Chapter Text
Ian raced down the stairs, pulling on a sweater as he went, tripping as he forgot the last stair. He grabbed a piece of toast from the toaster as it popped up and got an annoyed, “Hey!” from Carl in response. Ruffling Carl’s hair, Ian bit into the toast and headed to the fridge. He twirled the top off the orange juice and downed half the carton before putting it back.
“Okay, I’m off,” he said, heading for the kitchen door.
“Ian,” Fiona said. He turned back at the sharpness in her voice. She finished putting peanut butter on a third sandwich. Raising an eyebrow, she inclined her head towards the day-of-the-week pill box on the counter. “Forgetting something?”
Stopping himself from picking up his bag, he walked back to the counter, opened the box for Wednesday, and swallowed all of the pills dry.
“You’re not supposed to do that,” Lip reminded him, barrelling into the kitchen in a heavy coat and pulling off his hat.
“I’m late,” Ian replied.
“Shoulda set an alarm.”
“You turned it off.”
Lip smirked and Ian took a playful swing at him. Lip dodged and, shaking his head, Ian headed back towards the door. He glanced around the kitchen and said, “Hey. Tell Debbie good luck on her first day?”
Both Lip and Fiona stared at him blankly. Sighing, Ian shrugged his backpack onto his shoulders and then quickly demonstrated the sign for “good luck”. Lip repeated it back to him and Ian licked his lips, nodding reluctantly.
He nearly slipped the backpack off as he said, “Maybe I should stay. See that she gets off to school all right. Maybe meet with her new interpreter?”
Fiona shook her head. “It’s been fourteen years, Ian. We can talk to her, you know.”
“But you can’t remember ‘good luck’?”
Lip shrugged. “Don’t say it a lot. But ‘hello’, ‘how are you’, ‘let’s go to school’.” Lip demonstrated every sign as he said the words. He smiled. “It’s fine. Go to class. You’re gonna be late.”
Ian checked the clock and sighed, pulling his backpack up onto his shoulders. The Psych textbook weighed heavily against his back and its hard edges dug into his spine. “Just tell her good luck, hope she has fun, and remind the interpreter that-”
“She sucks at reading lips,” Lip replied, just as Debbie came down the stairs.
Ian frowned at him, but it was clear that Debbie hadn’t seen. She wandered into the kitchen, looking around, and glanced at Ian. Ian, raising one eyebrow, signed, “Should you really be wearing that?”
She looked down at the tight hot pink tank top she was wearing along with cut-off jean shorts. Shrugging, she signed, “You should probably be more concerned about getting to class than with what I’m wearing.”
“Good luck at school,” Ian replied and then he was out the door.
Just as he was closing it behind him, he heard Debbie call, “You too!”
Smiling, Ian hustled down the street and towards the bus station. Northwestern was a little less than an hour away by bus, but given the fact that he was probably going to miss the one that was coming and he only had an hour until his first class of his first semester started, he was going to be late.
Not a good way to start out the semester.
***
Ian ran into the room, breathing hard, and tried his best not to cause a racket. Of course, the huge wooden doors banging behind him were noisy enough to cause a few people at the back of the room to look up at him. He smiled sheepishly and walked forward, slipping into the first empty seat he saw.
He pulled a notebook and a pen from his backpack, shivering. Rubbing his hands together, he looked up at the professor at the front of the room. The woman –whose name he’d forgotten in the five months since he had registered– looked no taller than an ant from the back of the lecture hall. She was already lecturing, speaking about the different parts of neurons, and Ian rushed to start taking notes.
His pen fluttered between his frozen fingers. “Coffee?” a voice next to him asked.
Glancing to his right, he saw a girl with dyed black hair and crystal clear blue eyes. Her smile hooked up towards her nose ring as she held out a cup of campus coffee. Steam billowed out of it and she was careful to keep her fingers on the cardboard sleeve.
Ian smiled. “I’m not going to take your coffee.”
“It’s fine,” she said, setting it down on the miniscule portion of the tiny desk that was not covered by his notebook. She rubbed her fingers as if they were burned. “I haven’t had any yet. And you look like you need it more than I do.” Ian stared at her and she shrugged. “It’s the dark circles under your eyes. Dead giveaway.”
Ian stared at the coffee longingly but then shook his head. He picked it up and put it back on the girl’s desk. “I can’t,” he said.
She shrugged and looked back towards the instructor at the front of the room. Ian noticed she had barely any notes so far; her curling script written in purple pen across only the top two lines of the page. And all that was written was the teacher’s name, email, and office hours.
Ian quickly copied it all down, ignoring the sly smile she gave him as he did so. Then he tried to get back on track with the notes up on the projector, but the teacher was going too fast. He bit back a sigh of frustration.
“She puts it all online,” the girl whispered as Ian, flustered, flipped the page of his notebook as the professor changed the slide.
He muttered, “Not sure I can get online later.”
“Use the library. That’s my plan.”
Ian glanced at her, but she was still staring straight ahead. “Thanks,” he said, dropping his pen.
“Still don’t want the coffee?” she asked, picking it up and shaking it.
He shook his head.
She shrugged and took her first sip of it, not even flinching at the heat. As if sensing him watching her, she looked over with a smile and said, “I’m Mandy.” Then she added, “And I have a boyfriend, perv.”
Ian tried not to laugh as he looked down at his notebook. “Ian,” he replied. “And sorry.”
She shook her head, her long hair moving with the motion, and smiled slightly. Ian resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Lip would’ve been halfway in love with her already. And probably would have done something to warrant the “I have a boyfriend” statement. Ian, on the other hand, was just surprised to have found someone else who didn’t have easy access to internet at home.
He was even more surprised that someone with no access to internet had gotten to class in time. And had time to get coffee.
They sat in silence for the rest of class. Mandy filled the first page of her notebook with doodles while Ian, despite himself, had tried to write down as much as he could of the lecture. It was all stuff he knew. AP Biology had covered all of it, but he still felt like he should have it written down, just in case.
“Don’t forget to read the first and second chapters in preparation for the quiz on Monday,” the professor said before making a hand motion dismissing them all.
“Quiz?” Ian asked.
Mandy handed him a piece of paper with all the important dates colour-coded. She tapped Monday with her pen, where the quiz was indicated. “Also online,” she said. “So, in other words, this class will have you living in the library.” She sighed, annoyed.
Ian pulled out his phone and took a picture of the schedule. Then, seeing the look on her face, said, “Thanks.”
She picked up the paper, shaking her head, and stood up. She pulled her bag over one shoulder as Ian scrambled to stand so that he’d be out of her way. “So, umm,” he said as they headed out, still awkwardly beside each other, “what’s your major?”
“This, unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?”
She shrugged and, with a less threatening smile, added, “I wanted to go into nursing but... there’s no nursing here.”
“Could’ve gone to U of C.”
“Too close to home.”
Ian looked away, swallowing the question that comment made him want to ask.
Mandy answered it anyways. “My dad’s kinda a jackass and my brother got the idea of using university as a way to get out of the house. And U of C would’ve been too close to justify getting an apartment, so... here I am. In Psych.” She rolled her eyes.
“I’d appreciate if you stopped insulting my major,” Ian said, trying to lighten the mood.
She laughed, but it was forced. “Sorry.”
“Don’t know if I can forgive you.”
“Well, you should.”
“Why?”
“I work at the coffee shop on campus and, if you forgive me, I can give you free caffeine all year long.”
“Tempting, but I’m gonna have to turn you down.”
“What? You’re not one of those weird people whose against caffeine are you? Because then I might not forgive you.”
Ian laughed. “No, I’m not.”
“Good. Then I’ll give you coffee in exchange for forgiveness,” she replied. “I work three to close, so whenever you’re done, come by and I’ll take my break.”
Ian accepted and Mandy turned into the next building, waving as she walked backwards. He waved back, a sick feeling curling in the bottom of his stomach as he wondered if he could manage to order decaf without pissing her off. Maybe if he came really late and said he had an early class tomorrow.
Polishing the excuse in his head, he made his way towards the library, intent on finishing today’s notes before his next class started in two hours.