Caroline Forbes is full of light (miss_mystic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-11-07 11:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, beth greene, caroline forbes |
Who: Caroline and Beth
When: Late October
Where: Random cafe
What: Studying and talking
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Beth was running a little bit late to her study meeting with Caroline. She'd had to meet with one of her professors to discuss a potential first year research project, which was mostly her professor's idea, not hers. She'd then had a pop quiz in history, and then… Well, needless to say, she'd had a very long day already, and it was still only a little bit after two when she arrived at the café where they'd agreed to meet. She'd texted ahead that she was running late, but she still felt really bad about it.
"Hey," she said, putting her books down at one of the round tables with an umbrella, "I'm really, really sorry. Professor Dickinson has this theory that first years need to be involved in his research, or something." She plopped down in a seat across from Caroline, her blonde side ponytail bouncing as she moved. "Like, I get it. Psychology research is amazing. But I don't have time, do I?" She pulled one of her books closer, Statistics, and opened it to the chapter they were going over in class. It might as well have been written in Chinese for all that she understood of it. "Did you understand last week's lecture at all?"
Caroline wasn’t waiting long when she received Beth’s text. She didn’t mind that the other girl was running late. It happens. Especially in college. The blonde went ahead and ordered herself an iced latte, before finding a table to wait. Pulling out her statistics notes she sifted through them trying to make sense of it all. Her and math just didn’t get along. Before she knew it Beth had arrived.
“Oh it’s no problem” Caroline assured her new friend, giving the girl a bright smile. “I totally remember that” she added with a laugh. “He totally did that to me last semester. You should do it though. It was pretty interesting.” She understood not having time though. Caroline was working two jobs, going to classes, cheerleading, and volunteering at a shelter. It was a miracle she had time for a social life. Who was she kidding? She would never let her social life suffer. “Ummmm not really” she replied taking a sip of her latte as she scanned over her notes. “Something about factorials. That’s all I got.”
"I'll definitely think about it." Beth had an equally long list of commitments, which included her new job at the Cellar, classes, and singing. She'd never give up any of those for psychology research, but she also knew her professor wouldn't have asked, if he didn't think it'd benefit her somehow.
She looked down at her textbook. The factorials, as far as she could see, were just variables with exclamation points. She didn't know what those variables had to be so excited about, though. They didn't look very exciting. "I thought statistics was supposed to be math for non-math students," she said, with a sigh. "Like, who's going to remember that n! is a factorial, which means…" She read over the definition of factorial, and then read again just to be clear that she didn't entirely get it. "The product of all the numbers other than zero? I don't know..." She underlined the definition in her text and added a question mark.
“You know what I want to know? Why are there letters in math? Like isn’t math suppose to be numbers?” Caroline had never understood that. She could add, subtract, multiply and divide just fine. But once you started adding letters in there it was like a complete new language.
“Me too” Caroline frowned looking back over her notes. “I swear I don’t know if I am ever going to understand this stuff.”
Beth put her pencil down and leaned back in her chair, frustrated. "Right? Exactly. How am I ever going to remember this on an exam? It sort of makes sense in lecture, and then I go to do it, and it's… Completely off the mark." She figured that understanding statistics was important, particularly in research, but that didn't make it much easier. Knowing that something mattered and being able to do that something were still two completely different ideas.
Taking out her notebook, she decided she'd just have to give it a shot. That was her primary job right now - to figure this out and be the best student she could be. Writing the problem set for the lesson at the top of the page, she looked over the first series of problems. "Have you decided what you're doing for Halloween yet?" she asked, as she copied the first problem into her notebook.
Caroline frowned at her notes. None of it made any sense. “I know what you mean. I just hope I can get through the class and get it out of my way. I mean why do we even have to take math?” she sighed. “I wish we only had to take the classes for our major.”
The blonde focused on her work for a bit. Trying to solve some of the equations when she hear Beth ask her a question. “Nope. I mean in the day time one of my friends is having a birthday party for her one year old. So I am going to that, but no clue what I am doing that night” hopefully she would be able to convince Nik to go with her. “What about you?”
"Oh, I'm sure my sister'll have something planned." She crossed out her attempt at the first plan and then rewrote the whole thing, trying to imagine the sort of schemes that Maggie'd be up to on Halloween. "I don't know. I suppose it depends if my boss needs me to work or not… He seems pretty chill, but y'never know." She'd only been at her job a couple of days, but she felt like she was home there, which was weird. It wasn't like they had places like that back where she lived, and even if they had, she'd never been to one.
"I can't believe it's Halloween already… It seems like it was August only a month ago, doesn't it?" She didn't know if being in college made time speed up, if that was even a thing, or maybe this was just part of being older and out on her own.
“Where do you work?” Caroline asked still working on the same problem. Ugh math. “Hopefully you get the night off so you can have fun. It’s Halloween after all. If I end up going to any parties that night I’ll let you know” usually Caroline was the one throwing the parties. But with everything that had happened recently she wasn’t exactly up for it. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to go to a party.
“Definitely. Like I was just starting classes and now all the sudden Halloween. Before you know it it will be Christmas” that’s usually how the holiday season went for her. Once Halloween came Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to happen almost instantly even if they were a few weeks apart. “Do you know what you are dressing up as?” she asked taking a sip of her latte.
"I just started at the Cellar." She put her pencil down, trying to reevaluate the problem in her mind. "Have you heard of it? It's sort of a family place… sort of not." It definitely wasn't the sort of place she'd have taken her family, but she didn't want to really go into it. "But they have open mics, so it's not too bad... Plus, my boss seems nice enough."
She looked up from her homework. "I'm thinking about Melanie Daniels, from The Birds. But I don't know. What about you?" She hadn't given the whole thing a lot of thought, really. She usually loved Halloween, but with homework and work, she hadn't much time for the holidays.
“Oh yeah. I think I might start help plan events and stuff there” when she wasn’t busy with her million other commitments. But really it was>/i> the perfect job for her. “That’s pretty awesome. I wish I could sing” she could in the dreams. At least she had once, but in real life? Not so much.
“Oh that’s a good one” Caroline nodded taking a sip of her latte. She so was not in a math mood right now. “I’m going to be goldilocks I think. I mean I have the hair for it” she said with a laugh pushing her notebook aside for the time being.
"Yea, it's like being back at home," she agreed. "Especially if Maggie - my sister - comes along. It's just hard anymore to find a place that has a piano. Well, that isn't a church…" She didn't mind singing in churches. She'd done it her whole life, but sometimes, she just wanted to branch out from all of that.
"Oh, Goldilocks is perfect! I wish I'd thought of that. I was just tired of the usual witches and werewolves and zombies… I'm pretty sure I've gone as a witch the past three consecutive Halloweens. And I don't want to be covered in gooey fake blood all night trying to eat people's brains…" She rolled her eyes. The entire zombie craze was a bit much for her. She liked a decent scary movie, but she wasn't really into the popular slasher films where everyone seemed to die at the end.
“You play piano? I wish I could. I never really got into the whole music thing. I was always more into cheering” and she still was, she was a cheerleader after all. “You know I am a little jealous. I have always wanted a sister. Don’t get me wrong, being an only child does have it’s perks but it would be nice to have someone who is always there for me no matter what” of course she had her friends, but there always seemed to be something different about siblings to her. An unbreakable bond.
“I don’t blame you. Zombies are so not sexy anyways” Caroline agreed and being covered in fake blood did sound pretty horrible. “Witches are a classic though, but I think Melanie Daniels is a good choice.”
"I guess," said Beth. She'd never really thought much about having siblings. They'd just always been there. "Maggie's pretty great, and Shawn is, too. So, we don't really have any of the standard family drama…" Her family life was a little more complicated than that. The Greenes did have drama, but she figured most of that was her fault, anyway.
"Yea, I hope people get it. It's not exactly what everyone's doing these days." Beth wasn't the sort to be impressed by what everyone was doing, but she was also aware that she was in a new place, and that meant adaptation. "It's pretty weird not having a barn party all lined up…" She smiled. "It's tacky but that's what we'd do at home."
“Nothing wrong with being unique” she replied with a smile. “I think it’s better actually” she added before looking at her phone, seeing the time. “I should probably get going soon. I have work soon” she began to gather her things together putting her notebook and textbook back in her bag.
Beth nodded. "I have class anyway," she said, starting to put together her things. "And it'll probably take me all night to figure this out as it is." She sighed. College had its benefits, but it definitely wasn't perfect.