Chapter Two
It was club sign up day, and stands filled the quad, one for every preference and hobby that could be thought of. It was chaotic and messy, and Peridot made a beeline for the robotics club, where a bunch of bespectacled youths were flying a small drone over the grass, making it disperse flyers into the air. She made introductions easily, bemoaning the price of new robot parts and laughing at humorous programming mistakes. Her name joined the club's roster, and she hung around to talk to a junior called Pearl, who was working a project similar to the one Peridot was tinkering with. She became quite involved in her explanation of the problem, gesticulating passionately with both hands and waving her arms about in exasperation, which is why she didn't notice the looming figure behind her.
"What's up, sluts."
Peridot yelped and jumped away from the booming voice, turning to see Jasper in her usual confident stance.
"Are you here to sign up for our club?" Pearls voice was surprising cold, and Peridot turned to her. The girl's face was pinched and her lips tight and pursed.
"Yeah, why not." Jasper returned breezily, grabbing the signup paper from some other kid and scribbling something that loosely resembled letters. She cuffed Peridot on the shoulder, and winked, leaving with, "You should sign up for one of my clubs, string bean."
Peridot could only stare in amazement as Jasper sashayed away, jaw agape. Pearl however, was far from impressed.
"What the hell is her problem!" she almost yelled, jerking Peridot out of her reverie.
"What, she just signed up for the club." Peridot had just met Pearl, and didn't want to jeopardize a friendship, but still something in her wanted to defend Jasper. Pearl tsked condescendingly, placing the sign up sheet back into the hands of the shaken freshman.
"Look at this!" she exclaimed, pointing to Jasper's signature. Right underneath, in exactly the same writing, someone had written Your Mum, with an email of 69ingwithjasper . Peridot let out a snort, though Pearl was too absorbed with scribbling it out to notice.
"Just like her brothers." She muttered, distain colouring her voice.
"Why, what were her brothers like?" Peridot was intrigued to learn more about her mysterious roommate.
"They were expelled for… harassing girls on campus." Pearl spat out, the disgust evident in her face.
"Oh." Peridot managed. She supposed Pearl had first hand experience of what Jasper's brothers were like.
"What the hell was she even doing here?" Pearl was growing more and more distressed by the second, her voice growing higher and higher every second.
"Hey, hey! She probably just wanted to sign up, Pearl. No biggie." Peridot placed a hand on the girl's quivering back.
"No way! She was here for me. Just to rile me up! Why else would she come here?" Peridot rubbed the back of her head, looking sheepish.
"Well, she is my room mate, so…"
Pearl turned and looked at her owlishly. Pity was written all over her face.
"Oh Peridot… I'm sorry."
"She's not that bad." Once again, Peridot was unwillingly drawn to Jasper's defense.
"How well do you know her?"
She paused. Over the two days that they had bunked, Peridot had hardly seen the larger girl, just heard someone enter and slam themselves on her bed sometime after midnight. She seemed to function on only a couple hours of sleep, waking up at five every morning and returning covered in sweat, heading straight to the showers, so that by the time Peridot had woken up properly, the room was empty.
"Not very well." She admitted, much to Pearl's relief.
"You'd know her if you'd lived around here like I do. She comes from a… bad family."
Peridot raised an eyebrow at the archaic term.
"Just cause her brothers are awful doesn't say anything about her, Pearl."
"No!" Pearl seemed exasperated at her inability to delicately express her meaning.
"I mean her family has…" she paused, pulling Peridot into a conspiratorial whisper and continued, "criminal connections."
"She's in the mafia!?" Peridot screeched, Pearl covering her hand with her mouth.
"Well not exactly but I bet she has," Pearl wiggled her eyebrows dramatically, "connections."
"You're pulling my leg. Her dad's the sweetest little man I've ever seen."
"That's just what he wants you to think." She muttered darkly, making Peridot giggle.
"It's no laughing matter, Peridot," the girl reprimanded, "Seriously, be careful around her."
"Don't worry Pearl," Peridot joked, "I could just take her out if she causes any trouble." She flexed ineffectually. Pearl harrumphed, though a smile twitched at the edges of her mouth. Feeling as though she had assuaged Pearl's anxiety, Peridot's focus turned to Jasper's offer.
"Hey, I've got to go," she said, earning a few waves and nods from the group as she strolled around. It was hardly difficult to spot the moving mass of white hair that operated a full foot above anyone else. Jasper was standing next to the wrestling club stand, almost at the other end of the quad.
"HEY YOU!" she yelled at a timid looking young man, "GET BUFF YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF MEAT! JOIN THIS CLUB!"
The boy ran away.
"God damn it…" the rest of her complaint was swallowed as she saw Peridot meandering towards her.
"Peridot!" she exclaimed happily, pulling the smaller girl into a hug before easily draping her arm over Peridot's shoulder. The girl blanched at this sudden physical contact, going stiff as a board while the romantic and fear parts of her brain screamed at each other.
"Came here to get swole." She said weakly, the joke feeble while she recovered, but it still earned a booming laugh from Jasper.
"Well, you came to the right place, darling." She grinned, her happiness turned predatory by the unnaturally sharp canines. Peridot couldn't help but be infused with a little bit of that enthusiasm, a smile forming on her lips without her permission. Peridot allowed herself to be coerced onto the wresting team, never actually intending to turn up to any meetings, and then into the recruitment committee. After a couple of hours of shouting ineffectually at strangers, Jasper started to lead Peridot around, showing her the other members. It seemed as though Jaspers already knew most of them from before university, as most of the students lived in the neighborhood. Most of the other members Peridot had trouble talking to further than basic introductions and an awkward hello, much to Jasper's exasperation, but there was one wrestler that she really got a kick out of talking to.
"Hey Rubes, this is my roommate, Peridot." Jasper introduced her to a dark, brooding girl crouched by the sidewalk. She plopped herself down on the grass next to her and Peridot settled herself in, much more carefully. Jasper had introduced her like that every time, and though Peridot knew it was stupid, she was very secretly enjoying the sense of ownership that came with the term my roommate.
"Why the hell do you think you can just bother me while I'm thinking?" bristled the older girl, and for a moment there was a dead silence, before both Ruby and Jasper burst out laughing, their chortles loosening the panic that had set itself in Peridot's face.
"You should have seen your friend's face." Ruby choked out, clenching her gut as she let out another guffaw. Peridot's face turned petulant as she realized the joke made at her expense.
"Yeah, she's cute." Jasper made the comment casually, but it still coloured Peridot's face in a alarming red, which only made Ruby laugh harder. The girl winked at Peridot while Jasper wasn't looking, gesturing towards the muscled girl and wiggling her eyebrows. Peridot stared blankly back at her, before nodding unsurely, not quite certain of what the girl meant.
"Hey Jasp, you should bring Peridot for a drink down at the student's union bar," she suggested.
"Uh, I'm not sure, we can get kinda rowdy." Jasper shot a concerned look at Peridot. "You up for it?"
Peridot gulped. She was getting in too deep, too fast. Jasper was going to try to befriend her, and she was going to slip up and accidentally tell her she was hot, or try and kiss her, or something.
"Yeah, sure." She replied, the answer already spreading a toothy grin on Jasper's face.