I did some counting and am happy with the final chapter for the year, but of course, I'll be continuing after.
Year Two: The Pym Diaries
Edison Residence - 4:02 AM
James knew that one day of going to class wouldn't be a regular thing. Denial hit him while he was asleep because he dreamt of Angela walking the streets of New York. She was passing by some designer shops, looking at storefront windows and judging the outfits on mannequins. Then, she stopped to look at her reflection. She walked closer to the glass but then the mirrored image became James' first-ever true love: Carrie Bradshaw.
James's dream ended when he woke up in a cold sweat. He sat up in his bed, peeking over the edge. Thank god, Daniel's still asleep down there. James grabs his charging phone hidden between his bed frame and the wall, and sees some unread messages from his parents. Now's a good time to get to those. It's not like he's busy.
Group Chat - The Pym Diaries
Members - Hank, James, and Janet
James: This is it. I can no longer watch this show. Carrie looks too much like Angela and now it's keeping me up at night.
To James's surprise, his parents were still awake. He thought they would've been asleep but they're both typing. Even if he texted them at a reasonable hour, they wouldn't have responded this quick. Not even his mother. It must be because this message of him not wanting to watch his favourite show is alarming. This is the moment where his parents are actually responding to their child's crisis and he loves them for it.
Hank: Are you drunk?
James always knew his dad cared for him.
Janet: But Carrie looking like Angela was why you rewatched it another seven times once you started dating.
Janet: Seven times that I know of.
Hank: I counted nine.
James hates it when his mother has a point, which happens more often than he'd like to admit. Just for the record, it was eleven times.
James puts his phone down and leaps out of his bunk. He pauses, making sure Daniel doesn't wake up. He should've flown. When there's no response, he leaves the dorm to grab a bite to eat.
-o-
Milan, Italy - 12:52 PM
Emily takes a break from eating her lunch. From an outdoor table in the restaurant, she swipes through the missed calls and messages from Daniel. It hurts her inside when she does that, especially since she knows he's doing the same thing. Maybe he's doing it in the middle of a class. Emily makes a mental reminder to call him later but she doesn't need a math equation to figure out how that will end. At least those numbers will give her an answer.
Emily sighs, putting her phone back in her purse as she sits back up. Across from her is Iqadi who has taken a break from her meal to finish Emily's homework. It's not like Emily asked her to do it but Iqadi wanted to see what it was like.
They both have their own relationship issues and needed someone to vent to, so why not each other?
"If I call Daniel back after this, he'll be in a lab with his crazy professor…" Emily hesitates for a minute. "I'll just text him to call me but then he'd call when I'm with one of my crazy professors."
"Being in love and apart is hard, isn't it?" Iqadi asks rhetorically, looking up from Emily's laptop for a second. She closes it and puts it to the side.
"You and Imanu are together all the time," Emily says. She already knows the rundown on Iqadi and Imanu's disagreement. "Maybe he said to stop the whole battle for the throne ritual because he doesn't want you to fight. He doesn't like fighting in general, doesn't he? I mean, you said your mother hates watching your father fight in that setting."
"She doesn't hate it…" Iqadi says. "She strongly dislikes it."
"Same thing." Emily crosses her legs.
"It's tradition."
Emily points her fork at Iqadi. "You have to produce an heir and Imanu wouldn't want you to fight while pregnant."
Iqadi is silent, taken aback. She's stunned and Emily can see the apples of Iqadi's cheeks reddening. Emily smiles, having trapped the princess as she takes another bite of her ravioli. She knows that Iqadi is strict about protocol, always thinking ahead of the game, but she isn't sure if having a child really crossed her mind other than a future situation.
Iqadi clears her throat before taking a sip of her lemon water. "Imanu is not thinking about that."
"How do you know? Have you asked?"
"No."
"Then how would you know? We're talking about a man who is learning everything that comes with being a prince consort. You said yourself that it's basically a modified version of your upbringing. I can bet that one of his lessons is that he has to produce an heir which, obviously, requires you but you know what I mean. And didn't those Wakandan officials give your mother so much crap for corrupting the bloodline with her mutant genes."
Iqadi looks down at her plate for a moment. She was so caught up in her tradition that she forgot she had to produce an heir. In her defence, though, it wasn't on her mind because she and Imanu haven't even had that talk. "You have a point but -"
"Cheers to that!" Emily laughs, holding up her glass.
-o-
Atlantic Residence - 11:24 AM
Merida knocks on her RA's, Raquelle's, door. She takes a step back as she waits for a response. Moments later, Raquelle opens the door and is glad to see Merida. She holds out her hands and Merida gives her a spiral notebook opened up to the last page. A double-spaced Russian text with some notes in green pen along the margins and the blank lines between the black text.
"Just some grammar and syntax suggestions," Merida says.
"Thanks," Raquelle says, "or should I say, c пасибо."
Merida nods. "Your Russian is getting better. Why did you choose it as an elective?"
Raquelle shrugs as she gestures for Merida to come in. "I needed another half-credit of a language credit. I took Japanese last term and hated it so I decided to go easier. I already speak Ukrainian and Russian is a close language since they both have Slavic roots."
"Good point."
"And, besides, I need at least an 85 in the course in order to still be able to go on my semester abroad."
"You'll be fine," Merida says. She looks around Raquelle's dorm which was bigger and a single since she was the RA. She was already starting to organize which items she wants to give away before she goes to finish her year, somewhere in Europe. Merida doesn't remember exactly where but anywhere else is better than New Jersey.
"I owe you, Barton."
Merida shakes her head just to be modest. "No, you don't."
"No, Merida, I insist. I have to pack by exam season and be out by my last exam so my replacement can move in. When I go through all my things and decide what to leave up for grabs, you'll be the first person I think of."
Merida nods. Can't argue with that. Besides, she heard that RAs are the ones who, ironically but expected the more she thinks about it, will have prohibited items hidden around since they're the ones doing most of the inspections. And if an agent was running the checks, what are the chances they'd look at an RA's dorm?
-o-
Edison Residence - 22:05 PM
Daniel walks into his dorm and the first thing he sees is James sitting crossed-legged on his bunk. He's wrapped in a blanket cocoon with only his face and the collar of his pyjamas peeking through. In front of him was his laptop and he's so fixated on the screen without his AirPods that he doesn't notice Daniel. Even when Daniel drops his bag by his closet and closes the door (a little more forceful than usual, nothing). Daniel walks closer to the bunk, looking up at James. He hears the show he's watching and can already pinpoint it. Daniel groans before walking away because he's heard enough crap about Sex and the City to last him a lifetime.
"What happened to you?" Daniel asks once he hears the end credits. It looks like James has been in that spot all day.
"Carrie broke up with Sebastian after they had a fight at this elite party," James explains. So he was watching the spin-off, The Carrie Diaries. Close enough. "Carrie was excited to have a chance to be in a magazine because it can be good for her career but Sebastian was disappointed that Carrie didn't see the party as their night. Their night! So she dumped him. That's right. She dumped him. As it should've been. But to add salt to the wound, Carrie didn't tell Sebastian that she loved him back when he first said it because that wasn't how she pictured the whole moment to go and she wanted it to be perfect. You see, Daniel, she overthought everything and then dumped him! He just loves her and she dumped him! What a - I can't say it because it's rude."
Daniel isn't entirely sure what happens and James doesn't notice the hypocrisy in his words. Daniel's not surprised James went on a binge but she seems super passionate over a scene he's seen a million times. He doesn't bother asking James what he's been up to since the answer is clearly in front of him. Forget their next lab report, James will write Carrie Bradshaw's biography, if given the chance. When James closes his laptop and just lies in his bed, he immediately goes to sleep. Like his head hit the pillow and he went back to dreaming. Daniel isn't sure how James just passed out like that but he'll just leave him. It's an admiral skill, he has to admit. He'll ask James about it sometime. He's clearly going through something with Carrie Bradshaw and doesn't want to talk about it.
"Spoilers…" Daniel mutters sarcastically before smiling to himself. He reaches up and takes James's laptop, putting it on his desk to charge it.
I mentioned this in Emily's story but I'll just repeat it here. I made it canon that James watches and loves Sex and the City. My face claim for Angela has always been Annasophia Robb. One of my favourite coincidences is that Annasophia Robb was the protagonist in the Sex and the City spin-off, The Carrie Diaries, so I had to play with that here.
And that moment James was referencing was from a clip from The Carrie Diaries that I watched on YouTube. I've never seen either show. It's another coincidence that it happened to work for the breakup.