WHO:Blossom & Audrey Jensen WHEN: mid October WHERE: coffee shop near Audrey's work WHAT: Random girls meeting randomly WARNINGS: N/A STATUS: Complete
Free time from classes wasn’t something Blossom had a lot of, so the weekends were usually her time to just unwind and relax. It was regularly time spent either with her sisters or with Tyler, catching up with friends or when she had a big project, like right then, it was spent someplace she could attempt to focus on her work.
This time it was mostly just some notes she needed to work on, finding herself in a not totally full but fairly busy cafe, tending to be doodling in the margin of her pad more than actually taking notes on her work for the later essay. But people watching was fun, and she could just drift between the here and and now and making up all her little notions on what people were doing, giving them fake stories and lives as she pleased.
It was probably silly, Blossom sipping her iced latte through the straw while imagining what the couple by the counter might be talking about, but it passed her time.
Work was work, busy as always, but at least she'd been given her lunch at a decent hour. Thirty minutes wasn't a lot, but it was enough time for her to get away from the theater for a few. The cafe was a favorite spot of hers actually, it was close and the food was decent. It was better than any of the greasy junk she could get at the theater that was for sure.
Audrey made her way to the counter, ordering herself a turkey wrap and an iced tea. "Thanks," she gave a nod to the cashier as she handed her food and she made her way to a table that was next to a cute redhead. Letting out a long breath, Audrey pulled the wrapping off of her wrap and took a small bite.
Now this was definitely better than anything she could've gotten at the concession stand. Chewing slowly, Audrey thought about the last and only dream she'd had thus far. Things were going to get crazy in Lakewood, she was pretty certain about that, but she only hoped that it wouldn't be too bad. Curiously she glanced over to the table next to her, eyes going down to the notebook in front of the other girl. "Writing for school or pleasure?"
These places were Blossom’s favourites, not too crowded, not too quiet. It let you think without feeling like it was the library. She had a smile on her face as a girl sat by her while tapping her pen on the page. “Hmm?” She glanced over as the other girl asked her the question before glancing back at her page.
The doodles sort of stared at her accusingly. “Well… It’s a little of both I think.” Really, Blossom enjoyed her courses, she was an avid learner really. “It’s for my group project, where there are divided portions of a unit for four of us to work together on, but… I like to get ahead of the curve.” And she knew that group projects tended to fall to mostly one or two hard working people and the others were freeloaders or skirted by on the minimal. And Blossom didn’t accept minimal work.
“But I enjoy it, so… It’s sort of pleasure too.” At least she saw it that way. She didn’t see the point in not enjoying four years of her life.
There were some classes that Audrey excelled in, and others not so much. At the very least she tried, and that had to count for something right? That's what her parents, and the teachers told her most of the time. She took another bite of her food, glancing over at the redhead as she continued talking.
She could understand doing school work because you loved it and because it was assigned. It was that way for her in her film class. She was passionate about the work, and loved doing it. "I can understand that." Audrey spoke only after she swallowed, and wiped her mouth off with a napkin she'd grabbed from the holder in the middle of the table. "I also don't blame you for getting ahead of the curve in regards to a group project." She hated doing group projects, but she understood the need for them, especially in her film class.
"So what's this group project for if you don't mind me asking?"
In high school, Blossom was one of those nerdy kids, the one that did all the extra credit work, who got the top grades in the class, who went to all the fundraisers or after school classes or charity things. She was the biggest geek going. The fact that Bubbles and Buttercup were her sisters was probably all the saved her from being a social pariah, because the sisters were that close, and Bubbles was that sweet and Buttercup was that badass.
It usually meant that people didn’t really care too much about what Blossom was doing in college, “Um… it’s a clinical drug development project? We’ve to put together a theoretical drug trial based on clinical studies we’ve been given to try and work out a potential solution to one of seven typical problems that the American public face.” They were given a selection of issues and putting together a potential trial on the information packets was their end goal.
Blossom was hoping that she wouldn’t need to do everything herself, but unfortunately she was the type of person who would do it all herself rather than get a lower grade on her project. “Kinda… long winded and dull, I know.” Few people actually found her science ‘crap’ that interesting.
That was interesting. Science wasn't Audrey's forte, not by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew how important the prescription drug issue was. She didn't understand much of it, or rather the politics of it all, but it was important. Audrey wouldn't pretend to know a lot about it either, "Not exactly. Of course," she lifted a shoulder, "I don't personally know a lot about it, or anything but I think that it's important to study." She thought of her mother who'd been cancer free now for some time, but Audrey worried that it would come back.
She had a feeling that her mother thought the same thing, but she always tried to put a brave face on for her family. Picking up her drink, Audrey took a sip and then sat it back down on the table. "Are you in college?" Personally Audrey couldn't wait to have high school behind her so that she could start the next chapter in her life. The idea of college excited her, and even though becoming an adult slightly terrified her, she was still excited for it all the same.
It wasn’t always the sort of thing that people really followed, and understanding it was complex sometimes if you didn’t have some kind of understanding for parts of it all. Blossom knew she bored some of her more artsy friends with her science babble. “I am, yeah. I’m a molecular biology major at UCI.” And if she could’ve double majored she would’ve, but her dad was far more reasonable about just how much Blossom could take on at once.
“I mean it’s pretty much a trial run for what I’ll be doing next year, because I’ll have to pick a study to do on my own as part of my final grade. But we get two years to actually do all that.” Working out the build up for the study was a good practice run at least. “I just like to plan things out, especially with group projects. Just in case. I mean, I’m sure they won’t leave me to do it or … like only do the least they can or… Okay, no I’m actually terrified they’ll do that and affect my grade, it’s why I’m already planning for doing it all on my own.”
Blossom had a few school related anxiety issues. “This is probably super stupid and boring, I’m sorry. Are you at college?”
Audrey listened to the other girl as she rambled about her fears, a small smile tugging up one corner of her lips. That was understandable. Group projects rarely worked out in the favor of the person that was willing, and able to put in the most work.
"Nah, it's not. Fears are never stupid, and I think it's good what you're doing even if I don't actually understand a lot of it." Audrey lifted a shoulder and then shook her head. "No, I wish, but I'm still in highschool. I'm over at Creekside." It wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, and Audrey knew that one day she'd look back and shake her head at how silly she was sometimes.
Oh the joys of being a teen. "I'll be going to film school though once I'm finished. I want to be a director."
"Oh, directing? That sounds cool.” Blossom knew a fair few performance arts students, although they were a lot of creative people and Blossom was more of a logical sort. But she still appreciated what went in to other crafts. “Oh no, enjoy what you can of high school before it’s over, because it’s not all fun and games like some people assume in college.”
She guessed a lot of people probably had that party lifestyle going on, but it was silly to throw away your education for the sake of parties. “I miss how laid back things were in high school.” Even if she hadn’t been that popular herself. It was still something she missed. “What kind of movies are you into?”
It wasn't laid back for Audrey, although she supposed it could be worse. It could be like her dreams where everything had gone to shit all because some girl named Nina had decided to out her. Not that she wasn't dealing with it fine, but Rachel, the girl she was seeing in her dreams was taking it hard. Audrey hated that it was getting to her as bad as it was, and she was trying to make things better for her.
"I like a little bit of everything to be honest. I'm more drawn to horror, comedy and documentaries." One day she hoped to be able to direct something that people would remember for a long time to come. "Though I have to admit that I enjoy the classics more in terms of movies, you know from the 40's and 50's." Not that there weren't some more recent movies that she enjoyed, but there was something timeless about the movies from that era. "What about you?"
“My dad is super into the science fiction stuff, so we watched a lot of that growing up, but my sisters have very different tastes. Bubbles likes sweet rom-coms and funny ones and Disney, and Buttercup is into the violent ones and the horror movies with as much gore as possible.” Blossom just chuckled a little, still amused at how very different they all were, but how it really helped them bond and stay close.
“I’m pretty laid back about my movies, I like them all. Although the gore ones I need in moderation.” She couldn’t marathon them like Buttercup did. “I guess I like factual stuff, you know, the Discovery stuff. I loved the Cosmos stuff they did, and the penguin movie they made about the penguins crossing the ice.” And Blossom got stupidly emotional about those too. “I just really like seeing new things and stuff.”
And stuff. That was just silly. “But it’s a very cool profession, I’m sure you’ll be wonderful.”
Audrey smiled softly, she didn't have any siblings but she could understand tastes different from her own. "Sounds like a mixed lot." She turned back to her food for a moment, finishing it up quickly before washing it down with the remainder of her drink.
Dabbing her mouth with a napkin, Audrey listened as Blossom explained what she liked. "Yeah, I tend to like those types more than anything else to be honest with you." She could watch documentaries all day long, but she did enjoy other things from time to time. "Understandable, any time you want any recs come by the theater here and see me. I try to find new stuff when I can and share it with the world."
Audrey started gathering up her things, and offered Blossom a smile. "Thanks, I'm hoping that I will be. It was nice talking to you, but I've got to get back to work. Good luck on the assignment." She gave a nod to the notebook again, and pushed back from the table. That had been a nice way to spend her lunch break, and she was grateful for the opportunity to meet someone new.