Title: Damaged
Summary: Everyone is damaged, she explained, but not everyone is broken. Ashley never thought that going back to Baltimore with Kyla would bring her face-to-face with the one person who made her feel like she wasn't broken.
Disclaimer: I don't own SoN. What I do own is a computer and the amazing ability to not do what I am supposed to with my time.
AN: Just so we're all aware: my computer is a piece of junk. Thought you should know that.
I didn't have to work today, which meant I should be studying. I did this instead. And I did yard work for my mom because she has no sons. But that is less relevant to you all.
It was some time later, after a long power nap and two trips through Starbucks, that Kyla was finally able to convince Eileen to let her take her guests to visit her old high school. It took a little more convincing to get Ashley to go along, but with her best friend and younger sister tag teaming her she eventually slumped into the backseat of Kyla's Jeep Wrangler.
In the time it took for Ashley to flip through the fashionista's vast collection of music (the girl had a disturbing amount of boy bands and Kelly Clarkson) they had pulled into the parking lot of a stereotypical high school. It differed from King High in that, while the California school had spread the classes over a wide campus, Pikes High had gone and placed the same number of classes right on top of each other. It was a single building in a giant rectangular shape that was four stories high and while there was nothing special about it outright, there was definitely something that had Kyla giddily skipping ahead of them.
They approached through a tree lined walkway and just before Ashley could step through a set of double doors a cool wind picked up and she paused to bury her hands in the front pocket of her dark blue hoodie. Aiden and Kyla, already in the building, stopped and glanced back at her. "You okay, Ash?" the young girl asked, bouncing on her toes and eager to move forward.
"Yeah," she frowned as she glanced around, "Are we going or what?"
Kyla led them into a wide atrium that split into three halls and was surrounded by glass cases filled with pendants, trophies, student art work, honor roll lists, photos of outstanding students, and anything else the school could claim pride in. In one pseudo-corner, flanked on either side by two halls, was a bronze-like statue of a ferocious looking bear. Or rather, it would have looked ferocious had it not been for the brightly colored Hawaiian shirt, multiple leis, and wide straw hat it was sporting.
"You have to love school pride," she joked at their amused looks, "Go Grizzles." After a moment of indecisiveness she began to lead them once more down the hall directly in front of them, when a shout came from the hall on their left.
"Kyla Woods?!"
It was a tall girl with blonde hair who was wobbling precariously on two crutches. She was dressed in basketball shorts and an ugly t-shirt that had 'Pike High PE' written across the front and her left leg was wrapped in a cast from foot to thigh. Standing next to her was another girl, tinier with dark hair and black rimmed glasses, that was similarly dressed and carrying a small stack of books and notes.
"'Rissa! Val!" Kyla bounded over to them and drew them into a heartfelt, if not awkward, hug.
The girl on crutches pulled back first, "What are you doing here? Spencer said you weren't getting in until tonight!"
"It's supposed to be a surprise," she grinned, but seemed to finally catch on that the girl was injured. "And speaking of surprises: what happened to you?"
The blonde flushed. "It's actually a very boring story," she began to explain but the other girl cut her off.
"Yes, a boring story that involves Valerie, a convoluted game of truth-or-dare, Donny's bike, a homemade ramp, a fifth of Jack and a whole lot of 'I told you so's," she rolled her eyes at Kyla, trying to hold an exasperated look on her face.
"I agree, sounds like a terribly dull story," the brunette nodded, sounding completely serious.
The blonde, Val, gently whacked the smaller girl in the back of the knee with one of her crutches. "I know you both want to laugh at me," she pouted, which immediately caused the other two to dissolve into giggles. "Yeah, whatever, laugh it up," she groused, but was smiling at the both of them.
The girl in the glasses wiped at her eyes, "I can't believe Spence didn't tell you about it."
Kyla immediately frowned, "Neither can I."
"That's actually my fault," Val sheepishly raised her hand, "I had enough people on this side of the country calling me up and telling me what an idiot I am, plus I didn't want you to worry about me, so I asked Spencer to keep it on the DL. Sorry, Ky."
"Oh, I guess I can forgive you this once," she grinned, slipping an arm around the taller girl's waist in a one-armed hug. The action, however, turned her just enough to bring Ashley and Aiden into her line of sight. They were standing back, looking a little dazed and out of place, and Kyla instantly felt like a heel.
"I'm such a terrible hostess!" she groaned as she jumped from her two friends and pulled at the California natives until they were all standing in a circle in the middle of the hall. "Aid, Ashley, this is Valerie Hart and Marissa Lauder, two of my favorite girls on the East Coast. Val, 'Rissa, I would like you to meet my friend Aiden Dennison and Ashley Davies, my sister."
The two girls exchanged a quick, indiscernible look before greeting the two visitors. They all shared the necessary pleasantries for a few minutes before Marissa bounced the palm of her hand off her own forehead, "Damn." She gestured between her and the blonde, "We seriously need to get back to the gym. We told coach we were only going to our lockers and we've been gone for like fifteen minutes."
"But gym sucks when you aren't allowed to do anything," Val whined, "why can't we go see Spencer with DQ?"
"Don't pout at me, she's your coach," she flicked at the other girl, "And don't call her that."
Kyla pushed the blonde playfully, "I don't mind. I know she can't waste precious brain cells trying to figure out new nick-names."
The injured girl waved a crutch around threateningly and muttered, "If I weren't crippled," causing a fresh round of chuckles.
"We should hang out tonight," Marissa pulled Kyla into another hug, "Call us when you get a free minute and we'll figure something out."
"Definitely," Kyla grinned as she turned to hug Valerie.
They called out goodbyes and began to go in their separate directions when the blonde called out over her shoulder, "You may want to check Miss Langley's class first!"
"Thank you!" Kyla waved but her friends were too far away to respond at that point. "Come on," she turned to her guests once more, "Miss Langley is in Art Room C."
They followed her down the hall, past several closed doors that had the hum of people behind them, and when they approached a door with a stick figure in a skirt Ashley was sharply reminded of the three cups of coffee she'd had that morning. She informed her companions that she needed to make a pit stop and Kyla danced hesitantly from foot to foot, "Do you want us to wait for you?"
But she was tugging at the chain of her necklace and rocking on her heels and one look from Aiden pretty much had Ashley knowing what she should say, "Nah, go ahead. I'll catch up."
"Okay!" she responded brightly, slipping a hand around the bend of Aiden's elbow, "See you in a bit!"
Ashley absently smiled at how the boy stumbled to keep up with her sister, but wiped the fond look from her face as soon as she recognized it. When she was done she continued down the hall that Kyla and Aiden had gone down, but the hall dead ended into another one that went two different ways.
She peeked down both, but neither looked like they lead to any art classrooms. Frustrated, she looked back down the hall behind her and groaned when she saw that there was no one to ask for directions, "Why is everyone in class? What kind of school is this?"
She pulled out her cell to call Kyla, and groaned, "of course there's no service." She waved it about but the screen didn't change. "This is like some bad horror movie," she muttered, angrily clicking at the call button.
"I think in horror movies the building is usually abandoned."
Ashley jumped with a little yelp and clutched her phone to her chest. She spun around to find another girl standing behind her looking seconds away from cracking up. "What the hell is wrong with you?" the brunette hissed, "You don't go sneaking up on people when they're talking to themselves about horror movies!"
"My bad, I'll remember that next time," the girl's grin widened and lit up her entire face, distracting Ashley for a long moment. She was barely taller than the brunette, dressed in light jeans that were ripped at the knees and threaded strategically across her thighs, a tight black baby doll tee and black and silver etnies. Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders in waves and Ashley had to blink to stop from staring at the girl's smiling blue eyes. "Hi," she breathed and mentally smacked herself.
"Hello," the girl tilted her head to the left and flicked her eyes up and down Ashley's body.
'Is she checking me out?' the brunette thought as she felt the back of her neck heat up in embarrassment. Is she had known that there would be some incredibly hot girl at this school giving her the once over then she would have actually tried to look good before she got into Kyla's Jeep.
The corners of the girl's lips turned down, but the look was more curious than anything else, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"That's really unlikely," Ashley allowed her own gaze to travel the expanse of the blonde's trim figure, "and I think I would definitely remember meeting you."
"Same," the girl smiled once more, but Ashley was taken by the way her eyes didn't quite catch it. "Anyway," she gestured with her free hand (the Californian noticed her holding a think pad of paper in the other) towards the mobile that was forgotten in her own hand, "That's not going to work in here. The school board dropped quite a bit of coin to research and apply methods to legally block reception in the building."
"That's … awesome," Ashley groaned, shoving the phone back into the pocket of her jeans, having forgone a purse that morning. "Well, maybe you can help me out," she grinned suddenly as she shifted her feet to lean against a locker.
"I'll certainly try," the blonde replied, mirroring her position.
"I'm looking for Art Room 3, Miss Langley's class. Do you know where it is?" she glanced down and bit her bottom lip, 'am I flirting with this girl?' She looked up to find those blue eyes watching her fingers weave in and out of the pull strings, 'if I'm not I'm certainly going to start now!'
"Today must be your lucky day," those blue eyes lifted to meet Ashley's and she tucked a strand blonde hair behind her ear. "I'm on my way there right now. Follow me."
She pushed off the locker and took the hall that branched to the right. A couple of step in she turned and began to walk backwards so that she could see as well as talk to the brunette, "So, where are you from?"
"How do you know that I'm not from around here?" Ashley asked instead of answering, slowing down so that the blonde had to slow down as well.
The girl shrugged and shifted the pad from one hand to the other, "We'll call it a hunch and leave it at that."
"LA," she confessed and returned with her own question, "why are you so late for class?"
"How do you know I'm late?" was the playful response, accompanied by a grin. She paused then to squint at Ashley, "Are you stalking me?"
Ashley scoffed and continued walking past the blonde, "You wish."
"Oh I do," the blonde nodded seriously, rushing to catch up, "I have fantasies about having hot, Californian stalkers."
On the right they passed Art Room A and it was Ashley who turned to watch the blonde this time, "Well, maybe it's a lucky day for both of us."
"I certainly hope so," she waggled her light eyebrows causing the brunette to laugh as Art Room B was passed on the left. "I never got your name," she pointed out, gesturing with the notepad.
The brunette considered teasing the other girl, but realized the walk was at an end. "I'm Ashley," she claimed just outside the doorway of Art Room C.
The blonde didn't halt until she was less than a foot from the other girl, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ashley." She held out a hand, "I'm-"
"Spencer!" there was a flurry of dark hair and all Ashley could register was the blonde's shocked face splitting into the most genuine smile that she'd ever seen before her sister was wrapped around her guide.
"Kyla!" the blonde dropped the notepad she was holding and wrapped both arms around the enthusiastic girl's waist, hugging her back just as tightly. Laughter bubbled up from the both of them as the blonde picked her up and spun them around once. When both of her feet were back on the ground Kyla leant back but didn't relinquish her hold on the blonde's neck, just as the blonde settled her hands on the fashionista's hips, "What are you doing here? Your mom said you weren't getting in until tonight!"
"I wanted to surprise you!" Kyla laughed, pulling the taller girl into another hug.
Ashley blinked at the scene before her, not even registering Aiden standing slack jawed in the doorway of the classroom, and waved her hands, "Wait a minute!" Kyla pulled back and frowned at her.
The blonde looked between the two of them twice before it dawned on her, "Oh, wow. You're that Ashley. You're Kyla's sister!"
"I am," she confirmed, but frowned uncomfortably at the title, "Who the hell are you?"
"Ash," Kyla stepped back a step so that she could easily slip an arm around the blonde's waist, "Aiden," she looked at the shell-shocked boy just as the blonde rested her own arm across Kyla's shoulders, "This is my best friend. This is Spencer."
The two just sort of stared in response as people began to poke their heads out of nearby classrooms to see what the commotion was. Spencer sighed as she squeezed Kyla to her side, "Did you forget to mention that I was a girl? Again?"
The brunette shrugged sheepishly, "Whoops?"