Sequel: It Will Rain

Love On Top

California Dreamin'

Stanford University

Dressed for her morning run, Rowan Kowalski stepped out of Lantana Hall, not really ready to face the day. When was she ever? Never, but there was something about the California air that always seemed to help refresh her mind and pump her up for the day.

Before departing on her run, she stretched out her petite frame. Making sure that there wouldn't be any nagging aches and pains so that she could solely focus on what needed to get done. Once she felt that her arms and legs were stretched to par, Rowan took off down one of the palm tree lined roads. There was something about Stanford campus that she loved. Was it the layout, the student life, or the weather?

 Well, the weather surely had something to do with it. The warm sun had tanned her skin from the pale that she used to be when she lived in Vancouver. Not that she had gone back for any length of time since her freshman year. Ah, freshman year seemed like so long ago. How naïve she had been. Much hadn't changed since then, she was still naïve but she had developed a thicker skin in reaction to the culture shock she had been put through that year.

Rowan began to feel that feeling she would get when she thought about everything that had happened to her that year, so she forced herself to think of happier thoughts. Anything except that year...

When she passed a group of Freshman all gather around a map, she suppressed a laugh. The iStanford app for the iPhone would help them blend in if they wanted too. Of course, they really didn't need it at the moment because most of the upper class men that would tease them were still asleep except those who enjoyed a good morning run to start off their day. Rowan began to daydream at this point. It was something that she was prone to do especially while she was running which wasn't the healthiest thing for her. But she still did it anyway. She became so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't the shout of warning, or know that she had ran into someone until she collided with the person, sending them both to the ground.

Rowan wicked as her head came to rest of the person chest, an arm around her waste clutches at her work out shirt. She didn't open her eyes until she heard a distinctly male groan emitted by the mass of muscle. Praying that she hadn't ran into a professor or dean, she peaked down at her victim from underneath her eye lashes. Warm brown eyes met her greenish pair and she felt her breath leave her as she pulled back to look over his face. She couldn't put her finger on it but she felt like she knew who he was.

That was until she heard the concerned shout of another man call out to him, "Yo, Andrew, man are you okay?"

Rowan recognized his voice and looked in his direction to see Griff Whalen, WR for the Cardinals. That was when she put two and two together, looking back down she realized that she had just taken out Stanford's pride and joy: Andrew Luck

"Ohmygod.Iamsosorry." She quickly apologized as she fumbled to push off of him, tears forming in her eyes out of shock. "Are you okay?"

Andrew nodded and sat up on his elbows,

"Yeah, I'm okay. I've taken worse hit than that. Don't worry about it." His assuring smile caused her face to flush so she looked away, but his hand came up to make her look at him, "Are you okay?"

Rowan nodded and forced herself to stand up, "Yeah, I will be after I get over the shock running into you, literally. The only thing that's hurt seems to be my pride."

Andrew chuckled and moved so that he was sitting, "That's good. I was more worried that you had gotten hurt than I had."

It was Rowan's turn to laugh, "You're joking, right? The entire student body would be out for my head if you weren't healthy enough to play on Saturday." She offered him her hand, which he accepted. Gritting her teeth, she helped pull him to his feet which was rather difficult because of how massive he was.

Rowan swore she heard Griff laughing in the background at the sight.

"Thanks for the hand," Andrew mentioned as he dusted himself, awkwardly. Rowan collapsed her hands behind her back and looked down at her feet,

"Yeah... It was no problem...." She was going to continue but Andrew cut her off,

"Do you wanna go grab something to eat?" 

She was about to refuse but her stomach growled in protest. She felt herself blush again.

"I'll take that as a yes." Andrew informed her and then he turned to his teammate, "I'll catch you later, Griff."

Griff nodded and walked off. Andrew and Rowan began walking in the opposite direction which was toward Toyon Dinning Hall. She made sure that she maintained a safe distance between them so that she wouldn't draw any attention to him. About halfway there, Andrew decided to speak up,

"So do you run into people often?" 

Rowan could tell he was trying to make a joke out of it which she thought was rather cute of him. She shook her head, "No, it's usually trees and stop signs." However, she wasn't kidding. Andrew laughed until he saw that she was being serious,

"Really?"

"Yeah, I always seem to start day dreaming during my morning runs. I've been told it's a personal problem." Andrew have her a look like he didn't believe her. "I'm serious, come with me on a morning run sometime and I will prove it to you."

He smiled then asked, "Is that an offer?"

Rowan rolled her eyes at him, "In your dreams." Part of her felt like she was dreaming. Was she really going to eat breakfast with Andrew Luck? She pinched, herself, unfortunately she wasn't dreaming. She found some courage to look at him and wondered why he wanted to eat with her. Andrew smirked when he caught her looking at him, he realized that he couldn't believe what he was doing. He had asked her to breakfast and he didn't even know her name.

"So you clearly have me at a disadvantage because you know my name but I don't know yours." He decided to point out to her. Rowan smiled and decided to hang it over his head a little as she stepped up onto the retaining wall next to the side walk the were on, walking across it like a balance beam.

"What makes you think I know who you are, hot shot?"

"I know," Andrew challenged, keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't fall, "Because of you're reaction when you realized who you had knocked over."

Rowan considered this for a moment, was she really that easy to read? Normally, she considered herself to have a pretty damn good poker face, but Andrew saw right through her.

He went on to ask her, "So are you going to tell me now?" Rowan found it funny that he still towered over her even when she was standing on the 4 in. retaining wall.

To answer his question she sent him a flirtatious smile and said, "Where's the fun in that? It's too much fun watching you squirm." Unconsciously, biting her lip afterward.

Holy shit, where is this coming from? I have never talked to a guy like this before.

She continued on at least have block when she realized that he wasn't walking with her anymore. Turning around she saw that he was standing back where she had left him. "You coming, Lucky?"

Her words brought him out of whatever trance he was in. "Lucky? Is that the best you can come up with?" He jogged to catch up to her. She gave him a slight shove and smiled at him,

"No, I could probably think of worse but right now I am too hungry to try." She admitted to him.

"Well, let's get you something to eat." Andrew suggested as they finally made it to the dinning hall, he rushed ahead to to hold the door open for her.

"Why aren't you a gentleman." She complimented him as she walked past him and inside the cafeteria. Once Rowan was inside she grabbed trays for both of them and handed one to him as caught up to her. He sent her a thankful smile,

"Why did you think that I wouldn't?"

"Oh, you know most football players have a tendency to think about themselves." Rowan pointed out, as she grabbed a serving of biscuits 'n' gravy and a blue muffin as they went down the line. She looked back see him piling on the food. Two helping of biscuits 'n' gravy, two pancakes with maple syrup, a plate of bacon, two pieces of white toast, and a banana. 

Was she surprised that he ate that much? No, of course not he's an athlete. She had just never seen that much food on a tray before. Andrew sent her a questioning look, but Rowan could only shake her head at him as she grabbed a carton of chocolate milk. When they arrived at the cashier's station, the lady made quick work of ringing them. Both of them sliding their student ID cards to pay.

After paying, Rowan looked around the rather empty hall and choose to sit towards the back for Andrew's sake. They ate together in companionable silence, both sneaking glances at each other as they did so. From an outside point of view you could tell that there was a lot of attraction between the two. Eventually, Rowan decided to speak up, "So are you excited about the game on Saturday?"

Andrew nodded as he swallowed what was in his mouth before answering, "Yeah, I'm always excited for a game. I'm looking forward to this year a lot."

"Well, you should. Everyone's looking at you to be the first overall pick for next year's NFL draft and that you're going to win the Heisman Trophy, as well." Rowan agreed with him.

"Don't forget a BCS championship, Future Pro-Bowler, League MVP, a couple Super Bowls, and a future Hall of Famer." He rambled off, like it was no big deal. It was funny how lightly he was taking things right now, 

"But enough about me, what about you? Are you coming to the game on Saturday?"

Rowan nodded, as she took a sip of her chocolate milk, "Well, it depends on if I get assigned to cover it." He gave her an odd look. "Ok, so I'm a Journalism Major. I write for The Stanford Dail and do some blogging stuff independently.."

"Nice, so what year are you?" He questioned, hoping that he could ask enough questions to get her to tell him her name.

"I'm a Senior. What are you?" She fired back, quickly.

Andrew smiled and leaned toward her, "I'm a senior as well, if you want to get technical about it I was red shirted as freshamn. My major is Architectural Design."

This surprised her for a moment, "Architectural Design, eh? Not something I would've pinned you to be studying."

"Eh?" Andrew teased her slight accent. She stuck her tongue out at him. "What would you pin me to study?"

"Shut up. My dad was stationed in Vancouver, British Columbia for a while and you kind of pick up their accent." She defended herself and reacted across the table to smack him, but Andrew blocked her hand by catching her wrist,

"I'd think you want to be a Sports Physical Therapist or go into coaching."

Andrew seemed mull over her statement before he replied, "Those roads would've been equally rewarding but I have always had an interest in building things." He paused for a moment before continuing, "I wasn't making fun of you, I think your slight accent is cute."

Rowan blushed and looked down at her plate, pushing the gravy around with her fork. Andrew watched her for a few minutes and felt bad for embarrassing her but he wasn't going to lie. It really was cute to him. His own hunger got the best of him and he began eating again. He found that he couldn't stop looking at her, willing for her to look at him again. When she did there was still a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Will you please tell me your name now?" Andrew decided to ask again.

Rowan smirked and then asked, "Only if you win." Holding out her hand to seal the deal. Andrew took her much smaller hand in his and pausing as he felt what was similar to an electric jolt upon skin contact,

"I want to see you there. Deal?"

 She nodded in agreement and then looked around the dinning. Her eyes widened when they landed on the clock.

"Shit." Rowan swore. She only had 30 minutes to ready ready for the days classes, "I gotta go."

When she went to grab her tray, Andrew stopped her, "Don't worry, I got it you go."

"Thank you!" She leaned down to kiss his slightly bearded cheek, hoping that no one saw and that she was being too forward. "See you, Saturday!"

The shocked Andrew nodded before coming back around to himself and called after her, "Yeah, uh… See ya, Saturday!"

He sighed as he watched her walk out the dinning hall doors. He hoped that really would get to see her on Saturday.

************

Rowan ran back to her dorm as fast as she could. Hoping a cold shower would aviate the giddiness she was currently feeling so that she could focus.

As the cold water hit her body, there was no luck.

'Ha, what a pun! I can't believe I spent the morning flirting with Andrew Luck instead of running. It was totally worth it though!'

After her shower she threw on some make up and pulled out one of her favorite v-necks and a pair of denim shorts to wear for the day. She emerged from the bathroom, her best friend and roommate, Quinn was sitting Indian style on her bed and arms crossed over her chest with a less than pleased expression on her face.

"What?" Rowan asked Quinn, suddenly feeling guilty about something she couldn't remember.

"Oh nothing." Quinn started off sweetly, twirling  a strand of her dark brown hair around her index finger, "You totally forgot that we were all supposed to meet up for breakfast. Did you run into a tree again?"

"Yeah. I totally spaced the fact that most of the roads on campus are lines with palm trees. Luckily, no one saw this time." Rowan lied, she wasn't ready to tell her friend what she had experienced earlier.

Quinn got up from the bed and studied her face, "You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Rowan moved away to grab her MacBook air. Hoping the lab top would protect her from her friend's wrath. "W-what make you say that?"

"Your posture for starters." Quinn informed her, "Come on, Ro, I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything..."

Rowan couldn't bring herself to make eye contact with Quinn feeling guilty about for not wanting to tell about her encounter. Instead, put her MacBook in her grey Coach tote, "I know and I promise that I will tell you as soon as I figure out what's going on."

Quinn quirk an eye brow at her and none the less agreed, "Okay, fine, but you better tell me when you do. Promise?"

"Pinkie Promise." Rowan agreed, holding out her pinkie and Quinn wrapped her's around Rowan's to seal their promise.

Quinn then looked at the time and grabbed her Gucci bag, "Come on, we're gonna be late to Mr. Bosshart's class."

Rowan nodded in agreement and they both left their dorm room, locking their room behind them. Rowan quickly, scrawled, 'Go Cardinals!' on the small white board on it with a smiley face. Quinn added a few exclamation points, not knowing the significance those words had to her friend.

After they had finished that they left for class.
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I'm back! Just a rough version. I will fix it up and add character descriptions shortly. Be sure to leave a comment!