who elena & yuffie what random encounter! where uci library! when early november warnings nada! very G status complete upon posting!
For all that Yuffie loved mechanics, and for all that she was pretty proud of herself for actually getting as far as she was, she really hated the studying aspect. It wasn’t so much that she couldn’t focus. Just that she really hated paying so much attention to one thing and being silent.
Reading through the next part of her course, still trying to soak in thermodynamics and working on her project was definitely taking it’s toll. And Yuffie knew better now than to fall asleep in the library. Her dreams weren’t overly bad, no big traumatic events -other than losing her mom again- but so far it was still pretty fun. She was going to rebuild a nation and be awesome and Yuffie was looking forward to those.
Just not in the middle of the library.
Jerking her head back up, Yuffie gave her head a shake before trying to wake herself up enough and glancing around to make sure the librarian wasn’t going to pounce on her and glare her out in shame.
Things had been uneasy in her life lately, so when Elena had the chance to focus on her studies? She took it and ran without looking back. The library was the most ideal place for it. Unlike a high school library, people tended to respect the quiet rule and made it a comfortable space for studying. Sometimes the odd outburst occurred, but Elena tended to get so invested in her studies that she didn’t notice what was going on around her.
This time, a table over from Yuffie, she caught her jerking upright as though she’d nodded off. Masking a laugh to herself, she tried to think of a way to possibly help her. Rummaging through her bag for an energy bar, she scooted her chair closer to the other table and held it out to Yuffie.
“Hey,” she said quietly. “Maybe you need to recharge and have a snack. Try this if you want!”
Since she was still a little shifty about making a scene -or just talking at all- in the library, Yuffie made a point of whipping her head around to see if anyone was paying attention to her. “Really?” Truthfully, she probably could do with a bite to eat and something to give her a little jerk awake. It wasn’t that she wasn’t sleeping, it was just that she ran out of energy sometimes. Lots of people did.
“I mean, if it’s like your snack or something, that’s fine, I’ll just get some water… somewhere.” She’d wait it out, really she could just faceplant into her book a few times and see if that got her to wake up properly.
Laughing just a tiny bit at Yuffie’s expense, Elena nudged the bar her way insistently. “It’s fine, really! I’ve got a whole box in my bag. I spend a lot of time here. But… you should probably get some water, too.”
Setting the energy bar down on Yuffie’s table, more than happy to share with her, Elena wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Studying could eat up hours without one even realizing it, it was amazing that more people didn’t just conk out on the tables for hours on end. Then again, she had stumbled over spooning couples in the stacks upstairs on more than one occasion. Regrettably.
“I’m Elena,” she added after a moment, extending her hand out to her.
Yuffie was one of those people who had, on numerous occasions, been passed out in her books on the table. Up until she’d had that dream and woke up with a yell, she really hadn’t gotten into much trouble for it either. For all that she was a little boisterous, she really understood study time being quiet, and as into it as she got, there really wasn’t a lot of noise she could make.
Still she accepted the snack gratefully, reaching over to shake Elena’s hand with a smile, “Yuffie,” she had some water somewhere in her backpack, probably at the very bottom knowing her. “Thanks, I ate all my treats at lunch.” Because Yuffie had no control over her appetite and she’d been starved after class.
Another gentle laugh given over Yuffie’s lack of additional snacks and Elena had decided she liked the other girl already. After the drama with her ex and the craziness that had become her once preciously ordinary life, meeting new people was top of her list. She liked the distractions they provided.
“It’s no problem, happy to share, Yuffie,” she assured with a smile. “Neat name! I like it. Not that you need approval, just… wanted to say so.” Growing slightly sheepish, Elena tried to recover quickly from slight social awkwardness. “What are you studying for anyway?”
She knew her name was a little strange, but then Godo was a strange old guy, it was probably an old family name from back through the generations or something or her mom named her for something, but Yuffie didn’t really know since Godo never talked about that stuff and Yuffie’s memories of her mom were limited.
“Thanks,” but she could take the appreciation anyway, most people just asked again if that was really her name. “I’m taking mechanical engineering.” She really liked her major, she felt it engaged her really well, she had all these ideas for when she finished college and got her qualifications and all the cool things she’d do. As soon as she got her head around the course work. “There’s just a lot of reading.” Not usually a problem though.
“How about you? What’cha got going?”
“Mechanical engineering? Wow,” Elena looked taken aback. Math didn’t prove to be too difficult a foe for her, but it wasn’t her strongest suit. She had always taken a liking to words and reading more than anything else, so when she met someone that could comprehend the upper level disciplines? She was quick to be impressed.
“Kind of the common denominator among majors, huh?” Elena chuckled a bit at that. “Never-ending reading.”
Lifting up one of her textbooks, she wrinkled her nose sheepishly. “I’m studying journalism. Definitely not impressive!” Not that it was a competition! She just appreciated something that required a keener intellect than other fields of studies.
“Pfft, I’ve never been great at figuring out grammar. Like sure, I know there should be a comma somewhere in my sentence, but where? And there’s so many rules.” Yuffie hadn’t ever really needed to grasp language, she wrote like she spoke and apparently that was in run on sentences and wasn’t great.
“The reading is kind of killer though, yeah.” Yuffie chomped a little through the gifted snack, pouting a little at her book. “We just finished thermodynamics, and we’re right on into numerical methods, it’s kinda intense.” Of course it was hard, she was in higher education taking a very involved course. She knew it would get hard sometimes.
“So, I take it you wanna be a reporter? A journalist right?”
Grammar was a beast of an undertaking at times. Elena had been enjoying the challenge of forcing herself to be more meticulous and conscientious of her words, but it wasn’t always easy. She knew what Yuffie meant all too well.
“Tell me about it,” she chuckled. “Mine’s actually a Literary Journalism major, so it’s geared more toward writing nonfiction books or for magazines, so not necessarily a reporter. Think I’d like to avoid ever being on TV…” Visibly cringing at that, Elena flashed Yuffie an apprehensive smile. She wasn’t an introvert in the strictest sense, but she certainly had a limit to her comfort zone!
“All of that thermodynamics and everything else just goes way over my head. What do you do with that degree? It’s not just all for being an engineer, is it?”
Yuffie could understand that, not wanting to be on the TV, she didn’t think she’d want to do something like that. Too much of the media was all ‘oh what’s she wearing’ and ‘ew look at her hair’ and not focusing on real things like what the reporters were saying. Yuffie definitely wouldn’t be up for that either.
“That totally makes more sense, ‘cause then at least you know, all that work on grammar is actually worth something.” Why work so hard on something only to not use it at all? That just didn’t make sense to Yuffie at all. That was like wasting years of your life for no reason at all, which it basically was.
“Well, I hope to design amusement parks. I’m taking graphic design next year to help, but the mechanical engineering is a little more intense, so I want to give that a good power through before I to mix things up too much.” The photography course she’d taken only lasted two semesters, so she had plenty of time to really immerse herself in her engineering. “But I think some of the others are looking at car engineering and like, someone wants to work for NASA.” Building rockets was probably the coolest thing ever, but Yuffie had her heart set firmly on the ground.
“Amusement parks?” Elena looked somehow more impressed. That sounded like great fun to her. No doubt it would be ridiculously challenging, but the output would likely be worth it! She didn’t envy Yuffie for her classes. Even so, the prospect of designing something for the enjoyment of others?
“That sounds amazing,” she breathed out a little too loudly and winced. “Seriously, I hope you can, too, ‘cause that’s bound to be rewarding.”
Sometimes she doubted her own choices. Trouble was, Elena didn’t see much value in anything she did. There wasn’t anything she particularly excelled at doing. She was athletic enough, but had no interest in cheerleading any longer. Writing was the only thing that kept driving her.
“Sorry if I’m keeping you from that,” she added apologetically. “Need to get back to it?”
It wasn’t a great big deal to Yuffie. She knew that she had a bit of a skill with numbers -she’d been told that it came from her mama, Pops’ had said that her mama was the numbers woman, that she’d dealt with all the finances for them. Yuffie figured that was why Godo kept trying to hook up with smart women, because he was floundering without her mama.
She probably had a bad reason for wanting to do it. Wanting to prove to Godo that she was better than he thought, that she was better than him. That she’d make a place and it’d be way better than all of his and he’d be begging her to help him.
“I probably should, but…” Too long staring at the physics made her head hurt. It was all interesting, but it was all so very hard too. “What’re you working on?”
It was nice to take a break and chat with somebody new. Elena hadn’t been very proactive since she’d returned to the OC in making new friends. She was too intent on repairing the damage done with her oldest ones.
Ready to withdraw at her request, she had nearly slid all the way back when she’d been questioned. Glancing at her notes with a slight frown, she offered the textbook to Yuffie. “The Principles of Electronic Media, I have to write a paper about a few chapters by next week. Good times. I’ve read it all, so I’m just taking down notes. Exciting, huh?” She laughed, head shaking at herself. She could only hope the major would be worth it.
“Electronic Media, is that like the online news articles and those news videos?” Yuffie didn’t watch a lot of television, she actually sat with cartoons on in the morning before class, eating cereal with Spongebob Square Pants on, like the adult she was. Her news was usually on her phone when she scrolled through the likes of network sites to see articles or anything that popped up on her phone that was interesting.
It seemed like it was easier to keep up with things like that.
“Pretty much,” Elena nodded, nose still thoroughly wrinkled. Nothing about her major came across as terribly interested when one went into detail, or so she believed. “Although, technically as long as electronics are used to produce it, the media’s considered electronic regardless. Huh. Look at that, I learned something. I’m supposed to talk about how electronics have transformed media in a couple of pages, and so far I have… one page of notes. Guess that’s some progress?”
Optimism! She was working on maintaining some. Life hadn’t been quite so accommodating, but Elena was nothing if not reluctantly determined!
“Oh, well, you could pad it out with like stories or examples, right? Like how certain forms of media have like… made it easier to access news world wide or something?” Yuffie didn’t have many papers through her class to do, there were a few for things. She had a majority on her exam for writing too.
Yuffie tended to have the problem that she talked too much in her essays, she was usually told to condense it a little bit. “Maybe the notes will expand a little, or you’ll find something important to talk about.”
"Maybe," Elena said with a hopeful tone in her voice. "It'll come together. Those are good suggestions though, thank you!" She was grateful for it and it showed.
"I'll let you get back to it, but... The next time you come here to study, text me? I'll come armed with snacks!" With a quiet laugh, Elena scribbled down her number and handed it to Yuffie. It never hurt to make new study buddies, different majors or not. Yuffie was nice, so she hoped that a friendship would be formed in the long run.