Fighting Society

kiddo wasn't okay

Kathrine and Teyah were sat in the backseat of Katie's Tesla, with Alessia in the passenger seat, Katie driving. It was a silent car journey, as the four of them could only hope that the young girl was safe, as they drove round the eerily silent streets of St Alban's nearby to Jessica's school. Each of them stared out the window, for any indication of presence from the young girl, desperate to find her as quickly as possible, time counting down. There was no sound from any of them, as they each put their direct attention into locating their little troublemaker. Katie slowly pulled the car into a small car park in a reserved street round the corner from a park, nearby to Jess' school, the four of them jumping out of the car, catching each other's eyes.

"Just uh, look out for kiddo. She could be somewhere round here."

Nobody truly knew what to say, as they simply carried on moving, walking round the distance for the park, moving past the pond, and through the large grass patch, neither of which held their favourite kid. The usually loud and childish group of girls moved in silence, almost as a pack, as they made their way through the darkening waves of wind. Each of them noted the sun beginning to set and the breeze quickening into blows of wind, constantly checking their phones for any form of update. Beth and Viv had updated to say she wasn't at their apartment, and Kim had let them know she hadn't returned to the training grounds, alongside Vic saying she wasn't at the bench. An expected silence came from Lia and Leah's end, each of the girls lying if they said that was a shock, having seen the reaction from the English captain. 

It was only when they had been wandering around the streets for a lengthening period of time, that Kathrine noted the shivering outline of a young person, curled up underneath a rather large oak tree. Her feet became rooted to the spot, frozen where she was, squinting into the distance to see if it was who she thought it was. The other three carried on walking until they had realised her abrupt stop in the middle of the path, turning to see her staring into the distance towards the tree. One by one, they each turned to get a glimpse at whatever Ke had spotted, each girl taking their time to realise.

"Is that-"

"I don't know."

"It looks like her?"

"How can you see her?"

"Well let's go get her then-"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

Katie had almost started racing over to who they thought was the young girl, being prevented by Kathrine calmy placing her hand out in front of her, not allowing the Irish captain to get past.

"Look, I don't know what you're playing at Kathrine but I just want to see kiddo safe, so if you don't mind-"

"If we all go racing over to her, she's just going to become overwhelmed, and will run again. It won't be helpful to anyone."

All of the girls processed Ke's statement, making sense to all of them no matter how desperately they just wanted to run and pick the young girl up as quickly as they could. The likelihood of Jessica still being wound up, or even scared was still incredibly high, and they had to be careful. They still didn't even know if it was their kiddo, the outline only offering a petite body shivering under the tree in the sunset, far out into the distance. Kathrine started to slowly step forwards, towards the outline, with the girls in pursuit behind them, each of them all but tip-toeing as they made their way closer over.

As the tree came closer into sight, it became obvious to the group of girls, that it was in fact, the young girl shivering underneath it. She was curled into a ball, a position which they knew to be her way of seeking comfort, her face hidden, so they didn't know how she was. Her petite, trembling body however, was enough of a sign to know that she was vulnerable, and any wrong move, she would run, her hair all over the place. Their lighter footsteps came to a halt, about 10 metres away from the large tree, the young girl still unaware to their presence, awaiting on what to do next. Each of them turned to one another, shrugging their shoulders as they tried to attempt what would be best for the young girl.