Although Joy was often found on the college campus due to, you know, actually being a student there, the football fields weren’t part of her usual route. She went to the occasional game - mostly because she thought the cheer squad were really cool when they did their flips and jumps - but for the most part it wasn’t a spot that really appealed to her. She was all for school spirit, but the football team was made up of lots of very tall, very strong, very intimidating men who she was sure were all perfectly pleasant; but she hadn’t been planning on introducing herself to them to confirm that theory any time soon.
However, the team had apparently won an important game - Joy hadn’t followed rugby back in Ireland, and she never bothered to start in America just because they put helmets on and called it football instead - and so Patricia had insisted on baking victory pie, because that was the thoughtful kind of thing Patricia did. It was cherry, for Cherry Grove of course, and Joy had given her hand, half out of helpfulness and half to figure out what Patricia was doing that she never seemed to replicate properly when she tried to bake at home. As she rolled out the pastry that was then laid gently over the warm red fruit filling, she was still nonthewiser at what she’d been doing wrong; clearly Patricia just had the magic touch when it came to pies.
Now, still warm from the oven, the foil wrapped pies were being stacked into Joy’s arms as she had apparently been volunteered to deliver them. True, she was the only college student currently in the diner and the other waitresses were rushed off their feet as the busy lunch hour began, but she was a little scared to wander into football territory on her own even if she did come baring gifts.
Still, she was always telling Fionn not be scared of his many irrational fears so it would be pretty hypocritical of her to back out of this, especially when she and (mostly) Patricia had worked so hard to get them all baked. Besides, most of the boys on the football team were her age or only a little bit older - that wasn’t really very scary, was it?
Yes, yes it was, she confirmed as she stood in front of the entire team, all at least half a foot taller than her, staring at this tiny non-cheerleader who had interrupted their boys only time.
“Um.” Joy announced, which she instantly realised was neither confident or in any way helpful to actually introducing herself. She swallowed then hefted the trays of pie up higher, which still only meant they reached belly button height of most of the guys in front of her. “I brought some pie?” She continued hesitantly, realising this is how Baby must have felt during her ‘I carried a watermelon’ moment.
