Chapter Text
Robin Buckley did not know what to wear. Her first class that she would ever take in college, a documentary filmmaking course, was in 1 hour, and she needed to make a good impression. Who knows? Maybe she would end up spending the rest of her life with someone she met here. She settled on her red converse, a white long-sleeved shirt under a rolling stones tee, and some moderately baggy jeans. She placed her black headphones around her neck, packed her bag, and did her makeup. Her usual- some light eyeliner, tinted lip balm, and concealer.
It was 12:00, and her roommate had already left. Kacy was nice, but since orientation week, she had started to come off as a little boy-crazy. Robin had noticed her eyes lingering on Steve, who was and had helped her unpack. She had tried to ward her off of him, but conceded and gave her his number in the interest of not looking like a bitch. She definitely hoped that Steve would fumble her, because she didn't want any roommate drama. But overall, they meshed well together. Kacy was very organized, but had not been rude at all about Robin's general mess. She was very chill, and somehow... cohesive? It was like everything in her life perfectly matched her aesthetic. Her light brown eyes, skin, and hair all went perfectly with the color spectrum of her clothing, which streched from beige to a dark coffee, with a light pink, or neutral other color, thrown in every once in a while. Her creative writing major was exactly the type of thing Robin would guess she did, and it was nice to have someone so... stable.
She went down to the nearby cafe for an iced chai. What did she have to lose? She was on scholarship, so she had a bit more free spending ability.
Embarrassingly, she was first to the class. This was out of character, and she hoped no one would notice and set high expectations for how she managed her time. She lounged on a bench by the classroom, pretending she was simply listening to her music. The professor arrived 10 minutes before class started. She was a young woman, dressed professionally in a blazer, dress pants, and a white button down. So this was Dr. Claiborne.
Dr. Claiborne had interested Robin because it was only her second year teaching. She had very high ratings, and was quite young. She was the type of person Robin hoped to get along swimmingly with.
Robin walked in 5 minutes to 1:00, after a few people had already entered. This was going quite well for her. She chatted with the girl next to her about the Rolling Stones for a bit, before the professor started to gather her things and walk up to the podium. There was one seat open next to Robin, which she hoped was not indicative of her carrying some strange odor. At 1:59, Nancy Wheeler walked into the classroom.
This should not have happened for a number of reasons. First of all, Robin was planning on staying away from Nancy. They had never gotten along, and college was new beginnings. She didn't want this old... grudge holding her back.
Second of all, she thought Nancy was taking a gap year! Going to do community service in Hawaii, or wherever people like the Wheelers went when they felt college wasn't expensive enough.
These were, admittedly, the only reasons. Maybe Robin should have foreseen this. Emerson wasn't that big. But somehow, she had never anticipated this. Nancy wasn't part of any plan she had ever made.
The only seat available was next to Robin. Of course.
She watched Nancy's eyes search the room, looking for anywhere else to sit. It was the end of the row, so Robin would be her only company. The board read, Choose your seats wisely. These will be your places for the rest of the semester.
Defeated, Nancy walked over to Robin and sat down, the eyes of the entire class focused on her.
As the professor spoke, Robin glanced at Nancy every few minutes. She mentally analyzed her appearance. A loose pink sweater. A denim skirt. Black tights. Calf-length leather boots. A brown coach leather hobo bag. She was the spitting image of an artsy, Emerson type. Of course. Nancy would probably easily find some group of girl friends. She'd probably graduate with honors. Her well-planned internships would give her just enough experience to immediately start at a perfect journalism job. She would have a perfect family, a perfect retirement, and a perfect life. And where would Robin be? Probably still paying off her student loans at 30. At 40, maybe she'd regret having never gotten married. Already, you could see the clear difference in their qualities of life. Nancy had already taken out her computer to write notes. Who took notes the first day?
Robin snapped back to the real world and paid attention to Dr. Claiborne.
"To help you all get to know each other, I will split you into pairs for your first project of the year- creating what your idea of a documentary film is. This will be the basis of all of our learning, and you will likely return to these pairs throughout the year as we critique and commend your work."
Uh oh. But there was like, a 1-in-30 class she would get paired with Nancy.
"Please turn to the person next to you."
Double uh oh. It could still be the other girl, right?
"Er, actually- 1st and 2nd row go together, 3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th. Just so there's no confusion."
Robin turned to Nancy, who was sitting in row 1. Nancy was already looking at her. Dr. Claiborne was going over the directions, but she could hardly focus. There was absolutely no way that she had been placed with Nancy. Wheeler. The same girl who Robin had never seen make eye contact with a member of the Hawkins High band, much less express an interest in film, or art, or anything at all that wasn't her schoolwork and her social life.
"Feel free to turn to your neighbors now. Get to know them, and find a way to contact each other. In five minutes, we'll look at some examples of beginner-level documentary films. I'll hand out your rubric while you guys chat. Every two sessions, a group will present their movie. On your rubrics will be the date you present. If you'd like to attempt to trade with another group, feel free..."
Dr. Claiborne sure had a lot to say. Robin realized she was still staring at Nancy. Nancy had started to frown. They both started to speak at the same time.
"Look, Robin-"
"Nancy, listen-"
They both fell quiet. Nancy spoke first.
"If you don't want to work together, that's fine. I'm sure Dr. Claiborne will switch us."
Robin hesitated.
"Yeah, I mean, the whole point of this is to get to know new people, right?"
"Yeah."
Robin hesitated. "Um, just in case- could you put your number in my phone? So, we could. Y'know. Text each other."
Nancy rolled her eyes. Rude.
"It's probably already there from something."
Robin begrudgingly looked to see if Nancy's phone number was there. It was not, because Nancy did not associate with Robin in high school.
Spitefully, Robin replied. "It's not."
Another eye roll. Nancy finally put in her phone number. Robin couldn't wait to switch partners.
They watched some examples, which were actually pretty interesting. Robin took note to not use a narrator, because one of them which did was incredibly dull. She looked over the rubric she and Nancy had received. They were to create a 30 minute documentary on a topic of their choice. There was a list for inspiration- true crime, nature and wildlife, historical, environmental, social and cultural, biographical, sports, anthropological, or political- but it was essentially free reign. It could also be any style- expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, poetic, or performative. Hers and Nancy's, or whoever she was repaired with, would be presented on January 12th, right after they came back from winter break, around midway through the year, as it was a two- semester course.
At the end of the course, Nancy turned to her. "You wouldn't mind talking to Dr. Claiborne, would you? I really have to go."
Robin doubted that. "Fine."
Nancy huffed away. Robin busied herself packing her things so as not to look strange. Once the numbers of her classmates had dwindled to all but one, she walked over to Dr. Claiborne's desk. The boy left, and they were alone.
"Hi, um. Dr Claiborne."
She looked up as a response.
"I'm uh, Robin Buckley."
"Hello, Robin," she replied, looking confused.
"Um, I wanted to talk to you about my partner? Nancy Wheeler?"
Dr. Claiborne frowned. "Is there an issue?"
"Well, we went to high school together."
This did not elicit a reaction, so Robin continued.
"And, uh, we didn't really... get along. I mean, we didn't interact much, but when we did, it wasn't very friendly. And I know this project is to try to get to know people so I just figured... maybe we could switch."
Dr. Claiborne seemed to consider this.
"And Nancy agreed! I'm not just, like, springing this on her."
A pensieve look came across Dr. Claiborne's face. After a slight pause, she seemed to collect her thoughts.
"Thank you for informing me of this, Robin. I wouldn't want to switch any pairings that are getting along well, so I don't think I'll be able to move you out of this partnership."
Robin's face fell.
"Don't get too discouraged. Creating art has a way of bringing people together. I think if you both go into this with an open mind, you could really change your views of one another."
Robin mumbled a thanks and left the classroom. Damn it. She really would be stuck with Nancy half the year.
She typed out a quick text. Dr. Claiborne said no. A response came in shortly.
Did you explain the situation?
What? Obviously she had explained the situation! Did Nancy take her for some idiot, or someone who was secretly desperate for a chance to work with her?
Yes!
Robin paused. That was a bit aggressive, right?
Yes. She didn't want to break up a pairing that might have been working well.
A perfectly neutral response. She sent it and returned to her dorm.
...
That night, she played bonding games with the dorm. Kacy had told her about it when she came back. It was nice, to talk to people. She played spit with a boy named James, a Strategic Marketing major, first. Kacy had invited him, and introduced him to Robin as her "gay friend". Robin elected to not focus on the fact that that was a tiny bit homophobic, and moved on. During two truths and a lie, she laughed uproariously with a girl named Anna, a Musical Theatre major, who was very twee and wore numerous button- themed objects. Around an hour in, everything was going swimmingly, and Robin had nearly forgotten the disaster that was Documentary Film. That was, until Anna got a text, and left, only to come back with none other in hand than Nancy Wheeler.
Nancy's eyes met hers the second she entered the room. Anna, misinterpreting the situation, realized and led them to each other.
"Robin, do you know Nancy? Nancy, this is who I was telling you about."
They both stayed silent. Nancy spoke first. With a clearly forced smile, she said, "High school."
Anna paused, looking between them.
"Cool. Um, Nancy, let me introduce you to Kacy..."
Nancy was dragged away.
At 11, people seemed to be turning in for the night. Robin had met other people, but none she liked so much as James, Anna, and Kacy. Kacy walked up to her as she was putting a deck of cards into a box.
"Hey, Robin, some people are going to Mc Donald's. Want to come?"
Robin paused. She was going to debrief with Steve over facetime, as his parents had bought him an apartment, and he had no dorm members to bond with. But Kacy had shown an interest in him...
"Can I invite Steve?"
Kacy's face lit up and fell back, in a display of nonchalance. "Sure. Of course."
...
It turned out that the "some people" going to Mc Donald's had been Anna, James, Kacy, and Nancy. This was absolutely ridiculous! It was like no matter how many times Robin told the universe, hey, I don't want to be near Nance, it responded every time with, you guys will get along great. You're so similar! Give her another chance.
They waited outside the dorm. Robin had told them her friend was coming, and they all happily said he was welcome. She glanced at Nancy, who was standing beside her and avoiding eye contact.
She should tell her he was coming, right? For the sake of good relations.
She sighed quietly. "Nancy?"
Nancy turned around in surprise. "Yeah?"
"My friend who's coming. It's Steve."
"Oh."
She wasn't going to give any more response.
"Um, that's cool. He's in my building. Nazing Court."
"Nice."
The tension was palpable.
When Steve arrived, Robin had worried it would be awkward, but he quickly fell in with the group. They all had a grand time, with the exception of the strange moments between Robin and Nancy. Kacy took pictures on her digicam, and promised to send them, which led to the creation of a group chat. A group chat! Already! As they headed back, Steve fell behind with Robin.
"Hey, Robbie. What's up with you and Nance?"
"...Nancy? Nothing."
He raised his eyebrows.
"When she passed you the ketchup, you both jumped when your hands touched."
Robin did not respond.
"And you guys spent, like, 10 minutes arguing over ice cream. And it was not a friendly argument."
Robin recalled this. It was the most her and Nancy had spoken since sophomore year chemistry, during the month they sat together and probably made the whole table very uncomfortable with their fighting. And the ice cream argument was just frustrating. Nancy had said her favorite flavor of ice cream was birthday cake, which Robin had no problem with, but Robin said her favorite flavor was vanilla, and it got an eye roll? What was so bad about vanilla? Nancy had claimed it was plain, and Robin had disputed that, and they just... got angry with each other.
They hadn't spoken again.
Steve, seemingly sensing Robin's silence would be infinite, attempted to continue the conversation. "I just think Nance is a really nice person, y'know? And I know you guys didn't get along in high school, but it's okay for things to be different now. And just because she's a little, um... standoffish to you right now..."
Robin scoffed. "That's one way of putting it."
Steve sighed.
Robin conceded. "We're in a documentary film class together." At this, Steve perked up. "We're partners. Unwillingly."
Steve smiled. "Maybe you guys will get to know each other. Become friends."
"That's what the teacher said. When I asked to switch. At Nancy's request."
Steve's face fell. "I'm sure she wasn't trying to be rude. She probably thought you wanted to switch too."
"Maybe."
They were at the door of Steve's building. He said goodbye to everyone, and it took a much longer time than one would have thought it would to say goodbye to people you met an hour ago. He returned to Robin and enveloped her.
"Just try. If you can. To be cordial."
Robin sighed agreeance, and walked back to her dorm.