Chapter 7: For the Longest Time
"Your future is whatever you make it."
The ship towered over top of Darjeeling. At this angle, the ship blocked out the sun. A giant red brick drove out of the blue and parked up next to Darjeeling. It was Kay in what appeared to be a mid-60s muscle car. There was an arrowhead badge on the front with a little star at the top.
"Nice boat."
"Glad you like it."
"Why are we here?"
"So that I can sneak you onto the ship."
"Why would we need to do that?"
"I thought you wanted to keep this a secret. If you don't, we can just go get on the ship."
"And how are you going to sneak me in?"
"Using this." Kay pulls out a spare Saunders uniform. "Naomi managed to get me one for you."
"So that's what she called you about?"
"Yes. So are you going to put it on or not? There's a bathroom over there." Kay points over at a faded blue concrete building a couple hundred feet away. Darjeeling sighed before walking over to the building. After a few minutes, Darjeeling came back out, now in the Saunders uniform Kay had given her. She had also put her hair up in the same ponytail from when they were at the mall.
"Good choice with the ponytail. That's going to hopefully make you stick out less. How do you think of the uniform?"
"It's breezy. I guess the word would be 'unrestrictive' compared to the St. Gloriana ones."
"You want me to give you a tour first, or just go straight to what I planned?"
"A tour would be nice. It's been quite the while since I've been on your ship." Darjeeling gets in and when Kay puts the car into gear, the car rumbles forward. After a surprisingly long drive, they finally got up to the deck of the ship. Already, there was some glaring issues.
"Why is the road so bumpy?" Darjeeling was being shaken around in her seat.
"Because we can't be bothered to fix it."
After a rough ride, the school building finally honed into view. The main office for the school was massive compared to the buildings around it. It was a large brick building on a hill with an architectural design from around the mid-1800s. A surprisingly large amount of foliage surrounded the building
"That looks pretty. It's nice to see something old-fashioned around here."
"It is pretty. You want to go see a couple of the more surprising things we have on here?"
"I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"We could go back to my apartment."
"You have an apartment?"
"You don't? It's customary in American schools for a student to choose whether they want to live in a dorm, or pay to live in an apartment. Mine looks like a little townhouse."
"No, I just live in a dorm room with my friends."
"Interesting. Let's go look at the airport we have here."
After another extremely bumpy ride, they got to one of the weirdest things Darjeeling had ever seen on a school ship.
"When was this added?"
"You've never seen this part? This is where our Air Lift Division works from. It helps when we need to transport our tanks or racecars."
"It's quite the large runway."
"Our planes are so big that they need an extremely large runway to both take off and land. The larger the plane, the large the runway needed to use it."
"Interesting. Do you know how to fly?"
"No, I never really saw the point in learning it. You want to go see the newest part of the ship?"
"Why not. Oh, is that what I think it is?" Darjeeling points over at an old fashioned trolley rolling down the street.
"Yeah, it's a way for the students to get around the ship easier. The original idea was a railway, but this was cheaper."
By this point, Darjeeling had gotten used to the awful roads around the school. What she didn't expect however, was for the road to turn to dirt when they got close to their destination. The final destination for the day was what appeared to be a giant metal building. The loud roaring of a stock car could be heard nearby. For how large it all looked from the outside, it was surprisingly fast to be able to get up to the roof of the building. Darjeeling saw pretty fast what that sound was coming from. This metal building was actually a massive dirt track with some considerable banking. A dark blue car with a bright yellow #29 on the roof was running laps around the top of the track. The lights around the track were on as the sun had gotten low enough for them to be used. Naomi was leaned up against the railing, watching the car make laps while occasionally looking at a stopwatch.
"Who is it today, Naomi?" Kay leaned against the railing next to her. Darjeeling stayed behind her, trying not to grab attention.
"Today it's Amelia running laps. We need to get some good practice for that dirt race in the fall." Naomi looked over her shoulder back at Darjeeling. "I see you brought your girlfriend with you."
"How did you know it was me?" Darjeeling was the one to be asking the questions this time.
"Because Kay brought you here. She usually doesn't take people around with herself and even if she did, it would be me or Alisa. Alisa is down there…" Naomi points down at pit road. "…so it must have been you."
"Do you really care that I brought her with me?" Kay cut in-between the two.
"No I don't. I'm just glad that you found someone that can handle your energy."
Kay in an effort to change the subject, hold onto Darjeeling's uniform and tugs her over to the railing. "You see out there?" Kay points at the sun starting to set below the horizon. "Out there is the perfect moment. Do you see it?"
"I think I do."
Naomi starts to snicker. "I see she's converted you to that as well. Kay does love to keep her movie lines for when the time is right."
"Yes, she does."
"We should go back to the car. Naomi, I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" Kay once again wanted to just change the subject before something embarrassing happened.
"Goodbye then." Darjeeling waved at Naomi before being half pushed, half prodded down the stairs. "Do you have to be so pushy?"
"Sorry about that. I just don't want to end up with you knowing something embarrassing about me."
"Don't worry, I already know enough embarrassing things about you."
"Hey!"
"So we're going to your apartment now?"
"Unless you want to go somewhere else, yes."
"Lead the way." Darjeeling intertwined their hands as they continued the trek to the car.
"Did you have to say all that?" By this time they were on the way to the apartment. Kay at this point had gotten slightly annoyed by the adventures on the rooftop.
"What was wrong with me talking to her?"
"She was going to tell you all my secrets!"
"It's not like you already tell me yours anyway. You want me to name one?"
"Like what?"
"Like your glasses. Why haven't you worn them today?"
"Because someone would notice them immediately and then I would have to go into a long explanation about them."
"But I like when you wear them."
"You want me to tell one of your secrets then?"
"I wouldn't mind if you do that."
"You purr or something while you sleep."
"But I know you love when I do that. When I curl up next to you and do that, you melt every time." Darjeeling leans over and rubs up against Kay, imitating her purring.
"Can you stop that?"
"Just admit that you love this, and I will stop. Unless you don't want me to stop," teased Darjeeling.
"Fine, I love it when you do this. Are you going to stop?"
"Why should I? You're just going to say that you want me to do it again."
"Just do whatever you want at this point. Oh look." Kay points out the windshield at a tan-grey little townhouse. "Here it is. Just keep in mind that this place is a little messy."
After a short wall down a hallway, they made it to the living room. Kay saying it was a "little messy" was a bit of an overstatement. The walls were a light-blue mixed with a teal. A couch was against the right wall with a television stand on the left wall. The center was taken up by a low table. Other than a couple bits to a model kit, it was fairly clean. An old wooden chair was in the corner.
"I just can't believe that you're actually standing here in my living room, Darjeeling."
"It looks nice for how much you said it was messy." Kay draped her jacket over the chair and turned around.
"There's the kitchen." Kay points at the door next to the TV. "You don't mind if I show you something personal of mine, do you?"
"Sure. Lead the way."
After going up the stairs, they passed the bedroom before reaching Kay's secret room at the end of the hallway.
"Here we go." Kay opens the door and flips the light switch. Darjeeling can hardly believe what she's looking at. All 4 walls were coved in shelving showing off a massive model collection. Any American made war vehicle imaginable was on the shelves. Dozens of Sherman variants, P-51 Mustangs, Corsairs, Fletcher-Class destroyers, Pershings, B-17s, and much more. On the shelf on the back wall, there was a large opening with a plaque that read "My Favorites." On this special shelf laid a model of the USS Enterprise, the USS Missouri, the USS Barb, a M4A2, a Chaffee, a Firefly, a P-51D, a B-17, and a F4U. Darjeeling took a wider look and noticed what was at the center of the room. Two large war tables sat next to each other. One was of Pearl Harbor, the other of the Midway Atoll.
"How do you have enough time and money to build all of this?"
"Well, I've been building this up for a while now. Usually I got funds from racing and fans. Nowadays, I just spend the money I earn commentating on this."
"Huh." Darjeeling gives the room a second look and spots something that shouldn't exactly be there. "Why is that there?" It was a model of Centurion Mark III sitting next to a Sherman Easy Eight model.
"Oh, uhh… don't worry about it."
"Oh you are going to tell me. You have all of these other models, of American war materials, yet you have a British MBT in the center of it." At this point Darjeeling had basically pinned Kay to the wall.
"What has gotten into you today?"
"You don't want me to do this? You've made all the moves so far, yet you don't like it when I do it. Seems slightly hypocritical for you to do all of this, but back out at the last second."
"Can we at least move this out of here please?"
"Fine, let's take this to the bedroom if you feel so inclined."
A short walk down the hallway led to Kay's room. This was by far the messiest room in the house. Clothes were all over the floor. A maroon desk against the back wall was covered in racing memorabilia. A flatscreen dominated the center of the desk. A somewhat large closet with a wardrobe in it was on the right. Surprisingly, there were a couple of bookshelves full of different books from mystery to racing. A large metal box hanged from the wall with three glass tubes pointing to the center. Some red tape was put across the top of the box. A mess of a two person bed was up against the wall on the left next to an even messier nightstand. While the bed was just mostly messy due to the covers being a mess, the nightstand had all sorts of junk on it, including a lamp and a model M3 Halftrack that had Kay's glasses on it.
"Do we have to continue with this?" Kay sat down on the bed, looking over at Darjeeling.
"You were perfectly fine with what I did earlier."
"But do we have to do this?"
"You don't want me to do this?" Darjeeling hops on Kay and attempts to smother her.
"What are you doing. Why are you doing this?"
"Because this is what you fantasize about. You've wanted me to do this for a while now. But when you're about to get what you want, you don't want to admit it."
"Can we just talk about it in the morning?"
"Fine, but you better not mess this up." Darjeeling looked down at her uniform. "You have anything that I could change into?"
"I have a couple shirts around here somewhere." Kay squeezes out from underneath Darjeeling and walks over to the wardrobe. "What about this?" It was a light grey shirt with a black rectangular logo on the front.
"I guess I don't have a choice. Is there a place where I can change?"
"Can't you just change in here?" Kay plopped back down on the bed.
"I can't just change in front of another girl! Its un-lady like to do that."
"Who sounds like a hypocrite now?"
"Just don't look when I do it, alright?"
Kay rolled over to face the wall, excited to see what Darjeeling would look like when she rolled back.
"You can turn around now."
Kay turned over and was presently surprised by the sight in front of her. The shirt she had given to Darjeeling fitted perfectly. Darjeeling also had put her hair down, which let off a golden aura in the light of the nightstand lamp.
"How could you hold this back from me!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You look so pretty like that. Do you want to come lay down?"
Darjeeling attempts to clamber over Kay to get to the other side of the bed. "Do you have to take up this much space?" The second time however, she's able to get over.
"So what do you want to do now?"
"Curl up against you and fall asleep."
"What a surprise." Kay turns the lamp off.
Before long, Darjeeling had passed out and was doing her usual thing when she slept. Kay managed to wrap herself around the sleeping girl next to her. "What an interesting week this will be."
End of Chapter 7