Different Games // John Stones

3

While Raven was walking to her car, the wind swept up her hair and made shivers run down her arms. The air smelt like rain and Raven realised that a summer storm might be coming. Raven grabbed her laptop bag from the trunk. She always carried her work stuff around in her car. Some people definitely referred to her as a workaholic, but she just loved her job, loved giving back.

Before Raven could get back into the hotel, it started pouring down. And by the time she reached the entrance, she was completely soaked.

'You don't look good.' Someone said to Raven when she entered the lobby. Raven looked up from her damp shoes and discovered John Stones standing a few feet in front of her. The look on his face was somewhere between amused and concerned. But the situation was not really embarrassing for her as the pair had met a few times prior to this run-in.

'It doesn't feel good to wear soaking wet clothes either.' Raven responded.

'I can lend you some dry ones.'

'That would be great. Thanks.'

'Just follow me.'

John waits for Raven to take a step towards him and then leads the way. They walk through the halls of SGP in silence. Then he stopped in front of room number 134 and opened it with a key card.

'Come in.' He said and gestured for her to enter the room. Raven stepped onto the navy blue carpet floor and looked straight ahead: The giant window on the opposite side of the room provided her with an excellent view of the storm outside.

'The bathroom's through that door.' John pointed towards a door to the left of the one they had just walked through. 'I'll just grab you a shirt and some pants.'

'Thanks.' Raven said and walked into the small white-tiled bathroom. She took off her shoes and socks first. Even those were wet.

'You can also take a shower if you want.' John offered when he put the bundle of clothes next to the sink.

'Where can I put my laptop?' Raven asked and pointed to the bag slung over her shoulder.

'Is that why you were out there?' John asked and raised his eyebrows.

'Yes, I gotta do some stuff for work.'

'On a Sunday?'

'Yeah.' Raven answered. To her, every day of the week felt the same. She could always make an impact in the world.

'I'll just put it on the desk.' John said and let Raven hand him the bag.

Half an hour and a nice warm shower later, Raven put on the blue t-shirt, the matching shorts and a pair of white socks. The shorts hit below her knees and only fit because they could be tied at the waist. The t-shirt was also too big but Raven did not mind that at all. She loved to wear oversized clothing anyways. She rubbed her hair one last time with the towel, parted it as neatly as she could without a comb and tugged the front pieces behind her ears.

'Thank you again.' Raven said when she re-entered the main room. John was half-laying down, half-sitting on the big bed. He was typing on his phone until he heard her walk out of the bathroom.

'No worries. I put your laptop over there.' John pointed to a small table that stood next to an armchair by the window. He had pulled it out of the sleeve.

'Okay. Did it get wet?'

'I don't think so.'

Raven sat down on the armchair and opened the laptop.

'Anything specific you need to work on?'

'Yes. The charity's marketing manager called me earlier. She had run into one of her old teachers and their school's lacking funding for proper STEM education. That's something our charity can help with. But we'll need to create a plan first. And I'll just try to get started on that.' Raven explained as she started her laptop and opened up the charity's database of Projects.