A long jogging tour ((Caiya))

[dana]

Dana stood at 5’7 plus the height heels gave her, but she had never been afraid or ashamed of being tall. Her back was always held straight and people who couldn’t handle her as she was – well, Dana just didn’t associate with such people. But she had always had a slim figure which was surprising considering how much Dana liked to eat all kinds of different things. ‘The body of a runner’ supposedly with long legs and an leaner figure had been told to Dana.
Well, perhaps Dana wasn’t really a professional athlete, but she kept herself in shape with dancing and quidditch. And on rare occasions – like this was – she also ran. Long legs carried her quickly as Dana easily weaved her way through numerous trees, branches and stomps. Obviously wizards didn’t care very much for running as this foot-path here seemed a bit out of order having practically grown to be not a path but a part of the ground again. Shame really, some of the glance you could get at Hogwarts and the lake from here were absolutely amazing.

Running however wasn’t. Dana pondered over the matter as she jogged forward jumping over a broken and fallen branch on her path. Jogging was bad for your knees, it made your heart rush and put it under pressure, it made you sweat, look disheveled as your hair was messed up. Walking shaped your legs nicely, not letting your veins widen, but jogging didn’t do it. It just created muscles and while Dana was a firm believer of staying in shape, she didn’t like woman who worked only to get themselves huge muscles. Dana didn’t like it – you should have firm muscles, but it shouldn’t be overdone.

Dana reached the end of the jogging path and slowly started to slow her pace as the bench she had left a few things on came into view. Breathing deeply Dana walked over to the small bench noticing that it was now occupied by a person. A fellow Ravenclaw and 5th year as Dana realized when she had came close enough to see the girl’s face. She had an interesting name… Cat… Cay, Cait, Caya? It something along those lines. Dana wasn’t sure at all how her name was pronounced she had to admit to herself. But she liked it. It was unique. Last name was Huntington if Dana recalled correctly.
“Hello,” Dana offered the girl in greeting with a half-smile as she reached the bench. Taking hold of the water-bottle Dana opened it and drank thirstily. She had dressed rather easily – black pants with two blue stripes on the side, white T-shirt and a light blue vest that went with the pants thrown over her shoulders. Dana guessed that her pony-tail was quite messy by now as well, but she left it be for now as she placed the water-bottle back onto the bench and stretched. Bowing over Dana took hold of her ankles and just stretched her muscles once again to loosen them up.

[caiyahuntington]

Caiya made her way through the thronging crowd in the castle and out onto the grounds. Caiya loved spending times outdoors especially near the lake. If it were summertime she'd probably find herself in the lake instead of appreciating the glittering ripples the wind was making on the lake. Caiya tore her gaze away from the lake it was beautiful and all but she wasn't about to spend the rest of the day staring at it like she'd never seen water before.

Caiya wandered around trying to find a comfortable place to sit down and read. She didn't want to sit on the ground. No matter how hard she tried she always managed to ruin some of the pages with dirt or mud. Caiya contemplated sitting in a tree but realized she couldn't climb the tree and hold the book too. Caiya was about to give up and go back inside but spotted a bench. There was some stuff already on one side of it but the other side was clear.

Caiya had just sat down and opened her book when a girl. Another Ravenclaw though older then her jogged over to the bench and greeted her before drinking from her water bottle. She had never talked to the girl before but she knew her name. Her name was Dana Coran if she remembered correctly. Dana was one of the most upbeat girls in their house that Caiya knew of. Caiya gave a small smile back in return to the half smile Dana gave her upon their meeting. Caiya watched as Dana stretched not exactly sure what to say. Caiya wasn't usually shy but she always had troubles when it came to talking to older people. She was always afraid she'd slip up and say something stupid and they'd think she was a stupid little child or something. Caiya realized she probably looked stupid just sitting there staring so she decided to at least state her name. "Hi my name is Caiya." She said pronouncing every sylibal so it sounded like it was supposed to Kai Ya.

[dana]

Dana held her breath counting to 10 in her head before exhaling and straightening up while trying to get her breathing back in check. Yup, she most certainly didn’t like running. But she ran from time to time. As much for making sure she could actually keep running at the case of an emergency but also to take her things away from other worries. Like his cousin right now. Besides Dana supposed that it was healthier to jog out her tiredness and worries out than to try and drown them in alcohol. Muggles had drugs too that some people liked to use, but Dana didn’t want anything clouding her mind. Besides her own thoughts anyway.

The girl introduced herself and Dana smiled. “Caiya, no wait, it was ‘Kai Ya’. It’s a pleasure,” Dana offered her hand for the other girl to shake, “I’m Dana Coran.” Dana smiled with content as she now knew the girls name. She hadn’t remembered correctly at all, but now she also knew how it was supposed to be pronounced.
“It’s an interesting name. Any interesting story behind it as well?” Dana asked curiously as she sat down on the bench bowing over to retie the lace of her left sneaker, “I don’t think such names are very usual for England. It has a bit of… Asian? aura around it. Japan perhaps. Or China. Or am I being too nosy right now?”

Dana finished tying her shoelace and sat back up again, leaning lightly on the back of the bench while reaching her legs out as far as they could go feeling the almost pleasant buzz in her muscles that had been put through quite big exercise. At least she would be pleasantly hungry but lunch now. Not that Dana ever wasn’t hungry. She liked to eat and eat well and much. Eating was one of the finer pleasures of life after all – how could Dana not like eating?

[caiyahuntington]

Caiya shook Dana's offered hand as Dana introduced herself. Caiya smiled assuming she hadn't made too much of a fool of herself if Dana was going to talk to her. Dana commented on her name how unusual it was. She asked if it was Asian then if she was being to nosy. For some reason the entire thing struck her as funny and she began laughing. She straightened up realizing Dana might think she was laughing at her. "Sorry I wasn't laughing at you so you know. It's just everyone seems to think I come from some different country because I have such an unusual name when in all honesty I think my Mom just made it up to confuse people." She said struggling not to laugh again. It was the truth though. Her mother had made it up. She had asked her Mom about it once when her school teacher had difficulty pronouncing it. Her Mother just looked at her and said she hadn't wanted her daughter to have any ordinary name. Her exact words where an extrodinary name for an extrodinary girl.

Caiya pushed those thoughts aside and returned her attention to the conversation at hand. "So do you run often?" Caiya asked stashing her book away. She wasn't going to be reading any time soon. She could always read later. Talking to new people always took precedence over reading something she'd had for years.

[dana]

The girl started laughing. Dana wondered what exactly was so funny about her words – or herself – that was worth such sincere laughter, but she just smiled a little, letting the other girl laugh freely. She could ask for an explanation about it later or, when Caiya had gained a bit more control over her laughter. Until then Dana just leaned back on her seat and rested a bit.
Raising her water-bottle to her lips once again Dana gulped down a bit more of water as Caiya finally told her what had been funny.
“Well, you have a smart mother. She succeeded in her task to make people wonder. And that’s not a bad thing, is it?” Dana replied with a smile. She liked things that were unique and rare. Every person had a unique character, so everyone should have an unique name too. And Caiya certainly filled that criteria.

Dana gave a half-snort at the question about running. “I hate running. It’s bad for your knees and your back, it makes you sweaty, you can break a leg should you stumble, it’s time-consuming, it puts extra tension on your hard and on the whole it’s not good at all. To answer your question – I go running about once a month or once every other month.” Dana smirked at Caiya, knowing that she would need to elaborate, “I run to distress or to think something clear for myself. Better than some other hobby I could practice that would leave permanent damage on my health and myself. So even though I don’t like, it do run from time to time. What about you – ever practiced health jogging or running track just for fun?”

[caiyahuntington]

Caiya looked at Dana a bit confused as she said that she hated running. Why in the world would someone run if they hated doing it? Dana was right running was bad for your knees and you did get sweaty but she'd never met a person who had those views and yet still ran. She opened her mouth to ask about it but Dana beat her to it. Dana explained she only did it once in a while and it was to help clear her head. She also mentioned it being a better way to clear her head then other ways that could damage the body. Caiya wondered what she meant by that but kept her mouth closed not really wanting to ask a stupid question.

When Dana asked Caiya if she ran or anything like that Caiya shook her head. "No I don't run or jog for fun. I don't do it for sport. I dislike running or jogging it's just not appealing to me. I do however play a muggle game that is probably just as bad as running. It's called DDR or Dance Dance Revolution." Caiya realized Dana might not know what that was so she began to explain the game. "It's a muggle game that people play. It's got four arrows one up one down one left and one right. On the screen the different arrows appear and you have to hit the arrows on the pad in the same order as they appear on the screen. It's really bad for your knees and it makes you sweaty especially when you get to the harder levels. I think it's fun though and I've been playing a while. I guess that's my jogging substitute huh."

[dana]

Dana listened curiously to Caiya’s description. This Dance Dance Revolution sounded interesting. A work-out, something needing flexibility, concentration and even quick reflexes. „Sounds interesting. But do you choose the level yourslef or is it automatic? And does it tell you when you step the wrong way? I know some about muggles... some with big gaps in between, but I haven’t heard of Dance Dance Revolution before. I prefer making up my own steps. Or combining steps from ballroom dances. It’s curious really. Hogwarts has thrown a ball before, yet so many people don’t know how to dance properly. One would think that Hogwarts also held dancing lessons.“

Dana stared off into space for a while absent-mindedly observing a ball-game going on in the distance. Someone was thrown out because of their own fault. They should have catched that ball... wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t even a tricky ball.
„How is Dance Dance Revolution worked? With the screen? Electricity?“ Dana asked utrning her attention back at Caiya before drowning her water-bottle.

[caiyahuntington]

Caiya was happy to hear that Dana was interested in the game she'd been describing. Most non muggleborns didn't care about anything muggle related. It was a nice change to hear of a witch wanting to know more about Muggles. "DDR uses a screen and it runs on Electricity. You choose the level yourself. There's light mode for those people just starting. Standard mode and Heavy Mode. Heavy is the hardest one there is and it's currently the one I'm trying to master." She said twirling a bit of hair around her finger. What she wouldn't give to play a bit of a DDR right now. That was thing she hated most about going to Hogwarts for the school year. She ended up going back to her home and having to start all over again since she couldn't practice

Caiya let the piece of hair drop and returned to reality. "You know DDR is fun and all but it isn't like real dancing. Mostly you move your feet around a metal pad. The only reason I play DDR is because I have no idea how to really dance. You're right Hogwarts really should have classes for dancing."

[dana]

„Really? Do you have it modified to work in Hogwarts? Like the CD-players and MP-players and whatever else are worked with magic so they can be listened to here now? I have to admit that the picture that came to my mind isn’t exactly the clearest understanding I could achieve. But it sounds interesting,“ Dana offered a brief smile at Caiya while tilting her head and thinking about the possibilities. It had been long since she herself had danced. Not after the summer. Not after the... attack... on Hogwarts Express. Dana had smiled because her friends insisted on it, but she hadn’t really laughed from that day either. She just couldn’t do it. In some ways Dana was almost afraid of living now.

Being careful to hide every such kind of thought Dana arched an eye-brow towards Caiya. „Now that I don’t believe. That you can’t dance I mean. Everyone can dance. Wait, let me approach it from a different angle. You can feel as every human being can feel some emotion. Whether it’s rage, sadness, joy, anger, frustration, huperness – it doesn’t matter. Those are all emotions. You aren’t paralyzed from somewhere so you can move. That means you have the two components required for dancing. Emotions and movement – that’s all dancing really is.
Sure, there are waltz ad jive, and tango and other classical dances that have a few main steps that have to be learned. But even all of those dances greatly consist of improvisation. It’s one thing to dance with your feet. Everyone can learn a few steps. It’s a completely different thing to dance with your heart. You have a heart, so you have the skill for dancing, if you only choose to use it.“

"Sing like nobody is listening, dance like nobody is watching and love like you’ve never been hurt before," Dana looked over the grounds while slowly crumpling the empty water-bottle in her hand while quoting the quoting quietly, “Words to live be really. It would make life as easy as it can be.” ‘Shame I can’t live by those words anymore’ Dana added only to herself mentally, not wanting to share what was troubling her mind with a complete stranger yet.
Pushing the crumpled water-bottle into the small back-pack she had along, Dana fixed her hair while glancing at Caiya, “So I simply refuse to believe you can’t dance.”