Zapped by an Apple | An Appledash College AU Fanfic | Human Characters

⓶⓪ 『 Rooftop 』

A hollow thump tugged Rain's attention in the direction of her baby pet tortoise, Tank's,  enclosure, which rested aloft a shallow IKEA table against the wall nearest to the foot of her bed. The jock groaned and stood up, feeling the cool surface of the hardwood flooring press to only one of her feet. 

     Just as she had suspected, the damn reptile had just toppled onto his back again and was wavering like a see-saw atop the substrate. She chuckled softly before reaching her forelimbs into the elongated cube of glass to help the aphonic creature back onto it's stumpy walkers. 

     "Tank, you've gotta stop doing that," she rasped as she hobbled off to the kitchen momentarily to retrieve some vegetation from the fridge, and returned seconds later to galvanize Tank's spirits with a hearty repast. 

     After that, Dash fuelled herself with an early supper of her own, a college specialty: microwavable Mac' & Cheese, in all of its matte-lapis 'KD' glory. She emptied the bowl rather ravenously, forgetting her own hunger throughout the day until the first bite entered her maw and her stomach demanded karmic sustenance. 

     Picking at the last remaining noodle with her fork, her mind relayed her conversation with Fae from the other day. As much as the athlete tried to amount her string of thoughts to more diverse subjects, AJ sustained her place as her mind's hottest gossip. 

     Dash recollected Fae's concluding sentence in a faint trepidation: 'You know, Rain, AJ might think you're the sun.'

     The more she intrinsically rendered the idea, the more it vindicated itself. And then, most strangely of all, Rain even began to toy with the thought of possibly even believing it. Though, the notion was impossible to commit to in the end, so she discarded it altogether as another consideration ruptured through and electrified Rain's soul with ambition:

     Maybe the problem isn't liking her...she reflected, and then concluded aloud, "I'm being a coward by hiding from her." And that was something Rain realized she could tolerate far less. 

     She was no coward.

     While she wasn't quite sure how ready she was for an outright confession, Dashie knew that she at least had to begin somewhere. The jock scoped out her phone atop her bedside table and fixed in the cowgirl's contact to draft up a message. 

___

'meet at EQ in 10'

AJ read the text thrice before she was able to accept that she did--in fact--have her noggin screwed on correctly. But what in Celeste's name could Rain want with her to have her rush out to the college so late in the evening? And on the weekend, no less. These dusk-time meet-up's of theirs were beginning to become quite the habit...

     Alarm prickled at the farmer's spine as she began to ponder the possible implications of it. Was Rainbow in trouble? Was she okay? 

     AJ leapt to her feet and broke for the entrance, sliding her socks into her tawny-hued ropers and slamming the door behind her as she bolted towards her truck. She ignited the engine and tore down the road, stirring a trail of dust in her wake. 

     Once she arrived at the campus, she retrieved her phone from her denim overalls and slammed her thumbs to the flicker to respond to the athlete's message with a quick, 'Here'. She peered around frantically in search for that familiar polychrome-mottled attire, her perception racing against the falling sun. 

     "AJ!" the recognizable rasp sounded from along the rightmost wall of Earthquest's main entrance building, and her pupils followed until they latched to her. Rain emerged from the shadow of the concrete structure, the sunset bleeding down around her figure as she approached.