She never fell down stairs-

But Anna did. All the time. At the railway station on the way home, at school, down the three steps in front of her house and every single morning, without fail. Not that it mattered really, since she never fell hard enough to really hurt herself. She’d always manage to trip delicately over her own feet and stumble with a grace that Helena would not have thought possible had she not seen displays of it almost every morning for the last seven years. Most days she’d steady herself on a railing if she was fortunate, or by grabbing Helena’s arm on the way down so that she’d either manage to pull herself up or send them both crashing to the ground, resulting in fits of laughter while the other rail commuters stared and shook their heads. Once in a while she’d fall spectacularly into someone’s arms, throwing them a dazzling smile and a thank you over her shoulder before hooking her arm through Helena’s and strutting away. Not that she did it on purpose or anything.

It didn’t matter until the morning they missed their normal train because Anna had torn her stockings falling down the steps of her house. It was an unnatural occurrence since Anna usually managed to keep her clothes in tact but then again, maybe it was because they’d planned to meet at the traffic lights down the street rather than outside her house, like usual, and Helena hadn‘t been there to lessen the fall.

But it didn’t matter. Well, not at that particular time. They were in no hurry to get to school and waited on the platform, sipping hot chocolate from styrofoam cups bought with loose change dug out from the bottom of their school bags. They caught the next train which was packed with the private school boys, the ones who thought it was amusing to take public transport with the rest of the world, and the ones whose parents were trying to teach them modesty.

Helena suggested sitting but Anna insisted they change carriages to be closer to the station doors for when they alighted. She should have known not to let Anna near stairs, especially not ones on a moving train. Anna placed one foot on the step and the train came to a grinding halt, sending her flying into a crowd of private school boys clustered at the bottom of the stairs. Helena, of course, rushed down to assess the damage but it didn’t matter, Anna had managed to launch herself into some unsuspecting boy who had turned around just in time to catch her.

The boy looked utterly shocked, but then he untangled himself from her. Usually, this was the part where Anna would flounce away, leaving the poor boys stunned but today was different. The boy turned his own dazzling smile upon them and cranked out a cheesy line about girls falling from heaven. Anna was busy being fawned over by the other boys so Helena looked at him incredulously and inquired as to if that line had ever worked. It hadn’t, he told her, along with his name, Oliver, and his school, which happened to be the one around the block from theirs.

They stood around and got off the train together, laughing with Anna about her knack for falling and Helena admired the way Oliver’s mouth curved up on one side when he tried to keep himself from smiling.