Stella raced down the corridor, dragging a now laughing and excited Shannon behind her to the locker room. Shannon immediately liked Stella and felt instinctively that they would be good friends. Stella looked at the tall red-head next to her. She definitely wasn't Grace, but she liked her. Shannon looked at Stella, noticing the happy Maltesian quietly scruitinising her once they got into the locker room.
"What?" Shannon asked, not wanting to seem rude, but wanting to know why she was being stared at.
Stella blushed and said "sorry, I was just thinking about how well you will fit in here! You seem so cool and confident, not at all like Grace, who by the way was sleeping with Josh for soooo long and none of us knew it until right before she died, which is like creepy and also Grace was married at the time so that's extra creepy."
Shannon just looked at Stella, a bemused expression crossing her face. She figured that Stella was the gossiper of the team but that she was also focussed and driven. She didn't hear Stella continue talking until she waved a hand in front of Shannon's face. "Hey anyone there?" Stella asked, laughing. Shannon quickly snapped back into reality. "Huh? Oh sorry, was just thinking" she said, smiling. Stella looked interested but continued her rant about Josh, Zara, Michael, Dom and everyone else. "Then Zara arrived and Josh hated her at first but now he's totally in love with her and she's much better for him than Grace ever was, like Zara's not married, she isn't blonde, she kicks butt better than anyone I've ever seen, she's an ace with a gun and her collection of knives is huge AND she is a former intelligence operative! Dom on the other hand, you will LOVE him, he's got the cutest baby at the moment! Her name is Gracie-Rose. Michael is my boyfriend and we've been together for ages! He so cute and funny and I love him to bits! Lawson and Kerry are cool, and we all secretly think they are seeing each other because they keep locking themselves in Kerry's office for "meetings". Leon is lovely but BADLY needs a haircut and new clothes! But yeah Josh is the one you have to be careful of because he is still touchy if you mention Grace, which is kinda fair enough but yeah she's dead and that is that. He is also the really tall guy with the scar on his face."
Shannon felt someone watching her and looked up to see the person that Stella just described looking directly at her. When she met his eyes Shannon saw Josh's pain clearly showing. As quietly as he had arrived, he turned silently and walked away. Shannon looked back down at Stella.
At that moment, Michael himself came running into the locker room looking worried and stressed, but as soon as he saw Stella, his frown became a huge smile and he relaxed. Stella turned to see who it was who had come in and was excited to see it was Michael.