Chapter 9 – The Road

Catra

After her conversation with Adora that evening, Catra had learned a huge lesson: if you're using public transportation, you can't get lost in your thoughts or you're going to miss your stop just like she did.

She had been so absorbed replaying the conversation and feeling all giddy when thinking about having new friends that she ended up at the last stop, lost and really afraid because it was getting dark. That was a great start to her new life, for sure.

In the end, everything turned out fine thanks to a nice woman explaining to her that the very same bus took the same route to go back so, in that little trip, she learned two things: 1) Don't get lost in your thoughts and 2) Busses don't go just one way (which should have been pretty obvious, honestly).

Finally, after another hour of ride, she got to her new place and was greeted by a very worried Scorpia on the verge of tears.

"Catra! Jesus, I thought something happened to you! I was literally about to call the police! Thank god you're okay." The buff woman hugged her while rambling and she couldn't help but get a nice feeling. It felt nice knowing someone's actually worried about you.

"Is everything okay? We really were about to call the police." Perfuma, Scorpia's girlfriend, asked her with the same worried tone as she put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder to calm her down.

"I'm okay, it's just…" And then she explained the whole bus thing to both of them even if she felt like dying from embarrassment. If something similar had happened with her parents, she was sure they would have punished her for being so dumb, which is why it felt nice to see both women relieved and not judging her after she finished her story.

"I'm glad it turned out okay." The big woman told her. They had both taken a seat in the living room while the blonde woman went to make some tea.

"I'm glad too. It was… quite an experience." She answered as Perfuma came back and sat beside her girlfriend.

"I bet. Something similar happened to me back when I was in high school. I fell asleep in the bus and when I woke up, I was really scared because I didn't know where I was." The white haired girl said between chuckles, making all of them giggle too. "Of course, I can laugh about it now, but it was awful." They all laughed and then there was a short, peaceful silence before the thin woman spoke.

"So, Catra. I spoke to one of my friends to see if they have a job for you and they said they have one. You wanna hear about it or do you wanna go to sleep? We can talk about it later, if you want." She thought about the woman's words for a second. On one hand, she was really tired and wanted to go to sleep. On the other hand, she knew she needed to find a job soon to not be a burden to the women that had so nicely taken her in.

"It's okay, I'm not really tired." After her answer, a loud, scratchy sound, came from the kitchen.

"I'll bring the tea." Scorpia got up and left while Perfume started talking again.

"Well, my friend Mermista and her boyfriend own a restaurant pretty close from my shop and she said they're looking for a waitress. Also, they recently remodeled and now the restaurant has a stage in which they have some live music every now and then. I told her you could play the keyboard and she said you could also get up there and play some tunes whenever you want." That last part sounded kind of scary but also exciting to her, the problem was the first part. She had never done anything remotely close to being a waitress. She had never even picked up her dishes after she ate. What if she messed up and ended up breaking something? "Of course, this is just the first thing I could get you so, don't feel pressured into taking the job if you don't like it. I can keep asking around or maybe you can find something online. Whatever you want."

"No. I mean… It sounds nice but…" She took a deep breath before continuing. Lately, she had been saying a lot of things about herself that showed "weakness", as her father said, and she kind of felt uncomfortable with it, but she knew she had to overcome the feeling. "I'm a little bit… scared… I've never had a job before. What if I mess things up? I wouldn't like to put you into a difficult position with your friend because of how useless I am." The woman got closer to her and took her hand in hers, looking at her in a weird way no one had looked at her. Was it pity? It kind of felt like that, but different. She just couldn't place the right feeling.

"Don't say that about yourself. Scorpia has told me about all the things you can do and I don't know if you remember, but I also attended your last piano recital, even if I had to leave early because of that awful food. I know you're a very capable woman. Don't sell yourself short." The words stung her heart in a nice way, making her feel a warmth spreading through her stomach too. "And just like I told you before: you don't have to take this one. We can keep looking around until we find something you're comfortable with."

"Thank you…" In her mind, she was playing it cool, but as soon as she spoke her voice broke a little and she suddenly felt something hot on her face. Why was she crying now? Was it really that nice to hear what Perfuma said? Well… it seems like it was…

"It's fine." The woman hugged her suddenly and she reciprocated without even thinking about it. "You can think about it tonight and tell me what you think tomorrow" She whispered as she patted her head lightly, making her feel like a kid in her mother's arms. Or that's what she thought it felt like. Her mother never anything like that with her.

"Oh, are we hugging now?" Scorpia entered the living room with a tray filled with cookies and three cups of tea that she quickly left in the coffee table to join them in the hug.

Was that feeling she had something like love? Like, the love you have towards your family? Was it something else? She was not sure, thanks to her parents' cold treatment, but it was one of the nicest feelings she had ever had in her life. Maybe that was why people always spoke highly about the benefits of having a family. She never understood that until now because, if that was the feeling she had, then it was more amazing than she thought. She was glad she left her home for that now. It was more like, she left a house to live in a real home.

Adora

She had always avoided drama all her life as much as she could. If someone yelled at her, she just stood there and did nothing. If someone did something she didn't like, she just took it quietly and kept going with her life. That was how it usually was for her. At least until she entered college and things started to fall apart.

First, she got into a heated argument with her now ex-girlfriend (a drama so bad that it almost felt like a really bad episode of a cheap telenovela), then she yelled at one of her classmates because of her stress and now she was the reason why Glimmer and her boss were yelling at each other.

It all started at lunch time, when the pink haired girl had come to her desk like she had told her the night before, only to find her drowning in paperwork that was handed to her last-minute by her boss. She told her friend that it would be impossible for her to have lunch that day if she wanted to get to college on time.

The real bomb exploded when Huntara also came to her desk to go to lunch and saw the pile of work on her desk.

"Damn. The boss' making you do her paperwork again? What a bitch." She wouldn't lie about one thing, and that was how funny it was for her to see Glimmer's face go from confusion to surprise and then to anger in less than a second. Sadly, things didn't end in a funny way, since now Glimmer was yelling at her boss so loud that, even if they were in a closed room, everyone could hear them.

Of course she tried to stop her, but her short friend was a force of nature and it was impossible. She could only watch anxiously all that drama unfolding in front of her.

"I fucked up, didn't I?" Huntara asked her when she saw her all nervous. The buff woman seemed worried but at the same time, amused by the situation.

"It's okay. It had to happen eventually." She sighed loudly, trying to calm her nerves.

"I didn't know you were actually friends with her. I thought you both hated each other." She looked around at the office before answering. Everyone was doing as if they were still working instead of going to lunch, waiting to see how this whole drama ended, making her sigh again.

"I didn't want anyone to know because we've been friends for so long. His father too is a very close friend to my grandma. I thought it would be troublesome if people found out. You know like, they would say that, whatever I earned, was just because I knew the HR people." She felt a hand patting her back lightly as she took a deep breath.

"Come on, I don't think anyone in this office would have thought like that. We all see how hard you work. Sure, some of them like gossip, but this isn't a teenage movie." She chuckled at the woman's comment and then she heard a loud noise coming from the office her friend was, as if something had fallen and broken. The door opened suddenly too and the pink haired girl stood there, looking at the person inside.

"If you're not capable of doing your own job, maybe we will find someone who can!" She yelled loudly before turning to finally exit the office, but stopped for a second and turned around again. "And I'm sorry I accidentally broke that little cat doll, I'll pay you for that!" She turned around again and finally came out of the office, closing the door with a loud thud. Everyone in the office turned to look at the pink-haired girl as she walked towards the blonde, still frowning in anger.

"Hey, Am I still employed?" She asked playfully once the girl was close to her.

"You bet you are. And God help that bitch if she tries to fire you. I will come down again and put her head inside her stinky little…" The blonde interrupted her with a loud cackle that came out louder than she would have liked it to.

"I get it. There's no need to explain further." She put her arm around the short girl's shoulder and patter her head lightly, as if trying to calm her.

"I just spoke to her for a couple minutes and I hate her already. I don't know how you are able to see her every day and not go crazy." The girl sighed, calming herself and making her giggle in the process.

"Bills don't pay themselves and hunger doesn't wait so…" Her friend removed her arm from her shoulders and interrupted her, starting to walk towards the elevator that would take them to the break room.

"You're right. Let's go to lunch then." At that sentence, she looked at her desk and the pile of work on it, worry showing on her face.

"Is it really okay though? I mean… I still have to do all that." The shorter girl turned back and walked towards her. Once in front of her, she smacked her lightly on the cheek.

"That woman will do her own share of work. I told her that, if I get word that you even touch a single paper from her work pile, she will get fired for not meeting the requirements of the job. Basically, being able to do her damn job. So, let's go to lunch because I'm starving." At her friend's words, she felt a little bit of relief. Her work always piled up because of that reason and it would be really amazing not having to fill her boss' reports about things she didn't fully understand (she was already studying to get a degree and learn all that, but she was no genius) or know. She honestly never got why no one complained about the reports she filled. Where they doing a really great job in the teamwork department? She didn't know, but damn she wrote beautiful words about how much that team felt like a family. Where their investments paying off? She was not in charge of that work, but of course she always said everything was amazing.

"I'm actually starving too so, let's go to lunch and you both can tell me about this weird friendship I just found out." The buff woman put an encouraging hand on her shoulder.

"Fine. But I'm filling up a detailed complain about violence in the workplace with HR." She said jokingly, knowing full well that the little smack her friend gave her didn't even hurt.

"Sure, I'll wait for it at my desk." They both chuckled at the comment while they walked towards the elevator.

Now that everyone knew she was friends with the HR department, things might change, but it actually felt good. She would stop getting so much work and maybe her boss would stop being a jerk too.

Maybe using your contacts every now and then was not as bad as she had thought, especially if one of them is your best friend. Or well, one of your best friends.

At that moment, the blonde remembered something she was going to do at lunch but thought she wouldn't be able to do it because of the amount of work she had; she needed to text Catra and tell her about their lunch on Sunday.

She was actually really pumped up about that last night and, now that her responsibilities just went down considerably, she felt giddy about it again.

She wanted to see that cute girl she definitely didn't have a crush on. Yeah. That was impossible. Those things only happened in movies because of how short those are.

And I'm back again with a new chapter.

I had to use this one to move the story a little forward, but fear not, because next chapter will be full of Catradora interactions.

I hope you're liking this "each character learns a new thing from life at all times" shit I'm writing. It's kind of cheese, but I felt it was the right choice (since I am making the characters grow) to understand why they think the way they do. I'm also trying to use the real traumas they showed in the show (Like, trust issues for Catra and "hero complex" for Adora).

But whatever; I remember I said this story would be ten chapters long and look where we are: at chapter nine and not even close to the end.

Anyway: I'll do my best to have the next chapter ready for next week, but I'm really bussy these last few days (I was fixing a couple things in the house I'm moving out of and that little project turned to be a huge remodelation for the house) so I can't promise anything, but I'll surely try.

Thank you for reading and for commenting (and I'm sorry it takes me so long to answer).

Sidenote: I wrote this chapter while listening to "Lords of the Trident" and the title comes from their song "The Road".