She's finishing up another serum when Quinn smiles slightly at the bouquet of freshly-watered yellow tulips. The sun shines slivers of sunlight and Quinn instantly knows – the magic of photosynthesis transpiring before her eyes.
Wayne (because she will never call him, Firewire), Neil and Andrew glare at her when she frowns her own Science Club for the Female Intellectual Mind. It's actually pretty successful and Quinn has the compiled and elaborate statistics to prove it. She likes to think that it's due to the fact that she totally demolishes their hammer robot with her smaller one.
It proves that bigger isn't better and Quinn can't stand to watch them take their gloating and spread it all over campus for the entire Pacific Coast Academy student body to behold.
"Goodness," Eliza Donovan, national spelling bee champion three years in a row, says with a satisfactory grin. "The look of sheer terror on their faces felt great to watch."
Julia Chan, captain of the PCA mathelete team, looks up from solving a logarithm and wrinkles her nose, "And to think I actually found Andrew appealing. That's out of the equation now."
"I concur," Quinn finally says and there's laughter from the other girls.
But she's looking at the yellow tulips and they look pretty and expensive.
However, she's content because she's happy with the way her relationship Mark Delfiggalo is easy. It's simple. Quinn enjoys getting his plain baked potato and eagerly managing his campaign for the ninth grade presidency. At least, she's successful – well, Zoey and Chase actually drop out of the race at the same time but that's irrelevant.
As much as she adores Mark, she's kind of touched.
Quinn knows because after some heavy thinking because the pieces click. She remembers sitting in Brenner's lounge, talking about the anatomy of a yellow tulip and how it differs from the ancestry of the ordinary sunflower. Their nonchalance is apparent and Logan, like clockwork, says something snarky and offensive but it goes right past her.
In the situation, the intellectual discovery of something exciting trumps offense.
The flower shop closest to PCA is notorious for being pricey and expensive. Yellow tulips are pretty to her and the bouquet of six that rolls in on the robot is a sweet gesture, and the ridicule and laughter of her friends don't sting so much anymore.
It's a nice gesture from Logan, and she's betting her entire collection of unclassified specimen on it.
But against her better judgment, she'll refrain from thanking him.
.
.
.
The first reaction Quinn has when Logan calls her The Four Letter Word That Shall Not Be Named is to use her brainpower and intellect to get even with him, but her rationale knocks at her brain and reminds her of that vow she makes when she turns eight – the one while she sets a bespectacled gaze on the photon canon – that can't won't use her intellect to hurt others despite the fact that they may deserve it and it's Logan Reese.
Instead, she gets even.
There's more satisfaction in parading him around campus in an orange dress while he stumbles uncomfortably in the most painful stilettos she can find.
It's all in the elbow, though.
And when she finally tells him, there's more satisfaction as he stomps away like a little boy with a temper tantrum with an orange dress and heels that make him stumble and topple.
Quinn is feeling more and more vindicated as she giggles all the way to her dorm.
.
.
.
Zoey should get the radio.
After all, Chase sells it to her for five dollars and a free taco. It's a legitimate exchange (keyword: legitimate). Sure, Chase is her friend but he will have to deal with the glaring fact that she ahs ten thousand dollars in her metaphorical pocket. The smartest thing Zoey can do is let the radio appreciate and accumulate more monetary value –
Logan's walking beside her to lunch because it's one odd coincidence. This whole week is odd – Chase and Zoey, usual best friends, are fighting. It's just contagious because Quinn is disagreeing with her best friend, Lola. And obviously, Michael is Chase's best friend so the tension between the six of them is just starting to spread.
"I agree with you, Pensky."
Quinn frowns at the use of her last name.
"What?"
"I said," he rolls his eyes, grabbing a tray. "I agree. Chase should stop being lame about something that was a done deal on his part. If you don't know what you're doing and a business deal goes to hell, then you're a dumbass."
Maybe there's some logic to his usual lunacy. That's unexpected.
"And," he continues when she reaches for a sandwich and a Blix to place on her tray, "this radio crap is really messing with my sleep, which screws with my awesomeness."
That's such a Logan thing to say. That's expected.
Quinn's the one doing the eye rolling when she spots Michael and Lola at their table at the quad.
"So, are we on the same side?" Quinn questions, just for clarification purposes.
Logan shrugs, nonchalantly. "I guess. Whatever."
She's making a mental note to document this in her log right underneath her frustrations of Mark not wanting to share their first kiss together.
.
.
.
She's smart so Quinn has to know how this whole intervention thing is supposed to go down.
Logan really can't believe he's going to find Quinn willingly, but he is one "gross Gretchen moment" away from being totally angry and if he's not happy, nobody will be happy.
The library is big and there are too many books in just one spot but he finally finds Quinn poured over thick books he really can't be bothered to pronounce. And she's without the lame boyfriend…whatever. Quinn glances to her right while Logan's standing there and doesn't want to be at the Harry Schneider Library because the librarian, Ms. Bellamy, hates him. It's obviously because he's good-looking and Ms. Bellamy hates people who have some genetic thing that makes handsomeness.
"Logan?"
"Okay, you're weird," he says bluntly and she narrows her eyes as she sits. "But – you're smart. How's this intervention thing supposed to go down?"
She's kinda offended so Quinn's finger is hovering over her laser watch but it's also weird that Logan Reese walks into a library to find her.
"Why not talk to Michael about this?"
"Because I actually thought about this," Logan says with another roll of his eyes. "Michael can't help but be the nice guy. Me, on the other hand, won't coddle Chase and be nice to him because he misses Zoey blah blah blah," Logan's spouting off all this stuff to Quinn because as weird as it gets she gets it and how nasty Gretchen is. For once, he won't touch Gretchen with a hundred foot pole. "I wanted to punch him in the face when he pretty much got a chain, put a chain on the key and pretty much did Zoey's key necklace thing."
Chase doesn't do that.
He can't do that – not when Stacy occupies Zoey's old space and her Z-studded pink and white polka-dotted key is tucked safely away. Maybe this has progressed from Psychology 101 to Complete Delusion 101. Oh, God – and Quinn just might take Lola up on her idea on how to de-stabilize Stacy's vocal cords.
Temporarily, of course.
"No way!" she stage-whispers. After all, it's a library. "The key necklace is Zoey's niche!"
"Zoey's what?"
Quinn sighs and deadpans. "I mean, Zoey's key necklace is what makes her her!" she narrows her eyes at Logan because he's just being difficult and completely humorless. This situation is not funny. "Logan, this isn't even remotely funny."
He's smirking slightly and leans forward. "I only lie if it makes me good. I do a lot of things to make me look good. I'm not trying to be funny here," and then frowns. "So, you're smart, Pensky – "
"Don't address me like that."
"How about no?"
"How about I don't tell you how to carry out this intervention effectively?"
Hypothetically, if he's the kind of guy to admit defeat at the moment, then yeah, he will.
But Logan Reese isn't that kind of guy so he won't admit it.
"Ugh," Logan rolls his eyes. "Fine, Quinn, just tell me so I can get outta here," the rows and rows of books seem never-ending. "I can't stand the books and Ms. Burnaby hates me."
Now, it's Quinn's turn to sigh.
It's the first time she's mentally tired because well, Logan's difficult and not a nice person.
"There's only one way to make Chase see the effects of what he's doing. Michael will try to protect him because it's in his nature. So," Quinn says. "You can be blunter. Just break him down."
Because Quinn actually thinks Logan may be the person to push all of Chase's Zoey-related buttons and force him to the bottom. From the bottom, there's nowhere to go but upwards.
Logan's confused. Break Chase – what?
Well, there is that lame stuffed giraffe Chase and Zoey name Stanley together and Chase sleeps with it more and more. Logan's sort of tempted to take discrete pictures for his own amusement but now it's just kind of…sad. Way to lose your balls, Matthews, he adds as an afterthought.
Stanley, the lame stuffed giraffe.
Logan can totally work with that after he buys a lock and steals a screwdriver.
"You do come in handy."
Quinn furrows a brow and glances upwards as he stands. "Thank you?"
"I got things to do. I'll see you whenever – I guess."
And then Logan bolts out of there like a bat out of hell amidst Ms. Burnaby yelling at his back. Like clockwork, Mark finally shows up with his homework, brandishing a baked potato as he bites into it.
"Oh, uh," Quinn acknowledges his presence and smiles. "Hey baby."
"Hey," Mark replies sits, looking apathetic even though there's AP Chemistry homework and snuggling on the agenda.
Well, the snuggling is on Quinn's agenda and she hopes it's on his too.
.
.
.
As smart as she is, Quinn's as not sure and as assured as she once is with Mark, she ponders as she drops a piece of dry ice in a beaker and a single yellow tulip, lands in her peripheral vision.
A/N: Oh, my goodness. This has been sitting in my hard drive for nearly a year. I don't know how to end it so I guess, you guys can enjoy it as is. I don't know how you can take that after being non-existent on the fandom for a year and a half. I know, I've got two stories not done – I'll get them done. I have all the time in the world. But right now, all of my energy goes into school, work and a monster sized Y&R oneshot that is about 40 pages long and not even half done. It's Billy&Victoria though, and I'm quite proud of it.
Hopefully, you got the whole yellow tulip thing. That's my sad attempt at symbolism. I understand you guys hate this…and me for just disappearing on you guys.
I just miss posting stories on the site, in general. I haven't since like last October.
-Erika