Disclaimer: GW and all things associated belong to Sunrise
& the Sotsu Agency.
Notes:Thanks, always, to Lilias-jiejie! Also, it should be noted that Sanq Liberal
Arts College is based not-so-loosely on Ohio's Baldwin-Wallace College, near
Cleveland, and its Conservatory of Music that I attended for a couple of years.
CHAPTER SIX: TA or T&A?
In the days after the party, Wufei and Heero spent most of
their time studying at the library. Duo
was moodier than ever, and Trowa was constantly out on dates—movie dates, party
dates, study dates. Every time he was
in the room he was on the phone with yet another girl, arranging a
meeting. For the next two weeks, I
spent my free time locked in the practice rooms. I'd been far too distracted lately, and my violin professor was
beginning to notice.
But the Beethoven sonata wasn't working. No matter how many times I played, my
fingers didn't seem to remember the music.
So I wasn't at all put out when there was a knock on the practice-room
door.
Trowa burst in before I made it to the door. His face was flushed from running.
"What do you need?" I asked.
He swallowed, taking off his coat. "Damn, you guys keep this building
hot."
I set my violin back in its case. "It's to keep the building arid and the
instruments from warping. What's
wrong?"
His eyes looked troubled.
"You've gotta help me, Quat.
I'm so screwed in my lit class.
If I don't ace the final there's no way I can even pass."
"Didn't you get a B-minus on your midterm? And what about that paper you turned in last
week?" I was confused. I'd proofread his paper for him. Sure, I wasn't a professor of literature and
I didn't know jack about Prince Friedrich of Homburg, but it didn't seem
to be that bad. I would've guessed that
it was worth at least a C-plus.
"Well, the professor said she'd take a letter grade
off for every day it was late. I
thought she was exaggerating, but my paper was three days late and I got an
F. It was worth forty percent of the
class grade."
"Do you have any quizzes or other
assignments?"
Trowa shook his head.
"There was a quiz I got an A on during the second or third week,
and another one that I missed entirely.
I missed class, and the TA refused to let anyone make it up."
I sighed.
"Looks like you'll have to ace your final. Go talk to your professor. Maybe something can be worked out. At least go to your TA; she could help you
study for your finals."
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah.
Une might help me out a bit, if I ask nice enough." He picked up his books and grinned at
me. "I'm gonna go talk to
her. Thanks, Quat."
I watched him leave and then picked up my violin. With a shake of my head, I began the sonata
from the top.
***
"So what are you going to do?" Heero asked,
after Trowa related his problem to everyone at dinner.
Trowa shrugged.
"I'll talk to the professor and talk to Une and see if any kind of
arrangement can be made. It's worth a
try, anyway."
Wufei scowled and stabbed at his baked potato. "I think you're a chump for trying to
wheedle your way out of a failing grade."
Duo rolled his eyes.
"Thanks for sharing, Wuffy.
We think you're a schmuck for being you."
As usually, the morality vote was split 3-2—Heero, Duo and
Trowa against Wufei and me. Since Sanq
College had a "Freshman Forgiveness" policy that allowed people to
retake any course they failed during their freshman year, I really didn't
understand Trowa's urgency.
"What kind of final do you have?" Heero asked.
"Short essay."
Duo, Heero and I groaned.
Wufei, of course, did not.
"Short essays are the easiest," he
insisted. "It's easy to say
everything you know and hope that you write enough to cover the subject, rather
than searching for the one thing your professor is looking for."
"I agree with you completely. Personally, I've always hated multiple
choice," Relena said as she sat down between Heero and Duo. She gave Heero a quick kiss. "Sorry I'm late."
"I think you and Wufei are both freaks," Duo
muttered as he snatched the dinner roll from her plate of spaghetti.
"Hey!" Heero snapped, thwapping Duo's hand with
the dull end of his knife. "You
could at least wait until she's had a chance to eat it."
"She never eats rolls or biscuits or garlic
bread!" Duo complained, rubbing his hand.
Heero looked at his girlfriend quizzically. "Really?"
Relena shrugged.
"He's right. I try to keep
a low carb intake. So I never eat bread
and pasta in the same meal."
Duo seemed different, now that Relena had joined the
group. As soon as she sat down, he became more sulky than usual. But maybe it was the (unwarranted) reprimand
from Heero.
"So what's going on?
You all look glum." Relena
glanced around the table, no doubt seeing sour expressions from each of us.
"I'm failing my literature class and I'm not sure
what to do," Trowa explained.
A wry smile crossed Relena's face. "Have you tried flirting?"
Wufei was incensed.
"What is it with you females who use your sexuality to get whatever
you want?"
Relena turned on him.
"All humans use sexuality to get plenty of things. There's nothing wrong with a bit of friendliness
in your approach. You could try turning
on the charm, Wufei. You'd be much more
pleasant to hang around."
Wufei stabbed his potato angrily again, his frown
deepening.
"What's wrong, Wuffy?" Duo chided. "Not getting' any from Sally?"
I rolled my eyes.
As always, our almost-intelligent dinner conversation had managed to
disintegrate into a discussion about sex.
What was with these people?
Heero, thankfully, halted the banter before it began. "You know, Tro, you could easily seduce
your TA. It's worked for others, I'm
sure."
Relena looked at her boyfriend as though he'd grown
another head. "Heero! I didn't
mean for him to go that far. He could
get expelled for something like that!"
Heero shook his head.
"There's nothing in the books about grad students dating
undergrads."
Duo nearly choked on his dinner roll. "Why the hell would you know that?"
he asked incredulously.
"I read the student handbook as soon as it was sent
to me," Heero replied in a low growl.
"Sure, any TA worth his or her salt would know better. But there's only one way for Trowa to find
out."
Duo grinned.
"Believe me—Une is worth finding out about, too. I hear she had an affair with a TA once when
she was an undergrad here. See,
Trowa? You'd be continuing a Sanq
tradition!"
I studied Trowa carefully. He looked pensive, like he was actually considering this kind of
approach.
"You're not really...?"
His eyes met mine and he smiled. "Anything's worth trying once."
***
For the next couple of days I couldn't even stand hanging
out with the group. Wufei was the type
who could voice his opinion and logically back it up whenever challenged, but I
wasn't able to. I became tongue-tied
and worried that maybe they would catch on that my biggest disagreement was
that I wanted Trowa for myself. So my
way of letting them know my opposition was to avoid them altogether. I didn't especially want to hang out with a
bunch of creeps who would use sex to get ahead.
I tried talking to Trowa when he was alone—reminded him
about his option to retake the class.
But it usually just made him angry.
Finally I asked him to at least approach her civilly before trying
anything else. He agreed, but I
wondered if he was only humoring me.
But the next day, when I saw him approach our table at
lunch, he had a familiar and cocky smile. We all knew what had happened.
He collapsed into a chair next to Heero, dropping his book
bag at his feet. "Well, I get to
rewrite the paper."
Wufei made a "tsk-ing" sound and I sighed, but
Heero and Duo congratulated him.
Duo bowed as low as he could without hitting his head on
the table, worshipping Trowa. "Oh,
great and mighty sex god—you have bested me in all areas. I shall build a shrine in homage to
you."
Trowa actually blushed. "Knock it off," he commanded, kicking Duo gently. "I don't even know if I'll really need
the adjustment. I have to wait until
after the final. If I earn a D in the
class, I won't get to do the rewrite.
But if I fail, she'll give me four days to turn in a revised
paper."
"But weren't you planning on going home the day after
your final?" I asked.
Trowa shrugged.
"Yeah, but I won't even find out about my grade until that
day. So I'll just stay here over
break."
"Good," I said with fake cheer. "I'll be staying as well, so you can
keep me company." I smiled at him,
but it wasn't genuine. My heart was
beating rapidly; my brain was panicking.
Six weeks alone with Trowa?
Without Wufei—whose presence constantly kept me in check? Maybe I should've accepted my
father's offer to join him on his business trip.
Trowa smiled back at me.
"You can teach me how to swim."
Great. Now I was
going to spend six weeks in the pool with a half-naked Trowa.
"I have to go to my Harmony class." I quickly grabbed my tray and left the
union. During the short walk to the
conservatory I caught glimpses of people who made me think of Trowa: Sylvia
Noventa, a girl who looked like Cathrine, a group of girls from our dorm that
spent lots of time out on the porch smoking and talking to him. So I focused on the buildings I was passing
instead. The chapel—never hung out with
Trowa in there. (But there was that one
night we went for a walk around midnight and ended up playing in the rose garden
fountain behind the chapel...) Damn it!
I couldn't get him out of my head if I tried!
Once I was in Harmony, I tried to focus all my attention
on Dr. S and his boring lecture about Pythagoras and the mathematical history
of music. But halfway through the class
I looked down at my staff paper and saw doodles of Trowa's name and frowning
faces all over the margins. Good lord,
I was pathetic. This had to stop. I couldn't spend my whole year mooning over
a guy who wasn't at all interested in me.
continued in Autumn: 07