Jordyn was sitting in her accounts and budgeting lecture at Uni, and she was actually paying attention. With one ear, at least. She was half focussed on editing her last set of photos, so she could send them off to the National Geographic magazine. The set of photos featured a particularly flamboyant squirrel who had been messing around with an acorn. They needed to be perfect to be accepted by National Geographic, and even then she wasn't sure they'd be accepted at all. But that was the competitive nature of what she wanted to do, and she was more than up for the challenge.
"Jord," whispered Venus, who was sitting next to her. "Do you know what time this lecture ends?"
"Can't end soon enough," the Australian replied, with a wry smile.
"Init. How are you even passing this class, you never take notes."
"I have a good memory," Jord shrugged. "I don't think I really need this for what I want to do, so a C grade pass is good enough for me."
"Fair enough," Venus chuckled. "Let me see the squirrel?"
Jord turned her MacBook around to show her friend what she was working on.
"What's this piece called?" Venus teased her.
Jord rolled her eyes. Her friends always made fun of how she nicknamed her photographic work.
"Confidence," she said, anyway. "He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. No one who wasn't confident in themselves would walk around with an acorn on their head."
"Fair enough," Venus smiled. "He's a cutie, isn't he?"
"I shouldn't distract you, I know you want to ace this class Vene."
"Ugh. It's kinda important, to be fair," the Londoner sighed.
"Kilimanjaro's not gonna climb itself," Jordyn teased.
Venus was planning to join a team who were heading off to climb the mountain, and they were budgeting everything themselves. Venus's sudden interest in passing the class had coincided with her decision to join the team. Her actual course was a business degree, and Jordyn's was a photography degree, but the two girls shared this class, and their friendship had begun when they'd sat next to each other on the first day. The seat on the other side of Jordyn was empty, but it was normally occupied by Adriana, who was doing a double degree of business and fashion. The ambitious girl had already opened her own fashion and design business named RedLondon. She rented a small store front in the city, and sold her clothing designs from there. Vene and Jord had already discussed her absence - it wasn't like Adri to miss a class, and she wasn't responding to texts, but perhaps she wasn't well that morning.
Venus and Jordyn met up with Lia in between classes.
"No Adri today, I hope she's alright," said Lia.
"We've texted her but no response," said Jord. "Who knows? If she's not in tomorrow I say we go looking. Normally she'll be half dead before she'll take a sickie."
"True," Lia nodded. "How's your squirrel coming along?"
"Good, I think I got it all fixed up in class today," said Jord.
"In class? Wasn't that your..."
"Accounts and budgeting class? Yes, I know," she smiled. "I was just stressing about it a little, but I think I've got it all sorted out now."
"Fair enough," Lia smiled. "Let's be honest, you'd have been daydreaming your way through the class anyway."
"Jord, daydreaming?" Asked Venus, incredulously. "I have to disagree with you there Lia she's more focussed than I am most of the time."
"Ah, but you don't know what happened yesterday," Lia smirked, and Jordyn rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Don't start, Li. It was nothing."
"Oh you have to tell me now," Venus grinned. "Come on, spill the beans."
"Jordy's got a cruuuuuush!" Lia smiled happily, in a sing song voice.
"Ooh, who is it? Is it that guy in your photography class?" Asked Venus.
"Hell no," the Australian snorted in disgust. "It's a guy who came in to get a white got chocolate at work the other day. And it's not a crush, we just talked for a bit, that's all."
"Not a crush, but you remembered his order which is an oddly specific order," said Venus.
"Of course I remembered it, it's my order as well, you know!"
"The fact that you had a conversation with him at all is a big deal, Jord," said Lia. "You don't really talk to anyone you don't know well already."
"True," Jordyn sighed. "I don't know, he was just easy to talk to."
"Is he good looking?" Asked Venus.
Jordyn's cheeks went pink, as Lia exclaimed excitedly.
"He is VERY good looking," she smirked.
"Alright then Lia, you've already got a boyfriend, remember?" Jord chuckled.
"Getting jealous already, are we?"
"Ay just leave it you two, alright? Are we going to class or what?"
"Let's go then," Lia chuckled, linking arms with her friend. "Catch you later Vene."
~.~.~.~
Auba was confused.
To tell the truth, it had been a month since he'd seen Laca again for the first time in what was surely ten years, and they still hadn't brought up the fact that their friendship hadn't ended on good terms. Aside from the two of them, only their closest family members knew the truth of what had happened between them. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were two best friends who had found their way back to each other after years of being apart. The perfect fairytale story.
Auba had been doubtful when Arsenal had come in for him. He wanted to know how Laca would react to them finally playing for the same team again, but his pride had prevented him from reaching out to him. Technically, this was all Laca's fault, but Auba had had time to reflect - years, even, and could see that he wasn't entirely blameless in all of this. So he accepted the Arsenal contract - he'd loved Dortmund, but wanted out by this time anyway - and flew to London on deadline day.
And Laca appeared to be genuinely happy to see him.
He had completed his medical, and they'd taken a million photos of him, before it was finally time to get a guided tour of London Colney. Laca was lifting weights when Auba first spotted him, but he put them down as soon as he saw him, and came straight over.
"Auba," he said, with the happiest smile on his face.
"Frére," Auba replied, returning his friend's ever infectious smile, and opening his arms to hug him instinctively. Laca fell into his embrace, and seemed to be holding on like he never wanted to let go. Auba could barely believe it.
"I missed you so much," Said Laca, pulling away to hold Auba at arms length. "You look older."
"You last saw me when I was a teenager, Laca," The Gabonese teased him, and he sighed.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's been a long time."
"It has."
Auba could never remember a time where there had been an awkward silence between the two of them, so this must have been a first. He turned awkwardly to the coaches who had been giving them the tour, and they smiled at the two of them. Auba couldn't tell if they realised there was anything wrong between him and Laca, but he didn't want to dwell on that now. If somebody brought it up with him, he'd have to tell the truth. But he wanted to repair things with his best friend - he really did. He just didn't know how.
The tour continued, and they left Laca behind in the gym with a few other players who Auba had met briefly. Micki he knew from his time at Dortmund, and Papa, and he knew Mesut because who didn't? They moved on to the training pitches which were deserted, apart from the under 18's on the far side. It was cold, and there was still snow on the ground, but it had been cleared away from the pitches as best as possible, leaving them looking green and healthy. As they went back inside, they encountered Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney - Auba didn't know it at the time, but the two would one day become his close friends of indispensable merit. For the time being, between the Scotsman and the Spanish Londoner, Auba could only understand about half of their brief conversation - an understanding and appreciation of the most ridiculous slang on the planet would come with time, but it hadn't come yet. Kieran was new as well - he'd been at Arsenal only a few days, and Hector had apparently adopted him.
"Everyone's excited to work with you," said Hector, after they'd all shook hands. "Micki - you know Micki, yeah? He's been here only a few days as well, but he's been telling us you're a great guy, and a team player. I think we need that here."
"I'm excited as well," Auba said, with a smile. "But London is cold, eh?"
Kieran and Hector laughed.
"Try Scotland, if you like the cold!" Kieran joked.
"Ay, you should see this guy! He'll be out in the snow in shorts and t-shirt, his thermostat is broken."
Kieran laughed, and swatted his Spanish friend playfully.
"Ah, so if I chuck a snowball at him he won't mind?" Said Auba.
"I wouldn't go that far," said Kieran. "You might get one back."
"I'm game," the Gabonese smirked.
Auba was exhausted by the time he finally made it to his hotel room. He had a house already - the move to London had been coming for a month, and he'd had time to prepare, but he would move in tomorrow. For now, he took a shower, and fell into bed, attempting to shut out all confusing thoughts of Laca and Arsenal and London slang. He would deal with it all in the morning.
~.~.~.~
When Adri didn't show up for classes the next day, Lia, Jord and Vene decided to go looking. The blonde girl wasn't hard to find - in fact, the first place they looked was the RedLondon store. She was there, amidst all the chaos.
"Wow, Adri, what happened?" Asked Lia.
"I sure am glad to see you three," Adri said. The girl looked, and sounded exhausted. "My store got broken into a couple days ago, they just took money out the till and a few more expensive items of clothing, but they left such a mess behind! I've barely eaten or slept..."
"I can tell," said Jord. "You can't do this to yourself Adri, I know this is important to you but if you run yourself into the ground it won't be worth it."
"I know," she sighed. "I just... everything's almost sorted out now, so it's okay. I knew I should have invested in a better alarm system."
"Hey, don't stress," said Lia. "Can we help you? Give us boxes to pack or something."
"Okay, yes, Venus, Jordyn, can you sort all the coats on the ground there onto the racks? Put them in size order - the larger ones at the back, smaller at the front."
"We're on it," Vene nodded. "Go relax, girl. You need to sit down and breathe for a bit."
"I'll make sure she does," said Lia. "Come on, what do you want me to do?"
"I've got something to finish off in the back room, come on, I'll show you."
The two English girls headed towards Adri's normally immaculate back room. Today, however, there was clothes and boxes everywhere.
"Oh, hey Hector," said Lia, surprised to see the Spaniard sitting there, looking at a computer screen. Hector held out his arm, and Lia bent to hug him.
"Good to see you, Lia," he said. "Hope you're better than we are at the moment!"
He glanced at Adri, his best friend, and the two of them laughed a little.
"That wouldn't be hard, by the looks of it," Lia said, glancing around at the mess.
"Hec's helping me balance my account," Adri explained.
"After you added it up six times and got a different number each time," Hector chuckled. "I'm telling you, everything will be fine! Can you make her relax for a bit, Lia, because I've tried, and I can't."
"Alright, no more work for you today then!" Said Lia, turning to glare at her friend playfully. "You can do some more tomorrow."
Adri looked like she was going to protest, but she caught Hector's eye, and sighed.
"Okay. I'll sleep on the couch here—"
"No you won't, go home and do it," said Lia. "It's too noisy to get any rest. We'll be fine here, promise."
"Okay," said Adri. "I will if you tell your best friend you're dating a famous footballer."
"Oof, blackmailing now, are we?" Hector chuckled.
"Oh, there's something that happened the other day I need to tell you about," Lia suddenly remembered. She took Adri by the shoulders, and directed her away from the box she'd started to sort, towards the couch. "There, sit down. It's time for a bedtime story."
"This better be good," Adri chuckled. "Go on. Out with it."
"So, Jord met Auba the other day."
"Really?" Asked Adri, surprised. "How did that happen?"
"He just showed up at our cafe! Didn't recognise me, I've not technically met him yet, I've not been with Laca for that long. And of course Jordyn didn't have a blue clue who he was, but they were chatting away like anything, you wouldn't believe your eyes if you'd seen them!"
"Our Jordyn was chatting? With Auba?"
"That's the one," Lia said.
"Talk about opposites attract," Hector smirked.
"But was it like... flirting, or..." Adri broke off, wondering.
"It was definitely flirting, and she was blushing when I asked her about it afterwards, but..."
"My goodness Lia, you have to tell her you're with Laca as soon as possible!"
"I know," Lia sighed. "I just didn't want her to freak out, she's such a private person, I was scared she'd want to stay away from the whole famous footballer thing."
"If she can handle Auba, she can handle anyone," said Hector. "Does she know who he is?"
"Yeah, I told her," said Lia. "To be fair, she literally didn't care. He asked for her number and she wouldn't give it to him!"
Adri shook her head, with a laugh.
"That's such a Jordyn thing to do."
"Hey, it's coming back to me now," said Hector, who was just as engrossed in this 'bedtime story' as Adriana. "Auba was having a whinge to us the other day that he couldn't get this girl's number and then he went to the same cafe the next day and she wasn't there!"
"Oh, Jord told him to come back the next day if he wanted to see her again," Lia said, remembering. "What an idiot, she booked that day off months ago! Surely she didn't do that on purpose."
"Doubt it," said Adri. "Oh well, I guess they'll work it out eventually. They'd be cute, you know."
"I reckon," nodded Hec. "You going home now, or..."
"Wow, you're kicking me out of my own store?"
"Damn right I am," Hector smirked at her. "Go on. Don't come back until you're a functioning human being."
Lia shook her head, watching the two of them. Speaking of perfect couples...
A/N: so today I just saw a thing that apparently Auba said that the English media like to talk a lot but for now he is 100% here. Which surely he wouldn't say that if he was planning on leaving this summer? So it made me smile like I hadn't since this morning, when we beat United 2-0. Love that ;)
Also we can all ignore the fact that KT and Gabi (who's not been introduced yet) definitely did not sign for Arsenal in the same transfer window as Auba.
AND ANOTHER THING...
should I just use Mikel Arteta as the manager for this story or should I just not mention the manager by name? (I don't want to use Wenger or Emery as that's too much extra drama.)
Thank you for reading, as always <3
- Jord