Damaged Goods

02 ⠀ Neither beautiful, nor admirable.

TWO
Neither beautiful, nor admirable.

For someone who travelled so much as a child, Juliette hasn't been in many public airports before. In fact, she can count on one hand the amount of times she has travelled through them, and still have some fingers to spare. The Anderson's always used private planes flying from private airport to private airport. She isn't sure how air transportation works in general—Henry's sister didn't live long enough to explain it to her—but now that she thinks about it, she wouldn't be surprised if some of the flights weren't even registered.

She finds that domestic flights are less of a hassle than international ones, though. Going through customs two years ago, when she moved back to the United States, was a pain. She gets that recently emancipated sixteen year olds flying one-way to a country of which they hold dual citizenship on their own might raise a few eyebrows, but there was still absolutely no reason for that one border agent to pester her with questions for nearly fifteen minutes.

( Minors can't enter the U.S. alone, kid. / I'm emancipated. (Truth) ) ( Do you have family there? / Not anymore. (Half-truth) ) ( Where will you be staying? / I'm renting an apartment. (Lie, at the time) )

It was a pain, so Juliette is glad when she steps off the plane into Columbia Metropolitan Airport and can just head straight to baggage claim and then to the pick-up area without further questioning. Coach Wymack texted her a couple days ago to let her know Danielle Wilds—team captain—would be picking her up from the airport; whether he arranges that for every new player who doesn't get to PSU by car or he just picked up on the fact that Juliette could definitely use passing on the fare of a taxi, she doesn't know, and she doesn't care enough to find out.

Juliette had heard of the Foxes before Wymack came to find her; not necessarily because she was particularly interested in collegiate teams, but because her high school teammates were. She'd heard all about them being the laughingstock of Class I Exy, which she didn't care to listen to, but she did pay attention when her team captain went on a rant about a girl being named captain. She probably wouldn't admit it, were someone to ask her, but she did feel a tad curious about what kind of person could reign in a team like the Foxes.

As it turns out, Danielle Wilds is a 5'5" woman with short curly hair and an inviting smile but a sharp edge in her eyes, the kind of assessing look someone who isn't trained in the art of discretion can't successfully conceal. She calls out Juliette's name, butchers the pronunciation of her last name and extends a hand.

"I'm Dan Wilds." Her grip is firm. "Nice to meet you."

Juliette gives her a nod. "Jules LeRoy."

"LeRoy," Dan repeats, correcting her pronunciation, but her 'r' is still a tad too soft. "Need help with your bags?"

Her eyes widen a little at its weight, but she doesn't seem to mind picking up the bordeaux duffle bag Juliette had stacked upon her suitcase. She hoists it on her shoulder and heads towards the exit. "Matt's waiting for us at the pick-up zone—the parking lot's expensive as shit."

"Matt?"

"Matt Boyd," Dan clarifies. "Sophomore backliner. Really cool guy. I don't have a car, so I hitched a ride with him."

They walk out of the airport and Dan leads Juliette to a, frankly hideous, blue truck with a large bed and an extended cab with extra seats. Juliette briefly wonders if they avoided the parking lot because the fare for heavy vehicles—which this thing definitely qualifies as—is significantly higher. A guy steps out of the passenger side and Juliette has to do a double take. Matt Boyd is, without a doubt, what most people would expect a backliner to look like—though Juliette might not fall under this category of people, seeing as her go-to image of backliners is Célia, and her sister is many things, but she sure as Hell isn't intimidating. Matt is nearly a foot taller than Dan, jacked like a boxer, and yet he stands with his shoulders hunched under a hoodie half a size too big and a tentative smile on his face.