The next day, Cameron and Jazmine weren’t mutually free until the afternoon. Not that he’d been bored while waiting for their meeting time. Amari and he had been texting since yesterday, and hitting it off, much to the ginger’s surprise.

It was as if nothing was taboo for the president. Cameron hadn’t been prepared for the sheer curiosity of the upperclassman, but Amari just felt like a golden retriever. With the questions being harmless, the ginger answered them as they came, like right now.

(2:56) Mr. President Amari: dude, you’re not going to ANY sport events?!?!

(2:56) Cameron: what would be the point, i dont understand sports

(2:56) Mr. President Amari: so? i don’t understand home renovations, but i watch 

hgtv

Snorting, Cameron glances up as he nears the east wing of the sciences building. Jazmine was standing by the entrance sign, not yet noticing him. Freaking out, the ginger quickly moves out of sight to a bench hidden by a pillar. Switching to the camera app, Cameron does one last check of his outfit. It was a very Ren-Faire inspired off-the-shoulder peasant blouse that he’d cropped last night–it almost gave the impression of him having breasts, and forced him to have to use the unisex bathroom for everyone’s sake–and a purple tiered shirt that covered his Victorian booties.

Why am I thinking so hard about this? Cameron grimaces. Fiddling with the simple leather choker on his neck, the ginger has to make a fist as the shaking starts. Looking at the screen, he could see new things to be insecure about: his stomach, the angle of his belt, a spot he missed when shaving last night, that loose thread on the skirt hem, and–

Jazmine doesn't care! She literally looks like Tracy Chapman right now, Cameron reminds himself as he quickly turns the phone off. Continuing back to her, he tries not to snort as he takes in her sleeveless boat neck top and blue jeans, hair in a thick ponytail. 

Oh, she actually does... I hope it stays warm just so I can keep seeing those arms.

Letting his footsteps turn heavy, Cameron clears his throat as he walks up this time. 

“Hey, Jazmine.”

“O’ Captain, my captain,” she says with a bow. 

“I’m actually a bar wench.” 

“Well, wench, did you morsel for when you feel peckish, and that new-fangled contrivance?” 

“Contrivance,” startles a laugh out of him. 

“It means an old word for an apparatus that’s really clever.”

“Good lord. Well, yes, ma’am. The contrivance is right here,” Cameron confirms, patting his canvas bag.

“Good, because we’re going to do some homework for a few hours before I take you to trivia.”

Not exactly the start he imagined, but necessary if he were being honest. The ginger was thankful there weren’t multiple flights of stairs involved in this adventure. As they neared the large door at the end of the hall, he slowly got excited as the scent of blossoms got stronger.

“I give you," she says, opening the door to reveal a bed of vibrant flowers. "The botanical gardens.”

It was beautiful, and quite the lovely backdrop for a romantic scene. Alas, that was not the case. Jazmine takes him over to the picnic tables tucked away by the wisteria trees and immediately pulls out her study materials. Cameron was a little disappointed they didn’t talk much, but part of him was grateful, again. He very often matched the energy of his company; if they were a chatterbox, he was a chatterbox. Now is definitely not the time for this. 

After finishing classes yesterday, he'd really looked through the events Jaz showed him and the clubs he’d learned about yesterday. All of them. Even after eliminating the ones that would be too time-consuming or conflicted with his classes...the ginger still wanted to do so much. Thus, Cameron felt determined to get ahead of the impending mid-semester slump. If he didn't start chipping off his load now in his self-paced courses, the ginger knew he'd end up drowning. 

In a way, Jazmine was a good influence. Cameron just wished she’d talked about herself more. However, with the readings waiting to be opened, he pushes the thought aside.

Cameron was only able to do that for two hours. As his eyes fell to yet another abstract of a thirty-plus page article, he couldn’t take the quiet anymore. Tapping the space next to her tablet, Cameron tries not to let his nerves get the best of him as he lifts a brow.

“I’m literally going to find a random plant, eat it, and hope it gives me anaphylactic shock if I have to read one. More. Word, without some sort of human interaction.”

Chuckling softly, Jazmine doesn't stop writing, but she does glance up with a faint smirk. “So Monday was a fluke?”

“Not a fluke.” When I’m not stressed, he finishes internally. Pouting, he lifts up his earbud case. “They died, like, an hour ago. And I already know these concepts,” Cameron sighs dramatically.

“Mmmm. Better than working on a mock pitch presentation.”  

“Ouooh, for what?” 

Cameron tries not to seem too interested, but it shifts to slight disappointment as she shrugs–like it didn’t matter.

“Eh. Dumbass assignment.”

”Jaz, come on. You’ve heard my academic spiel,” the ginger groans. “What’s yours? What program are you doing?”

“It’s nothing cool like your stuff. I'm technically in my third year here.” 

Cameron propped a fist under his chin, not giving up as she rolled her eyes. The ginger internally celebrated as Jaz sighed and started setting her device down. 

“You want the cliff notes, or slightly elaborated?”

“You’re the mysterious person lugging me around campus this week like Linus’ safety blanket-”

“It’s literally the second day of us doing this, Cam.” The junior’s nose had scrunched up due to her amusement, and Cameron loved the look of it. Shaking off the thought and not wanting to concede that she was right, the ginger lets out another long sigh.

“Pleeeeease. You’re showing me around. People are going to associate us with each other. I want to know who I'm keeping company with.” 

Internally, Cameron winces at how it sounds like he’s begging. It is true that he would love to get to know her, but did that sound too desperate? His stomach turns a little as he reminds himself that she’s just doing this as a favor to him, not to be his actual friend. Embarrassed, the sophomore tries to look interested in the plant closest to him.

“You know what? I get what you mean, Cam.” Hearing the kindness in her tone, the ginger braves a glance at her. His worries ease as she lifts one corner of her lip kindly. “I’m the opposite of you, in the sense that I came in with a lot of credits from community college courses I did during high school."

“Lucky.” It was supposed to be under his breath, but Jaz’s ‘yes’ revealed how loud the boy had been. 

“I was able to get a jump start on the other freshmen, which meant better registration times and class selection. So I went out of my way to enter upper-level courses I’d already done prereqs for.”

“How’d that go?” If she passed it with flying colors, Cameron was going to call bullshit.

“Oh, it was almost a complete dumpster fire,” she cackles. “I bit off waaay more than I could chew by taking six classes in the fall and spring.”

“Eighteen credit hours each semester? Did you recover?”

“Pushed through the fall. Started to burn out in the first third of spring. I managed it by doing the minimum in my Gen Eds, and barely slept so I could get through all my responsibilities.”

Cameron winces sympathetically, patting her hand on the table. “Please tell me you stopped doing that.”

“You’re too cute,” she snorts. 

“Jazmine.”

“Of course I stopped.” The artist pats his hand reassuringly, but the mocking gesture is overpowered by the feeling of her calloused hand. Jazmine pulls back before the warmth could seep in and continues on nonchalantly. “Ever since then, I have taken the max limit courses over the summer to lighten my school year. Nothing like knocking out an upper-level course when you can have a steady supply of vitamin D.”

“Oh my god, be serious.” Cameron did not like how flippant she was about her struggle.

“I am being serious. Got to touch grass and kick ass academically by day. Work on my freelance jobs at night.”

“And you haven’t jumped off a bridge?”

“No,” Jaz chuckles. “I’ve always done better the busier I am. Keeps me out of trouble.”

Cameron wanted to ask more about the trouble aspect, but decided to go with a safer option. “You never said what degree you are going for.”

“Oop. Sorry. Funnily enough, it’s Communications with a double concentration in media production and marketing. And then a minor in illustration.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah. It’s tiring. The professors are either wonderful or jaded. There's no in-between. But I’ve met some cool people and got the chance to do some cool things.”

“And you do extracurriculars too?”

“What can I say? It forces me to be really intentional about my time and energy. I’m not one for being cooped up in the house.”

“Almost sounds like you’re distracting yourself from something…” 

Realizing how intrusive that was, Cameron tries to bite it off, but Jazmine only shrugs. 

“You wouldn’t be incorrect,” she draws out while leaning closer to the sophomore. Cameron felt like a rope was tugging him closer to her as he also bent forward over the table. Jazmine’s eyes sparkled with mischief, and he felt his anticipation grow as she looked right and then left before opening her mouth once more. “But you have to earn that information.”

Feeling bamboozled and gently corrected, the tips of Cameron’s ears warmed as they turned pink. Still, he nods in acceptance and even dares to get the last word as he turns back to his homework.

“I will.”

He doesn’t acknowledge Jazmine's stunned stare, which quickly gives way to amusement.

“Hmm. Confidence. Keep that energy for the trivia.”