Author's Note: So….I feel the need to preface this story with a bit of background info. First of all, I'm writing this now because I only recently watched the entire season of Freaks and Geeks (also, because I needed to take a quick break from THG). What a phenomenal show! Few shows have made me feel the same range of emotions- sadness, anger, mortification, romance, humor- in such a short amount of time. F&G truly has it all.
Anyway, one of my favorite episodes was "Noshing and Moshing" because I was really intrigued by Barry Schweiber, Neal's older brother who had come home from college, and Lindsay's relationship with him. That is the basis for this little story.
I realize that a lot of people probably didn't like their flirtation, that some people thought it was creepy that a sophomore in college would be kissing a high school student. I would argue though that they obviously knew each other fairly well from before and liked each other to some extent- you could tell by her reaction to seeing him in the hallway of McKinley. And really, the age difference is, what, three years? In the grand scheme of things, that's not much. But mostly I am guessing people just wanted Lindsay to end up with Nick. I thought Nick was as sweet as anyone else, but I can understand Lindsay's plight after seeing the note that Nick couldn't "wate" to see her. She was way too driven and smart for him! Anyway, even the brief conversation she had with Barry seemed to challenge her more intellectually, and it didn't hurt that Barry was funny, cute, and nice. Seemed like they shared a pretty great kiss, too.
So this story is about Lindsay taking him up on his offer and deciding to visit Barry at college one weekend the next fall. After writing for a while, I realized that this story had a fatal flaw- if Lindsay was visiting Barry the fall of her senior year, than he would have been a junior (I'm assuming that since 'Noshing and Moshing' was pretty far into the season/school year he was a sophomore at the time having graduated from McKinley 'two years ago'). But I accidentally wrote him as a sophomore….whoops! I didn't change it because too much would have been different (i.e. where he lived, who he lived with, etc.), and I was lazy. Hope you enjoy the story anyway J
It would be a one-shot except that in my mind there are a couple of different ways the story plays out. So there's a general introduction, and there will be three distinct chapters, each which represent a different way the story goes depending on who Barry turns out to be. Here goes….
Introduction
You're going to come visit me, right?
Lindsay smiled to herself and gripped the steering wheel a little bit tighter, remembering the earnest look in Barry's eyes when he asked her that. It felt like forever ago.
She had been on the road for almost five hours now. Since it was a Saturday, she was fortunate to not hit any major traffic going around Chicago- though she wondered if she would be eating her words on her return trip tomorrow night.
As she tried to suppress her anticipation over seeing Barry again until she was much closer to the University of Wisconsin, she found herself thinking about some things.
Like how thankful she was to be making the trip at all. Truthfully, she was kind of amazed that she had managed to convince her parents to 1) borrow their car, 2) drive it over six hours to Madison, and 3) stay at the college overnight- particularly after she had lied to them about going to the Academic Summit. But maybe her parents had figured that she had served her time.
Summer had been awful. It didn't take her parents long to realize that Lindsay wasn't where she said she was- and she had been grounded the instant she got back (and worse, she knew it was coming, which really made the whole drive home akin to a death march). It was the grounding after borrowing her parents' car and wrecking it, times about a hundred. Since school was out, there wasn't much that she had to do anyway, but so much more that she wanted to do. Though it only took about two days for her to realize that being grounded in her room was no way to spend a summer- it was like just sitting there in detention. She'd rather be studying.
She knew her high grades could be handy for something. So she decided to put them to good use, presumably what her parents were thinking when they tried to force her to go to the Academic Summit in the first place. She was able enroll in calculus at the local community college, having done well in trigonometry last year. She could tell her parents were thrilled with her choice to take a college course but didn't want her to know it, so they only agreed to pay the tuition with the caveat that Lindsay work to pay them back. When she wasn't in class, Lindsay spent most of the rest of the summer in her Dad's store (at minimum wage, with what little money she did make going straight into her Dad's pocket). She stocked merchandise on occasion but more frequently dealt with customers. Since the mega-chain had opened up in the local mall less than a mile away, A1 Sporting Goods had slowed down a little as of late- so while it wasn't so good for her father's business, at least she was able to get some studying done. And being grounded, it's not as though she couldn't quietly study in her room every evening. She was miserable but at least she ended up acing the course.
Showing her parents her first college 'A' had loosened them up just a teeny bit- but by then it was almost the end of summer anyway.
She thought about how starting school again felt really weird after last year. Daniel was still around, having flunked Algebra, and of course Kim and just about everyone else were there. There was only one notable exception, a guy whose absence was perhaps the most conspicuous, and not just because he was one of the tallest guys in school.
Nick.
As it turned out, deciding not to smoke pot anymore wasn't enough, not if school was about to come to an end anyway. Quitting couldn't retroactively make Nick's awful grades better. So his father held true to his promise to make him join the military. Nick was in Texas somewhere with the 5th Infantry Division of the US Army the last that Lindsay had heard.
As busy (and as grounded) as she had been over the summer, Lindsay had missed Nick's last days in Chippewa. Honestly, that was probably a good thing. Nick and Sara were still going out, although Sara was going to college so who knew if it was going to last. The two of them dating wasn't even the hardest part for Lindsay to stomach- because having a girlfriend seemed to make Nick happy, Lindsay was happy for him, no matter what it did to her. But if he still felt the same way about the military now than he did that day he tried out for Dimension (and there's no reason to think that he wouldn't), than she couldn't have said goodbye to him and seen the defeated look in his eyes as he got ready to ship out. It would have torn her apart.
Lindsay probably would have just moped over Nick's leaving if Barry hadn't called her the next week.
She hadn't seen Barry since the Schweiber party where they had kissed- he hadn't come home for the summer. She had heard from Sam who had heard from Neal that he had a lot of week-long internships at school or something. It sounded like he was going to be following around a bunch of different people. According to Neal's parents Barry still hadn't selected a major and he was determined to choose something before the fall semester so that he could enroll in the right courses. Not that she was trying to pester Sam too much about it, of course. Sam had heard that she and Barry kissed through Neal and teased her mercilessly about it (but only when Neal wasn't around). When she asked Sam how Neal felt about it, he just shrugged his shoulders and told her that Neal would survive.
So when Barry had called her that first week in September, right after school had started, it was just what she needed to keep from dwelling over Nick. She and Barry spoke on the phone for hours, talking about anything and everything, and there was no sense in denying that the connection she felt the last time he was in town was still there. Something had just changed since they were both at McKinley back when she was a freshman and he was a senior.
As much as she enjoyed the conversation, when they got off the phone Lindsay wasn't sure if or when she might hear from Barry again (just like she felt when she left the Schweiber party). So when the phone rang the next Saturday night around midnight, she suspected it was probably Kim or Daniel calling so late, and Lindsay quickly picked up the phone to answer it before anyone else in her family did. It nearly floored her when she heard Barry's voice on the other end of the line. He had obviously been drinking.
"I still can't stop thinking about that kiss," he said, with just a bit of a slur in his voice. "You gotta come and see me at college," he said again, echoing his sentiments from the Schweiber party. He proceeded to drunkenly mumble "I'm sorry, I just had to tell you that, I'd better go," and hang up the phone.
Not the most romantic of conversations, but truthfully she couldn't stop thinking about the kiss either. And since their amazing phone conversation from before, she really did want to see him again. Her brain started hatching a plan.
She was a senior now, after all. She was supposed to be researching colleges already, and despite feeling more energized about her college future after taking calc (she could now potentially take the calculus AP exam prior to application deadlines), she still hadn't set foot on a University campus and didn't have the faintest idea of where she wanted to go. Maybe a trip to the University of Wisconsin could really help her figure things out with school, she rationalized to herself, and if she just so happened to see Barry there, well, there would be no harm in that, would there?
Of course, she couldn't say that to her parents. Her parents loved Barry, just like they loved Neal, but ever since the Schweiber party it was probably pretty evident that her parents wouldn't buy the whole 'he's just Neal's older brother and of course there isn't anything going on' bit. So she had to do some searching, some remembering. Who else did she know that had gone to Wisconsin for school? She could only think of Jessica Farmington, who was a year older than her and who was an acquaintance at best. But of course all of that was irrelevant if she could convince her parents that it was Jessica with whom she was staying.
When she pitched the idea to her parents, however, they seemed much more intent on questioning what else she was going to see on campus. Lindsay got the impression that they were much more concerned as to whether she actually intended to go to the University of Wisconsin than who she planned to stay with when she got there. They asked, of course, but when she mentioned Jessica, they didn't seem to care about following up- and they both managed to forget that Barry was there, thank God. She reassured them by promising to bring back a lot of information from the school that they could peruse, sort of as a means to prove that she was actually there. They even seemed excited that she was taking an interest in visiting colleges herself.
She decided to call Barry back and let him know that she hoped to be making a visit, and soon if possible. She chose to call on a Wednesday afternoon, and though no one was there, she left a message on their machine to have Barry call her back that night.
Lindsay felt jittery as she waited for his call. What if he didn't even remember that he told her he wanted to see her again? Maybe suggesting she visit him wasn't such a good idea after all. But when the phone rang and she answered, and she heard his voice on the other end of the line, she knew it would be all right.
"Hey Lindsay," he said, in his deep, raspy voice that she had always found really attractive, "how's it going? To what do I owe the pleasure? And if there's no reason at all, even better." She could almost hear him grinning.
"Actually, there is a reason," she stammered, relieved at his tone, but still a little nervous. She quickly looked both ways to make sure that her parents were out of earshot. "I was thinking that I, um, wanted to come and visit you up there. Take you up on your offer from before."
"Visit me?" his voice was a little incredulous. He coughed quickly. "Yeah. Hell yeah. Definitely. When were you thinking?"
"Um- next weekend?" she made sure to make it sound like a question. She could arrange another time, after all.
"Perfect, the sooner the better," was his reply. He coughed again, and then cleared his throat. He hesitated. "So- um- do you have a place to stay? Or did you want to stay with me?"
Talk about a loaded question. "I'm not sure," she replied. "I know someone- you remember Julie Farmington? I don't know her number, but I could probably get a hold of her and stay there if I had to. I….we could….play it by ear," she managed to get out. She wasn't sure what the implication would be if told Barry she would be happy staying with him. She wasn't ready to have sex with Barry anytime soon, and she didn't want him to assume that she was. But then again, he knew her pretty well, didn't he? Hopefully he wouldn't automatically jump to that conclusion. Sleeping in the same dorm room didn't necessarily mean that anything else had to happen, right?
"Playing it by ear sounds great," he quickly responded. "Just to clarify- I would love to have you stay here with me. But- I'm not making any presumptions about anything," he quickly added, putting her fears to rest, at least for the moment. "I can look up Julie's number here and get it for you. And we can see how it goes, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed.
That was a week ago, and now here she was, close to Madison, and she still had no ideas of what was going to happen tonight. Barry had given her the address of his dorm that night on the phone, told her he was excited to see her, and said that he probably wasn't going to have time to talk again. He said he was going to have to study his butt off because he had in fact chosen pre-law and had a ton of work to do if he wanted to make sure that he could take the whole time she was there off to enjoy her visit. She had given him a quick call from a pay phone at the gas station shortly after getting on the road today, but it was just to tell him that she was on her way and give him an ETA. All he did was reply that he couldn't wait to see her.
As she approached the outskirts of Madison, she had to laugh. My dorm is right next to a field of cows. Make a right at the cow, and there I'll be. Unfortunately, his initial directions hadn't narrowed things down too much. There were so many cows that Lindsay could have turned anywhere. Thankfully, his later directions had honed in on the correct road to take. Lindsay carefully followed the last several steps of the directions she had written out and pulled up to a parking lot near Barry's dorm around 5 p.m. Grabbing her duffel bag and locking her parents' car, she walked into Sellery Hall to find his room.
Knocking on the door, Lindsay's heart sped up. She thought to herself, this should be a fun night.