he waited for Jason to catch up. His body still sore from his time spent on the rowing machine. About a year ago he missed a couple days of practice because of burnout. Despite this, the training regimine rarely altered for him.

He heard a series of loud hurried footsteps creeping up behind him. He turned his head and saw Jason coming closer to him. He waited for his friend to catch up before starting up once more.

When Jason spoke to him, Nathan was unable to come with an answer. If there was a chance for him to do something other than track though, he wasn't quite sure what he would do with it. Sure, it would be nice to have a routine broken, but he didn't know if he was ready to even try that.

A very slim smile crept up his face when Jason next spoke, "Yeah, well it's easy to say for you man. You at least got to travel a tiny bit when you moved."

Nathan appreciated the lengths that Jason was going through to keep his spirits up, but he could only do so much. Things weren't liable to change any time soon, that is until he cracked eleven seconds. Until now, it really was just a long pipe dream.

Nathan wiped another layer of sweat from his brow and sighed, "If only it were that simple..."

Jason grimaced slightly at Nathan's response. "Tell me about it, but here we stand, waiting to get into the real world, guess all we can do is move along with it, but hey, we've both got long and fulfilling lives ahead of us. Nothing can take that away."

Jason glanced at the classrooms as they passed by, watching the students sit in class. Some attentively, others paying almost no attention to the content the teacher was trying to give. The year was ending soon and Jason had great plans. In fact he had already planned an itinerary of the places he would visit in the next two years. Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, China, London, Germany, Russia, he would see it all.

Pointing ahead he smiled. "You know mate, it's that mental barrier that is your greatest obstacle, you hit a wall, you just need to break it and you'll realise how easy it is, plus, I've decided I'm going to break 11.0 next week, so you better keep up." Jason entered a caricature of a sprinters starting position and then lifted his hand up as if it was a plane taking off. "WHooooosh, king of the track team, Jason Harris, the crowd goes wild ahhhhhhhhhh." He cupped his hands to his mouth and simulated the distant cheering of the crowd before returning to a normal walking position.

The pair passed the library and Jason's thoughts turned to prom. He wanted to ask Erin Clyde, but he wasn't sure she felt the same way, which was always his problem. He knew the theory of body language, but in practice it was much harder to interpret. Jason frowned slightly as he thought about how to overcome the problem. Maybe Nathan would know how to read a girl better than he did , hell most of the guys should. Jason wasn't the best looking guy in school and he knew it, but he suspected it was more about his inability to flirt which let him down.

Nathan wasn't exactly sure what to say about his friends enthusiastic response and sunny outlook. Then again, this was pretty much the way the guy acted ever since he came from Australia and found him. A little bouncy and a tendency to be upbeat, which was perplexing and something that Nathan was more than a little envious of.

Still, he did have a point when it came to at least setting a goal that was a little less abstract. It was a little much to expect that both he and Jason were going to go and break 11.0 that easy, but 11.15 sounded more reasonable, at least as a way to not think about Geoffrey. He supposed trying was better then suffering from burnout again.

He was able to form a smile and catch up to Jason, "I suppose you've got a point, but best of luck getting to 11.0! It's not as easy as everyone seems to claim it is."

He took another wipe of his brow and glanced around for a vending machine. He had some water in his bag but it was always better in his mind to get something that was cold and fresh to quench the system. He saw one just past the library and made his way over to it.

It was always a little bit of a struggle to not purchase some sort of fizzy pop drink just to indulge once in a while, see what the whole deal was, but he was able to show some resistance and press G3 and get another bottle of Dasani and crack it open.

"So, I guess this is our last year of track and everything huh?" he said taking a couple swigs from his bottle, "Any ideas of what you're going to be doing for Prom man?"

Leaning back against the wall as Nathan purchased his water Jason stumbled to find the right words.

"uh well, kinda. Maybe you could help me out with that. See I wanna ask..." Jason paused for a second wondering how much he should divulge, but then decided. Nathan was a pretty good guy, he wasn't going to go and mock him. "Erin Clyde. She's always watching the football team, well soccer team. I still can't get used to you guys calling it that."

Jason paused again carefully thinking his words before saying anything. "So I think she's pretty cute, but she's so friendly with everyone and I don't know how to go about it. I don't wanna make a fool of myself ya know, and plus we're good friends, if I screw it up it might cause some problems. You've got more experience than me, so I guess what I wanted to ask was, did you have any tips, or inside knowledge?"

Jason scuffed his foot nervously waiting for Nathan's response. This was the one subject he could never be upbeat about. Girls, to him were an enigma, and whenever anything slightly romantic came into view he would just lose all ability to think.

"Erin Clyde huh?" he said, talking in between sips of water, "Not a bad choice I suppose."

He sat down and tried to think about what to say. To be frank, Nathan knew very little about the dating scene. He knew very little about Erin Clyde for that same matter. She was cute and definitely popular, but he didn't know much more than that.

"Honestly man, I think you're kinda asking the wrong guy. I can't say I'm an excellent judge of women you know? Then again who is?"

He put the rest of his water bottle to his brow and just let it sit there cooling his throbbing head. It always felt so nice letting it sit there and mix in the residue from the plastic and the sweat mix. He smiled and turned to Jason

"That being said, I'll try and help you out a bit. I've seen her around from time to time too, but I haven't really talked with her. She's sometimes appears around the track area to jog so you might find her there sometimes. Or hey, why don't you just talk to her around the soccer pitch. I mean it can't be that hard right?"

"I guess." murmured Jason to Nathan, "It would be good to just turn off the part of my brain that over thinks everything and act on gut instinct. It's so easy to do when I'm boarding or climbing but with people it's different. I've decided to call it the death spiral."

Jason grimaced in a caricature while holding his hands at his neck in a mock impression of someone choking to death before relaxing his expression and smiling and. "It's kinda like that. Anyway what about you my main man, any girls you have your eye on?"

Still, Jason was thinking about Erin in his head as he half paid attention to Nathan's response. He really couldn't help it, what with his over active imagination. He imagined whisking her away, boarding down the slopes of Whistler or climbing the ridges in the Snowy Ranges, before settling down together in a cozy cabin. It was all a pipe dream of course, but it was nice to think about.

He snapped out of his reverie and focused his thoughts on the here and now. Scuffing his shoe absently he listened closely to Nathan as he finished his response.

"The death spiral huh?" Nathan said with a smirk, "That's an interesting way to put it."

He took a long swig from his water as he thought about Jason's question. His parents were not extremely keen on him focusing on dating. Not that Nathan was surprised, it was all about the training and girls were to be left until after the track season. Even so, there wasn't really anybody on his radar so it wasn't altogether a bad thing at this point.

"Well," he said wiping the water that dribbled down his chin, "I can't say I do. I mean sure, there are cute girls in Bayview but I can't say that there are any I have really gotten to know them really."

Nathan stood up and downed the rest of his bottle. He then placed it in the recycling bin right next to the vending machine. When he turned back to the bench he forced a slim smile.

"Besides," he said picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder, "I think my folks would freak if they found out, you know? Now what's say we get going huh?"

He turned around and started his move down the hall, moving slow enough to wait for Jason to catch up with him.

Jason nodded. "I guess." He moved to catch up to Nathan "No offense but your parents can be a little harsh sometimes." He thought back to the last time he had been over Nathan's house. The place was literally filled with trophies and awards and his parents never really stopped talking about where they saw Nathan would be in the future, usually bringing up his brother in the conversation.

"What is the time, anyway?" Jason said, quickly attempting to change the conversation. He never carried a watch. Something about it clasped around his wrist made him feel like he was in handcuffs. "I thought we had a few minutes before the next class, but you know me." Jason shrugged. He never was one for keeping on strict times. To be honest he was reliable, in the fact that you could rely on him being around 5 to 10 minutes late to any engagement.

Nathan sighed as he dug into his exercise bag and fumbled around for his cell phone, "Yeah I suppose, but they are my parents you know. I mean, what are you going to do?"

He finally found his cell phone and flipped it open to go and look at the time. It was slightly irritating to be the time-keeper for his buddy, but to be fair, Jason probably needed it. He was never one to plan accordingly.

"Yeah I know dude, you'd be hopeless without a guy with a clock. It's about fifteen minutes until next class, you should probably get going though, I need to go and cleaned up. So I'll see ya later."

He weakly smiled, stuffed his phone back in his bag and gave Jason a polite nod before turning away and zipping it up. There was always one thing Nathan could look forward to after a workout. Taking a shower and washing all the grit and grime from the hard work. Not to mention it was a cooking lab in the home economics room, and he felt he could use something delicious right now.

((Nathan Choultard continued elsewhere))

Jason mentally tipped his cap at Nathan as he headed off to class. Fifteen minutes was plenty of time. Leaning back against a nearby wall watching his friend walk away he casually unzipped his backpack, pulling out his ipod and flicking it on. The sounds of a piano solo by Jack's Mannequin flooded his ears and he closed his eyes, envisioning the slopes of Whistler and cruising through the trees.

Three tracks later he remembered he had class. Eyes snapping open he broke into a jog as the halls filled up with students in the changeover period. His next class was in the Language building and he was at *least* 5 minutes away. Better late than never though.

With that thought Jason broke in to a run.

((Jason Harris continued in Survival of the Attentive))