Café Talk

At Raft University there was a small, pretentious café just off campus called the Café de Paris, and while most of the French on the menus was misspelled, for those in the know it was a place to get a cup of great coffee and really good cake.

On a sunny morning the day in the year 2001 before classes were to officially start, three girls at one of the outdoor tables had just gotten their usual orders in and were taking in the scenery.

"I propose a toast," Jane said, smiling her bright red lips while holding her coffee cup aloft, "To our sophomore years at Raft and BFAC, may it be even better than last year."

"It has to be," Hannah replied, clanking her coffee cup to Daria and Jane's, "Now that the growing pains are over, we should be ruling the campuses with an iron fist."

Daria just shook her head, "I'd just settle for having Lurhman here now rather than tomorrow."

Jane laughed, "Oh Daria, behind the iron exterior is a sappy romantic just begging to come out."

Hannah snorted, "I haven't known Daria as long as you Ms. Lane, but I can assure you that sappy isn't a word to describe her."

The girls shared a small chuckle, giving Daria a chance to glance at the sidewalks and the street in front of the café, even in the morning it was already picking up steam as the student body of Raft U returned for another semester.

She took a sip of coffee before nibbling on her slice of cake and just listened to Jane and Hanna's banter.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you as much as I wanted during the summer," Hannah said once more, "But the internship..."

"We know it ate up your time," Jane answered with no small amount of exasperation, "And with you in New York and us going back to Lawndale for the summer..."

"Yeah." Hannah said sadly, brushing her blond bangs away from her eyes.

"Then again who wouldn't want unpaid work experience at the Twin Towers?" Daria snarked.

Hannah snorted and rolled her eyes, "Well you know how parents can get."

"Yeah, we do." Daria replied with a knowing smile, since all three of them knew that Jane's parents would have given a speech about butterflies by now.

"So what did happen in your little suburb?" Hannah asked before taking a gulp of coffee.

Jane smirked, "Well not much, Daria's sister Quinn graduated this year and she's headed off to Crestmore this year so we'll be seeing her on some of the weekends at least."

Daria just shook her head, "I'm still amazed that she pulled it off."

"Daria, you know that there's different standards for cute people who pull up their grades and can wow you in an interview." Jane teased her without mercy.

Daria grumbled at that, it still kind of irked her that Quinn had managed to win that round of their game of one upsman ship.

"Glad I'm an only child then," Hannah noted once more, "Anything else happen?"

Jane just shrugged, "Some things, but its about people you don't know."

Hannah just nodded, "But what about that idiot you told me about?"

"Which one?" Jane and Daria said in unison before finishing their coffee.

"The one that didn't graduate on time..." Hannah answered with an amused eye on them both, "I think his name started with a 'K' right?"

"Kevin." Daria answered, "And yes he managed it... and I pity his tutor."

Jane laughed, "Yeah but it did convince Mr. D that leaving teaching for work as a postal carrier would be less stress."

"And sadly paid more too." Daria added.

"I still can't believe that your old principal is still getting away with all that crap." Hannah said, guessing that the Li woman they had talked about was still in charge.

Jane and Daria both shrugged, they were convinced that eventually Li would screw up so badly that some higher-up would have to get rid of her, and then replace her with another petty, corrupt bureaucrat.

"But what about your graduating class?" Jane asked of the friend they had made during their first year in Boston.

Hannah shrugged, "I went too high school in New York, I didn't know two thirds of the people there and except for three or four people I didn't really get in touch with the old crowd.

"Same here," Daria conceded, "We bumped into a few people but really only stayed in touch with a couple of them."

"And that reminds me," Jane interjected, "Jodie's transferring to Crestmore this year as well."

"So we'll be seeing a bit of her in Boston then," Daria noted, "But why did she transfer?"

"She said the atmosphere at Turner wasn't what she expected." Jane replied.

Hannah quirked an eyebrow at that, "It's a black college and I'm assuming she's black, so what was she expecting?"

"Shangri-La? Who knows." Daria said with a shrug before finishing her cake.

Hannah polished off her confection as well, taking in a quiet pause and enjoying the company and the scenery.

Everything in life was going great, she had adjusted to life in Boston during her Freshman year, she was diving head first into her new engineering major rather than the business degree as originally planned.

"Hell, even Dad got that promotion that he's been after for awhile," Hannah thought to herself, "This year's going to be great. I just know it."

And with one last sunny day to enjoy before classes got started there was not even a hint of a cloud on the horizon.