Private Finished Creating a Cat Contortionist

That was a close one. Out of all the ways to explain the concept of training to dull your sense of feelings, Sprinkles picked the worst one. The rush of worry he got from confusing Bel made him stop stretching and take a long drink of his bottled water.

Seeing Bel already moving on calmed Sprinkles down. She wasn't running off to tell a teacher that he was harming himself, so there was that. Sprinkles sat down his bottle of water and mimicked Bel's dragon position, happy to feel his muscles being pulled. "Oh, you're right. This is comfortable too."

For most of this time, they had just been talking about stretching. Sprinkles was interested in having a conversation about more than that. He found that talking about various things helped ease the stress he felt when training. "By the way, what got you into cheerleading?"

Sprinkles waited the same amount of time Bel had stretched before switching legs like her. He focused intensely on his legs and arms, forcing them to stretch as far as possible. At the same, he kept his level of pain dull. Weak enough that it didn't bother him, strong enough that it didn't make him forget he had to be careful.

"Similar reason to you. I never had an actual high school experience. Was never around people my age, unless you considered people on the internet. And, well, I was in a dark place after coming here... You know that idea of faking it till you make it? I cheered myself up by acting cheerful and making other people feel better. Made me eventually return to my better self."

It looked like Bel had her yoga routine all figured out. Sprinkles decided to do something different. He didn't like feeling like a copy-cat. He sat with his left leg crossed in front of him and the other laid straight back. Then he bent his leg and had his right arm bend backward to pull it towards his head.

"I don't know if coming here was good for me. I get to do more, but I feel more conflicted... But you already know all about that." He gave a hearty laugh, extinguishing any sadness he let flare up inside of him. "Don't think I'd be chatting with a friend while doing yoga if I never came here. It's very normal. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like most of what I've experienced."

Letting his right leg drop and his arms rest on the floor, Sprinkles took a break from stretching. He wasn't tired, only bored. In the meantime, he listened to Bel while drinking some of his water.

"You are good at counsel. Do you ever plan on becoming a counselor or something similar?" Both of them were in their late teens. The subject of college and work was something Sprinkles noticed many students wondering. Seeing others be unsure of where they wanted to go comforted Sprinkles. It told him that he didn't have to have everything figured out immediately.

Thinking he did enough stretching, he sat cross-legged and paid attention to Bel. Now felt like a better time to work on his pain more closely. His soreness was dimmed at the moment, so he tried to return it to normal.

"I have... had the same problem," he admitted. "I used to daydream about what I could become because I thought it could never possibly happen. Now I can actually go out and make those fantasies real. It's... a lot..."

Part of Sprinkles feared that the moment he put any actual work into his future, it'd be revealed that this was all a dream he'd be awakened from. All that work and aspiration down the drain. What if he woke up wanting more and no longer able to be content with what he had?

"I'd like to do something with computers. Be an engineer. I've also considered being an announcer or a swimmer. Computer engineer is my top choice for right now. I'm still deciding. Sometimes I think I'd rather do nothing and live off of the social programs here."