I miss her

She nodded her head, “ Yes but I’m sure I won’t be once my boss sees the paper if he hasn’t already.” 

“It’s really that b-bad? M-maybe I should go steal all the papers.”

She returned the smile with one of her own, “ It’s nice to meet you as well Noah, I’m Joan.” 

Noah smiled when she gave her name before looking around and letting out a small chuckle. “Do you w-work here?” 

“Well that does actually make a bit happy that there is someone out there who hasn’t read it yet.” 

“I’m glad I c-can help.” He admitted.  “I’m Noah, I don’t think w-we’ve met.”

“Oh, I didn’t realized everyone hadn’t read the paper.” 

“I can not read it so you’ll know there is s-someone w-who hasn’t.”

“ Thank you, but it’s not exactly why they’re staring at me today…” She told him with a sigh, “ It was what was in the newspaper today.” 

“I s-saw s-someone hand you the newspaper but I d-didn’t s-see w-what it s-said.”

She smiled softly before nodding once more. “ I won’t, thank you for that. Just gotta love it when everyone is staring at you.” 

 Noah was glad he was able to make her smile, even if it was just a little one. “You’re b-beautiful. I’m sure people s-s-stare at you all the time.”

Joan looked up from her computer, and grimaced slightly. She nodded her head, “ Um, yeah I’m, uh I’m fine… Thanks for checking on me.” 

Noah nodded when she said she was alright. “D-don’t let those people bother you.”

Sunny smiled. “That was so cheesy.” She laughed. “But also very sweet…”

Noah laughed softly. “I l-like your smile.”

“Well I made a name for myself as Sunny, I figured it was time my hometown got some of that too.” Sunny teased back, giving him a gentle nudge.

“B-Baberton could use some more s-sunshine.  I know I c-could.”

“It’s fine-” Sunny sighed, she’d come to terms with it after the accident, and now she got that thrill from dancing. “But thank you.”

“Y-you’re welcome.” Noah smiled softly.  “And n-now you are here.” He offered, looking at her.  “With a n-new name.” He teased.

Sunny let out a small laugh. “I hit my head, Noah. I got dropped and I hit my head, they told me if I got dropped once more it would be really serious… So I left. But no, it doesn’t hurt.”

“Oh.” Noah winced slightly.  He knew that concussions could be pretty dangerous.  “Well, I-I’m glad it doesn’t hurt. B-but I am sorry that you can’t d-do it anymore.”

“Uh-” Sunny swallowed hard, she hadn’t talked much about her injury after it happened. “Yeah. A stunt went wrong and they told me I couldn’t fly anymore.”

“D-does it still hurt?” Noah asked softly, not really knowing what she meant but assuming it was some kind of cheerleading trick.

“I started-” Sunny told him. “My first year I got scouted for a professional team based out of the United States.”

Noah nodded. “And t-that’s where you got hurt?”

“I had convinced myself I would never use it.” Sunny told him. “I had the papers to legally change my name and everything…” She murmured. “It did, yeah.”

“Did you g-go to Uni?” Noah asked, not really knowing much about cheerleading.

“I started at a new school, at first I went by Hannah but I had some really good friends who told me they liked my real name, so I started using that instead… These friends then got me into cheer, I figured I’d be no good since I started late, but it turns out I had a knack for it…”

“I w-wish you had t-told me.” Noah said softly. “Your name.” He understood why she hadn’t but it did kind of make him wonder how close they’d really been.  “So ch-ch-cheerleading became your life?”