Zapped by an Apple | An Appledash College AU Fanfic | Human Characters

⓵⓹『 Pens Snap 』

     She followed the voice and found the farmer sitting upright at the other side of the room. A returning vivacity spun itself through Rainbow's bloodstream by pure instinct, and her heart thundered. As she remembered her position and the situation between her and the cowgirl, the lines between rage, sorrow, and...something else...began to blur, further towing forward her alertness. 

     That's low...Rain thought.

     This was no longer a mere tension they faced. When AJ had chosen to sit so far away from this athlete-bound-to-loyalty, this quandary of theirs had evolved into a contest. A game. And Rainbow hated losing.  

      She was going to talk to AJ--and this time, really talk. 

     Her concentration--while very much heightened since she first walked in--was not conducted in the direction of the lecture, however. Even after the cowgirl answered the professors prompt and moved along in her note-taking, Rain interrogated AJ purely in sight and in psychological heed, glaring her down like the last cup of cider on a Sunday. 

     The brunette was almost certain that AJ knew it too, because she had begun to behave more erratically since her gaze locked onto her, fidgeting with her pen and breathing quicker than before. That, and the fact that AJ always just seemed to know when Rain was goggling her (It was like her own form of Piper-sense designated solely for Dashie, and Dashie alone) just had to have solidified AJ's knowledge of Rain's vexed staring.

     Once the professor dismissed the students, the chase was on. Rain had already preemptively packed her things before the class had even finished. She was still on crutches and undoubtedly going to be leagues behind AJ, but she had a plan. 

___

Rain tapped her scuffed Converse to the asphalt as she leaned against that mahogany-tinted sheen she had scoped out so effortlessly. Using AJ's truck to bear most of her weight, she allowed her crutches to rest vertically at her sides, a grumpy scowl painting her visage. 

     She had recognized AJ's newly adopted pattern of circumventing her in the recent weeks, taking the longest route through the staff's parking garage. She had seen the cowgirl take the dead-end stairwell numerous times,  and, well, the stairwell only really lead to that particular parking terminal. And the garage's quickest route back up to the student lot lead right up to this particular area. AJ was fast as hell, but with that many added steps, a snail could beat her there. 

      Rain was certainly no Tiana, but when it came to AJ--and when it came to loyalty--it seemed, her conscious registered more bizarrely relevant tid-bits than she had previously realized it could. 

     The jock spat her gum to the floor as a silhouette approached, first indistinguishable, and then unmistakably the freckled blonde she had been waiting for. AJ's eyes widened, and then her face almost simultaneously fell into a mirror of Rain's own glowering expression. 

     The whistle had been blown, the ball; dropped. 

     "What do ya want Rain," AJ growled, an unreadable sort of hurt being smothered beneath her confrontational guards. 

     "We need to talk," Rain's voice was quiet, yet piercing. She remained immobile, slouching against the sheen-brown vehicle as if it were her own. The athlete almost predicted her friends attempt to evade as the farmer replied, "Ah think we'd done enough talkin' to know it's not worth it Rainbow."

     Of course you would say that, thought Rain, this must be as easy as breathing for you now.

     "No, we didn't.  I have no idea why you've been acting so weird lately," Dash exclaimed, throwing her arms up and leaning forward into her walking-sticks, "I mean come on! Everything was almost normal and now..." she trailed off into distant thought, while AJ scanned the athlete's fiery gaze, which was now fixed to the pavement.