Jane parked her car on a designated spot for students and opened the door. While walking towards the main entrance she noticed a small group of students she knew from the test talking to some older students.
"Jane!" one of the girls waved and called her over to the group. The brunette flinched as she realized that they still knew her name while she had no clue about their names. This felt kind of awkward and she thought about just greeting them shortly and walking straight to the class. But then she couldn't resist those nice faces smiling at her and decided to give it a try.
"Hey." She greeted the round, standing a bit shyly for a while. During the following conversation which unfolded quickly around some teachers and classes, she managed to catch some names and find her place in the group.
"You don't really believe that we be allowed to the shooting rang right away, do you Amber?" A guy with red hairs, called Martin, asked with some raised eyebrows. The easy conversation continued for some more time, until somebody checked his watch. They had to hurry not to be late.
Jane quietly sat down at a desk in the last row, next to Amber. After taking out some pens and paper she glanced curiously to the woman sitting close to her. Amber was a tall and muscular woman with short auburn hair. She had a very symmetrical face – as Maura would call it – and lots of freckles were covering her cheeks and nose.
If Jane were to guess, she would say that Amber was gay too. Her theory was based on the fact that Amber like she had chosen rather the boys T-shirt and trousers. Jane quickly looked at herself. She didn't like to look like a man, but when she had tried on the women's clothes she had thought to look ridiculous. She couldn't say why exactly, and neither could Maura, but it appeared as if some gay woman might look nice in feminine clothes but if one looked at them it just didn't sit right. At the latest when they started to move.
This still didn't mean that Jane wanted to be a man and she rolled her eyes when recalling a fight about that back in school. "The humans tend to sort things and other people into some drawers." Maura had once explained to her. "Usually it works, because there are types which resemble each other. But it doesn't all the time. There are so many variations." Jane thought that it was okay, if somebody put her into the gay drawer, it was the truth after all. But she didn't like the fact that judgement usually came with the classification.
Like, you're gay, you want to be a man, you hide your breasts and put some socks into your trousers. She thought that the beauty of the whole thing was to just be who you are and no stereotype. She would never hide her breasts, nor put some socks into her trousers and she loved her long curly hair.
The teacher finally entered the room and Jane decided to focus on the small man, with a winning grin. He shot an expectant glance over the 21 pupils seated at their desks. To her surprise Jane felt like being back to high school again. Whenever she had imagined her days at the police academy, she had thought it would feel different than being a high school pupil.
The teacher introduced himself as Mr. Riley and stated that he would hold three courses with them. Jane took some notes on her word pad, knowing that it was more out of nervousness, than of fear that she wouldn't remember what he was talking about. Tis nervousness which she had already felt in school. The brunette was scared to fail, despite everybody telling her how intelligent she was and her marks proving it.
The fact that she wanted to become a detective, added to the wish to excel in this. She rolled her eye when two guys in front of her started to whisper and make jokes. It was somehow just like in high school. She resisted the urge to make a SHHH sound and tried to focus more on the words of Mr. Riley who gave them an overlook about the course.
"I read in some of your applications that some of you have also decided to try to accomplish a bachelor at university. So, some of the content of my class will cover with the things you will learn there. See it as a chance and advantage and try not to get bored." He joked.
The brunette looked around and found two other students chuckling, assuming that they had chosen the same path as she had. She wondered if she would see them again in the evening at the BCU, asking herself if she should talk to them about it during the break.
After Mr. Riley had finished his introduction, he asked everybody to stand up, one by one, to introduce themselves to the class. Jane listened for a while as she was the last. "Hi I'm Jane Rizzoli. I'm 18 years old, was born and raised in Boston and I want to become a detective to serve justice." She quickly rambled down her sentence, cursing herself at the same time for appearing insecure.
"Good" Mr. Riley nodded to her, giving her a reassuring smile. "Let me say that this is not going to be easy. So not all of you will make it. Some of you might also leave the class because they will find out that this is maybe not what they want to be after all. But as long as you keep focused and work hard you will be able to make it."
Amber chuckled and Whispered "piece of cake" towards Jane while playing with her pen. The brunette wasn't sure if the girl was flirting with her, but she had noticed that the auburn-haired girl kept glancing at her the whole time.
The rest of the day was quite uneventful. The course wasn't that bad, but Jane was still glad when she could leave the stinky classroom. When she walked out of the door, she heard a voice calling her name. It was Amber and she stopped in her tracks. "Hey." The girl grinned cheekily. "Wanna go and grab something to drink to celebrate that we survived our first day?"
"Sure, why not?" she said after some hesitation. It was a warm autumn day and she was hungry, so she suggested to walk the two blocks to Giovanni's, a pizza place with some tables in the garden. Amber agreed, praising the place. "Have you ever tried the Pizza which they call heavens delight? Its my favorite." The girl talked all the way to the place and only stopped when it was their turn to order. Jane was already feeling a headache coming up, not being used to so much talk from a stranger. A feeling of regret settled in when she took her seat in the small garden at the back of the restaurant.
This place was mainly frequented by students and pupils and there was a lot of laughter and fun.
"I'm sorry, I tend to ramble when I'm nervous." The girl with the auburn hair suddenly said.
Jane looked at her closely as she didn't had noticed that she was nervous. "Why are you nervous?" she simply asked taking a big sip of her soda.
Amber fidgeted suddenly with her hands which lay in her lap. "Because I don't want to fail the academy." Jane gave it a thought, finding the answer strange after the self-confident appearance at school. "Okay, and because I always was an outcast at high school and because I like you and I think we could be friends maybe." She added after noticing Janes doubtful look.
"Friends?" the brunette asked and wanted to kick her butt as soon as it was out, seeing how Amber kind of got tiny in front of her.
"Sorry, that came out wrong." She mumbled and tried an apologetical smile. "I was an outcast too. So, the concept of somebody stating that I could be their friend just feels strange. I'm not used to it."
Ambers blue eyes were fixed on her for a while. The girl had leant back when Jane had asked the question. Now she leant towards the table again, smiling. "Oh. I'm surprised. I thought you might be the center of each party with your looks and your charm. When we were in the group before class you appeared to be used to such things. You were so easygoing and joking."
"No, believe me. I've always been the outcast. I was surprised by myself. But I guess it's because it's a new school, with new pupils that I decided to … I don't know… I was surprised that you guys even remembered me."
A thoughtful nod reached her from the other side of the table. "We had the same attitude then."
Silence spread at the table, when the food arrived, and Jane dug in as she was already hungry. She pulled out her phone with an apologetic smile after she had cleaned her greasy fingers with a napkin. "Got to text my wife." She stated, typing a quick message that she was okay, that school had been fine and that she was sharing lunch with another student. Talk to you later. Love you – J
Her phone buzzed a second later and she took a quick look. Am busy too. Why is it that one day you have so many bodies while on others none? I must check if there is a relation to the moon cycle. Love you too, honey. Xx M. PS: don't wait up, it will probably be late today.
Jane chuckled when reading the message. This was so typical Maura. As a scientist through and through she was always collecting data and was always on the discovery on patterns. Her wife could write a book about fun facts, which she had found out by now, and it would be a bestseller. These was one of the reasons why she loved Maura so much.
"You're married?" Amber asked, studying Janes features carefully resting her eyes on the golden band.
"Yeah. I know I'm only 18. But I would say it was love at first sight."
"I think its great. I heard of it, but never experienced it by myself." Jane noted how the other girls look turned a bit sad. "I'm not even out of the closet. I keep asking myself if this is the reason why I don't have a girlfriend yet."
The brunette finished her soda giving a humming sound. "I don't know. I like to believe in the right moment. Love will come to you when the time is right."
"There is a girl I actually like…" Amber started, shocking Jane who thought that she meant her. Not that she wouldn't be flattered, but she hated the thought of having to crush her new friends' heart.
"Who?" she asked after swallowing a forming lump in her throat, trying not to show her fear.
"She lives in the same dorm as I do. Two doors down the hall actually." Amber seemed to be so deep in thought and Jane was relieved that she hadn't noticed her antics about it all.
After knowing that it wasn't her, she asked some questions to get a picture of the situation. Maybe she could help Amber to sort things out. She somehow liked the girl and wanted to help her.
The more they talked, the more comfortable they felt with each other. "I'm just joking." Jane apologized about making a remark which could also have been taking as an offence. But she couldn't help That's who she was. "I know." Amber smiled. "You do that a lot. And you have a very dark and sarcastic humor. Just like me." Amber said and brushed Janes cringes away.
It was almost four when Jane rushed into the house to shuffle the stuff for university into her bag, running out of the house again, hoping to be still on time for her first class at BCU. A warm and happy feeling lingering inside of her because of the nice afternoon she had spent with Amber. Making friends had never been easy to her, but it seemed different now.
Once at BCU she indeed found the two pupils from the academy again. They were standing in the hallway, chatting with each other. Boosted by her experience and self-confidence from the afternoon she walked over to them. The boy was called Crowe as she recalled from earlier that day and the girl Chang. They also appeared to be happy to see a familiar face and greeted her openly.
All three sat together, repeating the process of the introduction for the second time in the day. This time Jane rambled less due to the exercise from this morning.
She slumped down onto the couch upon coming home three hours later, feeling tired to death after all the new impressions. She picked up the phone when it rang, not looking at the caller ID, assuming that it was Maura. To her dismay it was Angela who called to ask how her day had been this was a nice gesture of course, but Jane felt to exhausted to answer the millions of questions thrown at her before she had even had time to process the day for herself.
The call ended with both being unnerved and Jane who felt slightly responsible for it, decided to have some coffee with her mother the next day, to give her some information.
She awoke to a soft touch on her shoulder much later that night. Maura kissing her cheek gently. "Hey." the blonde whispered with a soft smile, when Jane managed to open one eye.
"Hey." She greeted Maura with her husky, sleepy voice. She fought to get into an upright position and took her wife's hand as they walked upstairs to go to bed.