Quentin Coldwater (magicianking) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-01-05 22:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, quentin coldwater |
Who: Quentin Coldwater and Caroline Forbes
When: Early December
Where: Chain Restaurant
What: Some "Toys for Tots" drive that the UCI Cheerleaders put on.
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete!
Being one of the newer professors at the college meant that Quentin had to put in his dues. He was signed up for a lot of things that the more senior professors didn’t have to put up with anymore. A lot of the time he could weasel out of whatever activity came across his desk, but for some reason, he wasn’t able to get out of this one.
There was a man wearing a Santa suit passing out packages to small children. They were probably between five and ten years old, and all came from relatively poor households. The Cheerleading squad had paired up with one of the Christian groups on campus to run this event for local families. A charity thing. And since Quentin’s name was on the faculty advisor sheet for the Christian group… Here he was.
Feeling awkward. Standing in the back of the restaurant (where the children had all been fed a great meal, and were now accepting gifts from the fat man in the red suit) Quentin half wished he could simply melt into the wallpaper.
The event with the kids was going pretty well. They all seemed pretty happy and excited to see Santa. Caroline was being her usual peppy self. Her smile plastered across her face. She split her time between entertaining the children and talking to her friends.
However, it didn’t seem like everyone was having a good time. There was one man, a professor maybe? Caroline had no idea, that seemed to be hiding in the back. Where was his Christmas spirit? The blonde was just going to have to fix that.
She walked right up to him, her bright smile not leaving her face. “Hi. I don’t think we have met. I’m Caroline.”
Shit. Quentin had been noticed. It was probably the name tag that they’d put on him when he’d signed in with the gal who organized all this stuff. A peppy blonde came over and smiled at him, and Quentin stood up a little straighter. He cleared his throat. “Hello, Caroline.” God, she was pretty. He went stupid over pretty people. But she was also a student. Oh, Awkward.
“Quentin. Coldwater. I’m on-duty faculty advisor at the moment.”
“Does that mean you want me to call you Professor Coldwater?” she could do that. It was the proper thing or whatever. Although Caroline didn’t always follow that rule.
“So how did you get roped into helping out?” It was clear he wasn’t really enjoying it. Caroline doubted that he chose to do it all on his own. Though he should have, the kids were so damn adorable. The whole event was a lot of fun if you asked her.
“Oh. Well. No, I suppose not.” Professor Coldwater sounded so formal. Quentin wasn’t that formal. Besides this girl was likely only five years younger than he was. Okay, probably closer to ten. Being called Professor was a lot like being called Mister Coldwater and that was his father. Not him. Quentin was just Quentin. “You can call me whatever you’d like.”
There. That was more comfortable. But was it too comfortable?
“One of the girls on your squad is also in one of the Christian organizations on campus. They were looking for faculty advisors, and I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Quentin explained. “I have a hard time saying no to people.”
“Quentin then. Unless of course I end up in one of your classes. Then you know I should probably call you Professor.” She could have made an inappropriate joke, but that wasn’t really her style. That was more Katherine’s thing.
“What classes do you teach anyways?” Caroline didn’t care if he looked like he had wanted to be by himself. She was all about making everyone feel included. Even professors.
“Right, Jessica,” she was a little too into God for Caroline’s taste, but she did have good ideas every now and then. Like this event. “It’s not so bad is it. I mean look how much fun the kids are having,” she nodded at the group surrounding ‘Santa’.
“I teach in the Religious Studies department. Mostly lower level stuff. A lot of it counts for General Education credit, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you at least consider one of my classes at some point in your college career.” Quentin explained awkwardly. “If you do end up in my class, Professor is fine.” Even though it was weird.
“No, it’s not so bad.” One of the kids came over to wrap his arms around Quentin in a fly-by hugging. Q was so tall that the kid’s face ended up mushed into Quentin’s abs. Awkward. Quentin lowered a hand to pat the kid on the back before he gave a squeaky “thank you!” and ran back to his table.
Quentin cleared his throat. “I snuck him an extra cookie earlier.”
Religious Studies didn’t exactly sound like her thing. But maybe she could check out a class. Depending on if it met any of her requirements. She wasn’t really going to take one just for the hell of it. “I’ll check it out,” she assured him.
She couldn’t help but smile as the kid hugged Quentin. “Well that was very sweet of you,” she replied after the kid had scurried off. It looked like Santa had finished passing out all the gifts finally. “Come on, let’s watch them open their presents.” Caroline wasn’t going to miss that, whether Quentin joined her or not.
Quentin looked rather embarrassed about the show of affection from the small child. But he recovered quickly. “All right,” he responded. He pulled his lank frame up away from the wall on which he’d been leaning, and followed her over to where Santa was saying his goodbyes.
It was turning into a really nice brunch.