Rowing the Rarepair Rowboat: Josaya | Josie Forbes x Maya Fell (Legacies)
Requested by anonymous
Josie skims her fingers carefully along the spines of the books in front of her. She pauses briefly over a light pink one with gold embossed letters, then slides it out of the box curiously.
Peering at the cover, then the back, and then taking a quick look inside it. There are little watercolor illustrations throughout every few pages, she notices. An emerald green frog perched on a lilypad in the middle of the water; a mousy brown hare leaping across the top corner of the page; a polished silver sword sticking out of a jagged rock surrounded by murky blue water.
This is the one. She's been going all over town, and scouring the internet in search of any books on King Arthur and the legends of his knights and his battles for Rafael. Most of the information probably isn't at all true, but it's at least a start to help him figure out more about the people he's descended from. Even if the stories do come from fairy tales.
"Fantasy fan."
Josie looks up at the apporaching girl and it takes her a second to figure out why she's familiar.
"Maya, right?" she asks. "You go to Mystic Falls High?"
"That's right," Maya confirms, nodding as she sidles up to the table of books, her head tilted so her curls fall across her shoulder. "And you go to the Salvatore School. We played a match against each other."
Josie starts to nod along, then pauses in realization. Maya. Mystic Falls High. Ethan. She's his sister, Hope told her that.
Face flushing and stomach clenching, Josie wills the earth to swallow her whole. And also silently pleads that Maya isn't going to mention Ethan or his broken arm. She's heard he's all healed up now, ready to play again, at least.
Despite her own please, unfortunately, Josie can't stop herself.
"I'm sorry... about your brother's arm," she says, even though Maya couldn't possibly know that it was her fault. "Is he okay now?"
"Oh yeah, he's good," Maya says. "Physio's over and done with, and the doctors have said it shouldn't affect his scholarships or ability to play, so he's pretty relieved about that."
Josie's relieved, even if she already knew as much. She looks back down at the book she's picked up.
"And, uh, yeah," she says, answering her inital question. "I'm a big fantasy fan. But this is more for research than for fun."
Maya's eyebrows raise. "Research? What, are you doing a paper on fairy tales or something?"
Josie hesitates, her mouth opening, only to realize that she can't actually give the real explanation.
"... Yeah," she quickly says. "That's -- that's actually correct. It's a paper exploring the themes of fairy tales, how they're both influenced and influencers in media and our lives. It's -- way more interesting than I just made it sound, I swear."
Maya laughs, and Josie's stomach flips. She had such a nice laugh that Josie can't help but smile.
"I believe you, fairy tales and all things fantasy are really interesting." Maya points at the book. "Do you want some help? Or is that not allowed?"
"Oh! Um. Well, I gues..." she should turn her down, she knows that, it's safer, but Maya's peering at her with genuine curiosity, "... some help looking for books wouldn't hurt."
"Okay. So," Maya turns to the table of books, "what kind of fairy tales are we looking for?"
"Anything involving King Arthur, Camelot, Knights of the Round Table kinda stuff."
Maya sets about looking right away, wandering throughout the whole bookstore with Josie close by in her own search. When she glances over at her, Maya catches her eyes and smiles. Josie quickly smiles back, then looks away and presses her lips together with sinking regret. This could be a problem.
