Prologue: A Promising Start

Aimee shook her scarlett, black and platinum hair out as she took off her helmet, combing her hands through to brush out some of the sweat. Her ipod, cranked up as far as it would go, overpowered the sound of her engine. She quickly lowered the volume as she killed the bike and checked her watch. 15 minutes left until class, plenty of time to get inside. She instinctively reached for a cigarette before remembering she didn't have a pack on her.

"Ok, new year, new start, no making the same mistakes. I am not going to party, and I am not falling for anyone," she thought to herself adamantly.

Aimee turned on her bike as another motorcycle pulled into the space next to hers. The bike was a sleek, speedy Honda, smaller than Aimee's monstrous Harley. Conversely, the rider, as he gathered himself, was tall and lanky. Removing his helmet, he revealed a handsome face, head topped by fiery ginger hair.

"Nice bike, man. What's she got, 650cc? Not my style, but she's a beaut."

Nils was horribly excited about the new year. He'd been fumbling around for a major since he'd arrived at A&M, and nothing had stuck, no matter how hard he'd tried. Then he found Philosophy last semester, and it had just clicked. It felt amazing to know what he was doing with his life for the first time in two years.
He couldn't help but smile as he pulled into the parking lot on his bike, noting with interest the multicolored hair of the woman he pulled next to. Normally such ridiculous hair styles looked contrived, but somehow on her, it worked.
He removed his own helmet and smiled at her question. "680, actually. He moves. Your bike's rather nice too. Not quite my style, but still quite lovely."
He turned to put away his helmet, shaking out his hair. "You been riding long?"

"Couple of years, though I've only had this," she motioned to her bike, "for a few months. She's a monster, but I like something sizeable between my legs." She blushed madly a moment later, a look of horror creeping onto her face as she realized what she'd said.

"Oh, crap, I didn't, I mean, that wasn't supposed to imply...ack! Sorry, that wasn't meant to be dirty, I promise. I just like big bikes." She stepped off her bike opposite the redhead, leaning over to offer her hand.

"I'm Aimee, and my foot apparently lives in my mouth."

Nils couldn't help it. He bust out laughing at her comment, his face turning bright red from lack of air. He managed to get down enough air to stop laughing after a moment, and he stepped off his bike next to the woman once he'd managed to calm back down.
"I'm Nils. It's very nice to meet you." He shook her hand warmly. "I do apologize for laughing so rudely. Can I make it up to you by walking you to class?" As usual, Nils was flawlessly polite. Perhaps too polite. As usual, it failed to occur to him that his politeness could quite easily be mistaken for flirting.

"Why, a gentleman, I do declare," Aimee said in her best southern accent, giggling. "I'd be delighted to have a chaperone to class, good sir." She ran her arm through Nils', dragging him down the sidewalk. "I've got French 101 with Arnauld in the Academic Building in a couple of minutes. Hope its not too far out of your way."

He grinned at her, even as she dragged him along. "Why, that's not out of my way at all. In fact, I have the same class. Isn't that a lucky coincidence?"
He couldn't quite help but be glad to have a chance to spend more time with Aimee. She seemed like someone he definitely wanted to get to know. He'd been hoping for someone to ride with.

"So it would seem. J'adore francais, but, as you might have guessed, I don't actually speak a word of it. Luckily, my major requires language, so I have an excuse." She smiled sidelong up at Nils. "How 'bout you, what's your poison?" She looked him up and down, sizing him up. "Poli-Sci?"

Nils smiled. "Somehow I managed to live in Europe for fifteen years without picking it up, so it seemed appropriate to learn." He grinned. "Philosophy, actually. If I'm going to spend my life arguing about things, I at least want it to still matter a hundred years from now what I argued about."
He gave Aimee a long look as well. "Art, maybe, for you? I'd say theater, but I know I haven't seen you in the department."

"Oh, a world traveler? I'm so jealous. Never been out of the states. Been meaning to get around to that, once the degree's done." She beamed up at him as they walked.

"Phliosophy, huh? 'But my students would rather watch tv.' Biker and a philosopher too, impressive. Very Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Aimee approves."

She pulled Nils into an impromptu tango down the sidewalk for a couple of steps, laughing as she tried to dip her much taller companion.

"Oh, I think we'd've remembered each other if we'd met before." She let him go, smiling. "You're close, though. I'm in performance studies, but for music. Nothing better."

Nils shrugged. "It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly a vacation. I'm an Air Force brat, I lived in England, Germany, and Italy. I'd never even been to the states until I was 16. I have to say, Texas is very... different." Nils' accent, normally somewhat faint after years in other countries, became very pronounced as he spoke.
He shivered a little at the Rent quote, memories of unpleasant times popping to the surface. He shook it off and danced more or less happily down the sidewalk with Aimee, falling on his ass when she tried to dip him.
He smiled and stood as she spoke. "Music? Very nice. What do you play?"

"Guitar, mostly, though I mess around with violin, banjo, mandolin, all that. If its got strings, I'm down. I've played a few open mic nights around here, a couple of little gigs, mostly just for fun."

She opened the door for them both as they entered the Academic building by the side entrance, pushing through the between class crowd.

"So is your mom or dad the one in the Air Force? I take it you're back in the states because they got restationed here?"

Of all the days for her car to decide to not crank, this was a particularly bad one. Constance was tremendously aggravated today. First her alarm clock decided to not go off, then her car, then the bus was late. Sweet baby Jebus on a stick. But at least this was one of the light class days, just French and CompSci. Speaking of French... She checked her watch as she got off the bus and strode with hurried steps towards the Academic Building. Later then she'd have liked, but she should be able to make it in time if the crowds of lemmings didn't get her. Clutching the straps of both purse and messenger bag tightly in the same hand and thanking God for the person who first designed shoes with ankle straps, Connie charged into the fray.

Analyzing crowd flow... Side door would be quickest and easiest. Connie altered her angle of attack, narrowly avoiding getting her skirt caught on some idiot's handlebar, and muscled her way in about ten feet behind a multicolored blond and a very tall redhead.

Nils nodded. "Sounds like it. I don't think I've seen one of your gigs before. I'll have to try to go to one. I always admired people who could play. I sang, a little, back when I was big in the theatre scene, but I confess the idea of playing any instrument is utterly baffling to me."
He smiled graciously as she held open the door for him. "Well, thank you, mademoiselle." He bowed as he spoke, with flourish.
"My dad's career Air Force. He got shipped back to Texas when I was in high school, and since they both went here, they wanted me to go. He got shipped out summer before last, to Japan." His smile faded a little. "It's great for my sister, she loves it there, apparently."
They arrived at the classroom as he talked, and he opened the door for them both with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. The classroom looked only about half full, with only a few minutes before it started. He allowed her to go to her seat first, before taking a seat next to her. He seemed to be taking great pains to not touch anything with his bare skin.

"Oh yeah, that'd be awesome. Always good to have a friendly face in the crowd."

Aimee giggled at Nil's bow and followed him inside. She listened as he talked about his family, nodding along and taking her seat as they entered the classroom. She smiled as Nils took the seat next to her. She smiled wider as she glanced up and saw a gorgeous brunette walk through the door. She nodded towards her and, under her breath, spoke to Nils.

"Speaking of friendly faces. Wow, she's beautiful." Aimee double-checked to make sure there was a free chair next to her.

Thank God, got through the lemmings in one piece! Connie paused at the back row of seats and looked around. Only about half full, but not many seats she liked the look of. Two near the front on either side of Fidgety Guy, one in between the Gum Smacker and the Compulsive Internet geek who smelled funny, one in front of Chair Kicker... Oh, hello there. Redhead and Rainbow Blond were sitting together and they were hot! Well, she could put up with being a little distracted. Didn't she deserve a little eye candy after the day she'd had?

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she walked down towards them, she stopped a polite distance away and waited. Once Rainbow had noticed her, Connie smiled softly and gestured towards the empty chair. "Excuse me, may I...?"

Nils shrugged at Aimee. "I guess so. I'm not really much for women." He seemed to have forgotten that he was in Texas, as he was running his mouth in a way that could quite easily get his ass beat. "If you think she's so pretty, you should ask her out."
He didn't have time to be embarrassed, however, because the pretty woman in question came and asked to sit next to Aimee. He grinned and waved for her to take the seat.

Aimee smiled and gestured for the girl to take the seat.

"But of course, madame. My new friend here was just giving me some advice I'd be more than happy to take, but I think it might have to wait a bit." She winked at Nils as she offered her hand to the brunette. "Aimee, bonjour."

Connie smiled a little broader, glad that the seat hadn't been reserved, and set her leather messenger bag and not-quite-matching purse down on the desk.

"Advice worth taking is a precious gift indeed." She shook Aimee's hand and offered hers to the Cute Redhead. "Enchanté, Madame, Monsieur. I'm Connie."

Nils smiled with a new appreciation at his new friend and the pretty girl sitting next to her. "I'm Nils. It's nice to meet you Connie." He glanced between the two, noting with interest that they seemed to already have some chemistry going.
He was prevented from commenting any further by the entrance of Professor Arnauld. Next thing he knew, she was calling roll.
He ignored the vast majority of names, but was intrigued by the names of his companions.
"Constance Psmith?" She stumbled over the last name, trying to pronounce the 'p'.
"Aimee Solleau?" She called, pronouncing it in the worst way possible, provoking much giggling from their classmates.

Connie slid into her seat just as the prof was coming in. Whew, perfect timing. She hadn't had this one before, and made note that she wasted no time in confirming who had bothered to show up.
She rolled her eyes as her surname was stumbled over. "'Smith'!" She was used to that by now, but it still annoyed her on her bad days. This had been a bad day, but the new friends had improved it substantially.
The childish giggling over Arnauld's porno pronunciation of Aimee's name got Connie's dander up. How dare they make her squirm!? She glared down the room and corrected the prof more forcefully on Aimee's behalf then she had on her own. "It's 'Amy'!" Glowering coldly at anyone who dared disagree with her until attention had moved on, Connie pulled her supplies out of her Sindarin bag and set both bag and purse beneath her chair. This was going to be a long day.

Connie wasn't far wrong as the professor kept them an extra five minutes, having gone over the syllabus and proceeded to pair them up for pronunciation drills. As luck would have it, however, an odd number of students led to the trio working all together. Aimee and Connie mangled the exercises, with Nils attempting to correct them before giving up, laughing as they began to purposely mispronounce words. The last few minutes of class, for them, devolved into a discussion of Lord of the Rings (Nils on the philosophy of the books, Aimee on the music Tolkien had included, and Connie on its literary merits, of course), prompted by Connie's bag.

As they packed up their bags and the other students filed noisily out of the classroom, Aimee offered, "I don't have class again for a while, and I skipped lunch. You guys want to go grab something? I could really go for some Kyoto right now." She waggled her eyebrows at the other two as she shouldered her backpack. "What do you say?"

Nils couldn't remember the last time he'd heard such awful mangling of a language, and he'd heard some pretty ridiculous things on the bases. Still, it was fun, and he had a great time discussing Lord of the Rings with the two of them.
When Aimee suggested going to lunch, he contemplated finding a tactful way to back out and make them go alone, but his stomach grumbled loudly and chose that moment to remind him he hadn't eaten yet that day. "That sounds fantastic." He said with a smile, "I don't have class again for hours!"
He cast a glance over at Connie. "What about you, Constance, what do you think?"
So Nils had a bit of a thing for people's full names. They were just so pretty.

Okay, so maybe the day hadn't been as bad as she'd expected. Laughing over the exercises and talking Tolkien with fellow geeks had made the time pass very quickly. Aimee's suggestion of food made Connie realize just how very small her hurried breakfast had been.
The use of her full name almost made her wince; no one under the age of her grandparents called her Constance unless it was some snooty high society shindig. Or if she was in trouble. Or if they were talking to the press. She settled for raising an eyebrow and twisting her lip a little. "Please, just keep it Connie. Constance makes me sound like an eighty year old spinster in a rocking chair."
She immediately popped back into a smile. "But yeah, food would be good. Gonna need a ride; my car decided to be a bitch and make me take the bus today."

"Oh, I think one of us can manage a ride. Hope you can hold on tight." Winking, she made her way out the door, being mindful not to lose the others in the crowd. Once they exited the building, Aimee grinned in the early fall sunlight and turned back to Nils and Connie.

"Oh, I'm so glad that's over. The language is pretty, but that prof is going to get old, fast. Maybe we can organize a study group or something, spread the misery around a little more."

Nils sighed at Connie's complaint. "Oh, but it's such a beautiful name." He told her, "But if you insist, I suppose it will have to be Connie."
He grinned at Aimee. "I think you should have her ride with you, Aimee. You have more room than I do, and I'm sure your seat is more comfortable." He really hoped Connie didn't have a problem with motorcycles, but he was going to have fun seeing the look on her face when she realized what they had.
Nils shrugged. "We already have the makings of one, we definitely had a good time earlier. Although I think we're going to have our hands full getting your pronunciation right." He sighed theatrically. "I guess we're just going to have to study all the time until we figure it out."