She remembers the first time she met Nina.
It was when He took her home for the first time.
They had mistook the deadline for an assignment, and they had to rush part of a project in very little time. Seeing as He lived closer, they made a run for it.
“I should still have an unopened pack of energy drinks and enough coffee for 20 cups so we might just make it”
“Leave that for later, start planning the introduction!”
“This is gonna be worse than my metroid run”
He unlocks his door at record speed, because of course he does.
“I’ll get the things I printed . You get settled”
“Alright, grab me a-”
There is a woman.
There is a sleeping woman at the table.
“…There’s a really bad intruder at your house.”
“WHAT?!”
He runs over, somehow not dropping any of the papers he messily put together.
“Agh, you scared me for nothing, grab these”
“Eugene who is this.”
Actually, she can recognize her a little. She has seen her talking to him on campus sometimes. New roommate?
“It’s Nina. World’s number one champion at giving bad first impressions. Hey, wake up”
“Noooo”
“We have visitors”
“awawhat?!”
While that is an expression Marigold could never see on Eugene, somehow this girl looks like him.
She connects the dots
“Your sister?”
“Obviously. Oh, wait. I didn’t tell you before?”
“Whoops. Mistake. I’m a bit too used to people seeing us as a pair”
“Excuse me! Are you Miss Marigold? I’ve been told wonderful things about you! It’s a pleasure!”
“Uh. Likewise”
She offers a cold handshake.
At the time, she couldn’t understand how those two were in any way related. And her grumpiness at the time didn’t help.
How could a man as hardworking as Eugene have a sister who simply decides to take a nap on a table?
Then she found out Nina’s studying to become a teacher. In this economy.
Does she have any ambition? Any sense of responsibility? Or is she planning on mooching off Eugene’s career?
Nina is everything her parents warned her about.
She helped in keeping them awake that night, bringing drinks and making noise, but due to their busy work they didn’t notice.
Of course, as her friendship with Him started to develop, Marigold found it beneficial to befriend his sister. Perhaps befriend is too much. She is now colleagues with his friend’s sister.
But that changed the day of her birthday.
They were out of a hard test, going for a walk in the city.
“Ok, I calculated everything and even if I completely fail I still pass, so it’s fine!”
“There’s no way you failed, you’re awesome!”
Marigold is aware that Arnold is only befriending Kevin for his parents connection to the wine industry. And Kevin is in no way worried about his grades because he’s aware his parents could sue the teacher easily. Again.
Now Ashley is going to pipe in with something about celebrating, as she has no cares in the world. She is married after all.
“We should celebrate that it’s finally over!”
“Yeah!”
This is a great opportunity for Mari for more networking. If she can get them talking about other friends she’ll get a bigger network.
Maybe if she gets them a little drunk…
“Wait, Marigold, isn’t it your birthday today?”
Oh. Surprise Kevin interjection.
“Oh, I forgot about it”
“We were so busy studying, it completely flew over our heads”
And here’s a wildcard, Eugene Coli. Someone with a name like that clearly wasn’t a wanted pregnancy.
They are similar, in a way. They are both ambitious, they both need to work their way to the top. They both know what’s right.
She can see potential in him. She can see a future where they are strong, on top.
She could use him.
And as she has found out in drunken stupors, he might enjoy it!
They pass a toy shop.
“What about something from here? For the birthday girl? Might make you feel younger”
Well now that’s just rude. A lot of her male classmates are still not used to dealing with ladies.
“What will I get from that? An useless thing to gather dust in my room? Please, if I wanted that I would get a Philosophy degree”
It makes everyone laugh, as she foresaw. Thus redirecting their rude comments somewhere else.
A lady cannot be rude. And an entrepreneur cannot risk losing connections.
This is the correct way.
There are many contradictions in her head. She ignores them.
“Let’s do a double celebration then, for us and Marigold. Oh! I want pizza!”
.
.
.
.
.
When all her classes are finally over for the day, Nina of all people asks for help retrieving something she forgot in a locker.
Why couldn’t she bother someone else was a mystery, but Marigold needs the Coli connection anyways.
She wonders if it’s really worth it, it’s not like he talks much about his sister anyways. Maybe they grew separately.
But while the data is not clear, she’ll go with her.
The weather was lovely.