The Dendrochronology of Lincoln & Daisy // a Staticquake fanfic

Lincoln Campbell: Age 15

All Lincoln wanted to do today was ask Shelby Wells to the homecoming dance. It was his first high school dance and he's had a crush on Shelby since last year. Unfortunately, she said no.

‪Which is how he ended up here, walking towards his favorite oak tree in the park. He was hoping to just sulk alone under the branches. Fall had just started to come in and turn the leaves different colors or just making them fall off completely, leaving more space between the branches to look for shapes in the clouds. Lincoln has finally made his way to his favorite spot and pulled his phone out as he leaned back against the trunk of the tree. He sent a quick text to his mom so she wouldn't worry. He had just closed his eyes, feeling the weight of the day fall on him, when a voice interrupted his peace and quiet.

"You have got to be kidding me."

It was a girl's voice that came from the other side of the tree. Lincoln pokes his head around the trunk, trying to get a good glimpse of who the voice could belong to. When that didn't work, he just up and left his spot on the ground.

Walking around the tree, he found a girl about his age sitting Indian style in the dirt under the tree branches. An old laptop sat balanced in her lap; her face hidden behind the screen.

"Uh, hey." Lincoln's own voice surprised him as it cut through the silence. "Everything okay?"

The girl looked up then, wide-eyes and fearful. When her gaze landed on Lincoln, she rolled her eyes and relaxed.

"There's no Wi-Fi here."

Lincoln gave a soft chuckle. "Well it is a tree," he commented as his shoulder leaned against the trunk of the oak.

The girl gave a sigh as she shut the laptop and shoved it into the bag beside her. "I know. It's just that this was my favorite spot as a kid and I was hoping... well, I was just hoping, I guess."

Lincoln nodded and decided to take a seat beside her. "This was my favorite place a kid, too. It's still my favorite place if I'm honest. I like the way the sky looks through the branches."

A soft smile settles on the girl's face. "Yeah, me too."

They both looked up for a moment, admiring the clouds they could find through the branches of the big oak tree. It felt oddly familiar to Lincoln, as if they had done this before. He didn't want to bring it up though. He didn't want to seem weird.

Several minutes of silence went by before the girl spoke up.

"What are you doing here today? I mean I know I came looking for a Wi-Fi spot, but why are you here?" She looked at Lincoln with an intensity he felt he had seen before.

"Uh, the girl I like didn't want to go to the homecoming dance with me," his voice shook with nerves and wavered as he continued, "so I, uh, came here to mope. If I'm being honest."

The girl broke out in a laugh. It wasn't mean; just a joyous laugh. It made Lincoln smile.

"It's stupid. I know." Lincoln shook his head as I realized how stupid it was to get himself so upset about some girl. He kind of thought the one sitting next to him was even better and he had hardly known her more than 20 minutes.

"It's not stupid." She said, recovering from her laughter. Her hand gently touched his elbow. "I'm sorry she said no. That sucks. She's missing out."

Lincoln gave a slight nod in agreement as they both settled back against the tree. They stayed like that for quite some time, chatting about Lincoln's day at school. The girl hardly said anything about herself. When they ran out of things to talk about, they laid back in the dirt under the tree and watched the clouds go by.

"I love the sky," Lincoln said suddenly. "It's always changing and it's still always pretty. Always there. You know?"

The girl nodded. "I know."

It was at this moment when Lincoln realized he hadn't even bothered to introduce himself. "I'm Lincoln by the way." He held out his hand for her to shake.

She shook it once and smiled at him. "Nice to meet you Lincoln."

"And you are...?" Lincoln leaned in towards her, a teasing tone in his voice.

She gave an empty laugh before responding, "I am not telling you my name! It's awful." She scrunched her nose up in a disapproval, another look that seemed oddly familiar to Lincoln.

He just shrugged. "Alright then let's give you a new name." He pulled out a notebook from his backpack and flipped to an empty page. Clicking the pen in his hand he began to write.

The girl looked at him bewildered but went along with it as Lincoln began to list out a string of silly names, including "Tree Girl" and "Sir Laughs a Lot".

Finally, he turned to her. "Okay seriously, what do you want your new name to be?"

The girl just shrugged. She honestly hadn't ever thought of giving herself a new name.

"Well what sort of things do you like? Maybe we can name you Laptop." Lincoln elbowed her lightly in the ribs as he pointed to the old laptop poking out of her bag. She rolled her eyes at his goofiness.

Lincoln began to doodle on the page. The girl sat next to him, looking through the branches once again. When Lincoln saw this, he smiled.

"What about Sky?" He asked. "You did just say that you loved the sky."

The girl looked at him quickly before turning her head away. "I don't know. Isn't that a boy's name?" She gave him a look and turned her eyes back towards the grass next to her.

Lincoln continued to stare at her even though she had turned away. When the idea came to his head, he wrote it down quickly on the notebook paper in front of him.

He tore the page out and handed it to the girl. She took it from his hands to find the perfect name scrawled in the page in messy boy handwriting.

Skye.

"You like it?" Lincoln asked as a small smile appeared on the girl's face.

She nodded excitedly. "I love it."

The girl smiled as she held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Skye."

Lincoln smiled, too, as he put his hand in hers. "Nice to meet you, Skye. I'm Lincoln."