everyone has their battles

"Aye!" He exclaimed, hands clapping together in a show of support. "Alright, alright, uh..." he steadied again, folding his arms over his chest. Truth was there was never any 'go here, jump there' not that he knew of at least — "just out. fly little bird! Oh...should be obvious but don't jump too far out either. No one wants any broken legs am I right?"

She was psyched up for it but then he mentioned broken legs which gave her pause again. "Way to get inside my head," she countered with a laugh. A year ago there was no chance that she would've been able to do this, now a broken leg was not a good thing, but it wasn't going to stop her doing her day job for ever, just a few weeks. "Okay, out," she declared. She took a deep breath and went for it, jumping off the ledge. It felt like she was falling for ages but then suddenly she hit the water, shock racing through her body as she was engulfed by the cold water. She came back up, shaking her head to free herself of some of the water. Once she'd opened her eyes she grinned at him, "that was definitely worth it," she smiled.

"Oh my God!" Stelly couldn't help their laugh as Isabel filled the table with shirts, glad when she said that they didn't need to choose, because they wouldn't ever be able to. "No, hey, that's fair -- you have to rep your team, I wouldn't expect anything else." They reached out to touch the fabric with a wide grin, especially at the thoughtfulness of getting the different cuts, different styles. "This is perfect, now I'll fit in even more around here." Although they wouldn't have a clue what to say in any conversation about soccer, they still had the shirts to show off. "I like the blue color of this one!"

She grinned at Stelly's excitement, it had been pretty easy getting her hands on the shirts so she was glad that they were well recieved. "I could've got you Brighton or Angels shirts but Chelsea has my heart," she admitted, though in retrospect maybe an Angels shirt would've made more sense given that they were in America. "Keep the blue flag flying high," she said almost instrinctively as Stelly mentioned the colour. "I played my last match in that shirt, well not that exact shirt, I got you a fresh one, but you know what I mean."

"You'll walk away with something new to put on your resume," he teased, picking up the tool box that he had brought out with him and popping it open, looking over the tools inside. He laughed, then, looking over at her with a grin on his face. "Knowing my luck, I'd say that and then majorly mess up some bench and make everyone doubt how good I really am." Although if he couldn't handle fixing up an old bench, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have any right working in restoration or construction. "I'll let you start sanding… do you want to use sandpaper, or this puppy?" Flourishing the electric sander, he squeezed the button, listening to the sound of it revving up.

"Great, because there is very little on my resume," she admitted. Aside from Bonne Merde she didn't actually have any real 'jobs' on her CV. "Yeah that would be pretty embarassing to you," she laughed. Her eyes went wide when he lifted up the electric sander, even more so when it revved. "I'll take the old school version," she said, reaching for some sandpaper, "I quite like my fingers and I do not trust myself with that." Isabel had never used a power tool before, unless you counted her electric toothbrush and other small handheld objects.

"I'm really not interested in going anywhere near them, I prefer to watch from a distance," he said, turning back away from the noise. "I just appreciate their joy for what it is."

"I get it, you're just an observer," she commented. "You're right though, we should all have a little more joy." Isabel considered herself a joyful person but ever since she'd stopped playing she had found it a little harder to find.

"I will repay you in sweet treats and amazing coffee or tea. Whichever you like." Taryn smiled taking a sip of her drink. Her eyebrows dipped in confusion for a moment before Isabel explained what she was doing. "Ahhh, a soccer tournament then? That sounds pretty cool. I don't know anything about soccer except that there is a ball and players involved. Is it very complicated to understand?"

"Oh how do you know me so well already?" she asked, "all of those things are perfect payment." She laughed lightly as Taryn translated her words and admitted that she knew nothing about football. "Yeah, it's a european tournament," she explained. "Hey, I'd say that knowing there is a ball and players means you are halfway there." She paused before answering, "I think it's pretty easy to understand, but I've been playing since I was tiny, there's one confusing rule that people find hard but the rest is pretty simple."

"Well isn't that how any arrangement works? Escorts, mail order brides, the list goes on." She said, speaking into her fresh glass. She smiled though, didn't look to Isabel again instead focused on those passing by. Pulling dates, laughing with friends. She thought about how that wasn't ever them and swallowed back a large gulp again when she was channelling some kind of anger, or something like it towards Isabel here and now and Sav felt herself redden again. Why was she acting like this? She snapped out of it again, the drink she dropped to her side and she turned to look at her again— she really was so so stunning, it caught her off guard in that moment and her stomach dropped. "I know you didn't." Exhaling. She didn't either. "I don't even know why it matters anymore. I saw you and—" Saw another reason, a problem, that made her feel something tonight. "Guess it really fucking sucked being the one ditched out on."

"Mail order bride?" she questioned, eyes wide, "so, not thinking of me highly at all it seems." This was certainly not what Isabel had thought would happen when she moved to town, but this was definitely not it. Even when she'd heard Sav's voice she thought it would be a friendly chat, not her being labelled an escort and a mail order bride. Isabel wasn't sure what kind of impression she had given Sav because it seemed like the person she thought she was was far from who Isabel thought she was.

Mandy grinned brightly. "As an artist, I will take that as a compliment and run with it," she said, nodding. "And also as an artist, I will absolutely do that!" she gave her another bright expression. "If you ever need anything color related, I'm your girl." She hummed. "Blue. We can work with that!"

"Oh you 100% should as it was. I wish I had an ounce of creativity," she admitted. "What type of art do you do?" she asked, not even sure if 'type' was the right word, maybe genre would've been better, or variation? Isabel knew very little about art or anything of the like.

"I think I might work on some of these benches, if you want to help. Sanding's not too hard, and the staining should be easy, too," might be a little bit messy, and definitely tedious, but not as hard as some of the other tasks that people were working on. "That's me, yeah," he brought his gaze back to Isabel from the shop. "I was not, admittedly. But I have to try to sound a little bit humble, you know?"

"I think that could be within my skill set," she nodded, Isabel had never really been a DIY person, but she was always up for learning new skills. "Hey, I am impressed honestly, I would've been like 'yeah, everyone else has no skills but I am insanely skilled," she joked. Truth was Isabel had moments of cockiness but she certainly wasn't as cocky as that.

Glancing up from where they were sitting at a high top table, nursing a beer and waiting for Isabel to arrive, Stelly broke into a grin when they saw their friend approaching. "Oh my God, did you really?" they couldn't help their laugh, gesturing to the seat across from them, and signaling for one of the waitresses to come around to take drink orders when she had the chance. "This is the part where I tell you that you're going to have to pick for me, or else I'll go by color combos."

"I did," she grinned, lifting the canvas bag onto the table and sliding out an array of 4 shirts. "They're all yours, not need to choose," she explained, "and they're all Chelsea because I am very loyal and the only other option was an England shirt which did feel like a bad idea." She lifted up the top one, "I didn't know if you'd want men's or women's so you've got two of each, but obviously I prefer the women's ones." As she'd said, she was loyal. "One new away shirt, because that's my favourite this season, with your name and one from last season with my name because I am a cocky little shit and have boxes of them."

"Definitely the accent." He told her, fingers shooting that invisible gun. "Long, long ways away from home." Not that that really meant anything, she could've been from a town over for all he knew in all reality. "Uh, honest? Probably not safe at all." Blocking the sun from his eyes again when he spoke, "Just look at it like another pond to cross." Chucking at that one, "You sue the flight attendant for telling you how to use the life vest too?"

She nodded, her accent was a prety dead gieaway, even when she'd been playing for the angels her accent had only softened, not really changed and going back to London had made it go back to full strength pretty quickly. "I am," she agreed. She laughed as he admitted that it wasn't safe. "Fair point," she countered. "Fine, fuck it, I'm doing it," she annouced as she pulled off her outerclothes and got ready at the edge, psyching herself up. "Anywhere particular I need to aim?"

"Between you and me… neither do most of the people floating around here today," he said with a wide grin, "it's more about having a good time and pitching in together." And then when Creek Fest rolled around, people could wander the ground and feel good about what they had done… or not admit to anything that they might have done wrong. "Right, Sunny's place," he nodded, holding his hand out to her, offering a handshake. "Good to meet you, Isabel. I'm Cage, I own Creekside over there," he gestured towards the shop front that he called his second home.

"Great, well I can definitely do that," she said. Isabel was really just looking for something to keep her busy and hopefully help out the community too. "Yeah," she nodded, she had been so happy that Sunny had taken a chance on her given that she had had very little experience. "Ah the carpentry shop right?" she asked, "so you were not including yourself in that list of people with no useful skills."

"When football season is a little more in full swing, I'll have you come out to the bar to enjoy a few drinks and learn a few things, don't worry," they promised with a broad smile. And Stelly was a pretty good teacher -- they didn't worry and bother with all the small details, just all of the big, important things. "Thanks," they grinned widely when the drink was passed their way, wrapping their hand around it and lifting it to their lips for a long sip. "You're the best."

"Yes I am definitely up for that," she grinned. Isabel was always up for learning new things and she wanted to assilimate into the culture more. She'd lived in America for quite a few years but she'd always been in the soccer bubble, now that was popped she was ready to explore. "You're very welcome," she replied, "next time I see you I'll have a Chelsea shirt for you and be ready to soak up some more sports knowledge," she said as she headed to the other end of the bar to deal with another customer.

"Please for the love of god don't say it's from me." He laughed. "The last thing I need to do is be pulled onto the dance floor by a gaggle of strange women, I'm here to observe and do work."

"Oh well now I am very very tempted to," she admitted with a smirk. "I think you would get much more from closer observation, you know, get involved," she joked.

Sam waved off the thanks with a gentle huff, "I'm just doing my job, I don't need anyone to buy me anything." He scanned her briefly, making sure she didn't catch any stray elbows in the process, "You alright?"

"Well, accept my appreciation then," she stated. She nodded at his comment, "yeah all good, he was just a dickhead so I'm glad to see the back of him." Isabel had encountered quite a few guys like him in her time so it was always nice when one got what was coming to them.

When he didn't recognize the person in front of him initially -- though he was sure that he had seen her around -- he felt a little relieved that he hadn't completely misplaced the face of someone he knew well, at least. "We can always use more hands around here. How dirty do you want to get?" he asked, a laugh tinging the words as he gestured around, "we've got a barn being built, businesses that need painting, benches that need fixed up," he pointed behind him for that one. The bench he had just been sitting on was in desperate need of a sand and stain, he realized. "Flower beds that need cleared out, or I think they're making signs and posters over at the headquarters, too. Basically… no shortage of things. You're new, right? To town, I mean. I'm trying to place you, but."

She listened to his question, raising an eyebrow at the word 'dirty', she was a teenager at heart. She listened to the options, not really sure which one would be best suited to her. "Honestly I'll help wherever I'm needed, I don't really have any skills to lend though," she admitted. She smiled at his observation of her being new, "yeah, I've been here a few months, I work at Bonne Merde." She figured perhaps he'd seen her there, that was where most people knew her from. "I'm Isabel," she introduced.