Geography does, however, pass by, and last class of the day they have gym.

Jade is also here. She's already changed by the time Joss gets there.

Joss is actually looking forward to this some. Physical activity! Just what she needs after a day of trying to concentrate. Physical activity does not, actually, take that much concentration, or rather, takes a less mentally exhausting form of concentration. She nods to Jade with a quick 'hi' and quickly changes into her own gym kit. (She considers saying something, but decides that right before gym is probably not the best time to be doing that.)

What are they doing for physical activity today?

Dodgeball! They've been doing basketball for the past couple of weeks, apparently, but are now going to have to dodge balls.

A group of the girls – including the one who tripped Jade, before school – get into a little group, looking like they might be planning something. Jade goes a little pale.

Joss sidles up beside Jade. "You okay?" she asks quietly, watching the girls who've just grouped together.

"Sure," she says. "I'll live."

One of the girls says something, then giggles, which starts off the rest of them.

Jade sighs.

"Could they be any more cliche?" Joss asks, wrinkling her nose. "They look like they stepped right out of a crappy high school show. Did I ever mention that daytime TV really sucked?"

She's worried about those giggles, but she's doing her best to not show that.

"I don't watch a ton of it, but I see what you mean."

The gym teacher seems ready to start class! Do they know the rules for dodgeball or does he need to explain before he leaves them to it?

How hard can it be right? The clue is in the name after all. And she does enjoy being active, and can probably avoid being too involved until she's sussed out any rules she can't immediately guess at.

The rules are indeed quite obvious. He does not explain them.

It does not take much more time before the dodgeballs start being thrown. A disproportionate amount of them go towards Jade.

Well that's just not cricket. She is close enough that she can catch one of the balls, and deflect a couple of the others, but that's about it. (And it looks more like she's defending herself than Jade.) She does identify one of the perpetrators and throws the ball in her hand back with perhaps a tad more force than is supposedly acceptable.

It might in fact be less force than some of the other balls flying around! A couple get flung back at Joss, directly, and some almost hit Jade.

Both teams' numbers rapidly dwindle.

Joss continues to be good at both catching balls and evading. And if they're going to play like that (because she can feel the burn on her hands from catching a ball travelling too fast), she'll just throw back at full force. And if she happens to aim just a little too high and go for the head of the girl who tripped Jade earlier, it's only because she was the first person Joss happened to notice.

The girl ducks and then smirks back at Joss, tossing a ball back her way.

A few more attacks follow.

Okay then. How about stomach? Legs? And attacking a few of the others. Although even Joss can only keep up evading and catching for so long, eventually she is going to get hit by something.

A few girls get hit, on both sides.

Jade manages to get one of the ringleaders before herself getting hit.

Joss doesn't cheer, but there's a definite vicious glee to her smile. And then she's hit in the shoulder. (She's managed to get at least one person out, she's sure, she stopped paying as close attention as she should have.) She sighs, shrugs, and retreats to wherever people are retreating when they've been hit out.

People are just standing to the side of the gym. Jade follows her.

A ball comes flying their way, quite clearly directed at them.

Joss manages to catch it, track it back to approximately where it came from, and lamps it back. About half a second before it's likely to make contact with anyone, she'll yell 'heads'. She's not completely vindictive.

Someone in the right region is hit, which causes a bit of confusion in the people near them – until it's noted that it was thrown from the side of the room and not by the other team.

The game moves on, with Joss getting a bit of side-eye; it's not long before it's over.

"Well that was exciting."

"That's one word for it," Joss agrees, flexing her hands slightly. "Seriously, hadn't realised school would be this cliched."

"That's one word for it," Jade echoes.

There's another game. Jade stays in for a bit less time, this round, but still a decent portion of the overall match given how many throws come her way. One of the girls on the other team is a bit more vicious this time, and manages to clip Jade's jaw with the ball.

Joss has a silent mantra going on about all the reasons why starting a fight is a bad idea. She manages to stay in for the majority of the game this time, and tries to vary who she aims at, even if she does target the girls who seem to have it out for Jade a bit more than other people.

They go out, one by one, and they don't all survive on the other team for the whole game, but they seem like they might have practice throwing and dodging things.

There's one last game before gym ends.

At this point, Joss is actually just fed up, and barely puts in any effort, very ready for the day to be over. She ends up spending most of the game leaning against the wall observing it.

Jade puts in an effort! She goes out about three quarters of the way through.

It's not every day that she meets someone new, so she makes a bit of an effort to seem friendly, by leaning against the wall and looking at Joss and trying to smile.