Author's Note: This is an epilogue of sorts to my fic An Ealing Comedy, but it could also just be a story of Clyde and Rani's early days as a couple no matter how they actually got together.
Day One
It was a beautiful spring morning in Ealing. The road-side trees were green, the sky was mostly blue and the sun was shining. And Rani and Clyde were walking to school side by side the day after confronting the elephant that had been sitting in their particular room for nearly a year. Everything was perfect.
Except that it wasn't.
Though they were, at first glance, walking together, closer examination by someone who'd never seen them before might lead to the conclusion they were just casual acquaintances. The pair weren't talking or even really looking at each other. Once in a while one of them would glance at the other and smile or say something brief, and receive a similar response in return. This had been going on since they'd left home and they were nearly half way to Park Vale by now.
"Do you want to meet for lunch?" Rani asked.
"Yeah." Clyde nodded. "Why? Don't you?"
"Of course I do," Rani told him. "I just thought you might not. Today."
"Why'd you think that?"
"Because you've hardly said a word to me all morning!" Rani snapped. "Did you… change your mind or something?"
"You haven't said much to me either!" Clyde responded.
"I'm sorry." Rani looked away. "I was… thinking."
"About what?"
"Clyde, what are you going to say when we get to school?"
"About what?"
"Come on! About me. About… us."
Clyde shot her a hurt look. "I don't know. What are you going to say?"
Rani shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I haven't told anybody yet."
"Me neither. Didn't even change my status."
"You change your status for pizza!"
Clyde shook his head. "You don't even have yours up."
"Oh, that?" Rani shook her head. "None of my mates do. Stops guys just looking us up and asking us out because they think we'll say yes to anybody."
Clyde gave her a familiar smile, but it wasn't the one she was hoping for. "And I'm not just anybody?"
Rani looked at the pavement. "No, you're not. You know that."
The smile vanished. "What?"
She took a breath. "I thought you'd want to tell people."
"Like who? We told Luke and Maria. They'd have killed us if they'd found out over Facebook. Had to tell my mum of course. Don't see many of my old mates anymore."
"Clyde." Rani cut him off. "I'm just not looking forward to walking around school all day with everyone saying that Clyde Langer's finally pulled the Head's daughter."
"You can't blame me for gossip," Clyde replied, and then his face fell. "Oh. You thought I was going to run around school boasting to anyone who'd listen?"
Rani raked a hand through her hair. "I don't know. Clyde Langer: Teenage Boy. It's not too hard to imagine."
"Is that what your dad says?"
"No!" Rani finally rounded on him. "You annoy my dad because you won't work even though you can and you constantly wind him up. It's got nothing to do with me. And what about you? What's got you so scared you won't talk to your girlfriend?"
Clyde visibly flinched and Rani's eyes widened. The word neither of them had said until then hung in the air between them, impossible to take back.
"Oh," Rani said, very quietly.
Clyde finally looked up at her. "If I told anyone at school I'd kissed you they'd think it was a wind-up. Sure, we're mates, but the school joker and the Head's daughter? That's never going to happen."
Rani bit her lip, wondering what to say. She wanted to take his hand or kiss him to prove him wrong, but she knew he'd flinch if she tried. So eventually she just gave him her best, brightest smile.
"But who says Rani Chandra can't fall for Clyde Langer because he's her best friend and he makes her really, really happy?"
He gave her a very rare nervous, awkward half-smile and turned away. He didn't do it quickly enough to stop her seeing him blush.
They walked along for another few moments before Rani asked, "Did you think we'd get to school and I'd want to pretend nothing happened?"
"Maybe." Clyde shrugged. "I don't know, do I?"
"Clyde, we've known each other for years. You should have some idea how I think by now."
"When you were my friend, yeah. But now you're…"
He tailed off, looked up at her and then away. They rounded the final corner and headed towards the sounds of Park Vale's before-school rush.
"Why don't we just try and get through today and worry about it later?" Rani suggested. "We've both got coursework marks to find out and the mock results will be in soon. And you never know, maybe aliens will invade and give us something to do."
"Something to look forward to," Clyde remarked.
"So… I'll see you at lunch, yeah?"
She turned to go, and Clyde caught her hand. She felt her heart jump with something equal parts fear and excitement. Here they were, in the middle of the school car park, and Clyde was holding her hand. She looked back at him, at his uncharacteristic expression of fear.
"Girlfriend," he said, forcing the word out. "You're my girlfriend."
Rani smiled. "Yeah. I am."
She leaned forward and, in front of the whole school, kissed his cheek.
Clyde smiled in relief, and reached up and gently brushed the spot. "Why'd you do that?"
"You're going to have to stop sounding so surprised," Rani told him. "I wanted to. And it'll save us telling everyone ourselves."
"Meet you behind the bike shed at break?" Clyde suggested.
"Nice try, but you've got to finish your homework some time," Rani said. "I've got to get to English."
She finally let go of his hand and turned away. She did her best not to look back, but couldn't help it. Clyde grinned at her and waved before dashing towards the art block.
She turned back and nearly walked into Sky Smith.
"Hi, Rani. You look very happy."
Rani caught sight of her reflection in one of the windows and realised she was smiling ridiculously widely. There was no way they would have been able to keep this quiet even if they'd wanted to.
"Is this because Clyde's your boyfriend now?" Sky asked.
If possible, Rani's smile grew even brighter. She liked the sound of that. She liked it a lot.
"Yeah," she said. "It is."