Chapter 1.4 - Run, Quinn, Run

The week started off at a clip and it didn't let up. On her first day Quinn ran a brush through her hair while eating leftover omelette and trying to keep up with Kazumi's informative chatter. The girl could talk but at least she had useful, not to mention amusing, things to say.

Realizing that it was 7:45, Quinn took off behind most of her dormmates, each of them spreading off in to a V-formation, not unlike a flock of geese, to reach their respective classes. 

Although both she and Kaz ("Quinn, for the love of all that's holy, just call me Kaz!") were in the Fine Arts program, Quinn's core curriculum centred around photography whereas Kaz's focus was on painting. The fact that the building was named the 'St. Claire' Fine Arts Centre was something that filled Quinn with a potent but confusing mixture of dread, pride, excitement and trepidation.

During a break between classes, Quinn eased herself in to a tiny walkway near the doorway to her Photoshop course and caught up with her emails. She hadn't imagined that she would be so busy, all the time. The campus was so large and spread out that she had to literally run from some classes to the next in order to make it there on time and not provoke the ire of the professor.

"It's better not to show up at all to McCaffrey's class than to show up late," Kaz had informed her during their rushed breakfast. "And remember that Holloway makes a note if you're skipping since part of the final mark goes towards class contribution," Kaz warned.

Quinn silently wondered how in the hell Kaz knew so much about the habits of Hearst College professors. 

It was well past dusk when their last class finished and Kaz, looking as stylish as ever in a skirt that matched her hair, asked Quinn if she wanted to head to the campus diner for food.

Quinn weighed the idea of cooking for the masses once again versus paying for a plate of deliciously greasy diner food and heartily agreed with Kaz.

They made their way to The Empire, past two students who looked as though they were seniors. One of them gave Kaz and her short skirt an appreciative whistle. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever guys. The only thing I'm hungry for right now is food." Quinn noticed that she said this while sauntering and giving the one in the beret a tiny wink.

After that everything was a blur. At the end of their first week, everyone in the dorm was exhausted. On Friday night, one of the guys built a huge bonfire and another opened up a keg of beer but Quinn was only able to drink a single plastic cupful before she felt like falling over.

Kaz, although tired, had some serious staying power. Quinn counted her downing at least three beers while managing to appear as charismatic as ever. She knew her blue-haired friend was running on less sleep than her since Kaz was usually still painting by the time Quinn went to bed. 

The night had turned chilly and the stars were sharp in the sky when Kaz joined Quinn by the bonfire where she was trying to stay warm.

"So are you loving "Hearts"?" Kaz asked, making exaggerated quotation marks with her fingers. Quinn chuckled at the reference. A lot of students, as well as the alumni, called it Hearts College instead of Hearst since there were so many well known celebrities who had famously met and fallen in love on campus, including Lana St. Claire and her husband Lachlan.

"I heart Hearst!" Quinn said jokingly and giggled. She was feeling as if everything was moving more slowly than normal, probably due to a mixture of beer, bonfire and a severe lack of sleep. But it was a pleasant sort of feeling that made Quinn less anxious and more relaxed than ever.

"So..."Kaz said coyly, "have you met anyone yet?" Before Quinn had a chance to answer, Kaz chattered on about one of the guys in their dorm, Anoki, and how even though he wasn't classically handsome, the fact that he had a huge set of muscles and was from Indonesia was intriguing.

Eventually the conversation turned to each girl's history. Quinn, the beer having loosened her tongue, shared part of the story of her mother's death with Kaz. Quinn didn't talk about her depression or her mother's abusiveness but she admitted to having seen Madeline for a time. 

She waited nervously after the words left her lips but Kaz only murmured her regret over the death of Quinn's mother and squeezed her arm briefly. 

She clapped her hands together at the mention of Quinn's therapist. 
"My God! I wouldn't have gotten through primary school without my therapist!" Kaz said as she set to gleefully poking the fire with a long stick.

Quinn was both comforted and surprised by Kaz's response. Primary school? she wondered incredulously. At the same time, the part of Quinn that was hypervigilant unwound considerably when she realized that Kaz seemed to accept everything she said with alacrity. Quinn almost felt like she could tell her anything. Is this what it's like to have a best friend? Quinn wondered as she peered at Kaz out of the corner of her eye.

They eventually made their way over to one of the benches next to the bonfire. Most of the other students had either gone to bed or were huddled together in twos and threes, talking softly amongst themselves with the occasional punctuated peal of laughter.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but when Kaz mentioned St. Claire city again, Quinn didn't tense up quite as much. She learned that although Kaz had been born in Japan, her parents had moved to St. Claire when she was only three years old so she considered the city to be her true home.

"What's it like living there?" Quinn managed to ask.

"It's amazing! There's so much culture to soak up and so many artists who have gotten their start there. The films, the music, the galleries.... Really, Q, if you want to make a name for yourself in the photography world, there's no better place!" Kaz was waving her arms around enthusiastically and Quinn smiled while at the same time surreptitiously rubbing her sweaty palms on the sides of her jeans.

It was true. The city of St. Claire was known to be a hub of creativity for anyone looking to get their start in the artistic community. It was a more temperate climate than New York but offered almost as many opportunities. It was also true that the city had been named after Lana St. Claire's great-great-great (how many greats? Quinn wondered) grandfather. And Lana St. Claire was the shit. The absolute shit. She was the reason that Quinn was at Hearst College. The reason she had picked up her first camera.

"Maybe..." Quinn said quietly.

But she didn't think she could go there...

Kaz noticed her silence and for once said nothing. They both just stared in to the flames, thinking their own thoughts.

After a while Kaz looked over at Quinn and said "I'm really glad we're roommates," and smiled. 

"Me too," Quinn smiled back.