Some AU at a uni because I was bored

"Stressed?"

Sitting alone at a table in the campus gardens, a few chapters deep into a book, Steff looked up at the person who had spoken, giving a slight smile in a friendly fashion. She had never known Percy all too well, but he had always been kind to her and she found no reason to shrug him off, so she bookmarked her page and set down her book. "A little."

"I heard your class is working on a new project for the final grade section," Percy said, fixing his scarf with the hand that wasn't holding a textbook. "I was thinking of taking documentary journalism next year as a fun class if I don't study abroad. I tend to be a little bit disorganized at times, though, so I'm trying to at least set my schedule straight for next year."

"You should take it," Steff encouraged, "Although...I might be a bit biased. I enjoy writing and film. You're a-" she squinted to read the words on the textbook in his hand, "-Science major. Well, you could do a documentary on something-"

"-Sciency? Yeah, I guess I could. I know you're taking that botany class, though, so you can't be too unfamiliar with some environmental science courses and whatnot."

"Ah, that's just for fun...I'm really mainly focusing on my writing classes."

"Oh?" He raised his eyebrows in interest. "What's your topic for your documentary?"

Flustered slightly, Steff glanced away. "It's-...It'll sound funny if I say it, but it's about experiencing and seeing different types of abuse as a child and how it affects you as you get older. I'm still looking for people to interview for personal experience sections and then-"

"Some specialists and then filler and anecdotes?" Percy guessed, considering her topic thoughtfully. "It's an interesting topic."

"You think so?"

"If you need someone to interview, I can free up some of my time."

Raising a hand to shield her from the sun, Steff watched him hesitantly. "Really-? Are you sure? A lot of people don't want to do it because it can get kind of personal..."

Percy brushed off her concern. "Don't worry about it. I'd like to help."

"Aspen-...What-..?" Finn rubbed his eyes tiredly, gazing from the door of the bathroom. "What are you doing at this ungodly hour? Not another one of your escapades trying to drown the fish again, I hope. Shia LaBetta wasn't too happy about that."

Aspen mumbled to answer, kneeling in front of the toilet, his elbows perched on the seat. A bit of saliva rolled from his lip and he spat, grabbing a tissue to wipe his mouth. Black hair was plastered to his forehead from sweat and a red mark- lipstick or a scratch, perhaps- was bright on his cheek. His jacket had slipped partially from his shoulders and Finn walked in to pull it off him gently, sighing. He had never known how to deal with such things, besides watch, and he frowned.

"Did you throw up?"

"Mm-.." Slowly, Aspen shook his head, his lips parted in nausea. "I just feel like shit. Which is funny because I never feel awful."

"You're always out doing scandalous things and you never invite me. I could always be your helper. You know, follow you around so you don't drink too much." Finn flung Aspen's jacket onto his bed, drawing his mouth to the side. He straightened his own shirt, which was a bit rumpled from his sleep, but Aspen had once told him it looked adorably messy so he didn't mind it. "You get lucky? You know, you score any girls? Or guys, for that matter?"

"Ah-...Well, your brother-"

"That's not funny, Aspen. I will personally get a hitman to...kill you or something if you joke about that again," Finn remarked, pausing as if to think of another threat. "Or I'll let our glorious roommate know that you've been making trouble and he'll certainly tell the RA on you."

Sitting back against the wall, Aspen made a face. "Sol would never do that. Not while it's my turn to pay the dorm rent."

"Well, then after."

"Why are you bullying me? Me, the sickly roommate that can't remember a thing from this night?" He paused in another fit of queasiness, a headache rising like a nail drilling at his temples. "I couldn't even find my shirt. I think I took this from Zander's closet or something."

"Who?"

"No one. Just some pup. A jail-bait chicken or something."

"A what?"

"God damn it, Finn. If you don't know what something means, just look at a dictionary." Rolling his eyes, Aspen pushed himself to his feet unsteadily. "You can go back to bed, you know."

"I know." It was never like Finn to be so deprived of energy that he immediately started into their bedroom to slip into his bed, no longer completely surprised by Aspen's night adventures. He rolled over, knowing that at that rate, he'd never get to sleep. Not when it was almost four hours till his work shift at the fitness center where he'd open up the gym in the morning- who the hell would even go to the gym that early in the morning? God, if he only knew...His phone lit up with a few emails and he pulled the covers over his head, planning on savouring the remainder of time he had to sleep and sleep and sleep and-...God damn it.

He sat up groggily. "Oh, Aspen. By the way. There's this Stephanie girl or whatever that stopped by. Asked if she could do an interview for her...documentary journalism class."

Aspen called back something muffled and Finn rolled his eyes, falling back down on the sheets.

"Her number is on the bathroom counter. And no, don't get too excited. She's blonde."

Tapping her lip with her pen, Rose watched the professor talk on about something to do with plants and chemical composition in terms that flew over her head. She had signed up for a botany class thinking she'd be able to put her green thumb to use, but found it more or less lackluster.

She reached into her satchel to pull out a compact, flipping it open to gaze at herself for a minute. Frowning at a red mark on her cheek, she reached for a pad to press powder over it. The teacher mentioned something about a project and she slipped the compact away to jot down some notes. Her eyes wandered over to catch Steff's gaze and smiled over at her.

She twisted a curl of hair around her finger at the idea of a project, knowing they usually had some grand thing to do for the rest of the semester to show what they had learned through the year. Although she found it difficult to pay attention, she was sure that she'd be able to wing it, especially with Steff in her group. Sometimes Steff seemed so smart and she had such a good memory, Rose didn't understand how she wasn't in a more advanced program.

"Hmm," Steff started once the lecture was over, leaning against where Rose sat. "I was thinking about the analysis of petrified forests. I always thought they were neat, like they were stuck in time."

Rose pursed her lips at the idea, standing up and smoothing her skirt. "Well, we can do anything as long as it involves chemical processes, so why not focus on goldenseal?"

"Does petrified forests sound too boring?" Steff replied anxiously, starting out behind Rose. "Photoperiodism in different plants maybe?"

"Oh, now that does sound interesting." Swiping a bit of gloss across her lips, Rose pocketed it and pondered over the idea. "We can included irises as long-day plants, poinsettias as short-day, and...dandelions for day-neutral flowers. Wouldn't that be just splendid? I have some of the seeds at my dorm. We can compare averages with current to support claims."

"Seems like you've already planned it out," Steff laughed slightly, adjusting the bag on her shoulder as she walked down the hall to where it opened to the campus. "I'll do the write up then? And chart things...Just make sure you keep controls and variables in check."

"Oh, I will. It'll be a success. Trust me."

"I'm sure it will b-"

"I'll get started right away! My next class is in-" Rose pulled out her phone to check the time, "-Two hours so I'll have enough time to think over it more."

"Sounds good," Steff replied with a smile, starting off to a different building.

"You don't mind if I film it, do you?" Steff asked nervously, tapping her pen against her pad out of habit. She glanced over at the tripod and then back to Aspen expectantly.

"Not at all," he answered and smiled. "I've been told I look good in front of a camera."

When she couldn't think of a suitable response, she reached over to turn the camera on. Sitting back in her chair, she scribbled down a few notes on her paper, not wanting to miss anything. If there was anything she hated, it was being disorganized and it comforted her to know that at least one thing was in order. Looking up at him, she cleared her throat, feeling as if she were impeding on his privacy even though he had agreed to be recorded.

"Can you introduce yourself? Just name and what you're here for?" she started, crossing her legs.

Aspen smiled, his eyes sparkling. "Right. I'm Aspen. And this is my third year at this school," he said, tucking a bit of hair behind his ear. "And I'm majoring in gender studies."

"Good. And you know why you're being interviewed?"

"Uh, you said it was an interview for a documentary you're making on abuse. So I assume you'll be asking for my opinion."

"More specifically, I wanted to talk about how childhood abuse affects people in adulthood, so I wanted to be able to talk about yourself for a bit," Steff said, writing down a few questions when Aspen was silent. She flipped to the next page before setting the pen against her lip lightly as she thought. "It might be a bit...personal at points so if you want to pause the session at any point feel free to say so." Calming her nerves, she lifted her eyes to watch him. "There were rumours around campus that you had been...sexually abused repeatedly as a child by your legal guardian. Did you want to talk about that?"

For a moment, Aspen narrowed his eyes, leaning back. "What? You mean like raped?"

"Yeah," Steff swallowed. "That's what I meant."

"No. I wasn't- not really. Statutory maybe, but I never made an effort to stop it."

Shifting in her seat uncomfortably, she nodded a few times, trying to keep her collectedness. "Well, did you ever feel like it was done against your will? How did that affect you growing up?"

"I didn't want it. But it's not like I said no." He looked over at the side, studying the wall like he didn't know what to say before finally looking back at the camera. His mood had changed considerably and the air was thick with silence between his sentences. "When that kind of thing happens, you kind of get used to being used, right? It's like people do what they want and you just follow orders, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah..." Steff drew in a sharp breath. "I know what you mean. How has this affected how you live today? Does this affect-" she stared at her questions, "-Your, um...friendships or relationships?"

"I can't hold steady relationships. It's just not something...I'm capable of. Of course, when everyone adores me, it doesn't really matter," he said with a hint of humour before sobering. "I hate not being in control of myself. I could never belong to anyone and people, frankly, bore me. I've done all the-..." He paused, glancing over at her. "How graphic am I allowed to be?"

She tried to not flush in embarrassment. "Just not too...crude."

"Well, I've been coaxed into having sex ever since I was...what? Eleven? Twelve? So now that I'm older, it turned more into something that I need...for validation, rather than for the actual thing itself. I've always known that. I just don't say it. It doesn't sound good to say out loud. But if you're trying to figure out if I'm scarred for life or something, my answer is no. I'm not."

"Alright," she nodded, blinking a few times. "Um, I just have one last question. Would you ever go to court against the person-"

"People," he corrected, leaning forward in his seat.

She cleared her throat. "Against the...people that committed...what was it that you said? Um..." She flipped through her notes. "Statutory rape?"

"I won't go to court against anyone ever. I don't need help," he said and, as if having a startling thought, stood up. "Actually, I'd like to have the visuals blurred and my name edited out-"

"You want to be anonymous-?"

"...That's what I mean," he said and gathered his things to leave, starting out with the camera still rolling.

Flipping through some mail for the dorm room, Finn rolled his eyes at the junk letters, tearing up a strip and dropping it into his fish's tank. Dumbly, the betta started to treat it like food, swimming up to it and attempting to eat it with no avail.

"Stupid fish. That's why your name is Shia LaBetta," Finn scolded, reaching in and pulling out the slimy strip of the letter. He grimaced and tossed it into the trash can, sifting through the rest of the mail. Coming across a strange letter, he flipped to the back, his curiosity burning even more when it wasn't addressed to him.

God, why were his roommates always getting interesting mail when all he got were dumb catelogues for 'spiritual warehouses' that advertised 'potato sack racing equipment- jump now for Jesus!' He swore he had emailed them at least four times for them to stop sending him buyer lists but they either never received them or deleted them upon arrival.

"Aspen!" He called out, annoyed when he got no response. "There's a letter for you. It's from a doctor. Are you dying?" Finn held it up to the light. "You better not be. Remember, rent is still on you."

"Okay, recording in three, two, one," Steff nodded and sat down when the light of the camera flashed on. "Alright, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

Percy considered the question for a moment. "Well, I'm Percy. A lot of people right off the bat always say 'Oh, like Percy Jackson, right?' but I've never been too fond of those books. I'd say more like a really humble Ender Wiggins with a better sense of humour-...Sorry, I'm going off topic, aren't I? Anyway, I'm studying biotech and chemical manufacturing and it's the beginning of my fourth year here."

She stifled a little bit of a laugh at his tangent- she had read both of those books- before forcing herself to grow a little more serious. "You know why you're in here, which is to talk about experiencing or seeing different types of abuse as a child. What...can you say on the matters in terms of yourself?"

"Ah, well my dad was..." He sighed for a moment before restarting. "He was a drug abuser and an alcoholic, so I was around a lot of that when I was a kid," he explained, loosening his scarf slightly as he spoke. "Took diamorphine, which is a high class opiate, and I used to find hypodermic needles around the house and I think he went to the ER a few times for thrombosis. And-...Sorry, diamorphine is heroin. I should have clarified that."

Steff offered a smile of encouragement. Somehow, it felt completely different than the other interview and she was glad of that.

"How did this drug and alcohol abuse affect your family?" she inquired, setting her pen and pad aside.

"He hit my mom a few times when I was ten or so," Percy recalled, frowning a little in recollection. "But they're divorced now. I lived with my mom before I came here, so it was good to get away from my dad."

"Are you interested in rekindling a relationship?"

"No, I really have no interest in anything of the sort. He was kind of a demon, really. I'm glad I'm not around that anymore."

"I see." She looked over at her camera, tilting back in her chair to check the battery. "And how has that experience of abuse affected how you view things today?"

"Well, I'm actually kind of a nerd," he said with a bit of a funny grin, "So I'm more interested in learning how the chemicals in drugs affect our nervous system. Knowing that people are so heavily influenced by pharmaceuticals, I'd like to maybe even come up with a cure for addiction and the drive that encourages people to abuse drugs and abuse others."

"So although it was a negative experience in your life, do you believe that it has helped shape your passions today?"

"Of course. See, when someone abuses someone or something, it's almost entirely scientific. Some people are hardwired to be more susceptible to becoming abusers than others. That doesn't make it right, by any means, but it offers some insight into what we, as scientists, have to look for," he stated, a hint of passion crossing over his expression. "Being angry at him won't do me any good. I can just hope to change it for other people so they don't have to experience the same thing."

"I see what you mean. Well, thank you for sharing your experiences and I hope you'll be able to find a breakthrough sometime," she said before clicking the camera off and pulling it from the tripod. She looked back at him. "Thanks, again. I appreciate you helping out."

Percy shook his head. "No need to thank me. Helping out; it's just what I do."

"That letter is mine," Aspen snapped, coming up from behind Finn to snatch the mail from his hand. "Don't even think about opening it."

"Geez, good God, who's in a bad mood?" Finn complained, staring at Aspen, who walked over to his bed to fall back on it. "You aren't...sick, though, are you?"

There was a long pause and Aspen tore open the letter carefully, his eyes skimming the words. Unfolding another paper, he traced his finger down the list of names and numbers before sighing loudly and closing his eyes.

"No," he answered finally. "I'm not sick."

Puzzled, Finn walked over to try and catch a glimpse of the letter, his curiosity burning. "Well? What is that then?"

"That...night when I got sick, I think someone spiked my drink because I only had one glass and that's below my tolerance," Aspen said, rolling onto his side to look at him although he slipped the letter under his pillow. "I know I slept with a few people or at least with someone but I can't remember any precautions and I had been feeling under the weather after-...I really thought I screwed up or something."

"So you got tested?"

"Yeah. I'm HIV negative. And everything else negative too."

Finn tilted his head to the side with a smile. "Even the pregnancy test?"

"Screw off, Finn," Aspen muttered, flinging a pillow in his general direction. Then, after a moment, he laughed slightly. "You're an idiot."

"I know." Sitting down on his own bed, Finn pulled at the loose strands of his comforter. "It's good you're not contaminated, though. That would have put a damper on everyone's life."

Dragging a few videos into the rendering screen, Steff put one of her headphones in to listen to how the videos were strung together. She had never been too tech savvy, especially with so many confusing programs to sift through, so she was glad when Rose offered to help. Rose had explained eagerly how she had pieced her high school senior class graduation video together, so if anyone was qualified to help piece together a documentary, Steff assumed it was her. Besides, she had more experience with working with videotaping and uploading and splicing and Steff was grateful for her help.

Sitting by the window, Rose gazed outside with a smile, her eyes tracing the streets. "You're so lucky to live on a second story dorm," she sighed, "Mine is right next to the parking complex."

"It's much harder when I have to move, though," Steff replied, biting her lip when she tried to transition two videos, unsure of what order to put them. "Rose-...How do you fit these together? It won't let me."

Walking over, Rose peered over her shoulder. "Oh," she giggled, pointing at a setting. "You have to turn this track editing capabilities on. Do you have an intro and outro? Those are important."

"Ah, I've been thinking of the videos you sent me," Steff responded, gesturing to the files on the open tab. "And I think I'll use the video of the center for the intro with a...quote or something, and then the outro will be muted outtakes with credits over them and...acoustic?"

"Oh, that sounds so artsy." Pulling at a blonde curl, Rose grinned, reaching to unplug Steff's headphones from the laptop. "There. Now we can both hear what you're working on."

"I...Are you sure you don't want to work on the other project? I don't want to distract you..."

"I can't make flowers grow any faster, silly. I like helping. Besides, I know it's a personal documentary for you! I'm really excited to see how it turns out."

"Yeah...I hope it turns out alright." Feeling slightly more anxious to finish, she cut the interviews, blurring on of them and fitting them in where they matched her points, careful to be precise lest she have to re-render the entire film. From behind her, Rose conducted her on what to do and how to go about making it flow. Steff tried to keep up, but found that putting videos in order and placing in soundtracks was far more obscure than flipping through the pages of a book.

"I know you like books and quotes and silly things like that," Rose started, drawing her mouth to the side as she pondered aloud, "But people forget those things quickly. Instead, you should start with something more...abstract. Something pretty sounding and...unique and...exotic."

Thinking for a moment, Steff reached over her desk to grab a note she had written with a saying she had rather liked, thinking it fitting for the intro of her project. Slowly, she typed it out, carefully selecting the font so it was not too gaudy, but pretty nonetheless.

"I think I'll use this," she said with a half smile. "De dolorem ipsum, ad sumus ad meliora."

From the pain, here we are to something better.