Lapis wrinkled her nose as she glanced between her sculpture and her sketch. Her professor encouraged a little improvisation from start to finish, but the two were now nearly unrecognizable as the same product. Hopefully she'd still get full credit for the project.

"How's it going over here, Lapis?" the professor asked as she wandered around the studio.

Lapis straightened a little. "Oh. Hey, Professor V. It's okay."

"I'm sensing some frustration in your original design," Vidalia observed, squinting one eye. "But it's not quite there in the same way in what you're constructing. Care to elaborate?"

"Hm? I dunno about frustration or anything," Lapis shrugged, adjusting a piece of metal that was sticking out of an old tire-the focal point of the sculpture. "But I am thinking of switching the flag on top out for a beach towel."

Vidalia rubbed her chin with thumb and forefinger, thinking. "Has anything happened in your everyday life that might've inspired these changes?"

Lapis shrugged again. "I went to a rock concert this weekend with some friends."

The last word felt a little giddy leaving her mouth. It'd been a while since she actually had friends. And even if those friends were a slobby, irresponsible roommate and a smug nerd she was still trying really hard not to have a crush on, it was kinda nice just to know that she had them.

"I don't really know about putting any sort of deep meaning into it," she said. "I just like keeping it simple."

"Well, whether or not you want to admit it, I think your art shows a really true level of emotion," Vidalia insisted with a smile. "You might not even realize it while you're doing it. Try to dig deeper! You might find something surprising."

Lapis stuck her lips out in a little pout. What was there to find? Everything she was doing was just obvious on the surface. She was watching Camp Pining Hearts while she drew the design, so it had the Camp Pining Hearts flag. She'd been laying on a beach towel last night, so now she wanted to switch it to a beach towel. Was there really anything that significant about that? And where did she see anything about frustration?
"You've got a lot of natural talent, Lapis," Vidalia continued. "I think you should try to use it to find some meaning for yourself. And when you do, I want you to call me right away."

She turned away to check her watch before Lapis could respond.

"Alright, it's that time!" Vidalia announced to the class a few minutes later. "Put away your materials, cover up your works, if you're not finished yet you can do that tomorrow!" Vidalia turned back to Lapis and lightly tapped her shoulder. "Do you have a moment? I'd like to talk to you about something."

"Sure," Lapis said, turning her heels together and holding her hands in front of her chest.

"What I said about you having talent was legit. Your art is really amazing," Vidalia said. "There's an abstract sculpture exhibition coming to the local museum in a few weeks, and I'd like to feature some of your work in it. Would you be okay with that?"

Lapis's hands jumped up, almost covering her mouth.

"I-I'd love that!" she said.

"I thought you might," Vidalia smiled. "We could take a few of your existing pieces from here in the studio, and then if you're all set with all your other classes, I can pull you in for some overtime to create one or two new ones. Cool?"

Her grin faded.

"And...what if I'm not all set with my other classes?" Lapis said.

Vidalia clucked her tongue. "Well, if you're gonna need that overtime to make sure you're passing the semester, I'm not gonna let you use it up for this. Don't want all that tuition to go to waste, right?"

"Right, right," Lapis said hurriedly. "I was just asking-hypothetically."

"'Course you were." Vidalia smirked and started moving away. "I'll let you take off now. Lookin' forward to seeing what you present!"

Lapis nodded and scooped up the rest of her stuff.

It was a little bit hard to focus at work that day. Fortunately, it was a slow day, and all the difficult customers seemed to happen to land on her coworkers, leaving her a little bit of leeway for distraction.

This art exhibit could be a huge break for her. If she could get her name and her work out there for other people to see, especially at a museum as popular as the one they had, it could seriously launch her career. She could sell something. Sell lots of things. Be an actual artist, not a stupid starving student with no future flipping burgers at McDonald's forever.

But then there was that little classes catch.

She was currently failing pretty much everything.

Hey, it wasn't her fault college was hard and she couldn't focus when she was tired and she still couldn't afford to actually get the stupidly expensive textbooks. It wasn't her fault all the required classes were subjects that she just naturally sucked at.

She'd have to step up her game. Somehow. In only a few weeks.

Lapis handed a bag of food to a customer and banged her head on the drive-thru window as they drove away. Hopeless. There was no way she would get caught up in time. Good-bye, dreams.

The restaurant fell quiet, the lunch rush over. Lapis still had about a half an hour left of her shift, but by the looks of it she wouldn't have anything to do. Nothing to do but obsess over her problems and rack her brain for some kind of solution.

Her phone buzzed. After a brief glance around to make sure she wasn't going to get in trouble for texting at work, she pulled it out of her pocket to see a message from Amethyst.

post says shes Deduced A Partial Explanation For Your Initial Curtness from when i brought er over that one time

Lapis arched an eyebrow and typed back a quick response. Post?

*pdot. peridot. lol, Amethyst replied.

Oh. Autocorrect.

she says its cus u thought peri was a guy name and jaspers a guy name too, Amethyst sent. shes such a dork lol

Lapis pursed her lips.

Lol, she texted, straight-faced and unamused.

That might have been part of it. Subconsciously. Mostly she was just crabby because she didn't want to be distracted from her schoolwork.

And suddenly the lightbulb clicked on.

Hurriedly she typed, Hey, is Peridot good at math and science and stuff?

uhhh yeah thats kinda her major, Amethyst responded.

Lapis hovered her thumbs over the keyboard for a moment, hesitant. Then she shook her head and solidified her decision.

Do you think she'd be able to help me out?

probs. why?

Can you ask her for me? I don't have her number saved on my phone.

uhh oki sure

"Lapis, quit texting your boyfriend," one of her coworkers snipped, nudging her shoulder with the back of her hand as she passed by. "Jenny spilled something by the fridge and she needs help cleaning up."

Lapis blew a short raspberry and shoved her phone into her back pocket. "I was texting my roommate. And how many times am I gonna have to tell you I'm a lesbian?"

"Whatever, just-help us clean."

Lapis started moving to obey, but paused as her phone vibrated again. "One sec."

The number on the screen was unfamiliar at first, but then she recognized it as Peridot's from when she called her on the bus. Amethyst must've asked her fast. Lapis tapped the message.

I AM ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WILLING TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR CLASSES. WHAT TIME WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET

Yeesh, why was she stuck on caps lock? Lapis held up a finger to her impatient coworker and typed with one hand.

Anytime's fine. My last class ends at 4. You can just stop at our place whenever.

I WILL BE THERE AT FOUR THIRTY. DOES THAT WORK FOR YOU

Yeah, that's great, thanks

YOU;RE WELCOME

Smirking and shaking her head, Lapis put her phone away and went to grab a mop.

Maybe she had a shot at this after all.

"Is that my hairbrush?"

Lapis jumped at Amethyst's sudden appearance, then glanced at the hairbrush. "I just grabbed the first one I found. If you don't want other people using your stuff you shouldn't leave it laying around everywhere."

"Nah, keep it. It's not like I'm gonna use it," Amethyst shrugged. "Toss me a couple hair ties?"

Lapis slid open a drawer and grabbed a few elastics. Amethyst took them with a "gracias" and started heaping her hair into a messy bun while Lapis resumed fluffing her bangs.

"What're you primping up for?" Amethyst asked, a hair tie held between her teeth. "Your study date with Peridot?"

"I'm not primping. And it's not a date," Lapis argued. "I just wanna look presentable."

"Hah, okay." Amethyst sidled a little closer to Lapis to check her reflection. "You two better not get up to anything behind my back while I'm gone," she teased, elbowing Lapis in the side and laughing as she walked away.

Lapis leaned out the bathroom door to watch Amethyst leave. "Where are you going?"

"Wrestling practice." Amethyst flexed her arm and grinned. "Have fun on your study date!"

"It's not a date!" Lapis repeated, but Amethyst had already shut the door behind her, her farewell cackle lingering in the air.

Lapis scoffed and returned to fixing her hair in the mirror. How could Amethyst joke so flippantly about something like that? Like she was almost encouraging Peridot to cheat on her? How could she be so casual considering that? If anything like this had happened while she was dating Jasper-

Stop it.

Don't think about her.

Amethyst was just messing with her to make her uncomfortable because that's what Amethyst did. She was just teasing her because they're friends. Peridot was coming over to help her with her classes because they're friends. And that was okay.

There. Her hair looked nice now.

Lapis grabbed her tablet and a couple notebooks from her room and dumped them on the couch. It was probably only about four fifteen, so she had a while to sit down and get a bit of a head start before-

Knock-knock-knock.

Of course she showed up fifteen minutes early.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-

"Coming," Lapis called, standing. Peridot kept knocking until Lapis swung the door open, leading her to almost hit her in the face.

Peridot straightened hurriedly, adjusting her bulky over-filled backpack. "Hello, Lapis!"

"Hey," Lapis replied. "Are there textbooks in that backpack? Cus I kinda don't really have any."

Peridot's enthusiasm wilted a little."Oh. Um-no. B-but I do have electronic versions of several textbooks downloaded on my computer!"

Lapis waved Peridot into the room and closed the door behind her. "Then what's that great big square thing?"

"You know, Lapis Lazuli, I'm glad you asked." Peridot swung her backpack off her shoulders and onto the couch, unpacking it as she spoke. "I thought I'd bring in something of my own to help with our study session. Numerous studies, not to mention my own research, have proven that listening to music before and/or during work can significantly enhance memory and productivity, especially depending on the type of music playing, and so…"

She dramatically stepped away, the big square thing all set up on the table behind the couch. "Ta-da!"

Lapis's eyebrows jumped to the top of her forehead.

"You've got a record player?!"

"A little old relic I managed to snag on my way out the door when Mother evicted me," Peridot bragged happily, puffing out her chest and making the already-too-tight buttons there strain a little more (not that Lapis noticed, not that Lapis would ever let her eyes even accidentally stray there, not on your life). "It's made itself a comfortable niche in my truck, but I thought this occasion would be the perfect time to bring it out to show someone."

Lapis climbed up and knelt on the couch to stare more diligently at the record player. It was a beautiful piece of work, totally vintage but in mint condition-probably from the early sixties, 1965 at the latest, but by looks it could've been brand-new. The case was covered in thin cinnamon-brown leather; the platter and plinth were sleek shiny black. It'd be the perfect accessory to a temporary art piece, and oh my gosh, if she could actually get some era-appropriate music playing on it, the perfect testament to the simultaneous ephemerality and immortality of life as we know it-

Find some meaning for yourself, her professor's words echoed in her head.

"You better not let Amethyst near this, she'd totally wreck it," Lapis said.

"Oh, Amethyst loves this thing. She thinks it's very cool." On the last word Peridot winked, proud of herself. She started digging through her backpack again, and kept speaking: "Now, as for studying, I've brought over a few records that I've personally found to be most effective in assisting focus. Regular underlying tones, no distracting lyrics, soft but energetic instrumentals-ooh oh oh!" She pulled out a record. "This one! One of my favorites. It's called 'Theme from An Endless Romance.'"

Lapis scoffed, but gently took the record from Peridot's hand. First her devotion to Camp Pining Hearts, now this? "You're really into the schmaltzy stuff, aren't you?"

Peridot chuckled a little, blushing.

"W-why don't I-" Peridot cleared her throat and took the record back. "Why don't I get this started while you get out some of your work."

Lapis realized she was blushing too, and yanked her eyes away from Peridot's. "Right, right."

As Peridot got the record situated on the player, Lapis opened one of her notebooks and flipped to a clean page for some calculus work. Fortunately, all the problems for this class were on the professor's website, which she already had bookmarked on her tablet. She just needed Peridot to maybe explain one or two of the topics and then she could do the rest on her own.

The music started. It was lighthearted, jazzy; cheerful and simple enough. Had a bit of a sparkly holiday vibe to it. Lapis smiled a little as Peridot settled down on the couch beside her.

"So, why the sudden enthusiasm to get a tutor?" Peridot conversed.

Lapis shrugged, deciding to keep it honest. "I wanna enter an art show in a couple weeks, but I can't participate unless I'm caught up with all my other classes."

Peridot arched one eyebrow. "You're an artist?"

"Majoring in it," Lapis replied. "Why?"

"Hmph." Peridot pursed her lips and sat back against the back of the couch. "It's just not a very smart path to follow."

Lapis sat up a little, her tone rising from curious to challenging. "And why's that?"

"Well, lots of reasons," Peridot shrugged. "Little to no viable careers, even less practical function or purpose in society as a whole-"

"Art has a huge purpose in society," Lapis argued.

"Then what is it?" Peridot asked skeptically. "It doesn't provide food or energy or any sort of necessity, it doesn't make anything easier or more efficient-it's generally just a complete waste of time!"

"It's not a waste," Lapis insisted. "And it doesn't have to be 'efficient' or whatever to be important. It just helps with emotions and stuff."

Peridot stuck her lips out a little more, expression loosening as cynicism made way for interest. "How so?"

Find some meaning for yourself.

Lapis set her jaw and stuck out her chin.

"Well, say, for example, maybe you...like someone you shouldn't like," she said, before realizing her words and quickly amending, "Or you're having some other sorts of feelings like that. And it's not something you want to tell anyone about. Or it's just hard to talk about. And you don't want to just let your feelings get bottled up in silence inside you, so...you express them through art."

She was looking at the record player now, watching the vinyl spin.

"And then…when people see your art," Peridot said softly, "they can understand?"

Lapis glanced at Peridot for a split second before looking back down and fixing her hair. "Yeah. Or they can find their own emotions in it."

Now Peridot was staring at the record player. "Just like music."

Lapis smiled at her. "Yeah."

A soft, rolling chord signaled the end of the song.

"Erm, speaking of music-" Peridot shifted to face Lapis, but kept her eyes down, fidgeting with her fingers. "I, um, I realized the other day that I never really thanked you for what you did at the concert."

Lapis cocked her head to the side, surprised and a little confused by Peridot's words. The next song on the record was starting now, a quieter tune with a little more serious tone.

"Just-how you saved me," Peridot continued. "Us. It was very…. Thank you."

"You're...welcome, I guess," Lapis replied, unconsciously rubbing her wrist. "I mean, I was just going off instinct, mostly. Anyone else would've done the same."

"That doesn't change the fact that you did," Peridot countered. "You jumped right into the ocean to rescue me even though you're clearly afraid of water-"

"I'm not afraid of water, I just-don't like...being in it. Anymore."

"You still dove in to save me."

"It was nothing, honestly," Lapis maintained. She didn't want to remember it. She didn't want to think about it.

"I think it was incredibly impressive."

Lapis looked at her. Her expression was solemn, serious, but not in an unhappy way. Her eyes and mouth smiled while her brow and jaw stood firm. She really meant what she was saying.

"Thanks," Lapis said.

Peridot grinned wider.

Then she perked up, self-confident and self-assured. "And so, in a humble attempt to repay the favor, I'm going to personally make sure you pass all your classes with flying colors!"

Lapis snorted. "Okay. Here, this is some of the stuff I need to catch up with for my first thing."

"What is this, calculus? Ha! This'll be a cinch."

For the next two hours they worked hard to the sound of 'An Endless Romance', breezing surprisingly fast through each assignment. Lapis wasn't sure if the jazz was doing the trick, or if she really just needed the catalyst to stop procrastinating, or if Peridot was just an exceptional tutor.

She was leaning toward the last option. Even though pretty much every time her thoughts started to get off track, it was Peridot's fault-when she leaned too close to point at something, or when she laughed too happily at her own jokes, or when she leaned over the back of the couch to switch the record to the other side and her shirt came untucked and a little strip of stomach and hip threatened to give Lapis a heart attack.

Lapis tore her gaze away. They were just friends. This was not the kind of thing you were supposed to feel about your friends.

They were friends.

That was good enough for her.

At six thirty, Peridot checked her watch and declared that they'd have to continue studying another day. She had her own classes to work on, and she liked to stick to a regular schedule about it.

"What days are you free?" she asked.

Lapis shrugged. "All of them. I literally have nothing ever going on."

"Hm," Peridot hummed, rubbing her chin. "Well, then, I suppose I'll look through my schedule and then we can coordinate via text message."

"Cool," Lapis smiled. "Lemme help you pack up your record player-"

"Oh, no, about that." Peridot cleared her throat. "I'd like you to keep it. A gift."

"What?!" Lapis exclaimed. "Wait, you can't-you can't just give something like this away!"

"You have more use for it than I do," Peridot proclaimed. "An extra thank you for saving my life. And an apology for my disrespect of your love of art. And a simple token of our new friendship."

"I-I can't accept it." Lapis took the record off the platter and practically shoved it at Peridot. "I have my own music I can listen to. Or I can look up these songs on the internet or something."

"And completely ignore the necessity of the original atmosphere and sound quality?" Peridot gasped, and Lapis couldn't tell if she was really as aghast as she seemed or just joking. "I won't allow it."

"Okay, but I really can't take a gift like this."

Peridot huffed. "Fine. A compromise, then. I'll leave it here until your tutoring is complete and/or your art show begins. And then I'll take it back. Acceptable?"

Lapis dropped her shoulders. Man, this girl was stubborn. "Alright, acceptable. Thanks again."

"You're absolutely welcome again." Peridot smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Another problem solved by the stunning intellect of Peridot Rabara!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lapis chuckled. "Now get out of here before your study schedule's screwed up."

"Goodbye, then! Until next time!"

"See ya later."

The door shut with a clack, and Lapis was alone.

After staring at the closed door for a second, Lapis turned around and rested her arms on the back of the couch to stare at the record player. She didn't take her eyes off it as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket.

She had friends. She had a plan. She had a chance at a career. She had a chance at a future. And she had a beautifully crafted, beautifully functioning, beautifully vintage record player.

She wanted to tell someone about it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Professor V."

"Oh, hey, Lapis. What's up?"

Lapis reached forward and touched one fingertip to the needle of the record player. "I think I found the meaning of my art piece."