I wasn't stupidly brave enough to go to the source - namely Relena. Beyond the girl-on-girl rumours, there was also the risk of running into militant feminist quasi-Nazi faction that I'm sure every university has - big or small. Not that I have anything against feminism, power to you, but don't mind me if I don't want my nuts in the way of your picket signs. You have to appreciate extremists, though, because they don't turn their head enough to look back and are (hopefully) proactive in moving forward. But knowing what I could face behind those doors, there was no way I was going to get close that dorm - no way, no how. So I settled for conveniently passing the track when Heero had practice and Relena would be on the benches with Dorothy. Sometimes I'd get a "Hi!" out of it, but most of the time... not really. They'd pass magazines or textbooks back and forth, glancing up at regular intervals to see if Heero was looking up to see them. Sometimes he would look up and wave or half-smile pant between sprints.
I don't think the girls were looking for a wave from Trowa, though often he'd be the one to get Heero to look up at the right times. Between runs, he'd nod up to the girls, or tap Heero's arm with the back of his hand. I think that was Trowa's way of teasing Heero out in the open. Other times, he'd nudge Heero with his elbow to tell him the coach was watching. Though I'm sure they could've gotten away with idling for a bit - after all, it wasn't exactly a secret that Heero and Relena were engaged. But like I said before - serious types.
I tried not to hang out there too often; Hilde warned me that it might seem creepy. After all, most of my wardrobe is black and on a sunny day, I stick out like a sore thumb. Again, if she ever noticed, she never called me on it. None of them did really, even in the long run. I guess we kind of understood a lot of why we did the things we did as we got older, though I'm still ironing out the details.
But Hilde also walked with me from history class back to the dorms, conveniently passing the track on our way. Conveniently at the time of practice. Conveniently nudging me to where Relena was on the benches and Heero was on the track. Every so often, her convenience earned her a nickname, like 7-Hileven - but we didn't plug that one for too long considering the open till midnight implications.
But she understood some things that Quatre and I just couldn't see eye-to-eye on. Like how I didn't care that I didn't have a chance in hell to get with her, but that I just liked to be around her. Just to look. Looking was safe. Looking was easy. Hilde didn't seem to mind at all. Between the benches and the track, we both had our share of eye candy.
Quatre's never been a looker, er, watcher. He's not a big doer as far as the pursuit goes, either, but if he's got his mind set, it's done. If he promises he'll do something, it's done. It's the great thing about him - even though he could probably have anything he wanted, he could be set for life in his dad's company, he could buy love and loyalty... but he's pretty grounded to his loyalties. If Quatre ever had his eye on someone, it was going to happen. Regardless of how it would turn out, it was going to happen.
Sally was really Hilde's friend, but Hilde was my friend, so we did spend some time with her. She was applying to be in honours the next year and she was pre-med. Damn near impossible to get in touch with her sometimes, which frustrated Hilde. They'd been friends in high school and had the same plan of action as Quatre and me when it came to living arrangements. If you can't be together - live on the same floor and you're bound to bump into one another and stay in touch that way. The times we did hang out as a foursome, we'd have a good time. Sally and Quatre got along famously, since they both had a talent for picking on me. Most of it was tactful, so I took it all in stride. It's not like I don't know a few things about Quatre that he wouldn't want thrown back at him... so he's usually careful when it comes to pinning the tail on me.
Especially when it came to teasing me about Relena - it came to a point where I had to draw the line with him on that one. His sisters were too good at the gossip thing they did and some things about a person should be reserved for them to tell. I didn't want Quatre to tell me where and when she and Heero had sex, or where and when their parents caught them, or how she got when she got smashed that one weekend, or who she slept with before Heero... She wasn't perfect, nobody is - but nobody deserves that much bad PR on regular intervals.
She had some quirks, yeah, but most of those I would chalk up to just not getting out much. Meaning she went to Aspen for holidays, but never got off the mountain top. If you got her talking about world issues, domestic issues, or anything of that nature... her answers would sound verbatim out of a philosophy textbook. She's a trained speaker and delivers it well - so well, in fact, that you're convinced there's nothing else there but memorized data. Truth is, trained speakers learn where and when to speak; it's easier to hide one's true feelings behind cookie cutter templates.
But she wasn't quite at her peak yet. She sometimes wouldn't fall out of character - well, out of speaker. When it was just the two of us working on our project, it felt sometimes like she felt the audience was still there. I don't think she intended to seem so untouchable, or appear so artificial, but it was just a part of the delivery of most of the things she'd say.
We were going to do a presentation on Charles Dickens for our English class and the best times for both of us were when Heero had practice. Her schedule wasn't much more complicated than mine, but from what I could tell, the workload was a heck of a lot more. English isn't as easy as a lot of people write it off to be, but it is comparatively easy to other disciplines - especially if you have a talent for it. But she liked to participate in a bunch of student union things, or volunteer work. She said she tried to keep her schedule open for all opportunities. There were few times in her schedule where she could guarantee where she would be and when, except on the sidelines when Heero practiced. I didn't like it - I didn't want to watch them make eyes at each other back and forth - but it was the first opening I saw and I took it.
When we were deciding on our topic, she went into this whole explanation of the conditions of the Industrial Revolution and I nearly forgot she was in my English class, not in my History class. I didn't interrupt her or tell her that I knew most of what she was saying already because at the time I just wanted to hear her speak to me. Although, sometimes it felt more like she was speaking in my general direction. Dorothy was there once or twice, but I think sometimes it was awkward since we were supposed to be working - or because I wasn't in honours.
The first day we met up, she insisted I wave to Heero at least once. She would glance up, Trowa would cue him, Heero would look up, and she'd nudge me to wave with her. I did, awkwardly, reluctantly even. But she smiled for me, or at least at what I did, and that was enough to soften the blow. It was starting to get darker earlier those days in the fall, but I swear I caught Heero and Trowa passing a grin. It would probably look like I was another one of the helpless victims to Relena's presence. Which was true, but I didn't need two jock sprinters to make light of it. I guess they were used to that, too - and they were just playing their role.
Thankfully, Relena didn't persist too much after the initial wave. She'd told me that she'd mentioned we'd be working together. I only heard that she'd talked to Heero about me, and I don't remember feeling great – or entirely safe – about that. I could hear her say something like, "Oh he's just this freshman with absurdly long hair, nothing to be too concerned about." But I guess it was still necessary for me to wave to make sure he knew that I knew that he was there.