InsaneJournal

Who: Valerie Frizzle and Ford Prefect
What: Random meeting
Where: Griffith Observatory
When: Sunday Sept 8th
Rating: PG-13
Status:Complete


It wasn’t that Ford felt called to the Griffith Observatory, to look at space things. After all. he’d yet to have one of those special dreams. He looked very casual as he walked through the halls, his arms lightly folded, tilting his head at this and that. The truth was, Ford came here quite often. The truth was, Ford was a bartender with well over a genius IQ. The truth was, he sometimes genuinely fretted if he would ever amount to anything.

The truth was, Ford drank to forget when he fretted.

But he wasn’t a morose person, by nature. These moments of existential crisis were really just moments. The rest of the time, he drank because being drunk was pretty awesome and he liked to party and have a good time.

And occasionally, he went to the planetarium, too.

There was something about museums that Valerie absolutely adored. It might be the calm and reverence that things were held inside, it might be just being around people who were (at that time) enjoying the same thing as you, and it might be just the beautiful things to look at. So, today she decided that she would enjoy her break between school sessions and go to the planetarium. As she wandered through the halls she took all the sights in and in the corner of her eye she noticed someone that looked vaguely familiar. She couldn’t quite place her finger on why, but she decided to slowly make her way towards him and see if it would trigger. If she didn’t figure it out then she would just walk on by.

Ford was working his way through an area called the Gunther Depths of Space Exhibits, where there were displays on the Solar System and the Milky Way. Lots of things about stars, which might have been an odd considering that his own planet was destroyed by an exploding star… but of course Ford didn’t know that yet.

Unaware that anyone was approaching him, he turned away at the last possible moment before Valerie could have spoken.

A momentary look of disappointment flashed over her face as he turned away. Well, apparently this was going to be a little more difficult than she had thought previously. He did look incredibly familiar and she was more than willing to embarrass herself by asking if he was from the network. So, she reached out and brushed the back of his arm with her hand before blurting it out, “Are you on Valar net? Sorry, if this is weird, you look super familiar.”

Ford turned then, his mind switching from science to being social in seconds, like a computer system opening a new program. He was very happy to find a tall, bombshell of a redhead in need of his attention. “Hm? Oh, yeah. I’m on there,” he replied in his quasi-London (but pretty faded) accent.

“Lovely. I thought I recognized you and I was hoping that would be the place. I was going to feel completely foolish if you hadn’t been on there.” A slight tinge of pink appeared on her cheek because she was still a little embarrassed to call out to him in the first place. Then suddenly she realized her manners and her eyes went a little wide. “Oh my gosh, sorry! I should introduce myself. I’m Valerie Frizzle.” She held out her hand to him to properly introduce herself.

Ford shook her hand. He liked forward women quite a lot and it was obvious from the smile on his face. “Ford. Prefect. You come here often?” he asked, a line usually reserved when two people were meeting in a bar.

And it was quite a nice smile and Valerie couldn’t help but smile a little more when she looked at his. Something about it made her a little more calm and at his question she gave a small shrug, “Not too often. I think it’s is maybe my third time in a year. I enjoy trying out different museums. You?”

"I just moved here, and its my first time," he said with a bit of a shrug. "But it's pretty groovy. Space stuff. I'm into it." The way Ford talked about everything, it was difficult for most people to realize he had well over a genius IQ.

“Well, welcome to LA. Where are you from and what brought you out here?” She asked, honestly wondering. She liked to see why people came from the middle of nowhere - she usually suspected the glitz and glamour of LA for the reason. His use of groovy made her grin playfully, “Groovy, haven’t heard that in a while. And I love space. I wanted to be an astronaut for a long time as a child.”

"London, originally," Ford replied. "And moving steadily westward ever since I left. You from here?"

“That explains the lovely accent. And no, I grew up on the east coast, Connecticut, but I’ve been around the LA area for a good portion of my life,” She explained to him, “And London is a place I would love to live in.”

At this, Ford shrugged. "Eh..." he grunted. London wasn't so great. Then again, he tended to get really bored really fast. "It's a nice place to visit, but...well, obviously..." She could easily finish the rest for herself.

“I could say the same thing about LA, but alas, here I am,” she commented back to him. She was discovering that he was slightly hard to figure out and slightly rough. And she never expected anyone to completely agree with all her views, but it did make sense he wasn’t as enamored with London as she would be since he had moved himself out this way.

Ford cocked an eyebrow. He took everything very seriously. For a few seconds, he thought in quiet. “Why don’t you leave?” he asked, bluntly. Work was the most obvious reason and he expected Ms. Frizzle</i> Valerie to say just that.

“I’ve set up a life here now. I hadn’t planned on living in LA at all, but I like Irvine a lot. I’m going to school now, so I’m not leaving anytime soon,” she commented with a small smile. Living in LA had been more of a convenience when she was still in the band, but now she had enjoyed living here. She made herself feel better with the fact that she was in Irvine and not downtown LA.

“Ah.” Ford had pegged her for older. Not much older, but out-of-school older. “Grad-school?” he asked.

“Both actually. I, uh, didn’t actually go to college right out of high school,” she admitted a bit sheepishly as she reached a hand up to run it through her hair. She hated admitting it, but it was the truth and she was trying to fix it now, “I’m doing my Bachelor’s and Masters in teaching at the same time. My school has a nice program for it.”

“Sounds like I’m keeping you from something right this moment,” Ford said with a charming smile, one he knew was charming. If Valerie wanted, she could deny it and then he would invite her to accompany him through the rest of the museum. Getting a date was occasionally like speaking in code.

The smile worked its desired effect and she couldn’t fight the small blush that appeared, “No, not at all actually. Today is a free spirit kind of day.” She wondered vaguely what he was getting at, but she had her suspicions. If he asked her to come along she wasn’t going to turn him down, it was more fun to wander with another person and she wanted to get to know him a little more.

Ford’s smile widened. “Alright,” he said, waving her on as he turned. “Let’s go.” He was eager to know her better, too; honestly, in more than one way. For now, he could happily wander about the museum with her.

“Alright then,” her voice was happier as she turned to follow him along, “So, what do you do?” She wondered if it was a job or something else that brought him over here. He seemed like the type that would just roam wherever he wanted, but she was still curious. After she asked her question she turned her head slightly to look at the items they were passing before turning to look over at him and await his response.

“I’m a bartender,” Ford said without hesitation. Whatever made the money that paid for the rest of his activities, right? That and he liked the club environment. And he couldn’t be bothered to work much harder, or get up before 11AM. He was sort of a bartender by default. “What do you study?”

“Oh really? That’s kind of fun. Do you get to create your own drinks?” Valerie didn’t go out too much anymore, but she used to love watching the bartenders at bars. Especially the ones that did the flipping of bottles and put on a show. Drink mixing was also a science, so she enjoyed trying drinks she couldn’t find anyplace else, “And I’m studying to become an elementary school teacher, which is completely different from most life experience I’ve had. But, I enjoy children and teaching seems to come fairly naturally.”

Ford was actually very good at putting on a show behind the bar. He was a good dancer, which lended itself to all kinds of fancy moves with bottles and trick pours. It was especially valuable in the clubs he liked to work for.

As for hearing Valerie was hoping to be a teacher, it wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted to hear. Little kids and he did not mix well. They were not a good cocktail. But a woman who was forced to keep control all day long… well, that usually meant she was looking to unwind at night. “What were you doing between high school and college?”

Luckily, Valerie didn’t have any of her own children. She was more than happy to teach them and let them go home to their parents for the time being. Someday, maybe, but for now she was more than content to just teach them and keep them at arm’s length. “I was in a band actually - I ;played drums. We toured around before getting a record deal and getting famous. We stayed famous for a few years before our lead singer decided she wanted to go solo and we broke up. So, once that ended I decided to try something a little more normal and get a degree and maybe try something new for a career. But sometimes I keep hoping that we might get back together because it was a lot of fun.”

Ford wanted children never. Never was a good timeframe. But a hot, red-headed drummer--yes, Ford was down with that. That was all fiiine by him. He looked over his shoulder and grinned. “What was your band called?”

Valerie was probably completely oblivious to his thoughts, but she knew that she also found him quite attractive. She was slightly rusty when it came to flirting, but she could easily get back into it if she realized what was going on. When he flashed that smile at her she couldn’t help but smile back, “We were called The Frizzlettes. If you’ve never heard of us I won’t be offended.”

“I’ve never heard of you,” he replied, in his typical blunt but somehow inoffensive way. More often than not, people told Ford they found him exceptionally trustworthy, because he was so honest. “But seems it was named after you.”

“I’m not surprised. We did only a bit overseas for promotion, but we basically a one hit wonder if I had to think about it. And yeah, unfortunately. I didn’t come up with the name, but the question always got tossed at me,” she commented with a slight shrug as she moved to stand beside him as they stopped in front of another display.

“Well, it’s a good name, Valerie Frizzle,” Ford said, coming to stop beside her. “It’s an exceptionally good name.”