Chapter Text
Laura looked at her watch. It was almost half ten and Laf still hadn't arrived. She deliberated for a moment over whether to walk back up to her flat but opted for sitting on the pavement instead.
After another quarter of an hour checking her phone for new messages she heard a car rumbling down the road and straightened up expectantly. It was a truck, just like Lafontaine owned, but in a sharp red rather than their dull green.
Slumping back down again Laura huffed before sending yet another text questioning where on earth the short haired ginger had got to. Bored of waiting for no reply, she stood and walked back across the lawn and up to her room. For a short while she contented herself catching up with a journalism project. Then her phone lit up. Grabbing it from among the papers she eagerly read the awaiting message:
LafLaugh (11:43): Sorry!! Okay I’m not going to be able to make today, I have a good reason though, I swear…
Laura sighed, she had been looking towards the hike around the forests they had planned and the weather outside was perfect. However more inquisitive than annoyed she replied:
Laura (11:43): Okay… Mind telling me the reason? :)
LafLaugh (11:44): Kinda long story, wanna come round?
Laura (11:44): You live like two miles away!!!
LafLaugh (11:46): Catch a bus or something :P
LafLaugh (11:46): It’ll be worth it, trust me…
Laura (11:46): Fine, it’s not like I have college work or anything anyway :P
Grabbing her bag Laura slid her phone into the pocket of her blue jeans and walked back out to the sidewalk. The bus stop was usually about a ten minute walk away but Laura decided to make use of the sun and stroll there slowly. Turning the corner she cursed to herself as she saw a bus just pulling out from the stop.
A flash of ginger flew by her side. A very tall girl was chasing the bus down the side of the road, but slowed after realising she was too late. Laura walked the remaining ten or so meters from the corner to the stop where the ginger girl was stood looking off at the disappearing bus.
The girl was breathing heavily and let out a groan. ‘Looks like you just missed it’ Laura said. The girl jumped, obviously unaware of her presence. When she turned and looked at Laura her face turned even redder, if that was even possible.
‘Ah, you saw that hopeless failure?’ The girl looked embarrassed as she pushed her hair back up out of her face.
‘Yup, sorry. If it's any consolation I missed it too’ Laura smiled,
‘You’d think that being captain of the track team would mean I would stop missing buses’ she laughed, now looking slightly less self-conscious. Laura raised her eyebrows at this new information.
‘Well I was impressed, I hardly saw you you were moving so fast!’ Laura said, still picturing in her head the athletic girl speed past her. ‘Y’know you probably didn’t need to though. The buses here come like every five minutes.’
‘Not today they don’t.’ Laura’s face fell.
‘Huh?’
‘Yeah for some reason the bus service stops at twelve today.’ The ginger smiled apologetically.
Laura cursed again under her breath, she shouldn't have dawdled so much. ‘Like stop, stops?’
‘Yeah, unfortunately. I had a track meet up I needed to make.’ she sighed, ‘Looks like I’ll just have to be a bit late and get there by foot.’
The red headed girl was breathing normally now. Laura found herself slightly drawn to this tall athletic figure. ‘I’m guessing that’s at Silas’ track? Do you mind if I walk with you? It’s just my friend lives in a house kinda near there, which was where I was headed. I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want to, it’s just sometimes walking with someone else…’
The girl cut the beginning of Laura’s rambling off.
‘No sure, sure, I would be glad of some company.’ Laura realised she had been staring into this girl’s eyes for minutes now, and didn't even know her name.
‘Okay brilliant. I’m Laura by the way, I’m studying journalism at Silas.’
‘Oh no way. Same here actually.’ she smiled as she turned and began to walk down the road. Laura caught up to her side, having to take two steps for every one the girl made.
‘Oh yeah? Cool… Maybe we could meet up, talk assignments or something sometime?’ Laura began tripping over her words again. She was conscious she still didn't know the girl’s name, besides being strongly aware of how attractive this girl was.
‘I’m totally up for that’ she beamed, ‘Add me on Facebook. Danny Lawrence.’
Laura nodded happily and stifled a small noise of excitement. Despite her original reluctance to walk she found herself enjoying it. There was a cool breeze, and besides two miles wasn't really that far anyway. In fact she wished the walk had been longer. As the fence surrounding the track loomed up on her left, Laura realised she would have to turn right pretty soon to get to Laf’s. In the end she walked all the way round to the sport centre's gate.
When they got there they lingered at the entrance for a moment. ‘Right, I’m gonna have to leave you here.’ Laura said, turning to face Danny.
‘Yeah, it was really great meeting you.’ She replied, a faint blush creeping up on her cheeks again. That made Laura happy. It was cute Laura thought. She didn't know such tall people could have that ability.
They paused a second, just smiling. Remembering they both had places they were supposed to be, Laura said ‘Right, I’ll message you soon and we’ll meet up.’
‘Definitely, I’ll see you later.’
‘Yup, bye.’ As they were just starting to walk away from each other, Danny turned back.
‘Oh and Laura?’
‘Yup’
‘Feel free to come down to the track anytime, I mean I train here this time every week, plus most weekdays. Well unless it’s been booked off. I’m usually around, somewhere or other. Well that's if you want…’
‘I’d love to’
She looked relieved that Laura had returned the favour and stopped her rambling. ‘Okay, excellent’
‘See you’
‘Yeah, bye’
Laura walked across the road and winded back on herself through some small suburban streets until reaching Laf’s. Whilst walking up the front path she noted how pretty the small bungalow looked in the sunshine. The lawn, small as it was, was mown to perfection, bar one small square burnt patch. Laura chuckled under her breath as she imagined Perry chasing Lafontaine around with a frying pan for ruining her flawless lawn with yet another science experiment. Laura stepped up to the door and knocked a few times.
There was no reply. She waited a few moments longer before knocking again, slightly louder this time. She could hear no movement inside the house. With a puzzled look on her face she stepped back down off the porch and pulled her phone out her back pocket. Two missed calls, four messages.
LafLaugh (12:16): Are you on your way yet?… could do with a little help
LafLaugh (12:23): Are you still coming?
LafLaugh (12:23): Laura you need to stop leaving your phone on silent!!! :P
LafLaugh (12:34): I don’t know if you’re still coming but I need to go out to get some stuff :) Won’t be long
Just as she was reading through a new message arrived.
LafLaugh (12:43): Just realised I was supposed to pick up Perry, oops, okay I may be a little later :/
Laura (12:43): How much later? x
LafLaugh (12:44): A while… maybe an hour or two, really sorry!!! :(
Laura (12:45): Ok, well let me know when you’re back x
LafLaugh (12:45): Will do, sorry again! X
Laura sighed and deliberated whether to walk back. It made sense with the amount of time she had, but she didn’t fancy walking all afternoon, sunny weather or no sunny weather. Besides there was only yet more college work to do at home, so she decided to make the most of a beautiful Saturday.
She started making her way to a nearby park to read when Danny’s offer crept back into her head. ‘It’s a little sooner than she probably meant.’ Laura thought to herself. However, the prospect held far more allure than getting through the thick international politics textbook nestled in her backpack. ‘I’m sure she won’t mind’ Laura decided, turning on her heel and heading back over towards the track. She got round to the gate with confidence, but slowed when she got into the area bordering on where she could see a group of girls running.
The short girl stood searching amongst the heads for Danny. Frowning, she realised that she could see no red headed girl with the rest. She felt a light tapping on her shoulder to the side.
‘Hey.’ Danny smiled, melting the nervousness on Laura’s face.
‘Hey’
‘I spotted you walking around the side and assumed you might be back. What happened to meeting up with your friend?’
‘Ah, well, I’m not totally sure, but they had to go pick up their girlfriend from the airport’
‘And they didn’t tell you before? That’s a good drive away’
‘Laf can be… forgetful. It’s a probably a good thing we didn’t go to the forest for a walk today.'
Danny laughed. Laura noted how her hair rippled in the sun as she tilted her head slightly back. There was no denying that she was attracted to this girl. A light sweat clung to her long muscular limbs, and her grey blue eyes sparkled with the fire of her hair.
‘So I’m guessing you have quite a bit of spare time on your hands?’
‘Exactly’
‘Ok, I’m probably gonna be here another half hour, I was late so we’re almost wrapped up. Are you interested in coffee?’
‘Yeah, that’d be great’
‘Okay cool. I’m just gonna finish off this session then have a shower and change and I’ll be right back out with you’ Danny did a short wave before jogging back out to join her teammates who were stood in a group around the start line. Laura’s jaw hurt from all the smiling she was doing in the girl’s presence.
Walking over to the stands at the side, Laura took a seat on the second bench up. She shoved her sunglasses on as she settled herself to watch the ongoing training. After a while of faster laps the group seemed to slow down, then settle into stretching before walking into the track’s building to the side. A short time later, a stream of girls re-emerged. Among them was Danny, who separated and made her way over to Laura.
As she came closer Laura noticed her hair was wet, and dripping onto the red and white baseball shirt she had put on. Danny sat on the bench just beneath Laura and grabbed a towel out her bag to finish drying her hair.
‘So’ the girl’s voice came out muffled underneath the towel, ‘I was actually thinking we might upgrade the coffee to lunch. I didn’t manage to get any before training. Is that cool? Have you already eaten?’
'No, that'd be great.'
'Alright, I'm just trying to think where's near here'
'I heard Whalf Street has a good Mexican place' Laura suggested, but Danny looked perplexed for a second.
'No you're right it has great food, um, do you mind if we go somewhere else though?'
'Sure, why?' Laura asked, curious.
Danny looked slightly embarrassed, 'Well the girls usually go there after training, and I wanted it to be just us. Um... I mean, they're loud, it'd be overwhelming to meet them all at once.'
'Okay,' said Laura, thinking on the spot, 'How about we pick up some sandwiches from a store and have a picnic? Seems a shame to waste such good weather.' Then added with a half smile on her face, 'Plus, then I get you all to myself.'
Laura was pretty sure she forgot to breathe with her last addition. It sounded good in her head. Confident. Out loud it felt too bold for her normal demeanor. But Danny just smiled even brighter than before.
The day remained as bright as that smile. They found a patch partially covered by a tree and sat, half facing towards each other, half towards a small flowing stream. Laura was grateful for living in such a beautiful area. It was one of the things that had drawn her to Silas in the first place. As she had sat delving through a pile of prospectuses, the photos of forests and parkland surrounding the university had made it stand out in her mind.
Now she was struggling to separate the beauty of the landscape with that of her most recent discovery. The light rippling off the water only served to make Danny seem even more beautiful. She kept finding more and things which added to how perfect Danny was for her.
Just as she was milling this over something whizzed straight past her face. Laura jumped out of her skin. She spun her head round to stare at the offending object. A red Frisbee lay on the floor.
'Sorry!' A guy yelled as he ran over to retrieve the disk. 'Didn't mean to scare you ladies' he smirked after picking it up.
'Mind where you throw things' snapped Danny. Laura turned to look at her. She seemed to be in a completely different mode, 'Imagine if that had hit her. That could have really hurt.'
'Well it's lucky for her nothing did happen.' he threw back. Danny looked like she was about to launch at him.
'Lucky for you too.' Her eyes looked like they were literally throwing daggers.
Laura cut in. 'Well the important thing is that no one was hurt. Maybe watch out for nearby people in future'
'Yeah, or just learn to throw.' Danny muttered, not so quietly, under her breath.
The guy's eyebrows furrowed for a second, but then he seemed to shrug it off. His group were calling for him from back on the field to throw the Frisbee.
'Gotta get back to my bros. Catch you hotties later.' He called over his shoulder as he started jogging away.
'Urgh, I hope not' said Danny looking disgusted. 'Guys like that just get on my nerves.'
Danny turned to look her in the eyes. The anger on her face dissolved to concern. She seemed to check Laura for a sign she was fine.
'I'm okay,' Laura reassured her, 'it missed.' Danny still looked unconvinced that the boy shouldn't be locked up for life.
After a while though she relaxed back into conversation about the summer society. There was something called the annual Adonis hunt coming up and Danny was trying to get Laura involved. It turned out they were both focused on the many of the same topics on their course too.
Eventually Danny had to get back for an evening social. Laura also realised there was probably lots of missed messages on her phone from LaFontaine. As they stood by the gate Laura noticed that the sky was just beginning to settle into dusk.
She felt like a fool just standing, smiling, but couldn't bring herself to tear away from the tall girl's presence.
Eventually she broke the silence. 'Missing the bus may have sucked, but I'm really glad I ran into you.'
'Yeah, me too' the redhead said, her words deep with meaning. Laura felt a palpable tension in the air. 'Hey, you know, we should collaborate. Compare notes, you know work on our projects together. I think we'd make a pretty great team.'
Laura knew she was talking about only course stuff, but she couldn't help marveling at the idea of her and Danny as a team. She realised how breathless she was as she replied 'Yeah. a team. You and me. Absolutely.'
As she walked alone towards LaFontaine's house she contemplated Danny's words. A team. At the time her words seemed to perhaps indicate more. Now thinking back Danny probably had only been talking about their course. Yes, she decided it was definitely just that.
Undertones or no undertones, she was looking forwards to seeing the girl again in future. Laura couldn't help but hold some hope that the girl shared at least some of her feelings though. She turned off onto Laf's garden path.
As she approached the entrance she could hear a muffled argument occurring upstairs. She stood by the door, making out the muted tones of Perry's outrage before tentatively knocking.
The voices stopped and she heard footsteps approaching her. The door opened revealing a worried looking LaFontaine.
'Ah Laura. I was wondering when you'd get here.' They moved back into the house, allowing Laura to follow them inside. 'I've still got a long story to tell you. Perry's not too happy about it. Here is the present situation anyway.
Laura barely recognised the normally immaculate living room. The wallpaper was all torn and the furniture lay shredded about its edges. At the center of the room the source of the destruction sat nonchalantly. Laura looked with shock into the eyes of a black stray cat.