Autumn was probably her favourite season. She enjoyed sweater weather a lot more than one would assume and curling up by the fire… or well, the vent in the bathroom… was a fun pastime to her. There was just a part of autumn that reminded her of nature falling asleep, and she saw it to be undeniable lovely.
By December, fall was wrapping up and freezing into winter, but on a day like today, it was more sun than icicles. The temperatures were still on the cooler side, but it wasn’t too bad at all, and when Anastasia left the apartment she shared with her sister, she only had to wear a light coat. Ana was technically supposed to be starting a shift that morning, but she’d managed to convince Elise to watch over the store while she went out for a few. Whether she meant a few minutes or hours… well, that was a different story.
It was a nice morning, the brisk wind pushing her along as her heeled black boots made their way down the pavement. It was pretty peaceful out, actually, a seemingly happy atmosphere in the city, but Ana knew better than to take it for anything deeper than a superficial contentedness. She hadn’t forgotten the girls who’d gone missing, who’d quite literally been wretched out of their lives for no apparent reason. The police force’s ineptitude of the disappointments upset her, though she was not entirely surprised—the wonderful city of Las Levendas was not known for its exceptional police force, to say the least. If, and this was a strong if, they did find the girls, Anastasia held little hope that the perpetrators would be.
Ana usually affected an indifferent attitude towards criminal happenings like this, but this was innocent children, and that made it exponentially more sad. Maybe she didn’t know them, but Ana always had a soft spot for kids, found them to be much better than the adults around her. Even now as she walked, a wayward football landed near her, bouncing around on the ground until it came to a stop on the road. Several dozens of feet away from her was a gaggle of little boys, who were looking at her with that pleading gaze kids had when they wanted you to retrieve the balls they’d thrown. She smiled lightly, then went out to retrieve it.
It should be said that while Anastasia had good upper arm strength, and theoretically could throw a football far, she has never actually stumbled across the opportunity to throw a football. So, when she walked from the road back onto the pavement, the large ball was awkward in her hands, and she struggled to figure out the proper form. Focused on that, she didn’t even notice the man on the bench and when she fumbled the first throw, the football’s path was intercepted by the head of the stranger, ricocheting off of his skull and skidding away from him.
“Oh sh^t!” The words fell from her mouth, and she gaped, moving into the actual park and regarding the man. “Are you okay? I- wow, yeah I’m sorry about that. Football, heh, not my strong suit.”
“Hey lady!” Anastasia looked to the group of kids, who appeared rather impatient about the whole lost ball situation. Like hello, could they not see that she had nearly decapitated this man? (an exaggeration but still, had they no empathy? Kids these days.) “Are you gonna sauce the ball back or what?”
Is this a… challenge? Her eyebrows lifted slightly, sprinkles of a smile drifting across her lips and she moved for the ball, adjusting its grip in her hands. She was a professional football player, a star quarterback in the Super Bowl. This wasn’t a park in the middle of a run-down city, this was a football stadium, and the bystanders were her adoring fans. Winding her arm back, she took a galloping start, before sending the football flying towards those insolent twelve-year-olds. Everyone held their breath, watching as the football cut through the air, wildly spinning—nothing like that spiral they usually had, this was spinning from top to bottom—and then spinning beyond the group and out of the park.
It hit the pavement on the other side of the green, hitting the ground with a force that made it rebound, ricocheting onto the middle of the road, where it skidded to a stop. Unfortunately, a tractor trailer came cruising down the road at this moment, and by the time all of its eighteen (or so ya girl isn’t gonna search up a whole pic okay yes) wheels had run over the football, it was flat. Flat as f^ck, like yeah that ball was not coming to life.
Her mouth fell open, and she uttered a second “oh sh!t,” a hand flying to her mouth as she watched the gang (yes they were no longer a gaggle) of twelve-year-olds turn on her, the blonde ringleader looking very p-ssed off. “Lady, what the f^ck!”
“Oh, hahaha what a funny turn of events, fun!” She flashed them a winning smile as they approached, the blonde muttering a string of curses (had she been this potty-mouthed at that age??), then turned to the man on the bench, flashing him an even more winningy smile. “Tell me you have a getaway vehicle I can steal?” How much of that was a joke, well, who could tell? One could notice Ana’s hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket, and who could say whether these pockets appeared deeper than they looked on the outside?
@sunflower.flow HI
Idk what this is but