Title: Work in Progress
Author: Sassy
Rating: PG
Pairing; J/A undertones
Show: Recreation
Genre: General
Disclaimer: Barbara Hall owns them.
Summary: Adam thinks about Joan and the world.
AN: Once again, thanks to Ana. You rock. You have no idea how much you help me by reading over the stories. I love your opinions and your suggestions and I'm glad that you help!
Work in Progress
He had always known she was special, the kind that transcended the universe. She could walk into a room and everyone in it would see the extraordinariness emitting from her like a great white beacon. He'd seen it the day Ms. Lischak had told Joan Girardi where to sit in her new AP Chem. class. He'd seen it the day she'd come to his art shed to return his bag. He'd seen it the day she tried out for cheerleading and when she'd decided to build a boat and when she'd told him not to enter the art show and when she'd refused to retake her History test and when he'd kissed her in a shower of feathers. But most importantly, he could see it in her secret.
Joan was special, but along with that, she was different. Odd. Sub-defective as she had labeled them. She was different from normal teenage girls. Not that Adam knew much about the workings of adolescent girls or just girls in general. But Joan was far from normal. She was unique. Adam liked that about her. It added to her charm. He was different as well. Though, she didn't quite understand everything he did, the situation was quite mutual. He'd finally accepted that he would never quite comprehend everything she did. Girls were supposed to be mysterious, in theory. Especially the ones with secrets. Adam would always wish she would tell him her hidden secret, because he had bared his to her. Why couldn't she reciprocate? But he realized she might never tell him. Not because she didn't trust him. She probably did. She just had something she needed to hold back. It was like she didn't want to burden him with something she thought was unbelievable. He would wait for her to explain it to him, if she ever did.
He'd noticed more oddities when he was with Joan. She would duck out on certain things, stop in the middle of a sentence with an annoyed grunt and walk off, and continue to do completely out of the ordinary things. Adam had observed her, though, even if he seemed like he was completely unaware of his surroundings. He was always hyperaware of Joan. He always had been. She would run off and talk to someone he rarely recognized; a little girl, a sanitation worker, a teacher, a jogger, a doctor, a swimmer, and even that one guy from the party. Every time she spoke with those people, her entire stance would show her annoyance, her voice would raise one degree from normal and one degree below whiney, and she would glance around like she was afraid other people would see her talking to them. Or maybe that they couldn't see her talking to them. Adam was almost sure he could coincide her weird actions with the conversations with the mysterious people. He'd never been close enough to actually hear what was being said, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what was being discussed. So he resigned himself to the fact that he may never understand what happened with Joan and remained content to simply observing Joan.
He never asked Joan about the revolving door of strangers nor did he ask what they talked about. He recognized that most people craved normalcy, but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He could see things, objects with basic uses, and he could turn them into something beautiful, something out of the ordinary, something special. Now he saw Joan as one of his sculptures. She was normal, with basic functions and actions and feelings, and she was becoming something beautiful. She was a work in progress. He accepted that with no issues. After all, the entire universe was a work in progress.