The day was cool, typical for the early-Autumn season, but that didn't mean it was too cold to go out. People still walked through town, going about their daily business, though there wasn't much to do in the sleepy little town of Leadworth except go to the cafe in the center of town or go to the park, where most of the children spent their free time.
Inside the park - which wasn't very big, mind, but it was plenty huge to a young child - was a playground. It had everything a typical playground always had; a swing-set, a see-saw, a climbing frame, a slide, and a sandpit. Most of the equipment was covered in chipped paint and rust from years of facing the elements without much polish or repair, but the children of the village absolutely adored it and played there every day.
It just so happened that today of all days, most of the children of the small town were playing in the playground, running to climb the wrong way up the slide, pushing themselves up higher and higher on the swings and daring each other to jump off at heights they deemed 'dangerously fun' to try, flipping about on the climbing frame like large rabid monkeys, roughly moving the see-saw up and down with several passengers too many on either side to try and launch each other off.
However, no one was in the sandpit - except for one, solitary young girl with fiery red hair and large brown eyes.
She alone sat in the sandpit, shifting the dirt around with her hands, trying to lump it into the shape of a box, though it ended up looking more like an awkwardly sideways rectangle. Her tiny freckled nose wrinkled in frustration, the girl swiped a hand through her attempt and started to remake the box shape, somehow managing to get a square shape but unable to build it up into the specific thing she was imagining in her head.
"Rubbish," she muttered sulkily, her voice laced with a Scottish accent nobody could mistake, "I told Aunt Sharon I needed water to make it proper, but noooo, she won't let me use a hose!"
She continued her quiet complaints, unaware that someone was walking toward her.
Most people - even the other village children - tended to avoid her. At first it was because she was so out of place; a little Scottish girl in an English town with no parents and no friends to help her connect with people. Now, though, people avoided her - and encouraged their children to avoid her - because they believed her to be mad. Ever since the day nearly a year ago when little Amelia Pond had awoken spouting a fantastical tale of a magic Doctor in his other-worldly blue box falling out of the sky telling her he'd be back to take her on adventures in five minutes (or not) the night Aunt Sharon was away, she had gotten both suspicious stares and wary glances whenever she went anywhere near another boy or girl her age.
The Impossible Doctor and the Time-Traveling Blue Box; everybody in town had heard her story, and while most had scoffed at it, some also pitied the poor girl who had obviously gone 'round the bend.
But, the looks and the pity didn't deter Amelia Pond one bit. It didn't matter what Aunt Sharon said, or the psychiatrists, or the other children or the adults. Nothing anybody said mattered, because she knew the Doctor was real and that he was coming back for her, sooner or later, and she would wait until he did.
It didn't matter that nobody believed her story about him; nope, not one bit. It didn't even matter that her best friend Rory Williams didn't believe her, because at least he was nice enough to pretend to believe her. It didn't matter that her other best friend Mels teased her about it, acting like she believed the tale and yet saying demeaning things about the Doctor when she thought Amelia couldn't hear her.
It didn't matter because little Amelia Pond would be here, waiting for the magic Doctor to return and whisk her off through time in his big blue box with it's swimming pool in the library and engines that made a strange whooshing sound when it took off and disappeared.
Currently Amelia was absently tracing letters into the sand underneath her, wishing Rory and Mels were here to play with her and help her make her blue box sculpture, instead of Rory being off on a family vacation and Mels being grounded by her foster family.
The words 'Police Public Call Box' slowly became distinguishable from the characters she was shifting the sand into, and Amelia couldn't help but smile sadly at the words. "Where are you, Doctor?" she asked, her voice forlorn, "Why haven't you come back for me yet?"
"Doctor who come back from where?" asked a voice from behind her, making the tiny red-head jump in surprise and spin around, not caring that she got sand twisted into her jeans.
A girl - even smaller than the rest of the children, can you believe it? - was crouched behind her, looking over Amelia's shoulder at the letters with a look of curiosity. She had long brown hair tied up in a ponytail with large, chocolate-y brown eyes that seemed to take in everything at once. "And what's a 'police public call box'?" she continued to question, looking up to meet Amelia's wide, astonished gaze with her own innocently curious expression.
Amelia stared at her for several moments, unsure what to do. Nobody ever spoke to her - except for Aunt Sharon, but that was usually to scold her, and the psychiatrists, but that was to tell her lies about the Doctor not being real, and Rory and Mels, but that was usually because they were playing a game or talking about the Doctor, because he was Amelia's favorite subject. She didn't talk to a lot of people, yet this girl had come up to talk to her. Why?
Amelia didn't recognize her from the village - was she from out of town? That made a bit of sense, but the other kids would most likely have warned her about the crazy Scottish girl as soon as she set foot on the playground, so why was she here?
"Did you hear me?" the girl asked, quirking her eyebrows at Amelia, and the red-head realized she hadn't replied; simply stared, which, frankly, was quite weird indeed. Maybe she was crazy. But only a tiny bit.
"Uh, yeah, sorry. A police public call box is a time machine that's bluer than the sky and bigger on the inside! The Doctor uses it to travel through time to save the world like a superhero!" Amelia said excitedly. She hadn't had anyone new to tell about the Doctor in ages; it was nice to start from square one again.
However, as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the girl's eyebrows had drawn downward into a completely perplexed frown, eyes darkening with something akin to disbelief. Amelia snapped her mouth shut, wishing she hadn't said anything; her period of momentary regret made her miss the spark of recognition, of realization, in the depths of the new girl's awe-struck eyes.
"A time machine?" she asked, and Amelia was surprised at her tone; instead of the disbelieving scoff she had long since gotten used to about her tales of the Doctor, this girl's voice was full of wonder and excitement, the same sort of energy Amelia had felt herself the night that impossible box had crashed into the tool shed. "A real, proper time machine? Like that car from Back to the Future?"
Amelia was honestly surprised this girl even knew what Back to the Future was, but answered anyway, "No, no, no! That was all bulky with parts and it was small; it could only hold a few passengers! A proper time machine like a police box is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, with a swimming pool in the library and a kitchen and bedrooms and-!" Amelia listed several more things a police box had - or rather, what she imagined a police box had, as she had never been inside one because the Doctor had said the 'phasing engines' or whatever made it too dangerous for her to enter his.
Meanwhile, the other girl's face didn't twist into a skeptical mask of polite indifference to her story; instead, a wide grin of astonishment and happy, childish amazement grew bigger and bigger on the girl's face, her eyes nearly popping out of her head as Amelia began to describe everything she had seen and talked about with the Doctor.
"Wow! So, do all time travelers like fish fingers in custard? Is it something about time travel that makes you want to eat it? Or do you eat what ever? Can you eat souffles while time traveling too?" the girl asked excitedly, bouncing awkwardly in her crouched position, the child-like innocence so bright on her face it would blind a man to see it.
"I dunno, but the Doctor seemed to like it! I've tried it myself, thought it was complete rubbish; maybe when you go through a time portal it starts tasting better?" Amelia said, though it sounded more like a question, but the brown-haired girl didn't seem to notice.
"And a police box can go literally anywhere in all of time?" she asked, her voice hushed with awe at the implications.
"And space too! The Doctor said he can go anywhere he likes to in the universe!" Amelia exclaimed, waving her arms above her head to indicate the sky and, in turn, the universe surrounding the planet.
"Wow! That's amazing!" the girl gasped, and there wasn't a hint of sarcasm on her face or in her voice; she was well and truly mystified by the tale of wonder she had been told, and it didn't matter that the other children had begun to take notice and stare at the pair of them like they were nutters, because it truly was amazing to her.
"Isn't it though?" Amelia asked, feeling a small flash of pride and smugness to finally meet someone who was just as fascinated by the Doctor as she was. She had met the Doctor; that had to mean the universe wanted them to travel together, right?
"Oh, I wish I could meet him!" the girl sighed, her voice becoming wistful as she looked up at the sky as if hoping to see a flying blue box up there somewhere.
"Maybe you could! When he comes back, I'll introduce you to him! And we can go on adventures with him!" Amelia exclaimed, clapping her hands together as if that settled everything fair and square.
"Really, you mean it?!" the girl asked, and when Amelia nodded the tiny brunette squealed excitedly and launched herself forward unexpectedly, hugging the daylights out of the red-head and shaking her a little. "Oh my gosh, thank you thank you THANK YOU! That would be sooo cool!"
"Yes, well," Amelia said, her voice a bit tight from lack of oxygen, "It might help if I knew your name, you know!"
The girl squeaked in embarrassment, letting go of Amelia and allowing her to pull in some much needed air as her face turned rosy pink at the cheeks. "Uh- er- Clara! My name's Clara Oswald!" she said.
Amelia grinned at her, grabbing the tinier girl's hand and shaking it like she'd seen adults do when they greeted each other. "Clara Oswald," she repeated, eyes dancing, "I'm Amelia Pond!"
"Nice to meet you, Amelia Pond!" Clara exclaimed. She cast a look around, suddenly looking nervous, before staring at Amelia uncertainly. This worried Amelia for a moment, but a second later Clara asked, "Do you really think I can meet the Doctor?"
Amelia nodded vigorously. "Of course! I know you will!" she said reassuringly, and the smile Clara gave her was the most happy one yet.
~DoctorWho~
A/N: I honestly have no idea where this came from. I was just watching season 7 earlier when I had the sudden urge to see Amy and Clara meet, so I wrote this one-shot to satisfy the plot bunnies. I don't know why, but I think these two would have been fun to see work together. :3 Sorry if it isn't... well, up to scratch. I haven't been able to think straight for a few days, ever since the last late-night study sessions for finals, so... I guess I hope you enjoyed? Please leave a review if you can!
And before you all ask; this is back when Mels/Melody was brainwashed by the Silence to hate the Doctor or whatever, so she doesn't like him much. That's why she said insulting things about him around Amy.
P.S. Thanks to Possumx for the information about proper British references!
~Persephone