Mar-Vell College (Valkarol)

No pressure

In the following two weeks Carol and Valkyrie had lunch together at the café every Monday to Friday without fail. They took it in turns ranting about the people in their classes, including the teachers.

Valkyrie stayed with her family at the weekends. The dorm room always felt different without her, not to mention she was bored out of her mind. They texted each other back and forth around lunchtime to talk like they would if they were together.

Em made it clear she wasn't moving in art class and continued to ask Carol countless questions whilst Valkyrie shot her death glares from across the room. Carol's portfolio still hadn't arrived and was starting to secretly stress her out, not being helped by Em's constant rambling.

Carol lay sprawled out on the dorm room floor on a Sunday evening. She was working into her drawing of Goose that she had completely forgotten about. After about an hour the drawing was starting to become more and more impressive. The fur looked realistic and the eyes reflected the light perfectly.

Carol was listening to Imagine Dragons through her earphones, letting the words and instruments drown out the background noise of the other dorms. Valkyrie had played her the song Radioactive a week before and since then she had been hooked. Being so immersed in the music, Carol didn't hear when Valkyrie entered their room.

She saw Carol absorbed in her own world and smiled to herself. She launched her rucksack across the room, landing inches away from Carol who shot up in a flash.

"Holy shit Val!" Carol exclaimed, holding her chest.

"Hello to you too." She grinned. Walking over to her bed, Valkyrie caught a glimpse of Carol's drawing.

"Whoa, that's amazing!" Carol could feel the heat rising to her face. She picked up the drawing and examined it herself.

"Thanks but painting's more my thing." Valkyrie traced her finger gently over the drawing.   

"Is this your cat?"

"Yeah, her name is Goose." Carol said proudly.

"She's cute." Takes after her mum. Valkyrie though to herself.

"What about your family, how are they?" Carol asked as they both sat down on their beds.

"Same as usual. They were asking after you."

"Really?"

"Really. I think they're hoping I'll bring you with me one day." Carol laughed softly.

"Are you excited for your game tomorrow?" Carol asked.

"Yeah, should be fun." Valkyrie said quietly.

"I'll finally be able to see what all the fuss is about."

"No pressure then." Valkyrie joked.

"No pressure."

***

The crowd surrounding the field was ecstatic. Everyone waited in anticipation for the game to begin.

Carol was sat next to Thor, much to other girls jealousy, who was telling her all about Valkyrie's past games and how good she was at the sport.

"And of course she touched down in those last few seconds because she's amazing and this other time-"

"As much as I love these stories Thor, I think they're about to start the game." Carol said motioning to the players who started to appear. The crowd cheered along with Thor who leaped from his seat into the air. Carol couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. He was like a kid at Christmas.