Pas de Chat (Gi, Open)

[Pax]

The feel of cement and sun-warmed metal under her hands as she vaulted neatly over a low wall, rolled, ran, threaded through a guardrail, the sound of her trainers slapping as she raced over a row of stone benches, heart pounding, muscles pulling, breath coming fast and fierce as earbuds pumped the sound of cello, bass, and lyrics directly to her brain, drowning out traffic and voices. Lila reveled in her body, loving the strength and grace that let her run, and the running that kept her strong.

She strained, using her arms to pull herself bodily up and over another partition. Her blood sang with a runner’s high, and she was oblivious to everything but her next step, her ponytail streaming out behind like a banner. A twist in the path, more running, and a set of stone stairs to leap across, she lengthened her stride and set herself up for the familiar course-she loved running here, this quiet little corner of the park tucked away from the rest of the world-and tripped over her own feet trying to avoid the first unexpected obstacle of the day.

Lila ripped the buds from her ears savagely, tinny music still pumping, and glared, all righteous indignation and fire.

“Oi! Watch it, mate!”

Her words might have fit in with the locals, but over ten years later, and she still sounded like she was straight out of deepest, darkest Texas when she got tetchy. Lila hated being interrupted in this, her one chance to really relax and be alone with her thoughts. Worse, she was perfectly aware that she should have been apologizing, and that just put her back up more.

[Andi]

Gi stumbled backwards as a body, seeming to come out of nowhere smacked into her. Her hands flew open at the contract and the papers she had in her hands fell to the ground and started to blow away. Fear seized her as her arms reached out and she leaped at the ground trying to grab every paper before they blew away. "Don't let them blow away!" she cried at the obviously angry girl who had in fact run into her.

Before she had been madly scrambling for her midterm paper she had been walking through the park, heading home after spending all day in the musty library. She could she feel the dust on her as the sun seemed to warm the dust off her. She had closed her eyes for a second feeling the sun warm her face and the wind gently caressed her face and tossled a few strands of her hair. Then smack! That peaceful moment had been ripped away from her as someone ran into her. Papers were ripped from her hand and that brought her to now, the mad grab for papers.

She was so flustered over her grab for the papers she disnt even notice the American accent in the British words. "Don't stand there! Help me grab them!" she cried at the girl, her words clearly also American.

[Pax]

“Who was your slave this time last year?” Lila huffed, hipshot and arrogant, tossing her long fringe out of her eyes.

It lasted all of two breaths before rampant curiosity won out. She snatched on of the loose papers up from the ground at her feet. What was so all-fire important

Oh. School stuff. Well. Rumors to the contrary, she could actually appreciate that. No one in their right mind wanted to end up a burger flipper, after all, an she’d told her sister to hit the books often enough. Lila scooped up another paper, this time with decidedly more care before jogging after a few bits that threatened to flutter out of reach.

She didn’t even want to admit how many strides it took before she realized the girl’s English was a familiar, if little heard, flavor. Plenty of American tourists in the city, sure, but not her part of it. Two more pieces, before another flipped, happy as a lark, across the staircase. She swore a blue streak, and quite creatively, too, under her breath.

“Where’r you from , then?"

She wasn’t actually paying all that much attention, truth be told. She was eyeing the stairs carefully, calculating distance and speed and height, all without really realizing it. Easier to leap frog a thing when you’ve got a bit of momentum, but easy wasn’t exactly the point.

She jumped, a little bit ballet a little bit parkour, but mostly just her, determined to see if she could do a thing or no. Lila hit the ground on both feet, lost her balance and rolled down the slight incline. She sat up, papers in hand and hair sticking up madly.

“There, quest achieved, item gained. A knight in shiny…spandex.”

[Andi]

Gi grabbed all of the papers near her. She straightened them and pushed up on her knees, standing up on her feet. For the first time she studied the girl who had bumped into her. The girl had slightly messed up hair and was wearing workout clothes. Ear buds were out of the girls ears. But what caught Gi's attention was this girls accent. Even though her words were british, her voice was American.

"Thanks." she murmured as she walked over to the girl and took the papers from her. "You're American?" she asked. The papers she took from her she straightened out and organized back into order as she waited for an answer. Shuffling the papers, she achieved her goal of getting them all back in order. She placed them in her bag so as not to drop them again. Too many hours had been put in the essay over Austin to lose for good.

Closing her bag she had surcured her papers. Looking up she silently studied the girl, wondering why she was here. Feeling the slight breeze she pulled her pulled her rolled up sleeves down. Her light brown turtle neck matched nicely with her blue skirt. It was enough to keep her content in the slightly chilling London air. She waited for the girls answer.

[Pax]

“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Lila handed her stack of papers over. “Must’v spaced out, or something.”

She hated apologizing. Really, really hated it. Especially when it was the right thing to do. There was bound to be some psychological something or other there, but whatever. Not her concern.

“Just a bit. Well, Mum is anyhow, the rest is anyone’s guess.” Oh, glorious red tape. She was, technically, a dual citizen, and it seemed to drive American bureaucrats mad. As far as she cared, it just made for an even more annoyingly complicated passport. Lila shrugged and rubbed her bare arms distractedly.

“How bout you? You don’t seem much like a Londoner yourself.”

The woman was grinning, cocky and bold as could be, while she tugged at her loose singlet, pulling the damp orange fabric away from her skin. The fine sheen of sweat she’d built up was cooling quickly now, and making the bite in the air rather more noticeable.

“Bit of a pile for light reading, isn’t it?” She was fidgeting, rocking to and fro on her heels and generally doing anything but standing quietly, but she was still genuinely curious. Or maybe a little homesick. Or maybe it was just because it wasn’t every day you saw someone using pen and paper instead of a laptop.

[Andi]

Gi nodded as she took in the girl's bold grin. She shrugged it off. "Yes, I'm American. I was born and raised in North Carolina." she said, her voice calm. "Both parents American, so no fun in passports. I'm attending college here in London." she explained why she was here, and wasn't on vacation. She shifted her position on her feet, from one to the other. She hated explaining to others that she was only here to go to school. Currently she was trying to become a full British citizen and escape America, but that was easier said then done. Right now it wasn't easy to get in and there were few ways to do so.

She studied the girl, trying to figure out where she was from in America. It was big so she couldn't narrow it down. But there was a slight undertone of a southern accent in the this girl's voice. Maybe somewhere southern? Gi wasn't so sure and there was no way of telling, the girl wasn't specifically anything.

Hearing this, Gi flashed a small smile and looked at her bag, shrugging. "Since I'm currently a student here, that sometimes requires writing papers. This is one of those times. Thanks again for helping me catch everything, I don't know what I would do if I had to write it all again." she admitted, fear gripping her heart. Taking a breath she banished any trace of fear from her. She had all her papers, they were safe, and so was her grade.