A practice run

While Jason tried to empty his mind for a moment by staring into the distance, Jenny tried to gather the courage to enter the door. She had been standing outside in the hall for a few minutes now, wondering if it was better to leave Jason alone for now or to go in there and talk to him. She had taken this time outside to look for any positive points to this situation. Jenny had started by comparing their timetables to look for any classes they might have at the same time for the subjects that were given to two classes simultaneously. After that she looked at his class list to see how many familiar faces there were for him and she ended her search by looking if they had the same start and end times on the different school days. After which she thought of solutions for the days where that wasn't the case.

She felt bad that it made him so upset, but he would thank her in the long run. If this proved a challenge when they were at least at the same school, how would they survive going to university? They could use this as a practice run to get out all the teething problems. After taking another deep breath, she opened the door slowly and peeked into the room from the small gap she had created. She saw Jason sitting by the window and saw that he was lost in thought. He didn't turn to look at her, nor did he acknowledge her presence when she entered the room and closed the door behind her. She was glad that they had found out about this news when they were alone at the house. At moments like this, the presence of other people usually made things worse. Everyone would try to give their two cents on how to go about the situation, which might cause her to act unnatural and stiff. In times like this, it was best for her to stick to her true self. That way she would still have room to observe Jason's reaction to her words, instead of being occupied with saying the right words.

She walked up to Jason and stood at the exact same spot where they had had a loving moment just last night. How different the mood was now. Jenny brushed Jason's hair with her fingers as she softly spoke to him. "I'm sorry Jason. I know you were hoping that we would still end up in the same class despite the odds." Jason turned around and hugged Jenny by her waist. He said nothing as he pulled her close and placed his head against her stomach.

Jenny continued running her fingers through his hair and stroking the back of his head from time to time as she spoke. "Somewhere a part of me was hoping that too, but I promise you we will be fine. We will get even better. This year will go by faster than you think. I already looked over the class lists, and timetables and I already thought of how we can maximize the time at school that we do get to spend. I saw that we have gym together, so that is two hours a week we will practically be in the same class. And we have self-study at the same time, so we can register for the same subjects for those classes. That gives us another two hours a week. On most days we start at the same time, except for Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesday you get off early and on Thursdays I do. We can use those days to study or hang out with friends before we meet up and have a date by ourselves. All our classes are in the main building and in the same hall, so having lunch together shouldn't be a problem either. Plus, though you don't have me, you are in the same class as Nick, Harry, George, and Julia. So, plenty of familiar faces for you. Elizabeth and Nick have been separated unfortunately, but at least she will have a girl friend this year, because she is in the same class as me!"

Despite trying to her best to make it all sound great, Jason's mood was far from lifted resulting in a slightly awkward silence. After getting no reaction from Jason, Jenny said, "I know this probably still won't completely make up for us being in different classes, but does it at least make things a bit better?" Jenny asked a bit hopeful, to which Jason responded with a shrug as he turned his face to the side. Jenny couldn't help, but adore Jason behaving like this somewhere deep down. Most of the time he was some tough guy that everyone feared and whose word all obeyed after a single look, but every now and then he would show his vulnerable side, or he would behave like a kid. Just like now. Which brought out the caring side in her.

Jenny placed a kiss on the top of his head. "You will see, you will get used to it no time and we will still see each other plenty. For Pete's sake we live together and sleep in the same room." After that she grabbed his face with both hands and forced him to look at her and said, "I understand it if you are still a bit upset and if you want to be alone for a bit longer that is fine as well, but promise me that you won't let this influence your mood for too long, okay?" After getting an "Hm" sound to confirm she placed a kiss on his lips and let him continue to bury his face in her arms. As they sat there in silence, they were interrupted by the sounds of Jenny's phones buzzing. One message after another was flooding in. When she could no longer ignore it and even Jason began to grumble as the sound annoyed him, she unlocked her screen and said, "It seems we are going out for dinner tonight." It appeared that the others had seen their class listing as well and had some questions as well as a lot to tell after not seeing each other all summer.