Run Forrest, Runn! } Jenny

[andrew]

The title has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was funny. >.>

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This class was taking forever... and ever... and ever. Who cared about history anyway. He just needed to know communication, not how Freud invented the Freudian slip, or some other crap like that. When his last class of the day was finally over, he was thrilled. Time to go back to Sanglignee and relax, and hope that Jersey hadn't chewed through yet another pair of his shoes. Packing up his backpack, he headed out to his car. He waved hello to the friends he saw as he was leaving. They all knew that he commuted from his home in 'San', though they also all thought he was stupid for doing so. His parents had enough money to keep him in the dorms. It was to help him, for the most part. A lot of his friends in university were into the party scene, and while he would let Anna drag him just about anywhere... her didn't want everyone else to get the idea that it would be okay for them to do it. Besides, he doubted any of them would take the exchange, a morning in church for a night out.

Finally at his car, Drew popped the trunk and tossed his school bag inside. He also took the sweater he had been wearing, and placed it in there as well. Just a short trip and he would be home. That was when he heard his phone go off, it was Jenny. He smiled at the thought of her texting him, and looked to see what she said. Just a hello. He hadn't seen her in a couple days, maybe he didn't have to go to Sanglignee right away after all. He had heard about a nice little restaurant from his parents friends, some hole in the wall Italian joint. No one around here had really heard of it, but the older couple has sworn by their food. It sounded like a good place to try. He shot her a text back, asking if she liked italian, and climbed into his car. The short drive to her school was a familiar thing for him already. The pair had only known each other a few months, but their similar personalities made it easy for them to become close fast.

Pulling up in front of the school, Andrew now had the inevitable wait for his 'date' for the evening. He assumed she was already done with class, so she shouldn't be too long. Though she could always be a typical girl and want to make herself pretty before she went out, not that she really needed to. He turned on the radio as he waited, some station that played popular music began to blare through the speakers. He cringed slightly at the volume, Anna must have been messing with his stereo. That or someone from university, he really couldn't be sure. He turned down the music and started looking through his glove box for his MP3 player. A rustle of papers later and he finally found it. He hooked it up to the stereo and began playing music off of it. He had a liking for gospel music, though had the volume where you could just barely hear the music coming out. He didn't need it for the music, just for the noise. Andrew wasn't overly fond of listening to silence.

After still not seeing her, though it wasn't like it had been terribly long, Andrew sent another short text telling her that he was waiting out front. Maybe she had stayed after to talk to a friend, and lost track of time. There wasn't much else for him to do other than sit there, and think. Though all he could really think about now was some study he had to do. It wasn't due for a couple months, but where was he going to find someone who was completely screwed up and willing to talk to an eighteen year old psychology student about it. Not many people were willing to talk to psychologists... let alone just a student. he was almost literally screwed. Maybe he would go down to the twilight center and just talk to the people who were there. It may not give him someone to study, but he could get some ideas of what was out there. People there were sometimes a little unbalanced. He felt bad about thinking that way, but he couldn't see anywhere else he could go. he'd probably ask Jenny about it. Someone must know something.

[jenny]

History – the infrastructure of modern civilisation, culture and beliefs. It was a fascinating subject, wherever in the world you studied it, and as far as Jenny was concerned it was the best way to spend her afternoon. It helped too that Mr. Lansdowne, the History professor, was as easy to listen to as he was easy on the eyes. Most of the girls in Jenny’s class, especially the ones that polluted the three back rows of the room, practically swooned when they even heard the man’s name. Some even opted to call him by his first name, which Jenny refused to even think about. These girls were obviously off their rockers and completely delusional to thing someone as upper class, established and reputable as Mr. Lansdowne would even look in the direction of one of his students. He was far better than that, and Jenny admired the numerous ways he disguised his impatience with them behind clever put-downs and denials. Jenny, of course, saw him as a professor and nothing more. The man had a wealth of knowledge in that handsome head of his and she focused on nothing more than that when she listened to the endless lectures that had half the class asleep. That annoyed her too; how could these students have survived this long in private school with such lax self-discipline and complete lack of respect? It was baffling.

OK, so today’s lesson was dull enough to have even Jenny’s eyes wandering and her mind scolding every student that wasn’t paying attention. She was so lost in thought that when her phone vibrated in her pocket she gave a start and slapped her hand down onto the polished surface of the desk. Luckily no one had noticed, and she was saved a few strange stares. She didn’t dare to check it in class; she’d never been given a detention before and she wasn’t going to get one now. Instead she watched the clock, counting down the last three minutes of class with her hands propped up under her head, keeping her awake.

When the bell finally went she was the first out of the room, avoiding the giggling girls who hung around to bat their eyelashes at the professor, and headed off on the short walk that would take her to her room. On the way she pulled out her phone and flipped it open. The message was from Andrew, and it invited her for dinner. She checked her watch. She had sent him a message at lunch time just to say hello, but her network was down and her text was put into the queue. Apparently he only received it now. Either that or he was avoiding her for the last couple of hours. That idea had her chuckling lightly to herself as she finally reached her dorm. Drew, in all the months she’d known him, had never been anything but perfectly nice and kind to her, and he had no reason to ignore her now.

She tossed her bag onto the chair at her desk, determined that it would sit there until she really needed to do her homework later that night. Her dorm was empty, her roommate obviously in class or with friends, and Jenny was thankful. It meant that she could change in peace. She was out of her uniform in a minute and found her favourite jeans in the bottom of one of her drawers and an ever so slightly dressy, dark purple top. That was Jenny’s style; she hovered between casual and formal most of the time, and always in her jeans. It was as she poked the buckle on her belt closed that her phone vibrated again, and she realised she hadn’t text him back. She snatched it from the pocket of her school skirt and read it. And promptly rolled her eyes. Drew couldn’t have been outside for mote than a few minutes and he was already hinting at her to get a move on. At least, that’s what those words usually meant. She retied her hair into it’s messy ponytail, the bangs that were getting long again falling short of the elastic, and she didn’t bother running a brush through it. She grabbed her jacket, her phone and her purse and left the room as quickly as she had entered.

She met so few people in the corridor anyone would think it was a weekend, and when she finally reached the entrance door and went outside she realised why. It was as though everyone had taken to the lawns and car park to catch the first of the warm winds of summer. That was the best thing about living so close to the Mediterranean – it was nearly always summer. Dark clouds still streaked across he skies though, and she briefly remembered someone saying that it was meant to rain heavily later that evening. Right now she couldn’t tell though.

It took her only minutes to spot the familiar car half way down the lot and from a fair distance she could still see the silhouette of her dearest friend in the drivers seat of his car. She grinned at him though he couldn’t see, and barely noticed the spring that developed in her step. Walking up to the window of his door she rapped sharply on the glass in the hope of giving him a shock, and her laughter didn’t die down before she rounded the other side and got in.

“I was starting to think you disowned me. I haven’t seen you in days,” she chimed, her laugh still ringing through on her words as she leaned over in her seat and gave him an awkward, one-armed hug.