The porch outside Streamlet Single was the only part of Joanna's house where her study board would fit but the bonus was that she had a nice view of the neighbourhood as she studied and assembled her flow diagrams for her assignments. Sure, the cargo container depot that lay across the creek wasn't great to look at and there was a lot of traffic running on the other side but there was more greenery here than she had ever experienced in her life before.
The pleasant surroundings made up for all the psychological jargon she had to learn for her course. She knew she was at a disadvantage compared with the students who came from good families and private schools but the study board helped her understand what terms such as id, emotional intelligence, catharsis, schema and self-actualisation meant. Sometimes she'd reword the technical term into something she was more familiar with and stick it on the board or else take a picture from a magazine that illustrated the term perfectly so she could make a mental picture in her head.
...and then there were the essays, the project reports and the homework. Homework? That was always for the loser kids when she was at school....well, whenever she decided to show up for school. Yet here she was; back doing the kind of work she'd spent years avoiding. Focus on the prize, girl...you ain't no dumbo! She thought to herself as a form of motivation. However, she was at an initial disadvantage because her formal education over the years had been patchy.
She spent a couple of hours with her nose to the grindstone but after a while her eyes were starting to go blurry with all the reading she was doing and she now had an urge to do almost anything other than studying. She got up from her desk and went back out on to the front porch and looked across the way to Action's house. She could just make him out through his front window and decided there and then to pay him a visit: He was still the one person here who she knew well enough to have an extended conversation with, someone who she felt more or less relaxed in their company.
She headed straight over to his place and rang the doorbell. Action got up from the sofa, looked through the spyhole in the front door and...satisfied it was Joanna...let her in.
"Hey, what's up College Girl?" he said.
"Work, Action, something you wouldn't understand" she replied.
"Oh, book learnin' as my Uncle Ray would have said"
"Yes, and tons of it. And I'm only in my 2nd week of the course."
"Have a seat and I'll make some coffee" said Action.
As Action brewed some coffee for the two of them he continued to fire off questions for Joanna. "I notice you haven't moved onto campus...you sticking with that house then?"
"Yeah, I got given a lot of money from my uncle but not that much. I can't maintain a house and live on campus and, besides, when I get my degree..."
"When? You sure are confident" said Action.
"Yeah? And why shouldn't I be? All this psychology jargon they're teaching me; I learned all about it on the streets only we didn't call it by these high falutin' terms."
Action returned with the coffees and sat down next to her. "I guess you make up for a lot by having a lot of life skills. So how are you settling in both here and at Britechester?"
"Not sure about Britechester yet..." replied Joanna. "I've been to a couple of classes but I don't know anyone there. Back here I'm getting on fine: That Summer is just always happy and smiling...I can handle her in small doses."
Action let out a little chuckle. "She sure does live up to her name, but she's cool, Joanna. 100% straight and true."
"But I tell you who I really like around here..." continued Joanna.
"Other than yours truly?" Action interjected.
"You I put up with..." said Joanna with a wry smile. "No, I really dig that Julia from next door. Now she's got a lot to her which I respect."
"You and Julia becoming buddies? Wow, now I've heard it all" said Action with another chuckle.
"Hey, you think a good Jewish poindexter and a girl from the streets can't become friends? Sure, your Summers and Jeremys say the nice things but Julia is there to help out practically. She's helped me sort out my studies, given advice on essays and planning and all kinds of things. No, I like her...she's probably the best around here." said Joanna, twirling her finger around to indicate the neighbourhood.
"You might be right about that. I'm not that close to her...find her place a little cold and antiseptic" said Action.
Joanna looked at Action and studied his expression and body language. "You know...you like to think you're top dog around here, don't you?" she said, eventually.
"Hey, what do you mean by that?" replied Action, indignant.
"You can't help it; you think you're the cove's protector. Jeremy...Travis...sure they're good guys but they don't compete with you. The women around here are all so devoted to their menfolk, their fashion and being all cute and neighbourly....only Julia bucks that: She's the brains to your brawn and I think that doesn't sit quite right with you...she's your only threat to your dominance around here."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Action, almost leaping to his feet with indignation. "A week studying psychology and already you're analysing me!"
"I've been analysing you since we were kids, Action. Yeah...you don't take too warmly to Julia 'cuz she's smarter than you."
"Book smart, maybe..."
"No...smarter all round. That, and she's not your type sexually..."
"OK, Joanna, joke's over...you've crossed the line, lady!"
Joanna smiled and crossed her legs, revealing even more thigh between her skirt and boots. She did this to twist the knife a little bit more. "Sorry, Action, but you've been teasing me about me inheriting that money, moving in here and going to college since we re-connected. Yeah, you know my past but I know you. So we're even."
Action cocked his head a little sideways and peered at Joanna, trying to ignore her legs and provocative pose. "Yeah, you got me." he raised his coffee mug in a salute. "Respect. OK, I'll take you more seriously from now on. But one thing I will confess to...I AM the protector around here; we've had some scary calls over the year."
"Oh really...well, I need to get to the college campus for a lecture soon so you'll have to tell me later. Thanks for the coffee"
Action did a nonchalant wave without saying anything and Joanna grabbed her house keys and left to go home, gather some books and head off to her next lecture.
On campus, it was a talk about Freud 101...a beginners, freshman level lecture but even though Joanna had heard the name, Sigmund Freud, before she didn't know a single thing about him before the lecture started but had pages of notes about him by the time it ended.
It was now early evening and she was free for the evening. She didn't fancy heading on home now but instead wanted to sample that campus life she'd heard so much about. She didn't know any of her fellow students...after the lectures and seminars people upped and left; some of them knew each other and formed tight social groups but others quickly sped to either their next lecture or to some social engagement who knows where? Joanna checked out a notice board that was in the lobby area of the faculty building and saw a neatly typed message that had a border of fancy green swirls and curves around the edge of the paper. The message publicised a meeting of the Art Club, tonight, at Pepper's Pub. Now Joanna didn't know anything about art but this was the only thing going on and...hey...it's a pub filled with students; she wanted to see how she'd get on.
The pretty cobbled streets of Britechester were, yet again, an eye opener for Joanna. The suburb was built in Edwardian times and was inspired by Parisian architecture. The brownstones of Old San Myshuno were built just 20 years later but already that sense of style, or grandeur and elegance had long been discarded by those responsible for designing and building it.
Joanna easily found the pub...it had loud music blaring out from it. Already a lot of young, trendy people were filing inside and she could recognise a college student instantly: Guys with hair reaching their shoulders and with elaborate sideburns, turtleneck sweaters, loud pants and billowy shirts. The girls wore heavy eye make up and skimpy skirts which marked them out as student types. And there was Joanna with the skimpiest of skirts and the blackest of mascara: She wondered what impression she would make.
She was about to head on in to the pub when a guy, a black man dressed in hippy clothes, approached her. "Hey there, are you here for the art club?" he said.
"Yeah, I'm new around here and thought I'd check it out." she replied. "So you an artist type?"
"I'm into sculpting, the name's Pace" he said, with a sly smile and an approving look of Joanna.
"I like that name; Pace. I'm Joanna and I'm studying Psych"
"So you're into minds. I can dig that. Yeah, really dig that" said Pace, again with a sly smile and this time looking straight into her eyes. His first look of her took in her shapely figure and fine legs, this time he was locked on to her face. Joanna thought Pace looked cool...not like Action with his sharp suits and turtlenecks but this loose, hippy looked with striped pants and a shirt worn casually had its own stylistic appeal.
"Are you going in?" she asked him. Pace shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, in a bit...I'm still waiting for a few people to show up but I'll be in eventually. Maybe I could buy you a drink?"
"I'd like that" she said, smiling back at him.
"Cool...I'll see you shortly and, oh, it's a groovy scene in there...you'll meet some cool cats" he added.
"Thanks for the tip...see you in there" she replied. She liked how things were going straight away if Pace was anything to go by.
Inside it was very busy and filling up with young people. Everyone seemed cool and sophisticated in there and they all seemed to know one another. She couldn't see anyone sitting or standing on their own and as she walked by the various tables filled with chattering types she picked up a little of their conversations.
"Do you like Matisse? Such bold strokes of the brush..."
"And then after you take it, all points of the universe converge in your mind and you're tripping, baby..."
"It's symbolic of the struggle against eternal oppression! As Gruber writes in 'Smash It All', we have to take up our arms...figuratively speaking, of course."
"Picasso? Overrated. Degas? Mundane. Monet? Jejune...."
"I'm outta smokes, man...do you have any?"
Joanna made her way past the patrons on the way to the bar. She used what she called "bar presence"; a way to get served quickly in a crowded joint by leaning on the bar with one elbow, a $5 bill held at head height with the other hand and short whistle to get the barmaid's attention.
"Whisky and soda, no ice" said Joanna. The barmaid nodded and got her order. Joanna looked around the place and saw it filling up with yet more people.
Joanna was served her drink and she took a sip. "That's nice" she said to the barmaid. "Say, I'm new to here...do you know what this art club is like? Who's in charge?" she asked.
"They sit around, talk about art and sometimes there's a talk. I think this evening's a mixer event; first meeting of the semester so it's all about meeting people. And that woman over there with the red hair in bunches is the head of the club...that one in the green T-shirt." the barmaid replied.
"Thanks" replied Joanna. She was about to approach the red headed student but already she was surrounded by three other people who all wanted her attention. So Joanna decided to head to a table and observe the group dynamic from afar. With any luck, she thought, Pace would return and buy her that drink.
Soon, all the tables were occupied and one student...a perky looking blonde girl with bobbed hair, a short floral dress and yellow tights approached Joanna. She had a drink in one hand and a big journal in the other.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked.
"It's a free country" replied Joanna, breezily.
"Thanks. I needed a table because I've got a paper due in tomorrow and I have to put some finishing touches to it." said the girl, opening up her journal and reaching for a pen from her shoulder bag.
"Go for it, don't mind me" said Joanna, taking another sip of her drink.
"I'm a freshman and I didn't realise there'd be so much work in the first weeks!" said the girl, looking up briefly from her writings to speak to Joanna.
"Tell me about it! I have a stack of books, journals and papers to wade through. What's your course?"
"English and fine arts. You?"
Joanna took another sip of her drink and then said "psychology".
"Ooh, interesting. Are you a freshman as well?"
"Yep. I'm new to college life...thought I'd come down here to check out the social scene after my last lecture."
"Same. We're newbies together. My name's Jenny." said the girl, smiling broadly.
"Joanna."
"Nice to meet you. Can I get you a drink?"
Joanna was about to say yes but she saw Pace enter the bar. He looked around, saw Joanna and nodded in her direction.
"I think we're about to be bought drinks by that good looking guy who's just entered..." said Joanna.
Yeah, the social life around Britechester is shaping up nicely, she thought.
