Squeeze the Day [for Liesmith]

[HotWheels]

Gabby's experiment, listening to poetry to keep her focus on her workout instead of music, had mostly failed.

She couldn't fault the poetry; she always enjoyed good poetry and found it roused emotions in her that some music couldn't. It always helped to clear her mind, balance her, ground her, all good things for a workout. But a little problem had reared its head: she could barely concentrate on listening to it. She could hardly hear it, for that matter.

The gym was packed. Gabby normally picked off-hours for her workouts, and the wall of people reminded her why. She had long since gotten over being one of the smaller girls in a gathered wrestling room, looking more like she was there to get fit for an Instagram account moreso than a wrestling ring. Her cute neon orange two-piece gym ensemble probably didn't help negate that imagery, but whatever. Regardless, having so many people around did leave anxiety eating at her for reasons she didn't want to bother unpacking. Despite all those distractions piling upon her, however, she kept chugging along with her workout.

Leg presses. Every single machine was taken, and Gabby hadn't failed to notice that of the row of people pounding through leg day, she certainly worked with the least weight. She didn't have an abundance of pride like a lot of smaller wrestlers, trying to lift above her weight as a wrestler. She knew she would never throw anyone around like her sister; her strength lay in agility and skill. It did have her a little self-conscious, nonetheless.

Speaking of her sister...

Gabby glanced at the phone vibrating beside her, and she reached for it, thankful for the momentary distraction from her doubts. She pulled her earbuds out of the way, replacing them with the phone as she kept up a lighter version of her exercises and reclined on the bench. "Yeah?"