What I Learned at SRU -124-

A/N: This chapter is different from most chapters. It is a special chapter to celebrate New Year's. It is technically a flashback sequence, but also a slice of original fiction. So if you're a regular SRU reader, you'll notice it's...different. This chapter is a means of getting the message out to my readers that in 2014, this new year, I will be working to revise this story into an original series - which it basically already functions as - and these flashback scenes of sorts are the first I have written specifically for this purpose. Many things will stay the same, but many things will change (ex. the crime drama subplot will be toned down and scaled back quite a bit).

Keep in mind that none of this is final! This is all still technically in planning/concept.

What We Learned at SRU
Beginnings

- August -

"A fresh start," she said, spreading her arms up with enthusiasm as they approached the campus center's entrance. They walked up the shallow set of stone steps leading to the campus center's entrance. "This year's going to be so much better than the last," she insisted with an optimistic glint in her sapphire eyes. She was wearing her colored contact lenses today - the first time in a long while.

Her elder brother, walking beside her, scratched lazily at the stubble on his neck as he opened one of the glass double doors, allowing his sibling to enter. He sighed in reply to her hopeful grin, watching her brightened eyes survey the bustling lounge area that sprawled before them.

"I dunno," he mumbled back tiredly. "My Sophomore year wasn't really any better than my Freshman one." He yawned as they walked across the hard panel flooring, heading toward the carpeted open lounge of couches and coffee tables strewn about.

"I've got a good feeling, though," the sister insisted. "This year, I'm really going to try to be a new person. Just you watch. C'mon, let's go get lunch."

"Katrina..." The brother sighed again. "Try not to get ahead of yourself, jeez. We've barely been back on campus for a week, and you're already...-" He trailed off when he realized that she was roaming off, likely not even listening to him. He followed, letting her lead him toward a back corner of the building. His mind recanted to itself, 'Kat, what am I supposed to do with you?'

They weaved around a trio of hackie-sackers, strode past a table of laptop users - one was watching some kind of music video, giggling at their computer screen - and exited the main area of the center, heading into a compact echo chamber of a stairwell.

"I'm in the mood for chicken," said Kat, her words and her gliding footsteps bouncing through the well. "What about you, Siku?" She reached the bulky metal door at the base of the stairs and clicked in its bar handle, pushing through. "Probably a cheeseburger, right?"

"Probably," Siku muttered back with a shrug, observing her bouncy mannerism as she held the door open for him. He mumbled a "Thanks" as he passed through.

The basement of the campus center was dimly lit, with thick, ornate beams holding up the floor above. The majority of the basement was sectioned off by wooden walls with windows built into them, securing a campus-owned restaurant within its door-less square. A collection of tables littered the place, with red-cushioned booths lining the inside edges of the thin wall dividers. The place was packed with college students, and not a single table looked empty that afternoon. A wide-screen TV hung in the far corner of the restaurant area, and was currently playing a baseball game. The line leading up to the main counter of the restaurant was about ten students long. The place was quite rowdy, with periodic swells of noise coming from the baseball audience.

It was the lunch hour on a Friday, after all. This activity was to be expected.

The two siblings took their spots in line.

"Yo," called out a thickly built young man from a nearby table, serving up a wave. Siku took note of the familiar voice and waved back, his face neutral. He refocused his attention on his sister, who was impatiently fussing with her hair. It was a frizzy-edged mess that today, though it looked like she'd spent time brushing it. She was wearing a white tank-top and a green miniskirt, and now that Siku was paying attention, the skirt seemed shorter than the type of clothes she'd normally wear.

"What's with the getup?" Siku wondered.

"Mm?" His sister let her hands fall from her mane and glance at him with a raised brow. Her lips propped with a bit of confusion, and he noticed that said lips were glossy - which was an oddity for her.

He asked, "You got a date I don't know about?"

Her eyes widened a little as she spat, "Wh-? No. What're you...-?" Her nostrils flared a little - Siku's cue that she was getting flustered.

"You just seem...dressed different," Siku noted, trying to be casual with his prodding.

The line moved forward.

"I-I know, I'm...-" Kat fidgeted her hands with her tank-top, pushing its hemline squarely below her skirt's waistline.

"Sis." Siku sighed. "You're all...happy-go-lucky today, and I get this 'fresh start' thing, but...-" He was gesturing his hands at his sister, trying to find the right words to encourage her, but his thought was cut off.

"Dude!"

The guy who'd waved at Siku earlier was standing right behind them in line at this point, and slapped Siku's back hard with his sweaty palm.

"Hey," Siku replied.

Siku's friend, whom Kat recognized in face only vaguely, said to him, "Some of the guys from Third are gonna do some Ultimate Frisbee in a few. Wanna eat with us, catch up? I only just got my food - been a while since we hung out."

"Yea, been a whole summer, eh?" Siku scratched at his chunky, stubbly chin as he cast a glance to his sister. Her brows arced with some sympathy as she could see his desire for social interaction, and she gave him a slight nod.

"You should," said the sister.

"Uh," Siku turned back to his acquaintance. "Yea, I'm in."

"Cool. We'll be over there." The young man pounded Siku's thick shoulder a second time before roaming back to his table.

The line moved up another couple of spots in the moment that followed.

"Yea, so...-" Siku cleared his throat. "Sorry."

"No, no, you're fine," Kat assured primly.

"You sure?" Siku checked with a slight wincing look of doubt.

"I'll be OK," Kat insisted. She clamped her soft hand against his arm and squeezed, giving her sibling a presentable smile of confidence. The glossy lips were kind of weirding him out still, though. As was the thick eyeliner he noticed in that moment.

"All right, all right," Siku said in acceptance, rolling his eyes with a smirk. "I just don't want you feeling like...-"

"Alone?"

"Er, well, yea. I mean, you're still sore over what happened with those guys from...-"

"I'm over it," Kat eased, though her eyes flickered as she looked elsewhere, the line progressing again. "Like I said, this is a new school year. I want to make new friends."

"So why don't you come hang out with me and...-?" Siku bobbed his head off to where his acquaintance had come from.

"You and...-?" Kat narrowed her eyelids and raised her brow, crossing her arms and she awaited a name.

"Aaaand those guys," Siku fumbled out sheepishly. "I barely know 'em," he defended himself hastily. "Forgot his name. He lives on the floor above me."

"Sounds like you could still stand to make some friends, yourself."

"Yea," Siku sighed with hesitation. "But, ya know. I'm not all about the big...group stuff. I'm a social butterfly. And crap."

They took a couple of steps forward as the pair of students ahead of them ordered at the counter.

"Right," Kat came back with dry sarcasm. "You just don't like being stuck with the same people for more than a day."

"Hey, now...I'm still stuck with you."

Kat scoffed, playing off as being insulted with a dropped jaw.

"I meant-" Siku spat, teeth clenched with immediate regret. "I still hang out with you!"

"I'm your little sister," she noted, retracting her appalled look and giving him a warm smile. She rubbed his back a couple of times. "We're stuck with each other."

"True story."

They waited in calm silence amidst the bustle of the restaurant for a moment. Kat looked upward to the overhanging signage. A logo portraying two cartoony bears greeted them cheerfully - one a grizzly and one a panda. The restaurant's name was printed in big, enthusiastic lettering: Bosco & Sato's. Commonly referred to by students as 'Bee n' Ess' (or 'Bee-Ess' in the derogatory), Bosco & Sato's Grill and Snack Shop was a commonly frequented college-owned restaurant that served burgers, fries, wraps, milkshakes, pizza...the typical college-student foods. Even students who had no cash could dip into their 'transfer meal' count to swap a cafeteria meal for the freshly fried dishes B&S provided. Being an open portion of the campus center basement, the restaurant's quarters served double duty as a regular hangout spot for the student body, even when the shop was closed.

Their turn finally came, and they both went up to the laminate countertop, its green-marble print a familiar and comforting sight to Kat's eyes.

The woman working the counter was dressed in the black and white uniform, her slick raven hair tied back in a bun behind a white cap that was adorned with the text 'B & S.' Her apron had the dual-bear logo printed on it. Her expression, however, was the antithesis to the logo's bright demeanor. Bags hung from her tired, hazel eyes. Her pale skin wrinkled a smidgen at the edges of her cheeks and eyes, and a plain nose ring latched around her right nostril. Siku found her attractive enough. Ample bosom size probably helped, but it was the middle-aged lady's dry sass that truly intrigued him.

"You," she greeted him with snarky disdain.

"Me," he replied calmly, letting his sister look at the laminated menu taped to the counter.

"Didn't see your name on the hire list," the woman noted. "You ditchin' me? I finally scare ya off?"

"Uh, nah, I just need a semester away from the food business," Siku tried to pacify her. "I've got a heavy class-load. Maybe in the spring."

"You want in on the sub list?" the woman wondered.

"Eh," Siku passively declined.

"Yea, yea," his prior boss sighed. "I'll harass you about it later. But today's busy. So. C'mon, ya Canucks..." She snapped her fingers at them, her nails painted black.

Siku gave her his student ID card for her to swipe - ticking off one of his transfer meals. She gave it back to him, then pulled her pen out from behind her ear to scribble down their order.

"Whatcha want?" she asked, her voice as dry and dead as peeled off tree bark.

"Double bacon cheeseburger," Siku requested. "Regular fries. Not the curlies."

"Gotcha. Pickle with that?"

"Uh, hell yea."

Siku watched her jot down his order, her handwriting surprisingly neat and eloquent despite her appearance and attitude. She added his name at the end:
- Siku

"A To-Go box for that, too, actually," Siku added. The clerk wrote in the letters 'TG' and circled them beside him name.

"What about you, girlie?" The woman glared at Siku's sister, who was still perusing the menu.

Kay didn't reply, seemingly oblivious, and Siku bumped her arm.

"S-sorry," Kat muttered out, pushing hair behind her hair. "Um, can I get...the...-" She traced her finger across the text, having lost track. "-...chicken patty melt? Provolone. Please."

"Curly Q's, pickle?"

"Both, please."

"Right." The clerk jotted it down on her pad. "Sorry, kid, what's yer name, again?"

"Katrina," replied the sister, handing over her own ID card to be swiped.

After their transaction was concluded, the woman grabbed a pair of tall paper cups and handed them to the two. The cups had the two bears printed on either side in a simplistic design, running round the cup as if chasing one another in a never-ending circle.

"'Kay," said the clerk with some dull impatience. "It'll be, like, twenty minutes." She shooed at them. "Scram."

Siku chuckled as he and his sister approached the nearby soda fountain.

"She seems in a good mood," Katrina noted facetiously, filling her cup halfway with fruit punch.

"Oh, yea," Siku agreed, adding ice into his own.

"Um, so...-" Katrina moved her cup over and added Dr. Pepper, blending it with the punch. "You're going to go...hang out with those guys now?"

"Yea, I mean...if you don't mind," Siku replied, dumping in Mountain Dew.

"No, no, it's fine. Really." Kat added a bit of ice, and it splashed out from the top of her cup, leaving her hand sprinkled with sticky soda droplets.

She sighed in spite of her forgetfulness - why did she always add ice last? She hastily reached for the nearby napkin dispenser that sat next to the condiment section and dried her hands. As she finished, she realized her brother was sipping at his drink from a straw, giving her a dubious look.

"Seriously," Kat pressed. "Go have fun."

"Ah," Siku breathed out after his long sip. "Well, I'll catch you later, Sis. We'll try dinner, instead?"

"Mm-hm." Kat nodded and allowed him to leave, diving into the throng of students behind her. She lingered at the soda fountain for a moment.

That familiar sinking, stinging feeling was prying at the edges of her lips, quivering them up and down as she fought back the doubt. She had endured the past day and a half of classes, feeling isolated and alone amongst the throngs of classmates, clinging onto the prospect of her busy brother finally making time for her, only to have it swiped right out from her grasp at the last second. But she had to let him go. She couldn't bear the thought of dragging him down, as she knew she had the school year prior. He deserved to be a 'social butterfly' and go do his own thing. He didn't need her clawing and clinging at him like a starved cat desperate for affection.

Katrina's attention was jarred as another student shuffled up, making a clacking sound as she banged a plastic cane left and right along the polished tile flooring. She was a chunky, curvy girl with pale skin and a round face. She was dressed in a green, spread collar dress shirt, unbuttoned to expose a black tee beneath - the tee had a smattering of golden music notes printed on it. A green bandana was tied over a mess of matted, greasy black hair, some of which was lazily spilling over the girl's face. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of black shades.

Kat quickly put one and one together and realized that this girl was blind. Poor thing, Kat thought to herself. She set her cup aside, noting the blind girl's own empty container.

"Uh, h-here, lemme-" Katrina made to assist the girl, but her gentle approach was literally pushed aside as the pudgy blind girl bumped into her. "Sorry!" Kat spit in a nervous panic.

"Watch where you're going," growled the girl. Her voice sounded a lot more childish than her stocky form and unpleasant demeanor would presume.

"I-I didn't mean...-!" Kat began, taking quick steps backward as the girl unflinchingly assumed commanding position of the soda machine. "Did you...-? Do you need any help with...-?"

"I'm fine."

Kat folded her fingers together and let her chained hands dangle in front of her waist, curiously watching the disabled girl tuck her cane's strap around her elbow. The blind stranger then placed her empty cup on the tray below the fountains, and with the other hand, she groped cautiously at the labeled buttons.

"Mmph," she growled through her nose, continuing to fuss around.

Kat timidly took a step forth, raising up her hand as if to catch the stranger's attention - which was, she realized, useless, and went unnoticed.

"Umm...-" Katrina was shocked into silence as the girl in front of her slapped her palm into the Pepsi drink display on the machine's front. This caught the attention of some students sitting at the nearby tables, who stared, perplexed.

The blind girl grumbled out her explanation - Kat couldn't tell if it was for her, or...-

"I fucking told them three days ago to get goddamn braille on this thing." With a grunt, she slapped the machine again, drawing more attention to herself.

"'Ey!" barked the grouchy woman who at the counter. "What's the issue? Oh..." The lady's face soured as she leaned over, noting the student in question. "Listen, I'm still waitin' on your stickers, kid, calm the hell down."

"Why aren't they here yet?" the blind one growled out, her head tilted to better hear the restaurant manager. "The fuck's taking so long? They should already be here..."

"Don't look at me," the woman balked. "I alre-"
"I can't look at you," snapped the girl, tearing off her shades. "Blind? Hello? Why d'ya think I need the braille here? Urgh."

The woman behind the counter glared and sighed.

"I already put the order in," the manager explained, her expression and tone conveying her impatience. "Keep your pants on. It'll get added soon enough. What did you want to drink?"

"Piss off," the blind girl hissed back, clipping her shades to the collar of her tee.

The manager rolled her eyes, then turned back to the confused student at the counter. With a lowered voice, she spoke to them. "Right. Now, what didja want?"

The temporarily quieted restaurant hesitantly picked back up its commotion. Katrina was baffled. For being blind, this student seemed like she she was...kind of a pushy jerk.

"Umm...-?" Kat carefully made to approach her again. "I-if you want, I could-"
"Leave me alone, already."

Yeeaaa. Definitely a pushy jerk. Kind of creepy, in a way, too. She'd pushed her face in Kat's direction, her eyes almost otherworldly in their pasty glassy whites. Her entire face exposed, Kat could now tell that the girl was clearly of some kind of Asian ethnicity. Kat decided that the grump was actually kind of pretty - or, she would be, if she wasn't intentionally scowling with a mess of dirty hair slopped over her face.

Katrina was stuck in place, however. Something kept her grounded where she stood, watching this fussy, bossy blind girl finagle with the soda machine. She seemed to stick her cup in a haphazard spot and reached for the button above.

"Diet Pepsi," Katrina blurted out, walking up a couple more steps to the stranger's side.

The blind one paused for a moment, and Kat could see that the girl's round, smooth face was currently wrinkled in a grumpy, unpleasant way.

"Th-that's Diet Pepsi," Katara explained in a mutter. "Um, the ice is to the left, and the, uh, the root beer's next on the right..."

The blind girl's head slid sideways, as if puzzled and amused at the same time. She let her hand fall from the Diet Pepsi button.

"Which...one's the Good Doctor?" the girl asked grumpily.

"The, um...the what?" Kat squeaked, fidgeting nervously with a clump of her hair.

The stranger sighed.

"The Dr. Pepper," she groaned under her breath.

"Oh," Kat recollected herself, scrambling to move the girl's cup to the appropriate position. "That's...right-"
"I can handle it," snarled the girl. "Just tell me where it is. Jesus. I'm blind, not a fucking cripple."

At this point, there were two other students lingering nearby, ready cups in hand. This made Katrina self-conscious, and she fiddled with her glasses.

"Sh-sure, it's...-" Katrina backed off a step, assisting the girl with her words. "-...one more to the right. The-...Yea. Little bit-...Mm-hm, right there."

The fizzing sound of soda being poured was oddly comforting in that socially awkward moment. Katrina readied a pair of straws and plastic covers her cup and this girl's. Her expression winced as the cup was nearly full, afraid the blind girl would unknowingly overflow it, but she didn't, allowing Kat a silent breath of relief.

As the other two students shuffled to the left side of the machine to get their own beverages, Kat presented out the cup cover and straw, only to feel like an idiot since the girl couldn't see her doing it.

"Move," the blind girl grumbled at Kat, whom she sensed standing between her and the straws.

"I, um, I already got-"
"I didn't ask for your charity, lady."

Kat was rendered silenced, and she caught the offended glance of one of the students filling his drink behind this cranky girl.

"N-no, I know," Katrina tried to assuage her, taking steps back to accommodate the space the blind girl was forcing as she moved over. "I'm just...trying to be nice," Kat mumbled, her discouragement leaking out. For trying to have a fresh start, this week was not letting up for Katrina, constantly tossing reminders of her apparent incompetence right in her face.

"Good for you," sassed the blind girl, her quiet words barely audible against the backdrop of restaurant bustle. The two students at the machine to their left disappeared, and another kid came in to take their place.

As the blind girl leaned over the counter to try and find a straw and cap for her cup, Kat suddenly realized that her drink was still sitting idle on the countertop, dangerously close to this girl's arm. As the blind girl's elbow bent, looking to topple Kat's drink over, Katrina dropped the unused straw and cap down and lunged forth a step.

"Oh, nnn-!" was what came out of Kat's mouth as she grabbed her beverage with one hand and the stranger's arm with the other.

"Don't touch me," snarled the girl, shaking Kat off. "The fuck is-?"
"Y-you were going to...to spill...-!"
"Whatever. Just...-"

The blind girl snapped a top on her cup and poked a straw at it until its found its slot. She slung her cane free and began to waddle back in the direction she'd come from.

Kat stood in this moment, feeling defeated and disheartened. But something about this strange young woman intrigued her. Made her curious. Why was she so mean? Was she actually hurting inside? What if she was feeling just as lonely and frustrated as Katrina was?

Kat followed the girl, and before they entered the crowded pond of tables, Katrina called out to the girl's back.

"Can I sit with you?" Katrina asked, managing to not stutter or stammer in her question.

The girl paused, sucking soda with her straw.

"Excuse me?" she asked Kat with a dead tone.

"Are you...-? Do you want some company?"

"Tsh. Not really, but you obviously do, so...whatever. Fine."

Katrina's chest swelled with some scrap of relief. That had worked? She was...OK with that? Oh, awesome. Neat. Oh, man. Maybe she could make a new friend today.

By the time they'd sat down, however, that swell had crashed, as Katrina immediately remembered how unpleasant this girl seemed to be. She watched the blind girl slam her curvy, stout mass into her booth, and Kat timidly slid into the opposing one. The table between them housed a backpack and a plate partially covered in curly fries. No condiments, no indication of a sandwich, or a pickle...just fries.

The mean-spirited girl tilted her head back, rolling it around her neck. She then reached out, touched the table, and found her way to her plate. She found a fry and plucked it up, sticking it in her mouth. As she chewed, she grabbed her shades, which had been dangling off her shirt collar, and stuck them back on her face. During this time, Katrina simply gawked at her, bewildered.

The girl in green and black grabbed two more fries and stuck them in her mouth. Chewing them in one cheek, she spoke, slouched back in the booth.

"Are you new here?"

Katrina sighed in spite of herself. Did she really seem that awkward, to be mistaken for a freshman?

"I-...No, this is...actually my second year."

"...Huh." The girl swallowed, then grasped her cup, carefully lifting it. Her lips puckered at the air until finding the straw. As she slurped her soda, Katrina tried to continue conversation.

"S-so, what about you?"

"This is my first week. They told me this school was fucking blind-friendly, but at this rate, I'm surprised the goddamned elevators even have braille. Christ..."

Katrina felt her insides squirm at the girl's language.

"Oh, I...um...I'm sorry about that. It's, you know, a smaller school, so maybe-"
"At least I don't have to wear a uniform here."

"Ah. Yea, that's...good."

Katrina gave the girl a confused look - why would someone who was blind care about uniforms? What kind of colleges made you wear uniforms? Private, uppity ones, maybe...but this girl didn't seem like she would've had any association with that sort of place to begin with. Oh, jeez. Where were her manners?

"My name's Katrina, by the way. Katrina Kesuk. I'm actually from, um...from Canada, but my brother and I are studying here. I'm an English Major, and I'm trying to use that to get into Education - you know, become a teacher, and so...-" Katrina swallowed nervously, trailing off.

"Hm." That was the response Kat received.

This grouchy girl wasn't so great at chatting, was she? Or maybe she just wasn't interested? She sure liked slamming down french fries and soda, though.

Kat struggled to move things along.

"And...you...-?"

"I'm Jun." With this simple introduction, Jun sucked at her straw some more.

Katrina, in turn, did the same, her brain spiraling in a cycle of over-eager hesitation.

"Ih-it's nice to meet you, Jun."

"..." More fry chewing.

"Soooo, you...-?" Kat blinked at this wonderful conversationalist before her. "What are you here to study?"

Katrina had to wait a few seconds, drumming her fingers along her cup as she waited for Jun to guzzle more of her Dr. Pepper. Jun smacked her lips, then ate another fry. Katrina allowed herself to frown a bit, off-put by the girl's rude, inconsiderate attitude.

"I ain't here to study," Jun replied at last. Psh. Well, that seemed obvious enough. "I'm here to play. Music, I mean. Well, and other stuff on the side, heh. Main thing is to not have my goddamn psychotic parents breathing down my neck every fucking hour of the day."

Did Jun really need to keep sticking curse words inbetween every other sentence like that? And how could she talk about her own family in such a way? Yikes...

"Uh...-" Katrina nearly choked on a bit of her drink going down the wrong tube, and had to clear her throat. "S-sounds a bit...-" Another cough. "Sounds difficult."

"Mmph." Jun didn't respond to this, crossing her arms in a perfectly ornery fashion and blowing a puff of hot air up at her disheveled bangs, tussling them about.

Katrina was really fumbling for discussion at this point. Digging deep.

"You...also like Dr. Pepper?" Digging very deep. "Me, too."

"The Good Doctor knows where it's at."

"Heh, y-yea..."

Two sighs, out of sync.

"What's your deal, anyway?" Jun spat.

"Eh...Excuse me?"

"Why're you tryin' to be all sweet on me? Huh?"

"Sweet on you...?"

"I don't swing that way, sister," Jun flatly proclaimed, sipping at her soda. Air was starting to filter into the straw. "Usually," Jun added in a conceding mumble.

"Um," Kat was startled by this implication. "No, I didn't mean anything like that..."

"Oh. Well...So what're we talking for, here?"

"I...just...thought you seemed interesting? I guess?"

"...Heh. Yea, I get that a lot." The manner in which Jun said this threw Katrina off. The girl sure seemed cocky, didn't she?

"Then, I guess you must already have lots of friends you've made?" Katrina posed this question with a lifted brow, as she already knew the answer.

Jun fluttered her lips.

"People have trouble keeping up with me," Jun said, jangling the ice in her cup and trying to suck non-existent soda from it. "I thought it'd be a little different here, but-...It's whatever. Shit still stinks, no matter who's droppin' it."

Katrina caught a glimmer of bitterness in Jun's face, those unpleasant wrinkles scrunching up her porcelain face a bit.

The phrase 'I thought it'd be a little different here' hit Kat right in the stomach, for she knew that feeling all too well. But, then the other sentence...ech. What was that even supposed to mean, anyway?

"W-well, I mean...-" Katrina paused. Should she speak her mind? Hm. "To...to be frank, um, Jun, it...it might work better if you, maybe, like...-"

"What?" Jun grunted impatiently, as if Kat was speaking another language.

"D-don't you want to...to make friends? It...it sounds like you, um, maybe have a complicated situation at...at home, and, so...-"

"There ya go," Jun scoffed. "Tryin' to get all sweet and sappy on me again. Listen. Chicky. I don't wanna hear it. Mm-kay?"

"Sooo...youuuu...want people to not like you?" Kat asked rhetorically.

"Uh, I want people to maybe like me for me, n' just not pity party over the poor-baby-blind-girl. Fuck that."

"You could stand to be a bit less of a jerk, then," Katrina spilled out. Her eyes popped wide as she realized what she'd just let slip.

"Tss!" Jun laughed through her teeth, then picked a pinky finger into her ear. "Wanna run that by me again, Sugar-Cube?"

"I...I'm just...-" Katrina's teeth were grit with anxiety. This was swiftly becoming too much for her to handle. "Wait, Sugar-Cube? Wh-?"

"'Cuz you're bein' all sweet and sappy."

"Um...-?"

"It's a nickname? Ya know?"

Katrina was frowning - quietly. She wasn't sure she approved of being called stupid, childish nicknames in a derogatory manner. She had a name already, thank-you-very-much.

"Hey," Jun dismissed, scratching the top of her bosom lazily. "Don't get all pissy with me, you're the one who wanted to fucking sit at my table."

"I guess I thought you were just having a bad day, and needed some cheering up."

"Yea?" Jun's lower lip propped out, and her brows furrowed a bit underneath her shades. "Well, I am having a bad day, but I didn't ask for some mamby-pamby stuttering weirdo to take pity on me. You're doing a fuck-up job of cheering me up."

Katrina's cheeks felt like they were under a furnace now. That really stung. The stuttering remark, the insulting words, and the overall lack of respect. Kat had stuck her neck out throughout this entire encounter, and this jerk was being such a...jerk, just-...urgh!

"All right. OK." Katrina began to shuffle out of her side of the booth.

"Oh, leaving so soon?" Jun teased. "I thought I was interesting."

"That's a nice way of putting it," Kat snarled, stopping at the edge of the booth, her knees jutting out from the side. "Sorry I bothered you."

"Oh, please, stop being such a drama queen."

"I...I'm not."

"Ya are. You want a fucking medal for taking pity on the blind girl?"

Katrina bit her lip, staring at black glasses set over an unenthused face.

"N-no, I was just...trying to be nice."

"Uh-huh. Like I said, good for you. Me being blind had nothing to do with it."

"Actually, no, it didn't, I just felt like talking with you, how is that taking pity? I don't care if you're blind, but I do care if you're a...ungrateful prick. So if you're going to keep being rude to me, I'll leave you to yourself. You clearly seem to want to be alone, anyway, so...-"

Jun seemed to need a moment to take Katrina's words in. Katrina found herself too attached to this situation to get up and leave prematurely at this point.

Jun patted at her full stomach, rubbing her fingers along the pudgy little roll that hung out from the middle of her waist over her tight pants.

"You're pretty honest person, aren't ya, Sugar-Cube?"

"I...I try to be, yea. Sure. And it's Katrina. By the way."

"You still haven't left," Jun observed plainly, pointing her index finger toward Katrina's right shoulder.

"Should I?" Kat asked. "You're...confusing me. What do you want from me?"

"Psh. Uh, how about nothing? But if you wanna chill here with me, at my booth, I'm not gonna lie - seems like you've got more guts than I pegged you for. You'd be fun to argue with."

Katrina blinked, wide-eyed, at this strange girl. Had that been, like...her own way of saying, 'Stay, let's hang,' or...what?

"I'm not sure how 'arguing' is supposed to be 'fun.'"

"Heh. Well, it totally can be."

"...Rrrright, well...-" Katrina slid her cup across the table, toward its edge, ready to get up and leave this person to her own devices.

"OK, OK," Jun spat out, catching her as she rose from the seat. "Calm down, jeez...I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers."

"Tch! Yes, you did!" Katrina grumbled, her head sagging as she latched one hand on her hip.

"...All right, yea, that's sort of what I do, but I'm like a porcupine here."

"Yes, I picked up on that much."

"C'mon. Sit back down," Jun sighed. "Don't be like that."

Kat struggled to study Jun's expression. There was a dissatisfaction hiding somewhere in there. Katrina had a feeling in her gut that, despite their clear differences, they both were in the mood to just have someone to talk with in that moment. Katrina sighed - loud enough where she assumed Jun could hear her - and she lingered by the table's edge.

Jun continued, "I hate people treating me like I'm a fucking moron just because I can't see."

"I never said I thought you were stupid," Katrina snipped. "I said you're being mean."

"Yea, exactly. I like that."

"Um...-?"

"You're straight with me. I can get behind that."

"Oh. OK, well...good. You're...different."

"So are you, sounds like. You said straight to my face you didn't give a fuck about my blindness. That's pretty different than the norm for me as it is."

"Ah, um...-" Katrina was uncertain of what to say to that. She felt a bit guilty for even having initially internalized pity toward the girl's disability, but if Jun let it roll off her shoulders, Kat figured she probably could, too. Why not?

As a student had to squeeze his way by Katrina - his hip rubbed up against hers, sending a nervous shiver down her spine - Katrina realized that she'd been taking up space between their booth and the neighboring table.

"I'm going to refill my drink," Kat explained. "Do you...-" -want me to refill yours? No, wait, she'd...- "-want to come, and fill yours back up, too?"

Jun fidgeted with her shades, then loudly sucked droplets of melted ice through her cup, creating a lot of noise in the process.

"Uhh, yea," Jun decided. "Runnin' on empty." She grasped her cup in one hand, and grabbed her walking cane in the other, sliding out from the booth. "So, hey, Sweet-Thing, what's with the perfume you're wearing?"

Kat, flustered by Jun's oddly flirtatious remark - another stupid nickname? - became suddenly self-aware of the many touches she'd made to her appearance that day, and how none of it had even mattered, because the one person whose attention she'd captured couldn't even see them.

As they reached the soda machine a second time, Katrina went to add Dr. Pepper to her cup. She paused, then checked inside and realized that there was barely any ice left. She put some in first.

"Yo, I asked you a question," Jun reiterated, hovering behind Katrina.

"Oh, n-no reason, just...-"

"Take it from me, Chicky: if you need to schlep around fancy smells and makeup or whatever shit to get people's attention, you're gonna get dudes who want what you advertised."

"Which would be...-?" Kat wondered, topping off her Dr. Pepper and fruit punch combo.

"Something you ain't," Jun concluded.

Jun nudged her way in and cautious scanned her hand around - she used the central ice-dispensing lever as reference, and found the Dr. Pepper from there.

"Good point," Katrina agreed, taking a sip through her straw. "So, if you don't mind my asking: why don't you have, like...an aid? Or a seeing-eye dog?"

"Hooo, man," Jun chuckled. "That's a loaded question."

"I think I've still got some time to hear the answer."

- September -

[From: Siku]
[Sorry. Ball and chain. GF already called dibs.]
[Sent: 11:12am]

[Reply]
[To: Siku]
[LOL. Ball and chain? You like it.]
[Sent: 11:13am]

[From: Siku]
[True story. Why don't eat with that one girl?]
[Sent: 11:13am]

[Reply]
[To: Siku]
[Who, Jun? I already asked, she's not in the mood. Feeling antisocial today, she says.]
[Sent: 11:14am]

[From: Siku]
[Yea. Shocker. TBH, I don't get what you see in her. She's kind of a bitch.]
[Sent: 11:14am]

[Reply]
[To: Siku]
[You barely know her. Don't judge. She's got a lot to deal with.]
[Sent: 11:15am]

[From: Siku]
[Ah. I get it. She's your new project. You need someone to fix.]
[Sent: 11:16am]

Katrina's hands tightened around her phone. She could practically hear her brother's demeaning tone and see his eyes rolling. With bitter disdain, she typed out a passively angry reply.

[Reply]
[To: Siku]
[Have fun with your girlfriend.]
[Sent: 11:16am]

As Katrina tucked her phone back into her skirt's pocket, she scanned the busy campus center. There was a trickle of students heading up the central stairs to the cafeteria, and a small ocean of others populating the lounge area. She tried to find someone - anyone - that she recognized, someone she'd feel comfortable saying 'hi' to and maybe leading that into a sociable lunch time. Her hip vibrated again, and she grunted through her nose in irritation, knowing who it was sending her a message.

[From: Siku]
[Don't get all butthurt because I'm right. Why don't you try meeting some new people?]
[Sent: 11:18am]

[From: Siku]
[Nice ones? Maybe? Just saying. Just a thought. Friends = Nice people. Ya know?]
[Sent: 11:19am]

With a quiet sigh, Kat turned off her phone and hid it back away, ranting within her own mind about how 'trying to meet some new people' was what she had been doing all month now. She found a classmate whose name she recalled sitting with a handful of others whose faces looked familiar, but after a brief and shallow 'Hey, how are you?' kind of exchange, they bid her farewell, citing that they had to get food and head off to their afternoon classes. Katrina ended up lingering at the now-empty table for a couple of minutes, drumming her fingernails as she continued to gloomily people-watch the premises.

She hovered around the wide open lounge area for a couple of minutes until an entire couch freed up. She eagerly took the spot for herself, unslinging her knapsack on one cushion and planting herself down in the other. Her knees ached a little as she bent down to sit, and she breathed out tiredly in sympathy toward her pathetic joints. After a moment of motionless rest, gazing at a local band flier on the wide coffee table before her, Katrina reached to her right and unzipped her bag. She shuffled through her day's worth of folders, notebooks, and textbooks, and retrieved the item she had been looking for: her weathered paperback copy of Walk Two Moons, still alive and well from its mandatory middle school English class reading. She was on her third time through the book, having taken it with her to campus at the start of the semester to work her way back into it inbetween classes.

Katrina flipped the book open to where her bookmark was wedged - the black bookmark portrayed a rather serious Hermione Granger pointing her wand right up at Kat, brandishing the Harry Potter logo to one side. The sight of one of her role models brought a small smile to Katrina's face as she lifted the mark up from the pages and read through a quick chapter. By the time she'd placed Hermione back as guardian of her literature, Katrina closed the paperback in her lap, noticing the person sprawled on the couch across from her. She had intentionally gotten herself confined within her reading and had not taken heed of the boy earlier.

The boy was lean, with a sort of baby face. He was slumped to one side, asleep in a slouched sitting position. A pencil sat beside his hip, and a sketchpad rested in his lap. It had sagged inbetween the boy's skinny legs, and from the look of it, the slightest movement would send it slipping between knees and to the floor below.

Katrina set her book aside, got up from her couch, and walked over to the boy seated across from her.

Perhaps it was some bit of OCD tendency. Perhaps it was a desire to act out of kindness for the boy's work. Perhaps it was so she could could spite her brother later and tell him what she'd done. Perhaps it was merely out of desperation to approach someone.

Whatever the reason, Katrina stood over his sleeping figure, tugging nervously at her braided ponytail. She surveyed the way his thin lips were hung open, breathing in and out slowly as his chest, garbed in a sweatshirt featuring the college's logo, gradually expanded and contracted. After a few seconds of this awkward hesitation, Katrina had to force herself to stop fidgeting with her hair, letting it hang over her collarbone. She bent over cautiously, and picked up the nearly toppled sketchpad. As she did so, she couldn't help but notice the incomplete drawing on the current page. It wasn't fully shaded in yet, but Katrina could decipher what it was meant to be. Um, sort of, anyway. Like, a big cartoony cat, shaped like..a bus? It had six legs, and, like, weird holes in it...? Some kind of person was sitting inside, but they weren't finished it. Well, whatever it was, she recognized it from some kind of movie she'd seen a while back. And the drawing itself wasn't too bad, either. Rough around the edges, but the shading was really coming together. At any rate, it was a heck of a lot better than Kat could ever hope to draw. She was enamored by cuteness. Er, the drawing, naturally.

The boy, likewise, mumbled something inaudible beneath the hum of student traffic, shifting over to one side. Katrina flinched, teeth clenched warily as she watched his pencil roll inward, sliding inbetween two cushions. At first, she made a gesture to say hello, then realized she was still holding his drawings. She closed the pad, placing it on the couch to the boy's side. She could feel her heart-rate climbing at the prospect of introducing herself under such odd circumstances, and when she attempted to speak out to awaken the boy, her throat was too tightened to release enough sound. She folded her arms and chewed at the dried out skin on her lower lip. Her nostrils widened as she frowned in spite of her own cowardice, breathing in deeply. She glanced around, suddenly worried that someone might be watching this encounter, but everyone nearby seemed preoccupied.

Swallowing her fear, Katrina leaned over the snoozing lad and extended her arm, pressing it against the boy's shoulder. He frowned groggily, rolling back to a straight sitting position, eliciting Kat to swiftly pull back her arm and tie her hands together behind her back. The boy groaned, rubbing his eyes as he opened them.

What met his sight in that moment enraptured him briefly. A brown-skinned girl with glowing brown eyes beneath rectangular glasses, hair parted down the middle with side bangs dangling across smooth cheeks and defined jaws. A sheepish smile above a strong chin, and a trail of dark braided hair dangling over revealed collarbones. A metal necklace swayed across her chest as she pulled her head back, standing upright, and the boy noticed the silver crescent moon emblem held by the chain.

After a second of two of gawking at each other, Katrina pulled her eyes away from him. He was sort of cute. Ugh, these college boys - even the dorky-looking ones were cute! What was the deal with that? And here she was, just...plain dorky-looking, coming up on this kid while he was sleeping? What had she been thinking?

"Sorry I woke you," Katrina spat out with a plastic smile, glancing not at the boy but his sketchpad. She nodded her head toward. "Um, y-you were going to drop it, a-and your pencil, it fell in the, um...in the couch, and so...-"

"Oh, erm...-" The boy's eyes snapped open as he realized that oh, hey, this wasn't a dream. At all. He coughed, his throat a little congested from napping while sick with the flu. By the second cough, he'd managed to cover his mouth with his sleeve.

"Are you OK?" Katrina wondered, her brow raised with concern as she took a step back. She ended up stumbling back into the coffee table, her balance wavering. She yelped out in surprise as she wobbled her arms around a bit, regaining her balance around the table's corner.

"Are you OK?" snickered the boy between coughs. One of his arms had been extended in a feeble attempt to help prevent her fall, while the other had gone right to his face to cover more wheezing.

Her cheeks burning, Katrina tucked her loose side bangs behind her ears and nodded in reply to him as soon as his coughing stopped. Katrina rifled through her pockets - she thought she'd brought some cough drops, since her brother had fallen ill with whatever was going around. No luck, though. She must've forgotten them back at the dorm. When she looked back up at her acquaintance, he was holding his sketchpad in his lap, tipping the cushion beside him up to track down his pencil. He quickly located it, and brandished it up in the air to display it to her with a toothy, childish grin. She couldn't help but smile a little back simply in reaction to the gesture.

There was a goofy silence where the two of them seemed to study each other's eyes - mutually brown, mutually captivated with curiosity.

The boy coughed again, interrupting this second of intrigue, and Katrina instantly began fussing with her braid nervously.

She offered, "Are you sure you don't need, like, need some cough drops or...-?" He was still wheezing. She nodded her head backward, toward the in-house retail shop the campus ran. "I mean, they sell Freezie Frogdrops at the campus store, and, um, I need to...get some anyway, and so...-"

He was shaking his head, disinterested in the prospect of burdening her in any way. He groaned miserably after his coughing fit finally passed, and he hung his head in embarrassed ickiness, wiping his sleeve on his pant leg.

"Really, it's not any trouble," Katrina insisted. This was kind of a lie: if she spent what little cash she had on her to buy coughdrops, she'd be lacking the funds to get coffee with Juniper that weekend.

The boy raised his brow up at her, and she noticed that his face paled more now than it seemed to have moments earlier. There were tired bags hanging where she had not seen them before. Geez, poor kid.

"Uh...Whhhhat's your name?" the boy wondered, finally moving things along.

"Oh! I-I'm-"
"Ah, sorry, my-"

The two of them fumbled over each other's words, until the boy gestured for Kat to proceed.

"Heh. I, uh...-" Katrina fussed with her shirt, tucking it down a bit to ensure her waist skin was efficiently covered. "Katrina Kesuk." She nodded courteously to him, still standing awkwardly to the side of the coffee table before him.

"My name's Aaron," the boy replied with a weak, exhausted smile. Kat sensed a certain kind of whimsy coming through his sick demeanor. "I'm new."

"Ah, freshman?" Doy, what do you think, Kat? Urgh.

"Uh, yup. And you?" He sniffled and wiped his sleeve over his nose. "What are you here to study, Katrina?" Katrina found herself wanting to just throw a big, fuzzy blanket over him and give him a bowl of soup.

"I'm a Sophomore, double-Major in English and Education. I'd like to become a teacher."

"Ah." Aaron nodded timidly, searching for what to say. "Erm, well, we could always use more teachers." Yea. Brilliant, Aaron. She's probably just amazed by your perceptiveness.

Aaron watched Katrina nod again before pushing up her glasses up the bridge of her nose. He found himself oddly captivated by the particularly round, wide shape of her nose - it must've been a bit tricky to get her glasses to stay in one place. He was also trying to figure out what ethnicity she was - Kesuk? Native American, or...she looked like she could be maybe Middle Eastern, maybe, or...-? He found himself smitten by her somewhat exotic appearance, at any rate. Well, exotic to him, anyway. Was it racist to think about that kind of thing, or...-?

Kat said, "I guess we'll see if I can end up being a decent teacher, at least."

Aaron encouraged, "I'm sure you'll do great."

Kat's eyes narrowed at him, a wry smile curving up.

"How can you be?" she retorted. "You don't even know me."

Aaron grinned that toothy, sheepish smile, having been found out. He shrugged as he coughed twice.

"Heh! Well, I mean, if you actively want to be a teacher, ya know...-" He shrugged again, smirking at her coy eyebrow raise. "You probably already care more than most," Aaron tried to recover.

"Uh-huh," Kat said, nodding while retaining her suspicious smile. "What about you? Art Major?" she guessed. It was educated guess, anyway.

"Yea." Aaron wiggled his sketchpad a bit. "How didja know?" he facetiously asked.

She playfully shrugged with the reply, "I'm just a smartie, I guess." Eh. Maybe not the best comeback, but...it was something.

"Must be the glasses," Aaron theorized in jest, flipping pages in his sketchbook as he coughed through a shy smirk.

His remark earned another smile from Katrina.

"Oh, it is definitely the glasses," she quipped back, chin tilted up slightly.

She primly adjusted the glasses around, pushing her tufts of hair-clipped side bangs out over her cheeks and lifting her braid over her back. Her intentionally stilted attempt at flirtation was probably a failed effort. But she was trying, which actually rather strange given that she was trying to stave off any potential romantic encounters after how the last one had gone. Suddenly, Katrina realized how quickly Aaron seemed to be putting her at ease.

Aaron, meanwhile, realized how strangely attractive the girl's chin was now that she was showing it off. Geez, all of these college girls, man. Even the bookish ones were so cute. Agh, geez. He needed to stop staring. This was, like, the third girl today he'd caught himself ogling. At least he was ogling this one's face more than anything else?

Katrina noticed Aaron suck his gaze away from her and toward his sketchbook as he found his current page - the one with the weird cat...car...thing.

"Um," she cleared her throat. "So, what are you drawing, there? It...looks sort of familiar." She kept her eyes glued to his face, while he was focused on poring over his unfinished handiwork. She noted the glint of enthusiasm he wore at her remark.

"My Neighbor Totoro," Aaron stated simply, swiping some whiskers onto the crazed-looking cat.

Katrina stared at him blankly, at a loss. That sounded so familiar, but...-

"Sorry, it's not ringing a bell."

That glint Aaron had worn a second away fizzled into dismay.

"What?" he practically gasped out. "That one's a classic..."

Kat wore a grit teeth sort of smile, practically wincing at the sight of his apparent disappointment. She popped up one shoulder warily.

"S-sorry, I don't...-" She trailed off, hoping he'd elaborate and not be put-off by her lack of knowledge. So much for being a 'smartie.'

Aaron coughed before flipping his notebook around and showing her the drawing again.

"It's Nekobasu," Aaron explained, tapping the paper with the eraser side of his pencil. "Ya know, Catbus?"

"Um...I-...OK? Is this, like...an anime thing?" Am I supposed to know what Catbus means?

Katrina found herself immediately assuming that this kid must be Japanese. He certainly looked like he could be, anyway. Definitely, like...Asian. Ech. She couldn't help but feel guilty as if she was racially profiling him, only to wonder if he was facing similar curiosity as to her own race, which she was certain he'd get wrong if he guessed. People always did. 'Inuit' wasn't exactly a common option to check on forms, though 'Native American' was partially true, from her father's side. Before her mind could spin a yarn within itself on the subject of race, Aaron carried her attention back outside of herself, for which she was grateful.

"Man," Aaron sighed, dropping his sketchpad back into his lap. He went back to sketching his drawing, beginning to fill out some detail on the humanoid figure inside the 'bus' window. He coughed some more. "If we're going to be friends, you'll have to be educated on Miyazaki."

Katrina pretty much missed out on the second half of that sentence, swept away by the first half. It seemed he was probably about as eager as she was to find some kind of connection with people. He was a Freshie, of course, so that was expected. If anything, she was the oddball here: a Sophomore whose only consistent contacts on campus were her brother (which practically didn't count, right?) and a grouchy girl whom she still wasn't 100% sure was her friend so much as 'someone fun to argue with,' as Jun had put it.

"Oh, I, um...-" Katrina was flustered. She couldn't decide if she liked the boy's assertive decision that they were 'going to be friends' or was put-off by it. He seemed to catch on to her unease just by the sound of her voice and looked up with a sympathetic curve to his eyebrows.

"Sorry," he muttered, his drawing halted. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"N-no! It's...fine."

"I mean, we just met, and I'm...not used to school-stuff, and...-"

"No, no! Really," Katrina insisted. "Don't worry. I would-...I-I mean, maybe some time you could get together with, um...like, my brother - he's really into that sort of stuff - and we could watch this Neighbor Toto, and...-"

"Ah, yea," Aang complied, ever-so-slightly stung by her proposal. "That...sounds cool." Oh, poohsticks. She's really cute, too, and actually...talking to me. Ah, well. Plenty of fish.

Aaron had another bout of coughing, which brought on another concerned look from Katrina.

"Aaron," she sighed. "You really sound like you need some, I don't know, medicine, or cough drops, or...-"

"I'll just...have some tea soon," Aaron dismissed, waving her worries off with one hand while his mouth was muffled by the other.

Katrina felt her stomach squirm. Was that because she was feeling suddenly uncomfortable? A gurgle sound and a bit of pain indicated that, no, it was actually because she was just freaking hungry.

"Was that you, or me?" Aaron asked, trying to maintain his humorous tempo as best he could.

"Oh, ha, have you, um...-" Kat scratched at her empty stomach. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Nah," Aaron replied. "I probably should soon, though. I have class in an hour," he explained, tucking his pencil behind his ear.

In this instant, Katrina noted how large his ears were in comparison to the rest of his face. Hee. Sort of like a cute little monkey. Agh, bleh, no. Was that a racist thought? Oh, jeez...

As Katrina was (again) deliberating whether her own thoughts were or were not racist, Aaron tried to ignore his attraction to her 'deep thinking' sort of look, noting the way she angled her index and thumb together over that adorable chin.

Katrina caught herself after a second or two of what she assumed made her look rather rude and stupid.

"Um-! I, uh, you...-! We could eat together. I mean, you could join me, ih-if you wanted, and...-"

"Oh, I don't-...Did you already have plans, or...-?"

"No, no, it's fine."

"You did," Aaron cited, detecting her avoidance.

"Um, I did," Katrina fussily confessed. "But my brother kind of bailed on me at the last second."

"Ah..."

"So, uhh...Hee, so it'd be like you can be my substitute brother for the day, I guess?" Oh, God. Ohhhh, God, woman. Just shut up. You sound like such a moron. What are you even saying?

"Shhhhure, yea," Aaron hastily closed up his book with an odd laugh. "I've never been anyone's brother before, heh." No! Argh! I just said that! Stupid! I'm an idiot.

"Ah, y-you're a single child, eh?"

"Something like that," Aaron vaguely mumbled with a shrug. This piqued Katrina's curiosity, but she knew better than to pry. "But, erm, you sure you want to eat with me? I mean...-" He gestured toward his face. It did indeed look a little ragged. "-sick?"

"Oh," Katrina ran her fingernails along the edges of her hairline, smoothing over any loose strands. "N-no, it's OK. Like, my brother's sick, and so is my roommate, so...it's inevitable that I'll catch whatever it is going around."

"Hm." Aaron shrugged at her logic, not able to argue with it but also not wanting to be responsible for being the one to cause this 'inevitability.' His coughing started up again.

"Seriously," Katrina cooed. "Like I said - I'll need to pick up some stuff for the flu, anyway, so...let me get you some cough drops before we eat."

"Ech," Aaron groaned through his throat, getting hoarser from all of the conversation and coughing. The pain was worth it, though. "At least...let me draw you something?"

"Huh?" Katrina was puzzled. "But...W-we don't really have time for that, do we?"

Aaron smiled with some confidence - Katrina could see it glow from his eyes.

"We have time," he assured. "Speed sketch, I can do that much, at least."

"Um, all right, but...why?"

"I can tell that I'm walking away from here with some cough drops. Let me give you something to walk away with. OK?"

Katrina smirked bashfully at his offer.

"You're not gonna draw me like one of those french girls, are you?" she tried to offer some humor his way.

He laughed - not that weird kind, but a real one, and Katrina felt some satisfaction.

"No, nothing like that," he muttered with some embarrassment at even the thought. He was suddenly self-conscious about the prospect that would become an inevitability in his time at college: sitting in front of naked people and trying to draw them. Students actually did that, he was reminded. That was a thing. Like, anatomy studying, and just...people chilling out. Just all...naked. Being drawn. No big. Moving on from that thought...

Aaron nodded his head to his left, toward the empty cushion beside him. He grabbed his pencil, opened his drawing pad, and flipped to a new page.

"But for me to do this," Aaron explained. "there's something I need to ask you." He patted the free couch cushion. "Here. Come closer, would you?"

Katrina again was confused - were his brief flashes of confidence comforting, or not-so-much?

She stared at the seemingly innocent, child-like peace in Aaron's eyes, and felt comforted. Sure. He seemed interested in something more meaningful than many other guys did. And heck, he at least had managed to keep eye contact with her face for the duration of their chat.

Katrina placed herself cautiously in the seat beside Aaron, taking care that her shirt and skirt covered about as much skin as possible. She took care that her hips and his did not touch, much to Aaron's internal dismay.

"What is it?" she wondered. "What do you need to ask?"

Aaron smiled warmly, pointed his pencil in her direction, and spoke.

"What...are your two favorite animals?"

Katrina's mind bolted to the two role models of her life, and the animals that she associated with them.

"Penguins. And otters."

A/N: Next chapter will be back to business as usual as I round out the plot and continue tying up some loose ends, character-wise. If you are interested in the impending re-edit of this series, and seeing the revised character designs, you can find that on the FB page for 'What I Learned at SRU' by scoping out the folder 'Re:SRU' in the image section. You will also find new art in the usual places. Thanks for all of your support. I look forward to finishing the story in its current state and letting these characters breathe and roam free as their own entities.