Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Evens ❯ Luck Be A Lady ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or any of the characters therein.

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Chance 1: Luck Be A Lady

Faye closed her eyes, and inhaled slowly and deeply through her nose. The air was clean, crisp and warm, and carried on it the pleasing scent of freshly cut grass. To her ears came the intermittent hum of mingling conversations, the urgent chatter of birdsong, the sleepy whisper of rustling leaves, and the continuous muttering of running water.

Even without opening her eyes she could see her idyllic surroundings, but there was no need to deprive herself any longer.

Faye opened her eyes, and was greeted by a stream of vivid imagery. Sprawling out from beneath her feet a carpet of short, lush grass, broken up into columns by uneven lines of severed stems, lay upon a gentle slope that travelled down twenty metres to a cobbled footpath below. All around, young men and women lounged upon the soft bed of greenery, talking or reading, or simply enjoying the beautiful day.

The footpath was watched over by a rank of willow trees that stood at wide, regular intervals along its length. On the opposite side of the footpath stood an old iron railing, the last line standing between the promenade and the lethargically ambling river that ran by a few feet below. Looking out across the river, Faye could see a short, muddy, uncultivated bank, which lay shaded beneath of host of trees of many types and sizes. All of this was blanketed beneath a vast blue sky, which was dashed with streaks of pure white and lit by a vigorous midday sun.

Truly, the grounds of this ancient university were beautiful, and mercifully unspoiled by the old and unobtrusive university buildings that lay almost haphazardly about the campus. Even now, despite her privileged background and almost eighteen months attendance, she felt fortunate to have found a place here.

"Faye," there came a shrill call. "Faye! Down here!"

Faye tore her gaze from her magnificent surroundings, and scanned down the hill. Allowing her eyes to dart quickly from face to face, it wasn't long before they fell upon a familiar visage.

"Hey, blind Pew," the fresh-faced young lady shouted. "Over here!"

This call was accompanied by a frantic, two-handed wave.

Faye smiled. It was Louise, a fellow student of mathematics and close friend since her first day as a freshman. She was sat side-on on the ground halfway down the hill to Faye's right. Her body was propped up in a visibly uncomfortable position, her legs pointing towards the footpath below and her body twisted awkwardly to face Faye.

Faye began her descent, carefully dodging legs and stepping over binders and bags as she went. Upon her arrival at Louise's side, her friend made the gesture of scooting over a few inches and patting the ground at her left. Faye duly capitulated, and carefully lowered herself to the ground.

"So, how was your morning?" Louise asked, dusting the blades of grass from her blue summer dress.

"Oh, y'know," Faye replied as she wearily dumped a pair of black binders on the ground at her side.

"No I don't," said Louise. "That's why I'm asking."

Faye made a face of amused annoyance at her friend's deliberately obtuse attitude.

"You know what I mean," she said.

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

"Try two assignments due in by the end of the week."

Louise hissed at the sound of this information.

"Thomson didn't give you an extension, huh?"

"Are you kidding," Faye sighed. "I was lucky he didn't move the deadline forwards."

"Yeah," her friend agreed. "That guy's a jerk."

Faye turned on her side to face Louise.

"How would you know," she asked. "You never show up for his classes."

"His reputation precedes him," Louise replied.

Faye smiled, and then turned over onto her back. Clasping her hands behind her head, she stared absently into the blue expanse above. Slowly she fished about her mind for a topic of conversation. After a time she asked of Louise,

"You ready for the advanced stats test next week?"

"Nope," Louise said. "I don't think anyone is."

"Yeah, you've got that right," Faye agreed.

"Yeah, right Faye," Louise drawled. "As if you're not going to ace it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you love this probability stuff. Remember the mid-term? You got the highest score in, like, the last twenty-five years that course has been running."

Faye granted herself a slight smile of conceit.

"Yeah," she said, softly.

It was true. She did have a gift for probabilities. Not to mention the thrill she got from trying to predict the unpredictable; answering the question before it was asked. Though she had yet to contribute significantly to her family's sizeable fortune, some small part of it could be attributed to the aid she had given her father with his racing form over the years.

A few more minutes passed in silence as both friends enjoyed the calm, late-spring day. Finally, Louise spoke once more.

"So, are you going on the summer tour?"

Faye tipped her head towards her.

"What?" she asked distantly.

"You know," said Louise. "The summer tour, the one to Europe."

Faye's heart sank. She had hoped no one would ask.

"No," she said after a time. "I don't think so."

"What? Why not?"

"I ... I don't think my father would want me to," Faye said after some thought.

"Don't be stupid," Louise scoffed. "You have Daddy wrapped round your little finger, and you know it."

Faye propped herself up on her elbows and looked angrily across at her friend.

"Hey. Now that's not fair," she complained.

Louise did not argue. She simply raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in a sceptical manner.

Faye stared into Louise's eyes, trying desperately to maintain her resolve. But it was a losing battle, and she soon found herself surrendering to reluctant smirk.

"Alright, fine," she conceded. "I just haven't asked. Okay?"

"Why not?" Louise cajoled.

Faye was sure she was making it apparent that she didn't want to discuss it further, but that seemed to be little deterrent to Louise, who was either oblivious to or ignoring her overt defensiveness.

"Come on, Faye," Louise went on. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime. This is the first year the university has been able to book an orbital transport for an excursion. We'll be going into space, for God's sake!"

Faye looked down and away. There was a pause, as it seemed that Louise had finally taken something from Faye's apparent display of displeasure.

"Faye," Louise said softly. "Faye, you're not scared, are you?"

"No," Faye lied defiantly. "I just prefer planes, that's all. Those orbital things look too cramped."

"You are scared," Louise said, a little more loudly than Faye might have liked. "Faye, there's nothing to be afraid of, it's perfectly safe. Those things go up and down all the time without a problem."

"I know, I know," said Faye. "It's just that ... the idea of being in space, surrounded by just... nothing... it freaks me out, y'know?"

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about," Louise comforted her friend. "You know, they say it's the safest form of travel. And besides, I'll be there.

Faye gave slight laugh.

"I feel better already," she said.

Louise placed a comforting hand on Faye's back.

"So, what do you say?"

Faye adopted a pensive cast. It was true that an opportunity like this didn't come along often. Even her influential parents would have had difficulty reserving such an exclusive mode of transport. But her fear of the void was a potent one, and the idea of there being no sound or atmosphere, neither an up nor a down, was a disconcerting one to say the least. She had always known the invisible embrace of Earth's gravity and the soft pressure of the ground at her feet, and for now she simply didn't feel ready to let go.

"I'll think about it," Faye said finally, though in reality, her mind was all but made up.

"That's the spirit," Louise smiled ironically at her friend's noncommittal reply.

Louise retracted her hand and leaned back against her elbows.

Faye drew in her ankles and embraced her folded up legs. Resting her chin upon her knees, she stared out across the river, and began to try and think of a way out that wouldn't result in public humiliation by her well-meaning but over-enthusiastic companion.

After a while, the warm breeze carried away Faye's paltry cares, and took her back to that perfect place she had been. Such things were unimportant. Why let them spoil such a beautiful day?

Faye noticed something out the corner of her eye. Louise's gaze seemed to have been drawn to something at the foot of the hill. Before Faye herself could investigate, Louise began to mutter to herself.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God ..."

"What," Faye said. "What is it?"

Just as she began to turn her head in the direction Louise was looking, her friend snapped at her under her breath,

"Don't look!"

Faye froze mid-turn, and glanced across at Louise in bemusement.

"Why? What's going on?"

"It's Lee," Louise answered. "He's coming this way."

Faye caught her breath.

Those two assignments due in at the end of the week were not the only thing she had been working on. Since the beginning of the year, Faye had been working towards beginning a relationship with fellow student Lee Packard. Of course, it wouldn't be seemly for her to open the courtship. And why should she, when it would be so much easier for him to do all the work. Over the course of the past few months, she had been carefully manipulating him via strategic glances, carefully timed eye contact, and well-placed flicks of her shoulder-length hair.

Men were so pathetically easy to manipulate.

Unfortunately, his impromptu appearance had caught Faye just a little off guard. Nonetheless, she would not let this faze her. Carefully she turned to face forward, and lowered her head back to its original position. Then, taking great care to be subtle, she glanced to her left.

Indeed, there he was, strolling casually down the promenade with two friends walking at his right-hand side. Though he was the shortest of the three, he made up for that with pretty-boy good looks and a passable sense of style. Add to that a wicked sense of humour and the take-home-to-daddy factor, and he was ideal boyfriend material.

She had known from the start she would have to be subtle. It was just like when she had helped her father choose the winners from the racing page. All that was required was good timing and patient preparation, and the horse would win the race for you.

Suddenly, Lee glanced Faye's way. Faye quickly looked away.

Again she had been taken by surprise. Looking out across the river, she continued to observe her quarry through her peripheral vision. He and his friends had since stopped walking, and now seemed to be discussing something; a conversation that Lee had initiated. A moment later, each of the three friends raised a hand in an amiable wave, and then two of them walked away leaving Lee in their wake.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God..." Louise muttered to herself over and over as Lee began to ascend the hill towards where she and Faye were sitting.

This was it. It seemed as though all of Faye's preparation was about to pay off. The job wasn't done yet though, and it would take just a little more pushing to close the bet. Unfortunately, subtlety would be difficult to achieve if Louise continued to panic as she was doing. Her display of nerves was proving quite unsettling, even a little contagious.

"Shut up, Louise," Faye rasped out the corner of her mouth.

But it was to no avail. Louise just continued to stare into her knees and beseech the heavens over and over again.

"Uh, high Faye," came a male voice.

With that, Louise fell silent.

Faye glanced up at Lee who had nearly completed his approach. With an unnatural ease, she shed her nerves and smiled warmly.

"Oh, hi Lee," she said, as if having only just noticed his presence.

Lee walked up to Faye's side, then slid both hands beneath his sweater and slipped them into the pockets of his slacks.

"Hi there, Louise," he said glancing across at Faye's silent associate.

"Hi," Louise replied meekly, without making eye contact.

Faye fought to contain a sigh. She really was hopeless.

"So, uh ... you all set for the test next week," Lee asked uncertainly.

Faye looked up at him, squinting slightly in the sun.

"Yeah, I guess," she replied. "Are you?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Lee joked nervously. "Never was too good at anything with advanced in the title. You don't seem to have a problem with it though."

"I have my moments," said Faye.

She then looked down at the ground and gently pushed her hair back behind her left ear. As a result, Lee swallowed so hard that Faye thought even the neighbouring couple must have heard.

This was all way too easy.

Lee was dumfounded for a moment. Faye allowed him to maintain this awkward silence while he thought of something to say, thus maintaining control of the situation without any outward effort.

Finally, Lee spoke.

"So, I um... so, uh... are you going on the tour this summer?"

Faye's eyes widened slightly. Suddenly, the shoe was on the other foot.

"Because, I was just wondering..." Lee went on gingerly. "I just thought that maybe we could sit next to one another. Y'know, on the transport?"

Faye allowed silence to fall once more, only this time she wasn't in control.

"I uh..." Faye mumbled.

She struggled for something to say, all the time cursing her bad luck and Lee's rotten timing.

Why did it have to be now?

"She's not going," there came a voice.

Faye looked up. It seemed that Louise had come out of her trance, and was now making an ill-advised attempt to bail out her friend.

"She isn't?" Lee said, bemused.

"No," Louise replied. "She's too scare--ow!"

Louise cut herself off with a yelp of pain as Faye administered an elbow to her left arm.

Though Louise's input had been unwanted, it had bought Faye the moments she needed to galvanise herself and come up with a game plan.

"What she means is," Faye said firmly. "I haven't decided yet."

"You haven't?" said Lee, still a little confused.

"No," she replied. "You see, my family usually go on holiday together at that time of year. It's kind of a tradition, and I haven't decided whether I should break from that yet."

"Oh, I see."

Faye found Lee's tone of disappointment most satisfying.

"Well, if you do decide to go..."

"I'll come find you," Faye finished his sentence.

Lee paused for a moment, and then smiled inanely.

"Alright then," he said, before slowly beginning to back away.

"See you around," said Faye with a wide smile.

Lee continued to grin inanely, and raised a hand into an awkward wave. As he did so, he stumbled over a pile of books that lay along side a nearby sunbather. Scarcely managing to keep his balance, a distinctly embarrassed looking Lee excused himself, and helped tidy up the toppled tomes before waving once more and hastily retreating down the hill.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God..." Louise began anew.

This time however, her tone was one of elation rather than nerves.

"What?" Faye asked, as if she didn't already know.

"Oh my God, I don't believe it," Louise squealed. "You did it! You actually did it!"

Faye smiled to herself.

"Yeah," she said, softly. "I did, didn't I?"

After some flapping of arms, and yet more excited squealing, Louise finally managed to control herself.

"So?" she said.

"So what?" replied Faye.

"So, are you going or not?"

Faye realised then that she would now have to decide, sooner rather than later, if she wanted her pet project to bear fruit.

"I... I'm still not sure," she said hesitantly.

"Seriously, Faye," Louise said. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It'll only last an hour, and then you'll be back on Terra firma. And, if you don't want to come back on the transport, you can just get a plane ticket while you're there."

Faye mumbled a little under her breath as she skirted around giving a straight answer. She wanted to go, but the prospect of boarding that orbital transport remained a more daunting one than she could bring herself to face.

"Okay," Louise said resolutely. "I have an idea."

Turning to her right, she reached into a red pack that lay at her side. From it she extracted a small leather purse, which she then open and began to rummage through with her index finger. After a few seconds, she extracted a mid-sized silver coin.

"Right," she said, closing the purse and replacing it in her pack. "I'm gonna flip this coin. If comes up heads then you stay at home and wallow in misery and regret."

Faye gave a short laugh.

"But if it comes up tails," Louise went on. "Then you have to go on the tour with Lee, and then tell me about absolutely everything that happens, right down to the last gory detail."

Faye rested her chin on her knees, and peered pensively across the river.

Deciding her fate by chance -- it seemed apt enough.

"Alright then," Faye agreed, raising her head and looking to Louise.

Louise smiled broadly.

"Alright, let's do this," she stated.

With that, she placed the coin on top of her right fist, and prepared to flip it into the air.

"Wait!" Faye barked at the last possible second. "Let me do it."

"What, are you afraid it's a trick coin?" Louise jested.

"No," Faye replied. "I just think I should be the one to decide my own fate."

Louise looked down at the coin in her hand.

"Sounds fair," she sighed. "Melodramatic, but fair."

She then handed the coin to Faye.

Taking it tentatively, Faye held it in front of her face. It seemed to be a fair coin, head of state on one side, beast-flanked crest on the other. Its surface was a little lacklustre, and its edges were cleaved in places, but overall it appeared...

"Faye," Louise snapped. "Quit stalling!"

Faye shot a displeased glare at Louise. She was right, though. Faye was stalling.

Looking down at the coin once more, she manoeuvred it onto the top oh her right fist, and coiled up her thumb beneath. Then, she flicked it in to the air.

As she watched the humble little disk vault end over end, she couldn't help but ponder what outcomes could ensue from this simplest of acts. After all, it was in her nature to weigh up the odds. This moment could change her life forever, or not at all. She might remember it as a pivotal moment of her existence, or it might just be lost to the mist of her memory. Of course, the real question here was not whether or not the coin would change her life, but rather, whether or not she would allow it to.

There was a dull hiss. Faye looked down in surprise to find that in her moment of introspective she had neglected to catch the coin. The object now lay prostrate atop the cropped grass.

Quickly, and without checking the result, Faye reached for the coin with the intention of making another attempt. However, her hand was stopped fast as Louise grasped her wrist.

"Ah ah ah," Louise scolded. "You flipped it, so the result stands."

Faye looked up at Louise. Then, grimacing slightly, she looked back to where the coin lay.

Slowly, Louise released her grip, and Faye moved her hand away.

Tails.

"Yes," Louise exclaimed. "I knew it!"

Faye's heart was fluttering slightly. She had little idea what significance this result would hold, if any. But right now, for some reason, it seemed like the most important thing in the world.

Overawed by this bizarre sensation, Faye turned to Louise and said the first thing that came into her head.

"Best two out of three?"

"Oh, no you don't," Louise responded. "You said you'd go, so you're going. You are going to find Lee first thing after last period, and you're going to tell him to save a seat for you on the transport, missy."

Faye looked down at the coin. Indeed, she had said she would respect the will of the coin, or fate, or whatever power had guided the path of that small metal disk. She had always trusted the odds before, allowing them to speak to her and give her what pieces of information she would need to anticipate events.

But still, this was different. The probabilities had been strangely silent. Even now, she had no idea of what to expect, and that was unsettling to her. She needed the security of a prediction, even if it were incorrect. Anything was better than this pure and total uncertainty. She always had hated evens.

But then again, there was something perversely exciting about being completely in the dark over one's fate. Who could say; perhaps this would mark the beginning of a whole new life, filled with new experiences and new people. Europe wasn't so far. And as Louise had said, orbital transports were considered to be the safest form of transport available. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Bedsides, what was the worst that could happen?