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That night they were on night duty and that meant being stuck in a little room by the cabins. The afternoon had been a whole group event and therefore they were able to keep apart much to both their pleasures, but right now they were sat in silence. Clara reading, and Danny doing Sudoku. She'd scoffed a little as he'd produced the book – such a stereotypical maths teacher. He had been quick to point out that she was an English teacher reading Jane Austen to which she shrugged and responded, "she's a good author," she smirked a little before continuing to read. Since that one brief conversation they hadn't spoken and time ticked by slowly. Clara reached the end of another chapter and shut the book, standing up.
"Did you want a drink?" she asked, flicking the kettle on. Danny looked up, a little astonished.
"Should I be worried that you'll throw it at me?" he asked and she mock laughed.
"Nah, too tired for that," she replied, "coffee?" he nodded and she quickly made it up, handing it to him. "Call it a thank you," she spoke quietly, almost reluctantly, but truthfully. "And an apology, you saved me from something potentially terrible out there and I reacted terribly. I think we should maybe try and start again? Maybe I can prove I'm not always such a horrible person to be around," she smiled a little and sat down.
"Apology accepted," he sipped his coffee, "you actually have a lovely smile, you should definitely use it more." Clara smiled again for his benefit. "Alright then, fresh start, tell me more about your school," and she did. They continued talking about teaching and their jobs for another couple of hours before they spotted the time.
"Ah, bedtime… about half an hour ago," Clara pointed out, "we should sleep, not sure I fancy being half asleep on a zip wire if I'm honest." Danny chuckled, standing up. They walked back, having a quick check around as they went and soon back at their rooms. "Goodnight ," she said as they opened their respective doors.
"Goodnight, sleep well," he smiled and went in. Danny shut the door but paused for a moment, staring at where his hand was on the handle. Eventually he moved and lay down on the bed, not bothering to change. He'd seen a new side to Clara tonight, but he was still convinced there was something she was hiding. What he'd seen tonight, that felt like the true Clara, the one who had been hiding from him, so the question still remained: why so angry?
The next morning seemed much more positive. They met up with everyone after breakfast and were led out to the zip wire by 2 of the camp instructors.
"Well that's pretty long," Toby commented as they approached it.
"Duh, that's the whole point dumbo," Ben replied, rolling his eyes.
"Alright boys, yes it is pretty long, it's also very high and I really don't fancy and paperwork tonight so let's all listen carefully to what you're told to do and keep safe," Danny told them, looking to the instructors.
"It's these two you need to watch," Courtney pointed to Danny and Clara, "they fell in the lake yesterday,"
"Some of us fell, some of us were pulled in," Clara responded, glancing at Danny who shrugged in agreement. "Anyway, on with the activity…"
They were taken through all the basic safety before they even got near the zip wire. Most of the teens were looking more than excited to get on and have a go, but Clara quickly spotted Alice's face was rather different to the rest. As they moved off to walk to the platform, she carefully manoeuvred so she could talk to her separately.
"Everything alright?" Clara asked, looking reassuringly at her.
"I'm… I'm fine, totally fine." Alice replied and went to walk with the others but Clara put an arm out to stop her in her tracks.
"I'm the expert in telling people I'm fine, and therefore I'm also very good at telling when others are not. Talk to me Alice, what's wrong?" Danny had looked round now to check everything was okay, she nodded for him to continue walking with the others and as Alice started to be compliant they too began walking again.
"I'm not great with heights, this is basically my worst fear right in front of me," she explained, not that Clara was surprised at the answer.
"Nobody is forcing you to do anything, but I promise you it will be pretty fun," she told her, "I'll do it if you will?" Slowly Alice nodded and they began to catch up with the group.
They could only go down one at a time, so they each lined up. Alice stayed at the back and Clara made sure to keep near to her. As each one of them went the others were sure to cheer and woop as they went down, occasionally shouting random comments, especially once they'd landed despite the long distance. As Karlie got strapped up and Alice realised she was next, her mood drastically changed.
"I can't do this Clara, I feel really sick," she turned away from the edge and sat down on one of the benches. Now there was none of her peers to see she was much more open. Clara quickly joined her, leaving Danny to watch Karlie go down.
"You can, I know you can, it's just fear of the unknown love, nothing more. You've seen everyone else go down safe right?" Alice nodded, but seemed less than convinced. Clara took a gently breath before trying something else. "When I was about your age, I used to be terrified of public speaking," she heard Danny almost burst in to laughter and shot him a look to shut up.
"But you're well confident, Courtney keeps saying how you're like the most popular teacher in the school and you don't get that from being nervous," she smiled a little, blushing when she noticed Danny still looking and quickly turned her attention back to Alice.
"No, but I used to be terrible, and one day we were told we had to do a presentation to our whole class about our coursework and I was absolutely terrified. I went home and told my Mum there was absolutely no way I was going to school to do this presentation, I simply refused and that was that," Clara told her.
"So what happened? Did you lose marks?" Alice asked, finally looking up at her.
"Nah, my Mum saw right through me. She knew the truth was that I was scared and she sat me down that night and we worked through the presentation together bit by bit. She got me to do it in front of her, just her, and it went really well. Once I'd done that she told me something that has got me through many a scary situation," Clara took a deep breath, "whatever you're scared of, it's not as strong as the love that I have for you, and wherever you are, whatever you're doing, my love will always be stronger than any fear."
"So you've never been scared since then?" Alice asked, biting her lip a little as she thought this through.
"Loads of times, believe me I've been in some pretty scary situations, but I just remember what she said and you know what?" she shook her head, "nothing is ever as bad as you imagine it. So," Clara stood up and held out a hand, "you going to give this a go?" she asked. The few seconds that Alice paused for seemed like a lifetime, but eventually she took Clara's hand and stood up, walking over to the waiting instructor.
"Let's do this," she said and Clara smiled. "You're coming after right?"
"I'll be right behind you, but not before you've landed so you can still laugh at me going down," Alice laughed a little at this, taking a deep breath. "Go on girl, face your fear," she told her and the teenager looked around at the vast valley below before leaning back and taking off.
Clara and Danny watched on as she made her way quickly down to the bottom.
"That was really good," he told her, "your Mum must be proud of you," Danny told her, but Clara just shrugged.
"I'm just doing my job," she told him.
"Hardly, you're not paid for this one," he reminded her, watching as Alice landed at the other end, looking round and cheering to which Clara gave her a thumbs up. "Your turn then?" Danny smiled and she quickly moved to get on.
"See you on the other side," she told him before leaning back and taking off. As she flew through the air she could hear her mother's voice ringing in her ears. It was almost painful, but not in a horrible way. She'd needed her Mum more than ever recently, but all she had was her voice, and she'd been ignoring that too. Maybe it was time she listened to her own advice.
The adrenaline rush was great, and it left the teens hyper as anything as they made their way back to camp. Both Clara and Danny were having to keep a close eye on them, especially as Courtney seemed to be in mischievous mood today. Thankfully Clara thwarted her attempts to push Danny towards the lake as they walked by and gave her a little talk about calming down which seemed to fall on deaf ears. The moment they were back in the camp area all 8 of them ran off, leaving Clara and Danny leaning against a wall and watching them on the basketball court.
"Alice looks better now," Danny commented, Clara nodded and watched her getting well involved with the game.
"Yeah she's good, really proud of her facing her fear like that – it's not easy," she replied truthfully.
"You really spoke from the heart earlier, that's not something you see often in a teacher and it's a wonderful quality," Clara let a small smile creep out but didn't look at him. "You really should smile more often, it suits you."
"Sometimes I get tired of hearing that," she sighed, pushing up from the wall. "They're fine, I'm going to head back and grab a shower if that's alright?" Danny nodded, letting her go but fully intending to talk to her later and work out what was going on.
He kept his own promise, and once dinner was over that evening Danny tracked down Clara sat in the relax room staring in the direction of the table tennis but he could see she wasn't actually watching. He walked over and sat in the chair beside her.
"Fancy a walk?" Danny asked. He could just tell she needed to get away and she really needed to talk, even if Clara didn't realise that yet.
"Please, I could do with getting out of here," he nodded and they stood up, walking out.
"If we head up to the hill will I survive?" Danny asked and she rolled her eyes, smiling, "There we go, it worked. Come on then," he grinned and started to walk up with her.
They didn't speak for a little while, just walking silently up before sitting down at the top, looking out over the view that seemed to go on forever. Danny glanced over and saw Clara's face looking much calmer already.
"When I was younger I was terrified of the dark," he finally broke their silence to Clara's surprise, "I used to lie in bed at night after lights out and shut my eyes and imagine my Mum was sat on the bed beside me singing me to sleep, it's the only memory I had but it helped me fall asleep every night," Danny opened up to her, looking back out over the view, but he could tell Clara was looking at him now.
"You lost your Mum?" Clara asked, leaning her head on her tucked up knees and looking at him.
"I guess, I was only 2 so I don't really remember life before the home. Life was what it was, I didn't do so bad out of it," Danny gave her a reassuring smile and leant back, laying on the grass and looking up at the sky with his hands tucked up under his head. Clara watched him move before following him down.
"Mine died when I was 16," she spoke up at the sky, "we were really close, it was difficult, but my Dad and I pulled through together." Danny turned his head to face her.
"We're more similar than we thought huh?" he commented and she turned her head too.
"I'm really sorry for how I've been this week, I've just not been myself recently," Clara apologised.
"Hey it's fine, you've clearly got a lot on your mind," Danny commented and she half nodded before looking back at the sky, he didn't know the half of it. "Anyway, tell me more about yourself, what do you do outside of teaching?" Clara didn't answer immediately, just looking at the sunset and trying to work out how to respond.
"Not a lot really," she eventually came out with, it wasn't exactly a lie, "work is basically my life if I'm honest. Sorry to disappoint."
"I'm not much different don't worry," he replied, "this is the longest I've been away from home and work in a good while." Clara let out a little laugh, "what's that for?"
"Well I just never imagined you to be the unsociable type that's all; I guess we really are similar." Clara sat up and then stood up, holding out a hand to him. "We should get back, nearly time to force the rabble to bed." Danny took it and stood up, "thanks for tonight, I really needed that chat."
They both went back, helping with bedtime before retiring to their own rooms. Clara finally checked her phone to see there were 4 missed called from Adrian and quickly called him back to see what was going on. He answered after the third ring.
"Hey, what's the emergency?" Clara asked.
"I just wanted to make sure you hadn't fallen off the cliff, or indeed been pushed, I was surprised you hadn't phoned to complain again," he told her. Clara giggled a little, "well someone's in a better mood?" Adrian commented.
"Yeah, we've made a fresh start now, it's good, really good," she told him everything that had happened that day from helping Alice too talking with Danny on the hill.
"Sounds like you've really turned things around then, he sounds pretty nice after all," Adrian commented with a little tone in his voice that Clara was quick to pick up on.
"What's that meant to mean?" she asked, "we just get on, that's all."
"You should try listening to the way you just talked about him and then tell me that. Clara Oswald the only person you ever hated so much from the moment you met them before-" he didn't even get to finish the sentence before she hung up, throwing her phone down. He was still right, but she couldn't bear to hear what she knew was coming at the end of that sentence. She tucked her legs up, leaning her head down in to her knees and letting a few tears fall. Danny was, as it turned out, a lovely guy, but she just couldn't allow herself to be drawn in any further. They were friends, nothing more.