Lara sighed as she watched the streetlights flicker by the trolley window. It was way past her brother's curfew, and he knew it. Luckily for him, Master Croft always went to bed unaware of what his children were up to. It was always up to Lara to bring Roger home safely. Roger's habit of sneaking out always had Lara worried, and it was cutting into her personal time. The true burden, however, was pulling him off of some homely girl almost every night. Lara made a vow to herself to never bring herself out at this time of night again. It was a chore and a hazard. London wasn't the safest place at night.

She pulled her jean jacket tighter to her chest, and rose from her seat. She went upstairs to the top deck of the trolley. Her shortcut was coming up around the corner.

Lara positioned herself on the very left side of the deck, and jumped up on a seat. When the trolley neared the corner, she ran and jumped off the right side, and landed on a rooftop.

Lara jumped from roof to roof, occasionally slipping on a faulty shingle, then grabbing onto the gutter to pull herself back up. Her seven years of gymnastics were finally paying off.

Lara landed onto an alley way aside a school, then continued onward to her brother's usual rendezvous, the old drive-in theater. She cautiously walked in between cars, keeping alert for her brother's presence.

Screams came from the projector screen. Lara looked up to see the The Omen play in front of her. She rolled her eyes and continued.

It wasn't long before she heard the all too familiar 14-year old voice drift from a nearby car. Master Croft's Cadillac, she observed.

Lara scoffed as she marched up to the back window and pounded harshly. Roger rolled down the window, wide-eyed and guilty.

"Hijacking father's car again I see," Lara put her hands on her hips, "This is the last time I come out here to-"

"Oh come on Lara! You know I hate being in that stuffy house all the time-"

"Stuffy house! It's the size of the Taj Mahal!" Lara leaned down to look in the window at her brother, whose large green eyes seemed to shimmer in moonlight. She had always envied the color of his eyes, and would trade them in for her dark brown ones any day. "You know better than this Roger," Lara's voice softened, "You are better than this. Don't you think dad will figure out that you're doing this every night?"

"No, not if you keep getting me every night," Roger grinned.

Lara reached over and pinched his arm. "Ow!" he yelped.

"This is the last time I come to check on you," Lara hissed, then looked over at the pudgy girl, sitting silently in the corner of the seat, "And you," Lara pointed, "I don't care who else you put between your legs, as long as my brother isn't a part of the body count."

The girl grimaced, "You have no right to address me like that!" she seethed.

"And you have no right to have such a putrid face," Lara shot back.

The girl's mouth formed an 'O' of shock, and Lara turned to leave. Roger got out of the car and followed her. When they were about five cars away (three of them steamed up), Roger grabbed Lara's shoulder and turned her around. Lara stared down at him, her eyes narrow and arms folded across her chest.

"Why did you say such a horrid thing to Selma? She's not in the least bit putrid…"

"I know that, she's actually very lovely."

"Then why did you say that Lara?"

"To drive her off. She's not good enough for you."

"But you just said she was lovely…"

"Quite. But you are also 14 years of age, no one is good enough for you. No one will ever be good enough for you until you are least 21."

"That's not fair! Just because you're 21 doesn't make it the magic age!" Roger spat, "What about your engagement? You're going to be 22 soon and you still don't know if that's what you want…"

Lara bared her teeth, "It pleases Father," she said between clenched incisors, "William is a gentleman, he'll take good care of me and our family."

"Ugh! That's what it's always about here!" Roger growled.

"What are you talking about?"

"This- this stuffiness! We are the most uptight country on this damn planet!"

Lara stared. He had a point. "Okay, well, you have a point Roger. Marrying Will won't be my favorite thing to do this year… but it will make our dad happy, so I'll try to be happy."

"Don't you want to be free?" Roger questioned.

"I already am. I can do whatever I want. And I want to m-marry Will."

Roger scrunched his face in disgust, "That's a lie." He turned on his heel and walked back to the car.

Lara felt her shoulders slump, and she left to go back home.

She pulled herself through the open window of her bedroom, and collapsed onto the floor. Lara rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. It was a pretty ceiling, with swirling imprints that left a lot to the imagination. Lara was always seeing different images in the ceiling, and now in her half-asleep state of mind, she could see a lioness. Lara frowned. She hated seeing things that were unrealistic, and this felt very unreal to her. She was seeing something that she would never become: strong, independent, and yet, graceful, just like the lioness. Lara sighed, drew her legs to her chest, put her hands under her knees, and swung herself up. She drudged to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, and forced herself to see her face.

She knew she wasn't ugly, but she couldn't help but feel displeased with herself. She lifted her chin a bit to get a different view of her face. She had defined eyebrows and cheekbones, which was all right, and her lips were quite full. Her hair was long and a chestnut-brown, and cascaded around her shoulders like a curtain. It was thick hair, and it would often get caught up in knots, but she didn't have the heart to cut all of it off. The one thing she couldn't stand about herself was her eyes. They were brown. A deep, dark brown. She would much rather have an exotic color, like green (as her brother's), blue, or maybe even gold.

Lara shook her head at herself. If her mother and father could hear her negativity, they would be very disappointed.

Lara lied still in her bed, the thoughts of the adventures of the night slowly drifting away, leaving her mind isolated. All she saw was the glowing, white ceiling that loomed above her. All she felt was the softness of the mattress that cradled her back.

THUD!

Lara flinched when she heard the sound in the next room over. Obviously, Roger was home. He wasn't nearly as graceful as Lara when it came to crawling through a window and making a clean landing. She looked over at her alarm clock that read 2:36 AM, and sighed disappointedly. It was surprising that cops hadn't caught him.

Being content with her brother's arrival, safe and secure, Lara drifted off to a deep, intoxicating sleep.