Sara grimaced as she looked at the time on her watch. A year ago she would've been able to do that lap in half the time and not be nearly as out of breath. Had she really slipped that much? She sat down just on the inside of the track, breathing heavily and feeling ashamed of herself. How much time had she lost while tied up in that spiral of disinterest and depression? Where she'd been near the top of her class before, now her grades placed her near the bottom, where before she'd been a solid member of the Swim Team, she was now the one of the worst.

How much time had she lost? Could she even recover it?

She let out a groan and pulled herself up. She knew she shouldn't be thinking along those lines, she had to move forward and focus on making things better. No use dwelling on what happened. She walked back onto the track and prepared to take off on another lap when she heard someone calling to her. Not by name, but she was the only one out here right now- who else could they be talking to? She turned toward the source, a purple haired girl jogging toward her, and raised a hand in greeting, though she wasn't quite sure where she knew the girl from. Or what the girl's name was. 'Lovely.' she thought, trying to figure out who this was.

No matter what the season, no matter what else was going on, you could be sure to find Naomi Shizuoka at the basketball court. It was the one thing that kept her sane, and right now sanity was something that the girl desperately needed. The shrine maidens home life had had reached a breaking point. After blowing up at her father about hiding a major aspect of her life, Naomi had been filled with a sense of dread. She knew that no one spoke to her father like that and got away with it, least of all her. But she wasnt the only one; after hearing that they had a sister that they were told about, Naomis brothers had also flipped. They had insisted on meeting the girl, had reached out to her on their own accord to introduce themselves and welcome them to the family.

As for Naomi herself, she had been consumed with activity; getting to know Esther, being her priority. She had already grown very fond of the girl, and was very protective of her, though her little sister hardly needed it.

And basketball, which was her current target. That is, until she passed the track field and saw a familiar site; a girl with dark hair pulled back, that looked vaguely familiar, though Naomi couldnt remember how...

Nevre one to let an opportunity to talk to a pretty girl pass by, Naomi began jogging over to her. "Hey! Hey, you!" She reached the girl and flashed her signature, crooked smile. "Sorry, but I know you from somewhere, right? I cant..."

Her eyes widdened slightly as she snapped her fingers in recognition. "Oh, right! Your name is Sara, right? I havent seen you in forever!"

It seemed that her new conversational partner had a better memory than she did. Sara couldn't for the life of her remember this girl's name, though she knew they were in a club together. That and there was some other connection… she couldn't place it though. "Yeah… we were in, uh, Martial Arts? together." That was about the extent of what she remembered about this girl. Sheepishly, she ran a hand hand down the back of her neck as tried to come up with a response.

"Yeah well… I had some stuff going on." Sara shrugged, not wanting to go into any kind of detail. "In any case, I've dropped Martial Arts for the time being." She sighed and looked away, a little sad that she had dropped the second sport. She did need to though, she was horribly behind and was desperately trying to catch up what she'd missed. "Listen…" she said, turning back toward the purple haired girl, "I uh… I don't mean to sound rude, but I can't remember your name at all.

Martial arts club! That's right! Now she remembered, the girl had been in the.group with her. She even thought she could remember sparing with her from time to time. Naomis keen eyes watched Sara's every movement, taking in everything. She was pretty, absolutely. She seemed a tad bit uncomfortable though, which the former student council president certainly didn't want: she made sure to hang back, to give her plenty if space but even so the flirtatious, crooked smile remained in place.

She raised an inquiring eyebrow at Sara's comment. She had stuff going on, huh? A pretty vague statement. But hey, Naomi wasn't gong to pry. If the girl wanted her to know the specifics she would have told her. "Heh... Yeah, I get that." Naomi absentmindedly ran a hand through her long purple hair, which had grown considerably over the years. Her ponytail now reached her hips, whereas when she started it touched her elbows. "I've been pretty busy myself. Juggeling basketball and the clubs and... school." there was a slight hesitation before the last word, as though the girl had been debating how to finish the statement. Her other troubles... didn't need to be brought up right now.

Naomi blinked as Sara stated that she couldn't remember her name. She wasn't offended or upset, rather a teasing smirk grew on her face before taking a step closer to the girl.

"That's alright. I love introducing myself to pretty girls." She winked. "Naomi Shizuoka, at your service."

It was to Sara's considerable relief that Naomi asked no questions about her "stuff," and just let the subject go. Of course, she din't really show any signs that she had been concerned about the subject or that she was relived that it was dropped. Didn't want to give Naomi any reason to think anything was up that wasn't already fixed. Well, to be honest, it wasn't quite fixed. She was getting there, but it would take some time to really fully recover. And Sara knew that, but she would rather just work through it on her own rather than rely too much on anyone else, and God knew Coyote was keeping enough of an eye on her.

The smirk she got was met with confused eyes, only to harden over a moment later when she saw the wink. Sara really wasn't in the mood to be teased right now, though the comment that she was pretty did cause a bit of color to enter her cheeks, mostly out of being uncomfortable. She knew she wasn't looking her best. "Well, it's nice to meet you again, Shizuoka-san." she said, inclining her head slightly before changing the subject.

"So you're on the basketball team? I'm on the swim team myself but…" she pulled a face as she continued, irritated with her current status on the team. "I had to stop for a while, so my times are pretty terrible right now. Just trying to work my stamina back up." She gestured to the track with the last bit, indicating to the other girl why she was out here.