The Red Swan // Catradora

chapter 7: abs

Adora was not the kind of person to let herself have a break every once in a while, she had to be constantly working towards her goals and being productive. If she didn't achieve something ahead of the norm everyday she'd feel as if she'd wasted her time doing something enjoyable that others may consider as necessary. In her secluded room, bed pushed against one wall with a desk against the other with a small built-in kitchen further down, she began to fall into her afternoon schedule, wanting to 'get ahead' of the competition by being proactive. Once leaving Catra and parting ways, she had set down her bag to unpack the essentials, water bottle, her towels, eyes gazing over the one Catra used for a bit too long, before bringing them over to the kitchen to clean them. She left other things like her dance shoes, wallet, half-empty packets of tissues in their allocated pockets knowing there was minimal point to taking them out, only to return them to their place the next day. After scrubbing her water bottle with her double-sided sponge and detergent, she hand-washed the towels, letting them soak for a while before she washed her hands and moved onto her next activity. 

She was ready to get out of the skin-tight leotard and stockings with the layered clothes making it seem more suffocating, willingly stripping them off and replacing the layers with a red sports bra and black workout shorts, the colours reminding her of Catra's attire earlier in the day. Looking at her form in the mirror, she smirked slightly, impressed with her progress as she had committed to exercise everyday, abs and biceps evident. She let herself flow into her usual workout routine, pushups, situps, planks, crunches, the whole torturous cycle, yet she found her mind kept bouncing back to the new student, each pushup she'd recover from, her gaze darting to the door as if she had x-ray vision to see through it and watch what her opposite dormmate was doing. Finishing her exercising with some stretches, she wanted to ensure she stayed flexible as that was a significant skill if she wanted to make it big in the dance industry. Sliding herself into her weaker leg, a left leg split and left the pull down the hamstrings, she tried to distract herself from the slight pain of her muscles loosening, reaching a hand across to where her phone was resting on the end of her bed and checked for messages from her friends. To her delight, there was an array of messages from her best friends Glimmer, Bow, and Swind on their shared group chat. As Adora scanned the messages, finger flicking from the top of the screen to the bottom to read them rapidly, she picked up the general gist that they were making plans for dinner tonight. Reaching the bottom of their Instagram chat thread, she read the last four messages in their entirety before sending a quick reply. 

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glimmer ✨🌸

Let's order food and go to someone's room to share! Any cravings?

🏹 bow 🏹 

I really feel like Chinese for some reason, haven't had dumplings in ages

Swind 🌬️

Can we order it from that place at Mystacor Mall? 

🏹 bow 🏹

YESS 

Adora ⚔️

Come to my room, it's probably the cleanest of all of yours anyway ;)

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As she put her phone down to twist her body into a middle split, reaching her body forward to deepen the stretch, she could hear the pinging from her phone as her friends shot back at her due to the joking insult. Stretching her arms out in front of her as if trying to reach the other side of the room, her upper body lay flat against the carpeted floor. As she let the initial pain melt into a satisfactory strain she caught herself resting her head to face the door again, thinking about Catra.