Chapter Text
"So you'll finally be getting the place to yourself?" Tiana asked, halting momentarily to readjust her book bag in a swift shuffle of the diagonal strap stretched along her shoulder.
"Yeah man! It'll be sick. Can't imagine Earthquest would grant me such a freedom for that long though," responded Rain as her, Tiana and Piper breached the corner nearest to the Cafeteria.
A throng of hungry students from inside the gaping lunchroom echoed in a crowded frenzy as they passed. The athlete rewarded the sound her attention, the corner of her mouth curling into a slight simper as she recollected their old dining space back in highschool. The old Rainy would've never imagined college to be like this. Oh the way these such things could shift only subtly in the waking present, and yet emerge far more dissimilar once their future had arrived.
"Oooh! You should have a party before the new roomie gets there--OR WAIT--" Pipers orbs grew round with a clandestine plan, "even better, a welcome party for the new roomie..." She leaned forward, biting her lower lip with eager anticipation.
Rainbow chuckled at Piper's animation, "I haven't even figured out who's moving in yet. I mean, what if they're a wet blanket?" She shuddered at the thought as it slipped through her maw. Circumventing Gilda was already enough of a challenge, and the brunette was not looking forward to repeating the process. Though, another party wasn't the worst idea, especially with Piper fettered to it. "But a party before they get there? That sounds dope," Dash echoed her internal reasoning.
"Yippie! Party at Rainy-Rain's next weekend!" Piper squealed, her and her hair bouncing in unison on invisible rubber. Tiana's gaze betrayed a sudden jolt of concern as she breathed through a hiss, "Another one? Already?"
"Another what?" a familiar texan accent sounded from behind the trio. Rainbow's relaxed expression inflated with tension as the moments from her last interaction with the cowgirl flooded her cranium once again.
Aw f*ck, she cursed as she and the other girls spun to greet AJ. Considering the fact that Rainbow had not been able to process the taller's words, Piper of course, yipped her reply first, "A party!" she then lowered her diction in a way that suggested some unorthodox criminality, "At Rains. This weekend. You're invited."
With Pie, engagements were frequently settled swiftly and definitively, in a manner that left all involved devoid of counterarguments or rebuttals of any sort. Dash mused over the secrets hidden under those kinky pink curls as the chipper lass danced ahead and imprinted the cool glass of the side-exit door with marks of sultry fog. The weather had been rather unpredictable over the past few weeks as spring filtered its way through the seasonal time-sphere and wrestled in climatic incertitude. Considering the time of year, Rainbow had begun to wonder if she would even have a new roommate by the time the semester would end.
AJ smile-frowned and raised her brows at Piper's remark, appearing to silently accept her own upcoming attendance at the event. The band of four paced along the sidewalk toward a bridge which arched over a miniature, human-manufactured creek that not-so-subtly merged with sewer water downstream.
Rainbow's pupils shamelessly traced AJ's features as the farmer continued to engross herself in the effortless confab. She hadn't calculated the seconds that passed between each topic as her friends glided through them without her. She couldn't locate any reason to engage, her enthralment was heightened enough already. When the flaxen-haired cowgirl had quipped a joke of her own to the whole of the group, Dashie was the first she looked to for a reaction, causing the athletes enraptured gaze to freeze in a strange melding of captivation and panic. AJ's stare held onto Rains for a seemingly abnormal amount of time as she continued to brave through a chuckle at her own joke, eliciting a nervous smile from Dash.
What the hell is happening?! thought Rain as the crew crossed through an empty field which signalled the end of the Earthquest property. A frigid breeze swept over the grass, extracting a shiver from the inadequately dressed Rain, who sported her usual pair of oversized basketball shorts and a baby-blue Tee. AJ's fern-hued eyes visibly noted the spectacle as she remarked, "Ya didn't check the weather this mornin'?"
"No," admitted Rain, before she rebounded in a confident assuredness, "but I can handle it." AJ eyed her skeptically as another rush of the chilling wind assaulted them once more, this time even instinctively sending the cowgirl's hands to grip her own arms.
"You're the one who's cold," accused Rain, squinting at the farmer in an exigent smirk.
Piper paused and crouched over some apparently jaw-dropping discovery atop the sod. Tiana inquisitively followed her friend's thrilled gaze with a comically studious consideration, but her eyelids drooped in disappointment the moment Pie plucked a pebble from the earth and hugged it close. The nerdish lass rolled her eyes and smiled as AJ and Rainbow stopped in wait for her and Piper.
"At least ahm wearin' somethin' with sleeves," mused the freckled blonde, crossing her arms and favouring one hip. At this, Rain jerked suddenly for her bag, leaning into her walking sticks as she unravelled a messily-rolled windbreaker. "Actually AJ," Rain evinced a thorough enjoyment in annunciating the name, "I do have 'sumthin with sleeves'" she mocked.
AJ's pupils darted up and down quizzically at the shorter lass before she remarked, "Well, put it on then smartass," she grinned testingly. Rainbow undoubtedly felt the biting air as goosebumps formed along her arms and legs, almost begging for the material to wrap her in an added blockade to the cold, but as she fell into that beguiling pool of freckles before her, she was abruptly met again with the memory of AJ's dodge to her attempted kiss the other night. Her haughtiness couldn't parry the rejection, so in an unwarranted attempt to revoke her losses, she blurted, "You have it. You only have a sweater on."
WHAT? Why did I say that?! Rain immediately admonished herself inwardly as a subtle confusion transformed AJ's critically slitted eyes into widened globes. The cowgirl was dressed in baggy jeans and a thick, maroon, cotton long-sleeve. In contrast to Rain's poor attire choices, she was more than appropriately dressed for the chilly weather.
"Dash," AJ reminded the athlete in a look that concluded her sentence with what Rain took to be a silent 'you stupid motherf*cker--'
The blonde sighed and pulled her arms out through her own sleeves before outstretching her right forelimb, dangling the clothing-piece over her wrist. "Here. That thin jacket of yers ain't stoppin' so much as a nip."
Wha-no--she can't do that! That's what I'm doing! Rain exclaimed to herself in astonishment, freezing stubbornly at the farmers courteous gesture. But the athletes focus was soon lost to the tenuous tone in AJ's upper-arms, which were now exposed through her inky tank top. Her biceps weren't athletically muscular like a few of Rainbow's soccer teammates--their strength was evident almost purely in girth; a handsome farmers physique that the athlete found herself lost in. In those seconds, Dashie decided that she much preferred that thick robustness over a sinewy figure any day.
"Nope," Rain eventually returned to the present to refute.
Piper had long ago tucked her infinitesimal igneous artifact in her pocket, and had--just minutes ago--shot an arm out to impede Tiana's commencement of their journey across the field so that they could watch in amusem*nt as their two friends proceeded in their usual string of amiable bickering. The pink-haired lass had an ear for these occurrences, and had, on occasion, joked to the others about the frequency of such an interaction between AJ and Rain.
"What are they on about this time?" grumbled Tiana, watching as the two tomboys mirrored one another's unrelenting stares, both holding out their ridiculous, deferential offers in a firm grip. "I don't know, but I'll bet you six lolipops AJ'll win," Pie challenged, to which Tiana replied, "No way, AJ always wins."
___
The Starbucks a few blocks down the street from Earthquest College was flecked with only a few pods and individuals, leaving plenty of spaces for the band to gather. After Tiana, Piper, AJ and Rain had settled in at a round table comfortably wedged in the corner closest to the rightmost window panels, they conversed over their usual orders of coffee and tea.
AJ's sweater sagged around Rain's frame, about two sizes too big to sit snuggly, but the combination of its pleasant width and AJ's sweet apple scent comforted the athlete enough to fein obliviousness to the warmth of the indoors.
"She did not," exclaimed Piper, stupefied by the story Tiana had just verbally illustrated about a ginger named Summer who had been tormenting her with spit-balls through a straw just a few days prior. Summer (cleverly nicknamed 'Sunset' or 'Sunny' by Pie) was one of Earthquests newest students. She wasn't a freshman, the havoc-chaser had just gotten kicked out of the college's other location down in the rich town of Manhatten for reasons unbeknownst to anyone. Rumours had spread quickly about her, leaving the mysterious lass in a cloud of moral-ambiguity and echoed gossip long before Tiana had even brought her up in conversation.
The other day was the first time Summer had ever even interacted with any of the six friends, so the three loomed in in intrigue as Tiana remarked, "She did! And I couldn't tell if she was trying to piss me off or be friendly or--I don't know what the hell it was!" she paused before reflecting, "I've never met anyone like her actually..." Rainbow had rarely seen the nerdish woman so enthusiastic about describing a person. This 'Sunny' girl must have been something.
"Maybe we can get some goodies from her..." Pie snickered, her lips curling inward in an impossible-to-suppress grin of meticulous scheming. In noting her friends perplexed reactions however, the kinky-haired woman perked up in an almost mockingly innocent polarity to add, "You know, for the party at Rain's!" Dash didn't even want to know what Piper had meant by 'goodies'.
Tiana chewed her lower lip and hesitated over a thought before finalizing it in an open suggestion, "What if we invited her?"
"Yeah!"---"No," Piper and AJ replied simultaneously, Pie nodding fervently and AJ shaking her head.
Pie's maw fell into an exaggerated frown as AJ elaborated, "Y'all--we don't even know this girl. To welcome her into Rain's home might not be the best of ideas just yet." Dash noted Tianas dwindling excitement as she shuffled in her seat, studying the treen surface beneath her. "Yeah, I guess you're right AJ, I don't know what I was thinking," the bookish lass reasoned aloud.
The blonde cowgirl visibly softened at Tiana's obvious disappointment. She turned her attention towards Rain and spoke more gently, "Well, ah do suppose it's up to the host. What do you think Dashie?"
Rain took a moment to consider the proposition. Initially, she hadn't necessarily paid any genuine heed to the particularities of this ginger enigma, but after having witnessed Tiana's vivacity in verbally depicting her, she couldn't help but feel curious. The brunette athlete liked the sound of another badass chaos-seeker. Even though she, herself, was inspirited at the idea, she had contemplated shutting it down just to keep AJ's peace. But in recognizing this bizarre mentality, Rainbow scolded herself and announced,
"You know what, why not! Let's invite Sun-butt."
