VEX

vii.

Danielle is hit with an odd familiarity to Dylan Martin. Something about the artist makes Danielle feel like she already knows her. Maybe it is the easygoing personality that reminds Danielle of her fellow Dutch teammate, Vivianne Miedema. Maybe it is how the designer sits back and observez everything around her that reminded Danielle of her captain, Kim Little. The only thing that is a mystery to Danielle is why Dylan agreed to create art for this promotional campaign when she claims to be a West Ham fan. Danielle knows London Studios doesn't have a shortage of designers and artists, and at least one of them has to be an Arsenal fan. Their office building is even in North London, where the Spurs and the Gunners are the two biggest clubs.

Dylan shows up to their training grounds to talk to the media team, and stays after the girls finish up training to get to know them better, apparently. Kim immediately tried to make Dylan feel welcome as Danielle tries to place where she feels like she knows the artist from. Danielle isn't focused when Kim comes around to introduce Dylan to her and Beth, which Danielle can tell confuses her girlfriend and Kim. Not wanting to worry her girlfriend, she claims she is trying to figure out the best time in their schedule to take Beth out for a romantic date, which she hasn't yet asked Beth out on, blaming Kim for spoiling the surprise. It was a flimsy excuse, but she doesn't mind taking Beth out to dinner. Talking to Dylan, Danielle finds that she is very friendly and open about herself, asking open ended questions, and listening closely to all the answers. She doesn't try to respond to them with facts about herself, she just asks them another question, until Danielle realises that she hasn't told them much. As Danielle and Beth ask Dylan about herself, Danielle finds that she doesn't talk about herself much unprompted.

As midday stretches into afternoon, Dylan decides to sit and watch the girls train, a notebook open in her lap, with notes about each girl. If Danielle had to make an educated guess, it is full of notes on how to personalise a poster or image of each girl in the squad. Even if Dylan did claim herself to be a West Ham fan, Danielle sees that there is an appreciation for how Arsenal play football in her eyes. Maybe Dylan would incorporate each girl's playing style into a poster.

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Vex paints over the commissioned pieces with a white paint, making it stand out against the beige of the office building. There is no contract that Vex has to leave the pieces there. Even if they did, the graffiti would get painted over at some point by the company that owns the building or the police. They plan something for that space, but they don't have time to paint anything Wednesday night.

Not wanting to go across the city, Vex doesn't create anything new that night.

The Arsenal Women's media team emails them again, asking for another commissioned piece.

London Colney decor
Arsenal Media <media@arsenal.co.uk>
to VEX

Vex, we apologize for emailing you so soon after you've finished Meadow Park, but we, along with the Arsenal management, would like to ask if you would be willing to paint our training centre, the London Colney. We can pay you £5000 this time, or more, depending on how much of the Colney you would be willing to paint. Of course, you can request game tickets with whatever benefits, but the price would be subtracted from the final payment. We can compensate you for the materials used, and you will, of course, have creative freedom.