New team

18.Penny

Hi! It is probably something you've been waited for for a long time, but I'm actually a bit sorry that it didn't work out exactly as I planned, but I will make up for Penny's stubborness, I promise;-)

Julia gently squeezed the handle and pushed it slight on the right, knowing how these doors worked. When the door was open, a blond haired woman with her hair tied up in a ponytail, turned up with her face to them as she put the file she was just reading back on her desk. She smiled friendly, inviting them to come closer, but her hazel brown eyes stayed indifferent. 

She didn't change comparing to one of the youngest photos of her firefighters managed to find. As for ten years, she didn't look like so much time had passed. She only had slightly longer hair as stripes of her hair from ponytail were resting freely on her shoulder, covering the badge with a name on her white shirt. She dressed from her firefighting uniform she had on the climbing lesson, back into her everyday outfit of Academy instructors - a white collared blouse and navy blue pants. 

"What brings you to me?" She spoked friendly as she sat behind the desk and measured them cautiously with her eyes. 

Julia felt how Liam gently pushed her a little forward as Chris also took a step back to hide behind her. It made her confused and she stumbled in her inattention, but she quickly regained her balance by grabbing the edge of the desk. At the same time, Julia felt someone's gentle but firm grip on her hand. She looked up and her eyes met the woman's. There was something shining in them that Julia couldn't recognize, but it was something like a mixture of great sadness and regret, and at the same time care, openness and courage. It only lasted a moment, but Julia was now sure that what had happened ten years ago had not only broken their station officer...

"You're alright?" The woman asked, breaking the silence as she looked caringly at Julia.  

"I'm fine, thank you" Julia replied politely. "Miss..." she decided to play for time. 

'Better not to rush things and get the informations one by one, even if it would mean they have to come back here few times more' Julia thought as she sent her both colleagues almost deadly stare when she briefly looked at them, as they tried to hide their cheeky grins behind their hands. They just replied with a shrug of their shoulders, but they didn't hide their cheeky grins anymore. 

"Call me Penny" she smiled friendly. "Can I help you with something?" The woman turned to Julia again.

"Is it possible to get a form to sign up for your climbing class, Miss?" Julia asked timidly before she heard how Chris and Liam gasped in shock. That wasn't their plan!

"Of course" Penny smiled as she opened drawer and pulled out a stack of forms. "How many?" She asked as she brielfy ran through the papers. 

"For each one of us" Julia replied. 

"So three, here you go" Penny handed Julia three pieces of paper. "You can fill it outside and bring it to me right away or you can leave it in the office" she informed as Julia slowly began to turn around towards the door. 

With brief "Thank you and goodbye" Julia left the room as Liam and Chris quickly followed her outside. When the door slummed behind them, Chris grabbed Julia's arm to send her a skeptical look. 

"What are you doing?" he accused as Julia freed her arm from his grip and sat down at the table to began filling her form. "That wasn't the plan" Chris hissed quietly when he and Liam also took a place at the table. 

"Use your heads. It's not like I could have said we were from Pontypandy and looking for Penny Morris." Julia was outraged. "At least it would have looked weird."

"So why did we come here anyway?" Chris complained. "Just to take climbing lessons?"

"You don't have to, but I do," Julia announced arrogantly as she signed up her form. "Do you remember what Station Officer Steele told you?" She asked, heading back to the door. "That the way to gain Penny's trust is me," she explained proudly as Liam and Chris exchanged amused glances. "So the plan is like that..." she began to explain as she leaned a little closer to them just when Penny walked out of the door. 

"Why can we just confront her?" Chris asked confused when Penny was far enough. "It would be easier and we won't get in trouble". 

"I agree with Julia on this one. We would get in trouble if we would tell it right away. We have to move wisely and slowly" Liam calmed down his bathed in hot water friend. 

"Foreseeing every step that's right" they heard already-heard voice behind them and their hearts jumped to their throats when they picked up their heads and faced Penny, who standing right beside them. "What are you staring at?" She joked as she came to the door and pushed her identificator card to the reader on the wall. 

"Can I give it back to you, Miss?" Julia quickly jumped up and managed to step in the door before their would close itself after Penny came in. 

"Of course, come inside" she invited with a gesture letting Julia came inside before her. "As I said call me Penny" she underlined once again when she sat behind the desk, taking the form from Julia and looking briefly at it. "I don't recognize you. Where are you from?" Penny asked, when she put her pen down after signing up Julia's form. 

"We have already finished the academy, but we still want to improve our skills" Julia quickly explained.

"That's why you need to fill out this section too" Penny pointed her pen back at the paper. "I can't sign you up for the class when you're not a cadet anymore, but you didn't write where you're stationed". 

With a nod of her head that she understood, Julia grabbed the pen and hesitantly wrote the name of Pontypandy Fire Station.  She tried to do all the best she could not to show anything on her when she handed the form once again to Penny. She took it with a smile, but then when she looked at what Julia wrote it was easily seen that a frown ran through her face. Before she looked back up at Julia, there was again that sad look in her eyes. 

"How is it there?" Penny cleared her throat briefly. She didn't show anything but the longing look in her eyes remained. 

"I'm not sure yet. It is not so long" Julia shrugged her shoulders, smiling innocently. 

"This can be a great place when you have right people there with you"  Penny simply replied, but her gaze was again foggy as it was fixed on the file that was laying under her arm. 

Silently Penny asked Julia for her cadet identity card to write a new class Julia would be attending soon. She opened it, but she didn't pay attention to what was written ther before and so she didn't notice so well known signature that was right above hers when Julia gave her cadet identity card back. 

"See you next week" she said goodbye and went back to browsing the file as Julia closed the door after herself. 

"What was that?" Chris asked her curiously. 

"I don't know, but we still have a long way to go" Julia just replied, grabbing her backpack and looking at new announcement in her cadet identity card.