Jane Moves In

"Duck!"

Jane heard the command, cringed and turned an instant before the spinning red disc sliced off her left ear. Or nearly slicked off her ear as Jake Morgendorffer lunged and caught it before it came close to her. Even so Jane nearly dropped the box of art supplies she was carrying across the quad of Boston Fine Arts Academy.

"Lousy little punks," Jake fumed to the not-at-all-contrite-appearing boys who were looking expectantly at the disk in his hand. "You could hurt someone you know."

"Hey, Pops, toss that back here; if you know how." The apparent thrower commanded Jake.

"Pops? If I know how?!" Jake exclaimed. "Why you little. Do you know what you little punks deserve? I'll tell you what: a couple years in a tough military academy, that's what."

Jane softly put her hand on his arm as he surveyed prospective low roofs on nearby BFAC buildings. He hefted the disc into a throwing position then softened his stance as he glanced at Jane's hand.

"Guys," Jake tossed the toy firmly and directly back to one. "Just be careful, okay? Lots of people still moving in today."

"Thanks, Mr. Morgendorffer." Jane said. "I need that ear. I'd only cut it off in the interest of inspiring great art. Oh, and wow, you moved fast."

Jane reached up to pluck a dry leaf from Jake's brown hair, one of the few leaves left on the late autumn trees. Her face reddened over the uncharacteristic gesture which Jake did not seem to notice. Jake picked up her ancient suitcase and they resumed their walk to her dorm.

Why her dorm did not have an easily accessible loading area was a mystery which Jane put down to the idiosyncrasies of the artistic temperament. Or maybe they just wanted to put the first year students in their places.

"Yeah, I always had pretty fast reflexes; even that sadist jerk Corporal Ellenbogen had to admit that. 'Course that only made him ride me harder when I couldn't climb a rope worth crap. 'Jake, Jake quiver and quake. We'll just leave you out all night to freeze on that rope, Morgendorffer.'"

Jane pointed with her chin to the pond which had yet to ice over, "Oh, Mr. M., look, a ducky!"

"Hey, yeah!" Jake smiled widely. "A mallard, royalty of the duck world. You don't see many of those around here, Jane-O."

Jane grinned. Jake Morgendorffer was a little, okay, more than a little ditzy but she could appreciate him taking delight in the small things in life.

A moment later as she heard a familiar soft but definite stomp of heavy boots behind them Jane reflected, "And more than a little unlike his eldest, mi amiga."

"Jane," Daria Morgendorffer called from behind them. "I thought artists had a natural, instinctive good spatial sense. Isn't Kingsley Hall that way? You're leading us on a wild ducky chase, Lane."

Jane and Jake turned to see Jake's daughter carrying a box which looked too heavy for her 5'2'' slender frame. Daria waggled an elbow to her left and set the box down. Jane set her burden to the ground and consulted the map from the admissions building. It was more artistic than informative, she thought, as she slowly turned herself around glancing from the map to her surroundings. Finally she shrugged and bit her lip in thought. She did not have much to move in but she also did not want to make her friend and her friend's father traipse around campus needlessly.

"Here," Jake took the map from her. He studied it a moment than pointed in the general direction of Daria's elbow waggling. As Jake led the way Daria came up beside her friend a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Former girl scout, huh?" Daria asked.

"Hey, can I help it if John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt drove me out of the scouts before we learned orienteeriating or whatever they call it?"

A few minutes later Jane directed the Morgendorffers to lay their burdens down in the middle of her dorm room.

"Looks like your roommate hasn't got here yet," Daria said after looking at the bare mattresses on both single beds. "Which one do you want, Lane?"

Jane took a moment to consider which bed would get the least light in the morning and gestured at it upon which Daria flopped down on her back and sighed.

"I hope my bed at Raft's infamous dorms will be as comfortable." She said.

A moment later Daria sat up as her cell phone emitted a few chords of a sad-sounding piano piece. She extended the antenna before answering.

"Hello, Daria here, head chef at Daria's road kill cafe. 'You kill 'em. We grill 'em. Oh, hi Amelia."

Jane noticed Jake was looking sadly at the large yellow cell phone in his daughter's hand. Daria could have chosen a newer and therefore smaller, less conspicuous model but she was keeping the memory of her mother by carrying around the brick. Daria had even hung a few of Helen's earrings from the antenna on a short silver chain.

"What's that, Amelia? Ugh, okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. Well, as slow as I drive about thirty minutes I guess, longer if there are dogs. Great, okay, stall them if you need to."

"Amelia?" Jane asked. "Not the Amelia from We'll never forget you, Dear old Camp Grizzly..."

Jane spread her hands dramatically wide as she burst into the ghastly Grizzly camp theme, the full version of which Daria had taught her one night after the girls had finished off what was left of a pitcher of Jake's martinis.Daria stopped her before she got further into her off-key rendition.

"Yeah, that Amelia. Big coincidence, big, big coincidence. She's starting Raft late too and she's my roomie. We talked and messaged a lot over the last few weeks. She seems to have grown herself a spine and personality or two so I think it's actually gonna work out. She said they're having some dopey dorm-room lottery and we both have to be there or we'll get a place in the 'Unwanted Wing", apparently a location so hideous that they can't even come up with a proper nickname for it."

"Dad, we got everything of Jane's out of my heap. No reason for you to go to Raft yet. How about you rest and help her set up? I'll be back in around three hours, I think. I'll bring Amelia if she wants and we can all get a late lunch."

"Thanks, kiddo, I believe I will take a break with Jane-O," Jake gave Daria a hug and advised her to drive carefully over the narrow streets of Boston.

After Daria clomped out Jane directed Jake to just take it easy as she unpacked a few things. A few minutes later a woman a couple years older than Jane swept through the open door after knocking briskly. Jake stood up politely.

"Welcome to BFAC and Kingsley Hall," "I'm Tess your resident advisor. It's great your dad could come along and help move in."

Before either Jake or Jane could explain Tess went on, "But Jane, uh, Lane, I got some bad news. Your roomie didn't open the windows wide enough when she was painting and got a little sick on oil paint fumes. She decided to to work with native tin picture frame artists in Venezuela. She won't be joining you until spring semester. Sorry, you're a loner this semester. But please come to our mandatory floor meeting tonight in the commons and I'm sure you'll make lots of buddies."

Tess swept out before Jane could express her faux disappointment at having a single room for a few months.

"Wow, Jane-O," Jake exclaimed. "A single room. Well, you'll be missing the bonding experience of having a roomie for a few months so don't get too used to it."

"I think I'll have to live with myself not being too sad about that, Mr. Morgendorffer or maybe I should call you 'Dad'?"

Jake and Jane chuckled over that then met each other's eyes shyly. Jane stared out the window at the students throwing discs around on the Quad and the students painting or sketching the students throwing discs around.

"Mr. Morgendorffer, I don't have much junk to unpack. I don't feel like sketching people sketching people playing Frisbee. How about we both take it easy for a bit? Then we can tour BFAC's student museum and gallery. I think you'll be interested in the life figure studies wing."

"That sounds great, Jane…"

Jane heard him hesitate and leave out his habitual 'O'.

"And call me Jake, you're a young woman now and you've been with my kiddos through thick and thin for years."

Jane smiled shyly and promised she would take a quick shower before they went out to brave the Quad again.

"Ten-thirty,"Jane noted from the big clock a previous resident had left on a wall. "I'll just take a quick shower, Jake, I feel pretty grubby."

She grabbed a towel and sundries and retreated to the bathroom.

"Eleven o'clock on move in day. What? Huh? Where did that come from?"

As she soaped up her thick black hair she reflected, "Yeah, I did joke about that with mi amiga. I doubt Daria remembers and I'm surprised I just did. My first, giving the precious gift of myself to someone. Hah? I make it sound so romantic. Well, little bit not feasible for today. Maybe tomorrow at eleven. Maybe I'll find some cute guy when I voluntarily attend the mandatory floor meeting tonight."

Jane washed and brushed her teeth in almost daze of thought. "Yeah, meet some total stranger, some guy who'd probably call up the football team who used to bully him to brag about the score he made off some innocent freshman chick. Yeah, like that's romantic and totally what little Jane-O needs."

As she started to dress Jane considered the man in the outer room, the father of almost the only friend she had now or ever. She saw how Jake Morgendorffer whom so many discounted had stepped up after Helen passed to become whatever his daughters needed, almost a better mother than the ultra-busy Helen had been. And when Trent had hesitated over his possible big break as a musician because it meant leaving Lawndale and he did not want to abandon his sister, Jake had taken her in and even managed and repaired Casa Lane until it met reasonable standards of livability.

Jane tugged on her snug black panties then stopped herself as she reached for her black shorts, black top and red jacket. She slipped on a slightly tattered blue bathrobe instead.

"What the hell? I'm an artist. I'm supposed to make impulsive life-changing, inspiring decisions."

"Hi Jane, all showered off?" Jake asked instantly as emerged from the bathroom. His eyes widened at bit at the sight of her in the bathrobe but remained happy and innocent.

"Yeah, Jake, I needed that. Helped me think, I think and see some things."

She inspected the lock then clicked it secure. "Yeah, rah for working locks. Thanks for fixing ours back home."

She turned back to Jake and cocked her head up to look into the six-footer's brown eyes.

"Jane?" He asked hesitantly.

"Jake, I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

Jane dropped her bathrobe to the floor.