They had eyes like a backwards sunset, a golden curve

[Pippi]

It was very crowded in the cafeteria today.

Beatrice Briggs could tell, even while standing outside of the room itself. There was too much noise coming from inside, too many different sounds overlapping each other. She could hear people talking with one another, interspersed by the occasional high-pitched screech or stern reprimand, she could hear the scraping of cutlery against plastic trays and of benches against the wooden floor. It was a little too much for her to contend with today. She pressed her hands against her ears for a moment, covering them, muffling the noise until it was more manageable once again.

It wasn’t always this much of a problem for her; in fact, she was able to navigate lunchtime at school without any issues at all on most days. It helped that she always brought her own lunch in, so she had her pick of where in the school to sit down and eat. She liked to sit in the library, most days. It was quiet by design, and a peaceful place to eat, and she often saw a couple of her friends hanging out there as well, finishing off last-minute homework rushes, or similarly searching for a relaxing place to have lunch. Sometimes, though, she did end up eating in the cafeteria, normally after gym class when the rest of the lacrosse team wanted to sit together. Most of the time then, she didn’t have any issue with the surrounding noise. It was normally loud, but not too loud, or loud but level, a sea of chattering that she could happily sink into.

But it seemed today was not going to be one of those days. She didn’t know why the cafeteria was this packed; maybe there was something popular on the lunch menu? She rather doubted it; even without having tried any of the food at John Endecott, she was fully aware of its status as being ‘legendarily mediocre’, as one of her friends had put it. Whatever the case was, it didn't entirely matter in the end; she was very reluctant to set foot inside, no matter the occasion.

Unfortunately, she knew she didn’t exactly have much of a choice in that regard. She’d forgotten to fill her water bottle up this morning before leaving the house, and hadn’t really had a chance to do so until now. She didn’t think she could manage to go the rest of the day without hydrating herself; she’d had a small glass of grapefruit juice at breakfast, but that had been it in terms of drinks today.

She sighed, her shoulder sagging, her arms hanging loosely by her sides. She just needed to walk in, fill up her bottle, and leave. She wouldn’t even need to double back too much; you could access the library directly from the cafeteria via a flight of stairs, which was quite nice. Her hand reached out for the doors, touching the metal panel for a couple of seconds, before it fell back down, and she sighed again.

She still couldn’t make herself do it. It would have been manageable, perhaps, if she had someone from the team here with her, Lara or someone like that. But she didn't. She didn't know what classes they'd had and where they were, and she didn't exactly feel like running to grab them, just so they could walk into the cafeteria with her for five minutes. Actually, odds were they were all in there already, or midway through their meal somewhere in the building. She supposed she could try and find one of them when she walked in there, but what if they weren't there? She didn't want to spend more time in there than necessary, aimlessly looking around for someone who was in a different room entirely.

So Beatrice continued to hover just outside the cafeteria doors, water bottle in hand, hoping that she wasn’t getting in anybody’s way.

[Dr Adjective]

[Evie McKown was in the library, now she is here]

Lunch. A necessary thing, and even though she so rarely actually picked up anything from the canteen herself, Evie still preferred to bring her food to the cafeteria to eat among friends most days. On her way to do just that, however, it quickly became impossible to ignore that her path was partially blocked by somebody. A very large somebody. One of the small handful of large female somebodies that cut a more imposing figure (allowing for personality, of course) than Evie herself. That made it pretty easy to identify who it was, then.

But, that posed a conundrum. Evie could say something, but based on what little she knew about Beatrice Briggs, maybe that wasn't the wisest move? Evie was reasonably she'd heard the other girl was on the spectrum. Maybe being confronted, even in a friendly context, might not be helpful? In truth, her knowledge was criminally lacking. So she too hovered for a moment, her bag swaying gently in her hand from leftover motion, deciding whether to speak up or just squeeze past. Either potentially ended up looking rude, and she hadn't ever been in the business of upsetting anyone if she could avoid it...

"Hey, um, you good?"

Evie put on her best pleasant smile and remained a few paces back, trying not to look impatient, or worse. After all, she was literally wearing a shirt exhorting her to Bee Kind, right?

[Pippi]

Somebody spoke up from behind Beatrice, and she turned to face them, a gentle smile already on her face, their voice a welcome distraction from the dilemma she had been previously facing.

“Oh, hello Evie.”

She didn’t really know Evie all that well. She had just made it something of a personal policy to memorise all of her classmates’ names. It felt like the polite thing to do. It was a bit of a shame, really. Evie seemed like a friendly sort, and the two girls were both athletes. They just followed drastically different disciplines, and so never really got a chance to interact. Nor were they ever likely to; Beatrice had never been fond of swimming, mostly due to the outfits you had to wear for it. She didn’t like exposing her skin if she could help it. The lacrosse team kit was around her exact comfort levels, and she always made sure to change quickly in the locker room.

“I’m doing okay, thanks. I like your t-shirt.”

It was a very cute t-shirt. Most of Beatrice’s wardrobe consisted of athletic gear, track jackets and shorts and training tops, simply because she found it the most comfortable to wear, even outside of a sporting environment. She did have a few t-shirts that showcased her other interests, though; a couple of Final Fantasy t-shirts, and a handful of Pokemon ones. She wondered where Evie had gotten this t-shirt. Maybe she should look into getting one for herself. But then again, maybe that would be a little strange, wearing the exact same outfit as someone she only knew in passing.

“I was just planning on filling up my water bottle, but, um…”

She glanced at the cafeteria doors, letting the noise from inside filter into the corridor for a couple of seconds, before she looked back at Evie.

“I don’t really do well with this sort of noise.”

[Dr Adjective]

Okay, good start. Besides their skin-deep similarities, truth was, Evie didn't really know Beatrice at all. The chance that her approach might not be taken as intended had been a genuine worry for a few seconds there. But no, everything seemed fine. There was that brief moment in which Evie had the weird feeling she was being stared at, turned out the other girl just liked her shirt. Good. Evie was particularly fond of it herself, and a quick glance down at the little cartoon bee on her chest widened her smile just a little bit further.

"Thanks!"

Anyway! Back to the matter at hand. Cafeteria too noisy to comfortably go into, huh?

"Yeah, I feel that."

Evie lied, in truth she couldn't empathise at all. She thrived in lively conversation, or under the cheer of the modest crowd the Sharks drew for their meets. Indeed, even the music she and her father enjoyed was often referred to as noise by her brother Davis and their mother... and just about everyone else that heard it, really. Still, she could try to imagine. If the noise was the opposite of welcoming, well, she could imagine it like a wall maybe, or a swarm of insects, something like that? That'd definitely be no fun to try and walk into. Close enough analogy for her.

The question remained however: would it be polite or rude to offer to go get the water for her? Might come across as patronising. Evie'd probably react pretty poorly to it herself, but then, Evie didn't have any reasons of her own to struggle.

"So..."

Evie worried her lower lip with her upper teeth for a few seconds. Awkward.

[Pippi]

Evie started talking, but cut herself off almost as soon as she’d opened her mouth. It sounded like she still had more to say, though, so Beatrice remained quiet, giving the other girl a smile before fixing her gaze on the wall behind her. Maybe Evie knew what she wanted to say, just not how to say it? Beatrice could understand that all too well. It was why she so much preferred typing to speaking, much of the time; with the former, you could adjust what you were writing before hitting the enter key. It would only be polite, she figured, to give Evie some more time to think.

She was beginning to worry that she was holding Evie up, though. She was probably going into the cafeteria to hang out with people; presumably she was planning on eating with the swim team, or with the other people in her circle of friends. Beatrice began to imagine them in there, wondering where their friend had gotten to, what exactly was holding her up, unaware that she was just outside of the room, only a short walk away. She felt her pulse beginning to race, the ever-persistent noise from the cafeteria only adding kindling to that fire.

Beatrice looked at the bee on Evie’s t-shirt again, and drummed her fingers against her water bottle in a consistent, rhythmic pattern; ring finger, middle finger, index finger. Ring finger, middle finger, index finger. Ring, middle, index. Evie still hadn’t said anything. Maybe she’d misinterpreted the situation, and the other girl was actually waiting for her to say something. And if that was the case, well…

“Oh, sorry, were you planning on heading inside?” Beatrice asked. “Could I stick with you for a bit?”

She smiled at the bee, then looked up and smiled at Evie too. Even with the backdrop of chattering and clattering hanging in the corridor, that moment of fear from before seemed to be on its way to subsiding now.

“I think I could manage the noise a lot better that way.”

[Dr Adjective]

Could she just offer, straight up? Would that be weird? Assuming Beatrice was incapable when it was more of a working up to it kind of thing? Would that be rude? In most pursuits, Evie was confident. Arrogant, even. But empathy was the one where she always second-guessed herself, modulated her impulses to better suit what she thought people around her wanted to see and hear. Second-guessed everything but the basic idea that maybe people might want her to just be genuine, that is. Luckily, her awkward silence was kept brief.

"Oh, yeah!"

That worked. It wasn't like Evie had any particular plans, she'd been expecting to just wing it, see if anyone she recognised looked welcoming, so there was nobody to worry about intruding on.

"Yeah, that's cool. I, uh..."

She hesitated again for a moment, but decided quite quickly to go for it. Awkward, disarming self-deprecation had rarely failed her in situations like this before. A nice, equalising hey, I'm just like you sort of energy, Evie figured.

"I was about to ask if you wanted me to get your water for you, would that have been weird? I was worried it was gonna be, like..."

She paused for a moment again, scratching an entirely imaginary itch on the back of her head. All in on the aww-shucks vibes.

"Rude, or something? Presuming like that?"

[Pippi]

Evie seemed happy to let her tag along into the cafeteria, and Beatrice gave her another smile, holding eye contact for a few more seconds before angling her head to look down at the ground. She was about to say something in response, or maybe push the lunch hall doors ajar so they could go inside, but then Evie started speaking again, and so she remained quiet, continuing to drum her fingers against her bottle.

The girl seemed… uncertain? Uncomfortable, perhaps? Beatrice couldn’t quite parse what the pauses in Evie’s speech meant. She hoped that she wasn’t, in actuality, unhappy with the idea of walking together to get some water. That itself would be disappointing, but not really an issue in the long run; once again, the two of them barely knew each other, and so it would be entirely understandable for Evie to want to make the most of the lunch period, and hang out with her friends. But for her to pretend that everything was fine when the opposite was true, then that would be much more upsetting, that somebody would try to lie and hide how they actually felt about her. She kept on drumming her fingers, maintaining the same steady rhythm.

It was a relief, in the end, to know that she had just been overthinking things. She shook her head ‘no’ once she was sure Evie had finished. It was really nice to hear that the girl had had her best interests at heart. She really appreciated it, and she felt a little annoyed at herself for having even entertained the idea of the opposite being true. Evie seemed lovely, truly. Perhaps a little awkward when it came to this particular conversation, but that just made two of them, really. Maybe she would also be more comfortable talking over text.

“Oh. No, it wouldn’t have been rude, it’s okay.” Beatrice said, smiling again, voice gentle and soft. “It’s really nice of you to offer, actually, thank you.”

She glanced, briefly, at the doors once again - it wasn’t as though there were many things to look at in the corridor - then down at her water bottle, now rotating it in her hand.

“I think I’d be happy either way, whichever you prefer. Although, I think it’d also be fun to hang out for a bit, too, if you want to.”

[Dr Adjective]

Despite the mounting awkwardness of the two of them just hovering next to a door, not going anywhere, Evie couldn't help cracking a big smile. The much bigger awkwardness had been disarmed at least, the elephant in the room had shuffled off to greener pastures. So that just left the matter of getting on with their respective lunches, a much simpler conundrum to handle.

"Yeah! That does sound fun. Let's get it."

Speaking of handles, Evie at last made for the doors in earnest, holding one open for the two of them.

"Feels kinda weird that we've not really spoken before, you know? Plenty in common, and stuff."

It had been a throwaway remark at first, something to say for the sake of making conversation, but maybe there'd turn out to be a degree of truth to it? As far as Evie knew it was just being sporty they had alike, but that is the point of hanging out after all, right? An opportunity to get to know someone, maybe make a new friend? Sounds exactly like what she wants to be doing with her lunch break. So, leaning against the open door, she gave a gesture that halfway resembled something she was sure she'd seen some kind of butler do in a cartoon or a comic once, like a bow crossed with a beckon. Something to look welcoming she hoped, that was the point of it. Chances were, it just looked goofy. That worked too, though.

"After you?"

[Pippi]

“Thank you.”

Beatrice offered Evie a smile as she made her way through the doorway. There was a sparkle in her eyes to accompany it, her whole face having lit up, eager to talk the other girl’s ear off. She hadn’t realised that they did have so much in common, but she supposed she didn’t really know much about Evie in general. She wondered what interests they actually shared. Did Evie play video games, perhaps? Or maybe she was really into football, just like her. That seemed more likely, out of the two; if you were a sporty person then you would probably have at least a passing interest in other sports.

Her body froze up as she stepped inside the cafeteria. She was right in the centre of all this noise, now. It was less like a wall, she didn’t think that was a very good comparison; you could turn and walk away from a wall without it hurting you. It was more like one of Frederick’s more powerful tackles when they played football in the back garden, the ones that knocked her down and made her ears ring. It hit her all at once and made her body feel paralyzed, all while her brain was still spinning inside of her head, trying and failing to process what was going on.

She could feel her throat tightening, and her fingers drummed along the side of her bottle. Seth had once said that if she kept tapping her fingers against it then they’d leave marks, and she’d spent the rest of the day checking it every 15 minutes to make sure she hadn’t dented the metal, and now she was getting anxious that she was going to do the same.

Beatrice looked down at water bottle in her hand - she couldn’t see any grooves that her fingers might have caused, at the very least - and then glanced back through the open doorway at Evie.

“So, um, do you like video games as well?”

Her voice was louder than usual, and she had lost her smile from a few moments ago.

[Dr Adjective]

Great success! Things going well, anxiety attack pacified and new friend gained. A bouyant feeling filled Evie's chest as she walked in behind Beatrice, even despite some of the smells from the kitchen turning her nose. There was just something about the way Beatrice's face had morphed from that nervous creature a couple minutes ago into this seeming whole other person that filled her up with... well, she wasn't sure what to call it. But it was satisfying, she felt like she'd done something good for the world.

So naturally, it came as a bit of a surprise when her new friend immediately stopped dead and seized up. It took her a second to notice the drumming fingers, but eventually that sank in too. Evie had been known to fidget with her hands or whatever was in them from time to time. Usually more out of boredom, but she did recognise it as a nervous habit. She didn't tend to get nervous all that often, but still...

Then came the look. Yeah. Not that sunny disposition that Evie had felt so joyously responsible for. Voice was off, too. Like she was trying to enunciate over some background noise that was much heavier than the dull roar that the canteen chatter generated. Once again, Evie felt out of her depth, very aware of how little she was aware of. Instinct told her to bring it in, quiet it down, maybe it'd help offset all the noise? She couldn't really know until she tried. So bring it in she did, she moved a little close to Beatrice and spoke a little more softly than her usual.

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a gamer."

Smile. Now instinct suggested she should ask if Beatrice was alright, but she decided against that one. Keep up the normal act for a little longer, see if it works.

"Mostly normie shooter stuff with my little brother, I main Tracer and Lúcio."

Beat. She just couldn't resist sharing some enthusiasm, and it was starting to creep back into her voice, lifting the volume with it.

"Oh, and some strategy stuff lately. Might not have heard of those ones."

[Pippi]

Some part of her - a part that she knew was very irrational but also happened to be very loud and very persuasive - had been entirely convinced that as soon as she was standing in the middle of the cafeteria all by herself, confronted with this ocean of sound, Evie would close the door and walk off back down the corridor. It was a thought that she hated, and one that didn’t reflect at all upon how nice and friendly Evie had been so far. It was not, of course, a fear that stemmed from the girl in the slightest. Just her brain catastrophising, conjuring up the worst-case scenario and making her convinced it would happen.

So she was still relieved to see her new friend follow after her into the room, coming over to stand next to her. She was actually standing a little closer than she had before, but Beatrice didn’t really mind that at all. It was more comforting, actually, having a calming presence standing nearby. The cafeteria noise still held that overwhelming presence, like something looming over her, about to tackle her to the ground, and she was still tapping her fingers in the same pattern against her bottle, but she felt her heartrate slow a little, her breathing steadying somewhat.

A little hint of that eager smile returning to her face.

“You’re talking about, um, Overwatch, right?”

Her voice was still a little loud, but she realised this after her first sentence, and so tempered her volume to be on the opposite end of the spectrum instead.

“I played a little bit of that with some of my friends, um, a while ago, but it was a little too frenetic for me. And I kept on getting lost on some of the maps, which made some of the strangers we played with get real mad at me.”

She frowned a little bit, looking down at the floor, before glancing back up at Evie.

“Oh, but that’s not the game’s fault of course. Just people being butts. And it’s not the type of game I play much anyway, just that my friends seemed to be having a lot of fun playing it together and they asked if I wanted to join in. Maybe if we got, um, a full team then I’d enjoy it more.”

She gave Evie a smile, a proper smile this time, eager to keep the conversation going

“I’d like to know about those strategy games you mentioned. Those are more the sort of things I like to play.”

[Dr Adjective]

Still a little loud at first, huh. Now that she thought of it, Evie was starting to think maybe she had heard something about that. Not that having heard something actually did her any good besides having a sense that maybe it was somewhat normal. At least it was least cause for worry, maybe? At least Beatrice seemed to be eager to talk about something familiar. Evie could work with that. With that in mind, should probably engage in the conversation. Random strangers online being assholes, unlike an aversion to noise that was a problem she could absolutely sympathise with. Can't play optimally without getting on comms, can't get on comms without at least one rando losing their mind at hearing a feminine voice in their game, the eternal struggle.

"Heh, yeah. Gamers, they do be gaming."

Her words suggested good humour, but the tone and accompanying grimace... less so.

"But, yeah."

Useful verbal speed-bump, a few extra seconds to actually forumulate a sentence. How to approach explaining...

"Dunno if you know any Paradox games, but mostly those. Grand strategy map-painting kind of beat. I was getting really into history, and then the world wars, and then I found Hearts of Iron, and the rest is history, kinda literally!"

Her own joke it may have been, but Evie's dopey giggle was most certainly genuine.

[Pippi]

Beatrice couldn’t quite understand the train of thought that had prompted Evie’s laughter, but she mirrored it with her own giggle anyway, warm and gentle and earnest. She understood the general gist, after all even if she couldn’t connect all the points exactly; she had to presume that ‘Hearts of Iron’ was based around the world wars, but if she was being completely honest with herself, she couldn’t really see the appeal of making a game based around something so horrible.

But she didn’t say anything, and she laughed, and she smiled, because Evie seemed genuinely interested in the game, and it was nice to hear her talk, and with every second that passed she felt a fraction bit better than before.

“Oh, that does sound interesting!” Beatrice said, still smiling, glancing at Evie for a few seconds. “I’d never actually heard of it until now. Maybe I should look into it some more, after school?”

She absent-mindedly tugged at a small, loose thread on the sleeve of her jacket, trying to get her words in order but not wanting the lull in the conversation to grow too long.

“I imagine it’s nice to find a game that um… that, oh, that’s based on one of your other big interests. I don’t really have many choices if I want to play a football game other than Madden, or… well, Madden, I suppose. Not that I don’t enjoy Madden, of course! There’s always something exciting to me about being able to play as J.C. Jackson or Brandon Bolden and to run out onto the field at the Gillette Stadium, even just a digital version of it, especially now that we haven’t been able to travel to Foxborough for so long because of the pandemic to actually watch- Oh!”

Beatrice suddenly halted midway through her flow of speech, letting out a nervous little laugh. If she hadn’t still been able to hear the noise of the cafeteria surrounding them, she would have been convinced that all eyes were on her right now.

“We should probably walk and talk, shouldn’t we? We’re, um, standing a little bit in front of the doorway here…”

[Dr Adjective]

There was something thoroughly endearing about Beatrice’s awkward earnestness, it struck Evie as though she’d never had the luxury of talking about her passions to someone that’d actually listen. She’d never really considered her own meandering late-night discussions of everything and nothing with her father to be anything particularly special, but maybe they were? Getting to just talk at length about whatever was on her mind, whether it be the bizarre eccentricities of Douglas MacArthur, or how adorable a sea otter’s little fuzzy front paws are, or really anything in between.

Indeed, Evie had taken it quite for granted that she could just chat. Clearly Beatrice was enjoying it too, so she happily smiled and nodded along with the Madden tangent. Sure she wasn’t deep enough into football to entirely appreciate the sentiment, being more of a casual, quarterback-fixated kind of viewer, but she recognised the names of Patriots players well enough. She’d been just about to chime in with something when her new friend pointed out what very much should have been obvious. But then, Evie was the sort of girl to forget how tall she was and hit her head on the same low obstacles repeatedly. So perhaps spacial awareness was an unreasonable expectation.

“Hah, yeah. Oops. Got lost in the flow there.”

Luckily it didn’t seem like they’d proven much of an obstacle so far, but better not to push it. Also, she did have her own lunch to consider. So Evie started in the direction of the fountain at a leisurely pace, glancing back over her shoulder to continue.

“I inherited my dad’s team, myself. He’s a Maryland boy, so I got the family discount for the Lamar bandwagon. Scraw!”

Her low-effort raven impression, of course, succeeded mostly in just making Evie giggle at herself again.

[Pippi]

Beatrice smiled back, and followed her new friend’s lead, walking in the direction of the water cooler, taking a few hasty steps to make sure she remained right at Evie’s side. Her fingers still tapped against her water bottle, and the cacophony of talking and scraping of cutlery still ground against her like a millstone, doing its best to wear her down. But talking with Evie was helping, that was an undeniable fact. If she was going to continue with her comparison of the cafeteria sound to a particularly brutal bodycheck, then Evie was… Evie was the icepack that her dad gave her afterwards to put on her head, or the cup full of sweet tea that her mom always made for her when she was upset or hurt, as she sank into the couch, the aches and stiffness in her bones still very much there, but muted a little bit, able to be put down to one side for a moment.

She knew that metaphors and similes were not her strong suit, but on this occasion, the comparison felt accurate. It felt right.

Beatrice laughed along with Evie as they walked. She had fully understood what had made her giggle this time. Out of the two teams that played in Maryland, only one of them had Lamar Jackson playing for them. She guessed that the noise Evie had made had been her attempt at a crow’s cawing. It… she wanted to be polite, but it really hadn’t been very good at all. But she figured that Evie knew that herself, and that was the exact reason why she had broken out into giggles.

“I don’t think you should tell my brother that,” Beatrice said, smiling as she looked ahead. “My oldest brother, that is. He’s been a Steelers fan all his life. The other guys all poke fun at him for it. Well, Freddie and my dad do. If Seth tries they all turn on him and tell him to, um, ‘Pipe down, Bengals boy!’ That’s the sort of thing they say.”

She giggled again, and her smile turned slightly wistful. She missed the days, from a few years back, when they’d all be able to sit together in the living room or the den around a huge bowl of popcorn or tortilla chips, watching a game or playing Madden together, laughing and cheering, making fun of every dropped interception and boldly proclaiming that their team had won the draft. They still made every effort to try and recapture that carefree spark whenever Marcus and Frederick came home from college, but there was always something missing from it. A gap that had formed somewhere along the line.

For a moment, Beatrice was lost in her thoughts and her memories, before she suddenly gasped and looked towards Evie, eyes wide.

“Oh, it's never anything serious though!” She stumbled over her words, trying to hastily clarify her previous comment. “I don’t think any of us ever actually get upset, because we all know everyone else is joking. It's always meant to be friendly. It's fun. It's nice.”

She looked down at the ground as she said these last four words. She had suddenly remembered one occasion the last time her brothers had visited. Her dad had been joking around as usual, and had told Marcus ‘I should throw you outta this room right now for the crime of being a Steelers fan!’ But instead of her brother retaliating by reciting the score from the last Patriots-Steelers game, or throwing a handful of popcorn, his mouth had become very thin, and his eyebrows had turned into a frown, and he didn’t speak for another 7 minutes.

Her foot scuffed on the floor. She blinked twice. Her fingers rapped against the bottle. Then she looked up again, and turned her head towards Evie.

“Have you ever been to any of the Ravens’ games when they’ve been playing Pittsburgh? Marcus always tries to get tickets for them. Maybe you bumped into him without even realising it.”