Friendly reminder that Roth was the father Lara deserved, not Richard "Dick" Croft. #NotMyLara
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"Oh come on, Winston!" Lara pouted, "Just a bit longer, I've just gotten to a good part in my book."
"Now, now, you know the rules, my young Lady," Winston admonished, "it's time for your history lesson. Every head of the Croft household before has been well-versed in the history of their ancestry, and so will you."
Crack! Both Lara and Winston's heads shot up in surprise. Just what was going on? It sounded as though a firecracker went off within the mansion.
"What was that? It sounded like it came from the direction of dad's study!" Lara exclaimed, tearing off in that direction.
"W-wait!" Winston shouted after her, pushing his old frame as hard as he could to keep up with her, "Lady Lara let me investigate it for y- I said stop!"
"Dad?" Lara asked as she pushed the towering wooden doors to her father's office open, "Dad, is everything alright?" She stopped dead in her tracks, finally taking in the sight before her. Her father was slumped lifelessly over the front of his desk, a still-smoking gun in his left hand and blood dripping from his head down onto a newspaper article headlined Disgraced! Renowned Historian's Wild Claims Debunked. "Dad?" She asked again even though she knew he wouldn't reply. Her breath and heart rate began to quicken, and she heard blood roaring in her ears.
"Good God!" Came a scream from Winston that sounded like a distant echo, "Somebody call for the authorities and an ambulance, quick!"
"...Dad?"
"Then we shouldn't have anything to worry about, right? ...Lara?"
Lara stared at the article taped to the back of her locker in a daze, not even taking in Lexie's words. The thing she had feared had indeed come to pass. Catherine had seen her biography page, and who knew who else had as well? Her heart started to race inside its bone cage, and she whipped around with her teeth barred as Catherine came walking smugly through the door to the locker room.
"You cunt!" She spat, "This was you, wasn't it?! You did this! I should-"
"You should what?" Came the coach's voice from behind Catherine, "What exactly is going on here?"
"I have no clue, coach," Catherine said innocently.
"Don't you lie!" Lara fired at her, ripping the yellowed newspaper off the back of her locker and holding it up for Catherine and the coach to see, "You put this there, didn't you?!"
"What is that?" Lara was so blinded by rage at that point she balled the paper up in her hands and threw it aside. She grabbed her bag out of her locker and slammed it before storming out without giving Catherine or the coach a chance to say anything else. When she was about halfway to her dorm, she slumped against a nearby tree and held her face in one hand.
"...Shit!" She hissed into her palm. How was she supposed to face anyone on the squad or the coach after the way she had just behaved? It seemed like she was the one with the behavioral problem, which was probably what Catherine had been going for from the beginning. You damned idiot… she thought to herself. She was as good as off the team, she knew it. So what did she do from there? "...Damn it…" She didn't know.
But Roth would know.
With a sigh, she slid down along the trunk of the tree and came to a cross-legged sit in front of it as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. Then, she pressed the 1 on her speed dial and waited for it to ring.
"Lara?" Came Roth's voice after a couple of rings, "Calling again so soon? I thought you'd be too busy with school."
"What, I'm not allowed to call to chat every once in a while?" Lara asked with a weak laugh.
"Not that, just that it's not like you to do so this frequently. Something happen?" Lara exhaled heavily. Of course Roth would know; after she lost her mother and her father withdrew from everyone leading up to his suicide, both he and Winston were the only ones constantly looking after her growing up.
"Kind of," she admitted. There was a pause on the other end of the line.
"Well, out with it, girl. What's the matter?" Lara brushed her hair out of her face and scratched the back of her neck while she thought of where to begin.
"Old Deranged Dick," is what she went with.
"...I don't quite understand," Lara could almost picture Roth's brows knitting together in perplexion with the way he spoke through the phone.
"I can't escape him no matter how hard I try to, Roth," she finally admitted. "I just want to be Lara, but...all people ever see is Richard Croft's daughter, and they wonder how nuts I am-I can tell just by the way they look when I say my last name. I don't know what to do."
"But Richard Croft's daughter is part of who you are, lass. You can't escape it even if you try, I've told you this."
"Stop saying that," Lara blurted out in frustration. Roth let out a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, but it's the truth… What happened that brought this back up again, Lara? You seemed to be doing fine before, what about that roommate you get along with?" Lara's stomach sank.
"That's...a bit of a weird situation."
"Then you better start explaining it to me so I can help you." Lara held the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger and took a deep breath.
"We just aren't getting along right now, and it's kind of my fault."
"I see," Roth remarked.
"Do you though?" Lara posed in response.
"No," Roth said, "but I'm sure it'll become clear to me if you continue." A corner of Lara's lip twitched upward.
"At least you're honest…" She closed her eyes and took a small breath, "Alright, you know how when you're part of a sport they put biography pages online?" Lara asked.
"Yes, I think so."
"Well, the coach included information on there-I have no clue how she found it-but she put information on there that I didn't provide on my questionnaire. I'm talking about mom and dad's names, where I went to school, everything."
"Does this have something to do with the problems you're having with your roommate?" Lara blinked in surprise. Had she become that predictable to Roth?
"...Yes, somewhat," she conceded. "I guess I was acting weird after I saw that because I was worried about people seeing it, and when we were out in the city she asked me if I was feeling alright and I responded rather...brashly."
"Well, did you apologize to her?" Roth's tone wasn't stern or disciplinary, just genuinely inquisitive.
"Not yet," Lara said, "and it's not that I don't feel badly for it, I've just been so worried about people seeing that biography and realizing who my father is, what he did, and…" she sighed, "Anyways, I finished practice today, and you remember that old article discrediting dad that was in the post? An old copy of that was taped to the back of my locker and I went ballistic and the coach saw, so I'm pretty sure I'm off the team." Roth mumbled something, "What was that?"
"Nothing...Lara, why do you care so much if people know who your father is? Are you ashamed?"
"I'm a lot of things, Roth," Lara responded dryly, "he embarrassed me with his rants about that stupid research of his, ignored me so he could focus on said research, and then abandoned me. Why would I ever want to be associated with that man?"
"Because he's your father, and nothing you do can change that," Roth stated bluntly, "if you don't want people to think you're like Dick, prove you're nothing like him and stop hiding."
"You don't think I've been trying to do that?" Lara demanded, "I've been trying to but still it's all about Crazy Dicky Croft's daughter. How can I be myself if people won't even see me?" Her tone was almost desperately pleading by that point.
"You haven't been trying to do that, though. You just said you were worried about people seeing that biography, and you don't realize you're acting exactly like your father by avoiding your problems and hiding them away." That stung just enough to silence Lara for the moment, "People do see you, that's what you're not understanding. You're so focused on hiding your past and who you are that you're not noticing the signs around you, and I've noticed this tendency in you before. Your roommate is a great example of this; you were so fixated on the possibility of people finding out who you really are that you didn't even notice her concern for you at the time. Not concern for Richard Croft's daughter, but you."
Lara didn't even know how to respond to that, partially because she knew that everything Roth was saying had some element of truth to it.
"And I know for a fact there are other people at that school who care about Lara for Lara," Roth continued, "so just surround yourself with those types of people. And if others only see Richard's daughter? Fuck 'em. Just prove you're nothing like him. Isn't that why you damn near gave Winston a heart attack and refused your trust fund?" Roth chuckled to himself, "You really did stun the wrinkly old codger." In spite of herself, Lara allowed a small smile to creep upon her face.
"Yeah, I guess I did…"
"You're spending so much time and energy pushing people away and isolating yourself when, if anything, that is exactly the type of thing Dick would have done. It is what he did. If you really resent the man that much, don't base your actions off of him. Base your actions off of yourself. You see what I'm saying, lass?"
"Yeah," Lara breathed out, "I do."
"And as for the gymnastics situation, as soon as we get off the phone I want you to immediately try to find the coach and explain your side of what happened. Other people were there, right? If so, perhaps they can try to help explain as well. You understand?" Lara nodded even though she knew he wouldn't be able to see it.
"Yeah...thanks, Roth."
"Anytime, girl. I have to go now, the crew needs me. Try to stay out of any further trouble, yeah?"
Lara tried to follow Roth's advice following the end of their phone call, but the gymnastics team was already gone by the time she got back to the athletic complex. Since she had to work a shift at the Nine Bells later that night, she decided that she would have to resolve her newest Catherine situation later and get ready for work, which meant going back to the dorm doing her school work first.
And, perhaps, if Sam was there maybe she'd try to make plans to go out together so she could apologize for behaving so erratically. Her mind made up, she made her way back to her dorm hall with newfound resolve and walked up the steps to her floor. She inserted her keys into the lock, let herself into the room, and took a good look around.
No sign of Sam. Well, that worked out just fine since she needed a shower anyways. She set her keys down on her desk, and her gymnastics bag right beside it, and made her away over to the bureau next to her bed to pull out her work clothes and a towel. With those in tow, she walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, setting the shower water to a hot temperature setting and stripping off her sweaty layers.
When she had cleansed herself of all evidence of the day's physical exertion, she turned the water off, stepped out, and toweled herself off before getting dressed again in her fresh clothes. She reemerged into the room, disposed of her dirty clothes in the hamper, and immediately set about working on her coursework. Halfway through her history reading assignment, she heard a familiar voice outside followed by the sound of the door being unlocked. She immediately closed her textbook and turned to face Sam, who swaggered in before stopping in her tracks when she saw Lara waiting for her. A moment or two passed in silence as they stared at each other, each person not knowing what to say to the other.
"...Hi," Lara began awkwardly, breaking the silence.
"...Hi…" Sam began rather slowly, "I wasn't expecting to catch you in here." Lara winced internally.
"Yeah," she began, "that's...kind of my fault." Sam blinked in surprise.
"No, I mean I get it. I guess I was being a little nosey."
"Hang on-" Lara began before a third voice cut her off.
"Is that your roommate? Oh, I wanna meet her!" Came a voice from the hallway which evidently belonged to a blonde female, who peeked her head inside before frowning pensively. "Hang on, I didn't know this was your roommate! Is that why you were asking about Richard Croft earlier?"
When Lara and Sam's eyes locked in that instant, the mixed expression of pure mortification and guilt on Sam's face told Lara all she needed to know.
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