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“ Shit! ”
Her gaze locks onto the brunette who she had been avoiding all day. Shit, shit, shit . Her mind runs through multiple scenarios, most of which involve running and surely despite her athleticism, her escape would likely fail. She needs to figure something out and fast.
Think, think, think .
At this point, her eyes are intensely trained on the brown haired girl, both of them seemingly at a stand-off wondering who would be the first to make a move. They stand there for what feel like hours, but she knows it’s only been several seconds since she’s been spotted. Now, normally two girls standing on opposite sides of the hall just quietly staring at each other would garner a lot of attention, but the students around them were too busy rushing to their next class to pay the two any attention.
Maybe I can use one of these groups as a distraction.
She’s not even halfway through that thought when she notices the other girl quickly starting to make her way over and in a moment of panic, she runs. She’s practically shoving students to the side as she tries to make her way down the hall - to where exactly? She doesn’t know.
She yelps as she barely dodges the object sent flying towards her. A multitude of apologies and ‘excuse me’s rush out of her mouth as she does her best to find the building’s exit. Pushing past the doors, her eyes rapidly scan her surroundings for a place to hide. Quickly making her way to what she thinks is some type of metal sculpture, she stands behind it, doing her best to hide from the other girl.
Stopping for a moment to catch her breath - damn, I should really run more - she peers around the giant metal bird (?) and to her relief, the coast is clear. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone to class today,” she muttered, shaking her head at herself.
“Hey, watch out!” a voice yells, causing her to flinch and jump back, the flying projectile barely missing her.
Dammit .
She spots the girl from earlier rifling through her back, presumably to find another one of those objects to throw at her.
Think fast.
Her eyes scan her surroundings, looking for a good place to hide, when she sees her . A beautiful brunette, face littered with freckles, laughing along with her friends. She shifts back and forth between her and the attacker. Shrugging, she decides it’s a better option than running.
Jogging over to the girl, she says nothing before taking her hand, gripping it firmly as their fingers interlock. There’s a look of confusion from the girl as well as among her friends, but that doesn’t matter considering she can’t really explain the situation at the moment. The girl’s friends assume there’s something they don’t know and instead of questioning the stranger, they say goodbye to the brunette and leave her be, but not before sending her expectant looks to which the girl responds with an eye roll.
The girl then turns to address the stranger, free hand landing on her hip. With a raised brow, she says, “So as much as I’m loving holding your hand, I’d kind of like to know the reason I’m doing it.” The stranger replies with an apologetic grimace and opens her mouth to speak when the attacker approaches them. Their gaze lands on the two’s joined hands and she sighs.
“Damn you, Sonnett.”
“Sucks to suck, Moe,” the blonde shoots back, chuckling.
“I will get you, Em. You’ll be dead by the end of the day, I guarantee it,” Moe replies before turning her attention to the brunette attached to Emily. “Hey, I’m Moe.” She holds out her hand which the brunette hesitantly takes, her eyes wide after witnessing the two’s exchange.
“Kelley.”
“O’Hara, right? I’ve seen you around,” Moe says, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you. I trust my friend here hasn’t said anything to you yet?” She gestures to Emily.
Kelley shakes her head. “Nope. She just came out of nowhere and grabbed my hand.”
“Damn it,” Moe grumbled, sending another glare at the blonde.
“I always play by the rules, Moe,” Emily said.
“Now, don’t be spouting out lies like that in front of your new friend, Em.”
“Whatever. Don’t you have class, anyway?”
“Oh, shit. What time is it?”
“11:06.”
“Ugh, crap, crap, crap. I’m late and this profesor already hates me,” Moe says, groaning. “I’ll deal with you later, Sonnett.”
“See ya,” Emily responds, sending her friend off with a playful salute. She watches Moe run off towards her building, chuckling slightly.
“Do I get an explanation now?”
The blonde quickly turns toward the brunette, Kelley , and realizes she’s been holding the girl’s hand this whole time.
“ Oh! ” Emily drops the hand, immediately rubbing at the back of her neck. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s kind of not fine, but I should at least get an explanation, don’t you think?” Kelley looks at her expectantly.
“Yeah, no, of course. You should. Well, um… where should I start?” Emily starts.
“Probably with the killing thing your friend Moe was talking about. Seems like something you should be more concerned about.”
“Oh, that! Um… so I’m in this club, salsa club, and we’re playing this game called assassin. Basically we all get assigned a person and we have to ‘kill’ them by hitting them with, like, socks or something. I mean, this year we chose socks, but last year we did tennis balls - which was not great, might I add - and yeah. Moe has me so I was just trying not to die,” Emily explains.
“Okay… and so how do I fit into this?”
“Well, you’re my immunity. Or… were my immunity, but now that I’m telling you all of this, you can’t really count as an immunity if we’re playing completely by the rules...”
“What’s an immunity?”
“Basically, we can do certain things during the day that can stop us from being killed. Yesterday, I had to draw raccoon eyes on my face and the day before, I had to wear a hamper on my head. Today, we had to grab a stranger’s hand and say absolutely nothing to them and we would be immune from being killed. That’s why Moe was really annoyed when she came over here.”
“So what you’re saying is that I saved your life,” Kelley says smugly, a grin appearing on her face.
“Essentially… yes.” Emily shrugged. “And thank you for that because I really want to win this year. Last year I was the first one who died, so I appreciate you not just pulling your hand from mine and blowing up at me.”
“Well, you’re cute, so I allowed it.”
“... Thanks.” The blonde’s cheeks reddened slightly.
“And you know what this means, right?”
“What does what mean?”
“Since I saved your life, I think a coffee would be a fair trade.”
“ You … want to get coffee with me ?” Emily says, obviously in shock.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Kelley’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“... You’re Kelley O’Hara.”
“So you do know who I am.”
“Of course I know who you are! Top all time goal scorer for the Cardinals, in the top 10 all time in assists, one of the best college players in the country. When I found out you were transferring to UVA, I literally called my sister to tell her. You're, like, a legend,” Emily rambles.
“You follow women’s soccer?”
“Yeah. I used to play, actually. Tore my ACL my senior year, never made it back.” Emily shoots her a sad smile, though it’s clear she’s done her best to move on from the incident.
“Well, in that case, I’d like to hear more about you, Sonnett.”
“Emily.” She smiled. “You can just call me Emily.”
“Okay, Emily.” Kelley grins, placing her hand in the blonde’s once again. “Now how about that coffee?”