Red-Laced Waterfalls
Kate stared at the box of star stickers - glow-in-the-dark star stickers, rather - and wondered about the mystery of Brooke Scott.
“Marsh? I need my half, here.” The girl in question - with her overly-long legs and skintight, torn at the knees jeans - said, sending her a glance and a carefully raised eyebrow.
Kate had always resented the fact that she couldn’t raise one eyebrow. It confused her.
She opened the box, and handed a handful that looked like roughly half of them to her. Brooke’s hair, dyed red on one end and with aqua-marine bangs, glinted in the slowly setting sunlight outside.
Dusk was approaching rapidly. Kate might have to invite Brooke to watch the sunset with her if this went on.
(...What? Where on earth did that thought come from?)
Kate shoved quite a few thoughts in the back of her head, and instead focused on Brooke as she reached out to take the handful of stars.
With her left hand.
The one she hadn’t slammed in a cabinet.
“Are you left-handed?” Kate said, as Brooke took the stars and stood on her bed, inspecting the ceiling.
“Hm? Oh. I’m ambidextrous. I spent two months with my left hand tied to a desk whenever I wrote for that skill. I don’t regret it.”
Kate blinked.
“...You’re kinda… something else, aren’t you?”
“Not really.” Brooke said, very dismissively. “We best get to work on this ceiling. Daylight is waning.”
Kate blinked. Again.
She found herself doing that a lot around Brooke.
Brooke, finally, took a star and, very delicately, pressed it to the ceiling.
It stuck.
It was in that moment that Kate really started to be interested in Brooke Scott.
Because, for a moment - something very close to a smile touched Brooke’s face. Almost more of a pleased half-tilt to her lips - satisfied, yet wanting.
And then, it vanished like smoke - and all that was left was a very intensely staring Brooke, with a decidedly neutral expression.
Kate stared.
It struck her, for the first time, that she’d never seen Brooke smile. Not even once.
The beginning of a smile fit her face very well, though.
“Well, they stick. I was afraid the adhesive had been rendered lame by this long on my windowsill - but apparently not.”
She turned around like a whip. Her tied-back hair hit the light in a very odd way, that cast half her face in a reddish-orange glow.
“Well - come on, Marsh. You won’t be doing much work, standing on that floor like a common ignoramus.”
She offered her left hand.
Kate grabbed it without really thinking, and was hoisted onto the bed. Brooke’s sleeve shifted, a little - and Kate wondered for the first time why she was wearing long sleeves indoors.
Actually, she’d never seen Brooke in short sleeves.
“An ignoramus?” Kate said, raising her eyebrows. “I’m starting to suspect you actually came from the eighteen-hundreds, Brooke.”
Brooke drew herself up, a little - Kate noticed for the first time that Brooke had an inch or two on her, but was a little slouched pretty much constantly.
“Don’t be a dunce. If I was from the eighteen-hundreds, I’d be shouting it from the rooftops, not sticking glow-in-the-dark star stickers onto your unnecessarily bare ceiling.”
Kate couldn’t help it.
She snorted.
Brooke’s face shifted to open shock, for a moment - probably the most emotion Kate had ever seen from her.
“Fair point.” Kate allowed, taking a sticker of her own and pressing it to the ceiling. “You’re probably just a reincarnated english colonizer.”
Brooke was silent, for a moment.
“Now that, Kate, is a valid theory.” She said, sticking another star to the ceiling. “Perhaps I was a baker. Or a blacksmith, even - I can see myself getting into the blacksmithing arts.”
“Maybe you were a pirate.” Kate offered, sticking another star to the ceiling and feeling the tiniest smile tug at her lips. “Working for what you knew was a disproportionate profit.”
“Perhaps I was a simple farmer, forced into the pirating life to help my estranged family.”
“Maybe you were on a years-long quest for vengeance on the person who murdered your cattle.”
“Perhaps I was a sort of nineteenth-century John Wick.”
Kate nodded, and grinned.
“You know, Brooke - I suppose it’s possible that we were friends in a past life. Co-workers.”
Brooke raised an eyebrow, tongue sticking out from between her teeth as she carefully put another star onto the ceiling.
Her tongue was very pink.
“By that logic, it’s possible we were enemies. Rivals on the high seas.”
Kate gave her a smug grin.
“Well, I would certainly be a more accomplished pirate then you.”
“Don’t be a dolt.” Brooke fired back. “You aren’t even ambidextrous.”
“I get better history grades then you.” Kate said - though, really, it was a complete shot in the dark. She had no idea what grades Brooke got.
Brooke sent her a glance.
“Don’t make me bring out my ‘blondes are idiots’ jokes. I have a whole list.”
“At least my hair is only one colour.”
“Don’t even talk about my hair.” Brooke said, though there was a distinct lack of bite in her voice.
“I’ve never seen your hair out of a tail, either.” Kate said, pouncing upon the only point that Brooke had even bothered contending.
Brooke sent her another glance.
“Pot? Kettle.”
Kate - out of raw spite - instantly reached behind her head, and pulled her hair out of its bun.
She spread her arms proudly, and smiled widely.
“There. Your turn!”
Brooke stared at her like she was an alien.
“...Why, on the face of these nine realms, would you ever tie your hair up?” She said, finally - and she sounded, not only distressed, but genuinely very confused.
“...Because it looks better?”
Brooke kept staring.
Suddenly, something in her face seemed to crack - and she tilted her head up, and said, very confidently,
“‘Why, Brooke, don’t you think this grass is awfully purple today?’”
Kate blinked. Slowly.
“...What?”
“You might as well have just said that.” Brooke said, staring at her - seemingly having forgotten the stars. “That was how crazy you sounded. What am I even supposed to say to something like that?”
“...Well, ‘yes, Kate,’ would be a good start.” She offered, with a tiny smile.
Brooke blinked - one eye after the other. Like a lizard.
“...Yes, Kate.” She said finally.
“Now - your turn!” Kate said again, gesturing to her hair.
Brooke’s face instantly closed up.
“I don’t remember agreeing to that.”
“That’s because you didn’t. Hair down - come on! I let mine down!” Kate said, shaking said hair as if to prove it.
Brooke’s lip tightened - and, for a moment, Kate was afraid she’d crossed some kind of line.
But then, she slowly reached back - with her left hand, Kate couldn’t help but notice - and pulled her hair out of its tie.
She shook it loose, and Kate blanched.
Brooke adjusted her glasses, and raised an eyebrow expectantly.
“Well? I did it. Stop annoying me now, please?”
Kate had to admit, on the surface, it was an… odd look. One that shouldn’t have worked so well.
Her bangs hung low enough to cover one of her eyebrows, with the hint that they were brushed to one side in the way they fell down. They were died aqua-marine - an odd contrast with the strands of red and white that laced the curtains of hair that cascaded past her shoulders, and ended with a soft curl that made them look like waterfalls - ending with a splashing torrent of mist and flinging droplets of freshwater.
It shouldn’t have looked so good.
“...Uh. Yeah, I’ll… that’s fine.” Kate managed, turning away to put up another sticker - mainly because if she didn’t, she’d keep staring, and that would just be weird.
“Wonderful.” Brooke muttered under her breath, sticking another star to the ceiling.
Kate wholeheartedly agreed - not that she’d ever say so.