Chapter Text
Eretria Rover’s day was going perfectly fine until one of the football players decided to pick a fight with her. She always had a knack of fighting with the wrong people and those wrong people tended to be guys who had no problem hitting a girl.
She typically referred to these kind of days as a ‘Wednesday.’
That was completely unchivalrous, she thinks as she holds her bloody nose and walks to the nearest bathroom. Wil Ohmsford, awkward and yet loved linebacker of the Arborlon Knights, just had to be in her way and not move. He just had to have his buddies back him up and harass Eretria. Granted Eretria could have just sidestepped them and gone to her table but that was not who Eretria was. She stood her ground. Until Wil’s goons stepped in and made her the spectacle of lunch and played pinata with her.
Pricks. She slams her hand into the door to push it open. When she rounds the short corner to the sinks, Eretria stops when she notices a girl standing there and fixing her hair. “Jesus Christ.” Eretria mutters when she sees it’s Amberle Elessedil, Wil’s best friend and, as of recently, rumored girlfriend. Just that enough made Eretria hate her. But of course Amberle was the star student of every class she was ever in during high school and had gotten multiple scholarships to attend Aborlon University. She was the perfect girl and everyone adored her. Which is why Eretria hated her even more.
Amberle looks up and, after a moment of realizing Eretria is obviously hurt, gasps. “Are you okay?” she drops her brush and starts to walk over. Eretria holds up her hand to stop her. “Move, Elessedil.”
But Amberle doesn’t move. In fact, she tries to step forward and offer help. Eretria storms past her, deliberately slamming her shoulder into the other girl’s and nearly knocking her over. Amberle huffs in shock.
Eretria looks at her image in the mirror and sighs. Her nose has swelled and started to bruise, blood that was coming out now dried. While she wasn’t exactly punched, having her head slammed into a table had just the same effect.
“What happened?” Amberle takes a step over and crosses her arms, now in Eretria’s view from the mirror. Eretria starts running the water. “Ask your boyfriend.” she states bitterly. It wasn’t that she was jealous of Wil and Amberle together. She was more jealous of the fact that Amberle had once been outcasted like Eretria. Until high school and puberty hit. Stupid hormones. Suddenly being really smart and productive with school wasn't bad when the girl was gorgeous.
Amberle opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything. Instead she silently watches as Eretria tries to clean herself up. “You should go to the nurse.”
“They won’t do anything and they’ll call my… dad.” she stumbles over the word and looks down at the sink. The water has turned a light shade of red. The door opens and Amberle goes back to her things laid out on the counter. Eretria rolls her eyes and cups water in her hand to drink. A random student walks in sheepishly, saying hello to Amberle and using the restroom. Eretria and Amberle are silent.
After the student leaves, Amberle turns her attention back to Eretria. “Let me take you to the hospital.”
“Yeah, no thanks. That’s unnecessary.” Eretria shuts off the water and leaves before Amberle can say any more.
Eretria skips the rest of the school day and goes home. Cephalo isn’t home, for which she silently thanks whatever god there is, so she nurses her new wound with a pack of frozen peas and sits in the living room to watch whatever show she can find.
Usually Eretria would finish classes and be at soccer practice. As much as she was loathe to admit it, she was pretty good in the sport and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her guardian, dad, whatever he wanted her to call him, Cephalo, had forced her to join in middle school so she could be good at something. At that age, she did anything to make him happy. Now the only reason she continued with it was because she could possibly get a scholarship and join Arborlon’s prized and famed soccer league. That was her only freedom from the man who was her so called father. That was her only way into college. Her grades wouldn’t get her far.
On most nights Cephalo wouldn’t get home until Eretria was finished from soccer practice but tonight out of all nights, he came home early. Eretria was shifting through the cupboards when she heard the door open. “Shit.” she hisses, and throws the pack of peas into the trash. A last minute attempt to act like everything was fine, except it wasn’t and she was sure her broken nose was more visible than the moon.
Cephalo drops his bags on the counter and stops to remove his jacket when he notices Eretria. He glances at her appearance before gruffly asking, “why aren’t you at practice?”
“I had some troubles at school today and left. Decided it would be for the best. Sir.” she adds the last part with too much venom and winces when Cephalo slams his hand on the counter. “I’m paying a lot to let you play, you realize this?”
“Yes.” she grinds her teeth together, nose throbbing. Cephalo walks over and grabs her jaw, tilting her head so he can properly look at her nose. “Did you learn your lesson?” his face is far too close for her comfort.
“Yes.” she looks anywhere but at him. Cephalo pushes her head away and walks to the stairs. “Good! Because I don’t want to see that pretty face get messed up again!” he yells as he walks up to his room.
Eretria swallows hard and turns to the sink. As soon as she hears his bathroom door slam she grabs her coat and cleats and runs out of the house.
Despite the freezing weather January brings, Eretria forces herself to stay outside and kick the numerous soccer balls she stole from the school gym. A easy task, seeing how stealing was second nature to her and Arborlon High never locked their windows. Her nose is numb due to the cold which helps the pain but she still winces whenever she kicks too hard and the vibrations make their way to her broken bridge.
After doing a couple warm ups, Eretria lines up one of the balls to the goal post and steps back, calculating her kick. She takes another step back then runs to the ball, foot connecting and hitting the ball with full force.
The ball hits the crossbar and rolls over to the edge of the woods near the soccer field. Anger suddenly spurring in her, Eretria kicks the next ball a little too hard, slipping on the grass and falling. She ungracefully catches herself from landing with her face in the ground and groans.
“At least you finally made a goal.” at first she doesn’t recognize the sweet and sarcastic voice, but once Eretria lifts herself up off the grass and looks up, her anger comes back. “What are you doing here?”
Amberle has hood up, shielding her face. “I saw you after Wil’s practice ended.” is all she gives the other girl. Her backpack is slung haphazardly over her shoulder, heavy with textbooks.
“And you decided you’d grace me with your presence? Gee, thanks.” Eretria walks away from the other girl to fetch the soccer balls. Amberle follows quietly behind. “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, you weren’t in the rest of your classes today.”
Her feigned worry nags at the back of Eretria’s mind as she notices the snow starting to fall. “I’m perfectly fine, thank you. Go away.” Eretria turns on her heel. Amberle nearly falls into her, gaze obviously somewhere else. Where, Eretria has no clue. “Why do you have to be such a bitch?” Amberle asks. Eretria raises her eyebrows. “Go to hell.”
“I gladly will. And to think I was going to ask you if you wanted me to take you home. It’s nasty out.” Amberle gestures to the snow, which is more like freezing rain than anything else.
“With your boyfriend? No.” Eretria picks up the soccer ball and glances at the one closer to the line of trees. Amberle’s shoulders drop. “He’s not my boyfriend and my car is empty. But, suit yourself.” she gives Eretria one more fleeting glance before crossing her arms to trap in heat and running off to go to her car before the weather got worse.
Eretria watches her with mild interest, forcing herself to stay put and not run after Amberle.