Why wasn't his left AirPod working?? He did not stop jogging to figure it out but instead just took it out of his ear, putting it in his sweatpants pocket where it started clinking against his keys. Well, at least it wasn't clinking against his earrings; he forgot to take the dangly one out before he started his workout and it had been hitting that the whole time instead before it stopped working.

Just to that tree over there, he told himself. He picked the closest tree and then admonished himself silently. Are you a slacker or what? He went through three different trees before managing to convince himself that he had picked one that was sufficiently far enough to qualify as a good end point for his jog.

Having picked a satisfactory end point, he looked around at the various other students walking around campus to distract himself from his burning muscles. Since the weather was nice, various people were studying under trees or on benches, though several of them appeared to have given up on studying and were just talking with their friends. He jogged around the same campus every day so he usually recognized a few people. He didn't see any of his team members, though, and the group of teachers who usually had lunch outside at this time weren't there either.

Someone had a really cute dog. People kept stopping to stare at it. One girl was taking photos with it; the owner appeared to be used to this since she was the one taking everyone's photos.

He saw that guy again who always seemed to be looking at birds. He always had binoculars with him, he couldn't imagine what else that guy would be looking at if it wasn't birds. What did people usually look at binoculars with? Planes?  He had started calling him "Pigeon guy" in his head, since he had never seen any birds other than pigeons around here.

He was almost at the tree he had picked, so he slowed down. He read on the internet once that if you stopped running too suddenly, all the blood would gather in your legs and you'd pass out. He did not feel like passing out right now so he decided, to be safe, to jog around the tree a few times.

Slowing his pace, he circled the large oak, and craned his neck to look up into the branches. He could see the little triangles of sky in between the leaves. Finally stopping, he leaned on the trunk and tried to catch his breath. He realized the pigeon guy was sitting a few paces away on a bench, looking up at the trees. He wasn't using his binoculars, though. Maybe it was a really big bird.

"Hey, how are the birds," he asked, still short of breath.

The bird guy turned around to look at him, momentary confusion written on his face. "What?"

"How are—" His breath hitched again so he took a sip of water. "—the birds, how are they?"

"Fine... I would presume?" the bird guy replied, looking off slightly to the left as if he was trying to figure out the best way to leave.

"Sorry, I just jog around here a lot and I see you looking at stuff with your binoculars."

"Yes? My—? Oh. Well, I guess.. there are.. birds around here." He gestured vaguely around the trees.

So did he look at birds or not??

"I was just wondering if you ever saw anything interesting."

"Yeah, yesterday I saw a submarine," said the bird (not bird?) guy, with a completely blank expression.

He couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "A— aren't those underwater?"

The bird guy looked at the tree again and started laughing. "Aren't you the captain of the volleyball team?"

"How on earth do you know that?"

"We go to the same school," the bird guy deadpanned. "We only have one volleyball team.. also my younger sister sometimes watches your guys' games."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

"You guess? Is it possible that you're not the captain of the volleyball team?"

"I mean I guess that I am."

"So you are."

"Apparently." This was the strangest conversation he had had in a long time. "Anyways.. good luck with.. the birds or planes or whatever."

"I like mysteries," said the bird guy, very seriously. "People tend to look at things the same way. So I look at things through the binoculars sometimes. It's fun, you should try it."

"They'd hit me in the face while I'm running."

The bird guy looked at him with an incredulous expression. "Who said to wear them while you're running?"

"I.. I'm not sure."

The bird guy laughed again. "I'm picturing it my head. You'd have to wear a hockey mask."

He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief at the thought, and started re-lacing his shoes to run back to the weight room. "Well, thanks. See you around."

The bird guy looked at him through the binoculars and waved.

Hilarious, he thought, as he jogged back a different way towards the sports center. Who would have thought to just look at stuff through binoculars?

After arriving back at his locker, he tried to figure out what was wrong with his AirPod. This consisted of just staring at it and putting it back in the case. I hope it charges, he thought to himself. Taking out his usual lunch of brown rice and chicken breast, he tried to find a place to sit. Today was the heavy workout day, he had to jump rope later and probably do some bodyweight exercises...

Ah, no. He remembered suddenly that the sports center was closing early today because they were installing new windows in the facilities. He would have to find somewhere else to do it. Maybe his usual place at the nearby park?

He checked the forecast. Not rain again.. maybe it would go away by the time his classes finished. Somewhat sulkily, he tossed the wrappers from his lunch in the trash and withdrew into the hood of his grey sweatshirt. It was quiet in there, but he wanted to let both his AirPods charge at the same time. He always felt bad when one of them was charging without the other one.

Sighing resignedly, he promised himself a banana milk after class and slung his bag over his shoulder.

The next morning, the captain of the volleyball team could not find his jump rope. He realized that he would have to forgo a morning warmup with his jump rope since despite thinking he had put it in his bag after that night's practice, it was not there. Ah, stupid, stupid, he thought to himself. He must have left it somewhere the night before. Because of the rain, he had decided to just go into the first unlocked building he found, so he must have left it in there.

It would have to wait until after the game, he decided. He wasn't even sure if he remembered what building it was. Hopefully his legs remembered the way they walked. The good thing was his AirPod was working again; apparently it had just died randomly. At least I don't have class, he thought to himself, methodically taking out all his earrings as he walked toward his teammates. As he did, one of the hoops fell into his sleeve and he tried to shake it out into his palm. Eventually, it came flying out; fortunately he snatched it out of the air and jammed it in the zipper pocket of his bag before any others could escape.

Why is it so illegal to wear them for games? he thought irritably. At least studs should be fine, right? His thoughts about unionizing the volleyball team to protest bans on earrings for games were interrupted by his coach and teammates, the former attempting to go over strategies as the latter group herded him into the bus.

"We're going to beat them, right," said one of the outside hitters, grinning like they had already won.

"Yahh, you're my outside offense," he replied, grinning back, "Of course we are."