Making Friends; It's the thought that counts; Multiple Intelligences
Title: Making Friends
Theme: Fifth Period: Science_Pop Quiz (5a), usako_mamoru, 2010 anniversary challenge
Genre: AR
Rating: G
Notes: College setting
“Serena, please,” Amy coughed. “This class is really, really important. It’s too late to ask anyone in the class. I can get the notes, but it’s not the same.”
Helplessly, Serena stared down at her bed-ridden friend. “What do I do?”
Quickly, Amy stumbled out of bed to her desk. She showed Serena how to use the recording function and even showed her that she could use the wireless connection to do whatever she wanted in the meantime.
Serena chewed on her lip, unable to say yes but knowing that there was no good reason why couldn’t do this. Finally, she relented.
“You’re the best, Serena,” Amy said with a roughened voice before coughing violently.
Serena backed away, packing Amy’s laptop and escaping the possible contamination as swiftly as she could. Closing the door, she told Ami she’d get her some soup and was met with another hacking sound.
~
Upon arrival, Serena walked towards the stage in the large auditorium. She fought the urge to sit in the back like she usually did. Ami said she’d have to sit within the first few rows to get a decent recording.
She settled into the third row from the front, slightly to the right of the podium. Twisting around, she found a dark-haired student a few seats away. “Excuse me,” she asked. “Is this bio?”
He looked at her skeptically, as it was already a couple weeks into the semester, but all he said was, “Yes.”
She smiled brightly. “Thanks!”
For the next hour and a half, as the laptop took an audio recording, Serena logged onto her facebook, emailed her parents, glanced at her bank account, paid her credit card bill, visited her favorite webcomic pages, forwarded Sammy a particularly funny one, browsed the news (mostly the local and entertainment portions), and chatted briefly with Lita (the chat would’ve lasted longer, but everything Lita was typing was requiring Serena to smother her laughter, so she logged off after only ten minutes).
Towards the end of the lecture, Serena heard a collective groan. She glanced up from yet another article about BP, just in time to receive the sheet being passed around. She felt a wave of panic reading the word at the top: Quiz.
She looked around a bit frantically, looking for someone to speak to, but everyone’s heads were bent over, the sound of multiple scratches on paper echoing through the room. To talk to the teacher or the TA, she’d have to go on stage. Instead, she closed the laptop and slumped a little lower in her seat, covering her face with one hand as if she were concentrating and not hiding.
As people started leaving, Serena stuffed the sheet into her bag, hoping to escape with the crowd. Just as she exited the hallway and stood on the stairs to the building, she heard, “Y’know. They may not take too kindly to you sneaking out the questions to the quiz. That could be considered cheating.”
Serena whirled around, aghast. Staring at her teasingly was the same student she’d spoken to earlier. “I’m not cheating!” she protested.
“Never said you were,” he shrugged. “But stealing quizzes never looks good.”
“I wasn’t stealing it! I just didn’t- didn’t fill it out,” she stammered, realizing how ridiculous it sounded as she said it.
“Probably would’ve been able to if you weren’t so busy reading about Lindsay Lohan’s rehab. Probably wouldn’t have to record the lectures either.”
Serena narrowed her eyes, appalled at his audacity. “I was recording the lecture for a friend who’s sick,” she said coldly.
Not a bit remorseful about his prior insinuations, he nodded agreeably, which managed to infuriate Serena even more. She brushed past him, not caring for any more of a response.
~
Darien watched the girl storm off, a smiling easing into place. He was great with faces, knew most of the people in his classes by face. He’d keep an eye out next week. Maybe he’d see if he could help the girl’s friend with his own notes.
He could always use another study buddy, and he always liked making new friends.
---
Title: It’s the thought that counts
Theme: Fifth Period: Science_Frog (5f), usako_mamoru, 2010 anniversary challenge
Genre: AR
Rating: PG13
Notes: Badtz Maru, Keroppi. Again, the two are the same age & therefore in the same class.
Jareth delicately patted his head after slipping it through the opening of his apron. He frowned quizzically at his lab partner’s approach as he tried to soothe any strands that might have run errant.
“What the hell are you wearing?”
Darien looked down at his shirt. On the solid black, a thick white outline set off a cartoon character. Four spikes indicated hair, while a yellow beak and feet revealed an aviary nature. Out of the yellow, a red tongue stuck out, while dots in the twin half-circles skewed cross-eyed.
“What?” Darien said, donning his own apron where the white was stained with various splotches of brown. “It’s Badtz-Maru.”
“It’s a girly cartoon.”
“Serena gave it to me.”
“Give it back.”
Serena shoved Jareth from behind and pecked Darien on the lips as she passed. “It’s not a girly cartoon,” she retorted to the other blonde.
“It’s from Sanrio. That makes it girly by default.”
Serena peered at him from the side. “How do you know where it’s from?”
“It’s hard to ignore the bright pink store with a cat head door and the hordes of teeny boppers screaming, ‘Cuuu-ute!’” he finished in a high-pitched voice.
“Well, it was either Badtz Maru or Keroppi.”
“Who?”
“The frog who wears make-up and looks like he just took a hit of heroin,” Darien offered.
“Keroppie’s cute,” Serena protested, as recognition dawned on Jareth. “And besides, Badtz Maru looks completely high!”
Jareth grinned while Darien defended his choice. “He might be high, but he’s still badass. Look at him.” He moved his apron out of the way to indicate his shirt. “He’d beat Keroppi down in seconds. He rides a motorcycle,” Darien stressed, as if that explained everything. “All Keroppi ever does is paddle around in a little boat.”
Serena wandered off to her own station. “Whatever. As long as you like the shirt.”
Jareth stared at his friend. “She bought you a shirt from Sanrio.”
“I know,” Darien groaned.
“Why did she buy you a shirt from Sanrio?”
“I don’t know,” Darien threw back, annoyed. He began arranging the rest of the equipment necessary.
“Why are you wearing it?”
“’Cause she bought it for me,” Darien said exasperated. “It’s one of the rules of being a good boyfriend.”
“Wearing a girly shirt?”
Darien tossed a pen at his friend’s head. “Wearing presents your girlfriend buys you.”
“You’re lucky she’s pretty.” Jareth held out his hands in a mollifying gesture at Darien’s threatening look. “I’m just saying. Isn’t there a PacSun right across from the kitty store?”
---
Title: Multiple Intelligences
Theme: Fifth Period: Science_Chemistry (5b), usako_mamoru, 2010 anniversary challenge
Genre: General
Rating: PG13
Darien frowned down at the pot he was stirring.
Serena wrapped her arms around him from behind and yawned into his back. “Oatmeal, again?”
“It’s good for you,” he told her as she rummaged through the pantry and took out a sugar-loaded cereal with a cartoon character on the box.
“But you don’t like it,” she pointed out.
“I like oatmeal,” he disagreed. “I can just never quite get it as creamy as I want to.”
“It’s ‘cause you add salt too early,” his girlfriend told him, digging a hand into the cardboard box and crunching down on the dry cereal.
“What?”
Serena swallowed, balancing the milk and a bowl in her free hand. “When you add salt too early, it draws the water away from the thing that makes oatmeal creamy. You have to let the creaminess happen first and then add salt.”
“What?” The half-explanation confused Darien as much as the fact that it was coming from his girlfriend. “Where’d you get that? Lita?”
“No, she doesn’t like oatmeal either.”
Darien looked doubtfully at the girl wearing his pajama pants. Despite being rolled up at the waist, the length managed to cover her feet completely. “Then, how do you know?”
“I remember stuff from chem class,” she said, insulted and stuffing a heaping spoonful of color into her mouth.
“They taught you about oatmeal in chem class?” he said skeptically.
“We were learning about reactions and absorption and how the combination of two elements can be altered by the addition of another-“
Under his dubious stare, Serena’s blabbering broke. “Okay, fine! I learned it from Alton Brown on the Food Network.”
Darien snorted, opting to add the salt later. “Did he use sock puppets?” he teased.
“No!” she retorted, hiding behind the box of cereal.
Darien smiled when he distantly heard her mutter.
“He used Barbie.”
---
Notes: Alton Brown is awesome