I Must Be Dreaming

When Rowan and Andrew entered in the Commons, she invited him up to her room to get some food since they hadn’t bothered to go eat anything on their way to the library and on the way back. She also wanted to show off her room even if she still lived in a dorm liked how it was set up.

"I can't believe you're a senior and live in a dorm." Andrew teased as they walked up the stairs to the second floor where Rowan and Quinn's room.

Rowan just shrugged, "Hey, don't hate. It's convenient for me to not have to walk off campus."

Andrew smiled and shook his head at her as she flipped through her keys. He noticed that most of the doors were decorated and had a dry erase boards on them. When Rowan stopped at her door he could totally tell that she had decorated it. In Red and White letters tapped to the door was 'Rowan and Quinn's Room', 'WE R FINALLY SENIORS, BITCHES!!', and 'CARDINALS 4 LIFE'. There were some random pictures of them on the door as well. On their white board, '96 days til Christmas!', 'Dallas wuz here...Recently', 'I <3 Hot Chelle Rae.', 'Rowan Kowalski is a sexy beast!' was scrawled in hot pink letter.

When Rowan saw this she took her lime green marker, ran down the hall way and wrote on someone else's board, she came back to Andrew laughing and unlocked the door,

"Sorry, inside joke. Let us get some food now."

She allowed Andrew to walk in first and as he did he knew which side was Rowan's because of all the various band posters, pictures, Boston knickknacks, and the Canadian Flag tapped to the wall. He sat down at her desk as she shut the door. Her roommate’s side was a little more feminine than Rowan’s. She had a lot more pinks and purples with tons of pictures. There were a few pop star’s posters on her walls as well one of those wall decoration things.

"Hey, Sparky, what do you want? We have Kraft Mac & Cheese, several types of Campbell's Soup To Go, a couple Lunchables, and some leftover pizza." She asked as she looked through the tiny refrigerator near the closet and the shelves on either side of the TV.

"You pick." He told her, he'd eat anything at the moment. "It doesn't matter to me."

Rowan rolled her eyes at him and said, "Fine, Mac and Cheese it is." Then went to work on their lunch. Rowan plugged her phone into the iHome so they could have some background noise.

"You don't like attention, do you?" Rowan asked Andrew out of the blue after she had finished eating her portion of the cheesy noodles. The notion had been bothering her for the past couple hours and at the moment she just wanted to nail the question in the end.

"What makes you think that?" Andrew asked his face reddening, embarrassed because he was afraid of she’d think of him if he told her that he really doesn’t like to talk about himself at all. Rowan just shrugged for a moment and then it came to her,

"You get this look on your face whenever I ask you questions, going to the library, and now sitting here in the Commons when there isn't anyone around." Rowan pointed out, "You're so humble about everything, too."

Andrew was surprised that Rowan had figured him out so quickly. Well, he had made it kind of obvious though. She didn't seem to mind it at all,

"Yeah. I never have liked it." He admitted, taking one of her hands in his, "It's hard to be in the position I am and ignore it but I do because it's not all about me. I'm a regular person just like everyone else."

"Yes, you are Mr. Honda Accord." Rowan winked at him with a mischievous smile.

"I am, Miss. Chevy Malibu." He smiled back at her. He was surprised that she hadn't attempted to shove or injure him. So he chose to wrap his arm around her neck and give a nuggie. She gasp in surprise when he did this but laughed anyway. She made no attempt to get away either. He let her go because she had taken the fun out it and she began to her hair,

"Well, that was uncalled for." She informed him. Andrew rolled his eyes at her and nodded,

"Yeah, I think it was."

Rowan shook her head at him, "No, it wasn't."

"It was."

"Wasn't"

"Was"

"Wasn't"

While they were arguing or flirting whichever way one would look at it, they leaned closer and closer so that their noses were brushing. They were about to seal the gap between their lips when the dorm door suddenly opened and someone yelled,

"Hey, Kowalski, no PDA!!" Can you guess who that is? If you guessed Dallas then... you were correct.

Rowan groaned and leaned her forehead against Andrew's shoulder. He rubbed her back as if to say there would other times. She looked up both Dallas and Quinn standing in the doorway. Dallas seemed to be pleased with himself but Quinn looked extremely pissed off.

"Hey, Rowan, how are your 'plans' going?" Dallas winked at her, trying to get a rise out of her, but she wasn't going to give in. Quinn didn't say anything as Rowan looked for her to say something but instead she turned around and walked out of the room.

Rowan stood up to go after her but Dallas stopped her.

"I wouldn't do that, Ro... You know how she gets when she is mad."

Rowan bit down on her bottom lip and fold her arms over her chest,

"I know... But she needs to know why I didn't tell her."

Dallas shook his head and shoved his hand into his short's pockets. He knew that Rowan hadn't known where she and Andrew stood before today, but he hadn't been aware of the fact they were that close. He looked at Andrew with some envy.

Rowan was leaning on Andrew for some support something that she used to do with Dallas all the time. It was a slap of reality to the face for him, but Dallas had always known that Rowan wasn't his that was why he had turned his attention to Quinn. He knew he at least had a shot with her.

"Dal, are you ok?" Rowan asked her friend, her heart ached for his pain, "You can go to her if you want... I understand."

"No, Rowan, you don't!" She flinched even though he hadn't shouted at her, but the coldness of his words stung her,

"YOU are the one who had the choice to tell her before this even started, but you didn't. Why? I'm not sure but you did. YOU'RE the one who needs to go to her and apologize."

Rowan sighed, knowing Dallas was somewhat correct about the situation and turned to Andrew, "I'm sorry, Sparky, I gotta go try to fix things."

Andrew nodded, "Yeah, go. Fix things with Quinn. Griff and Chris wanted me to hang out with them some anyway."

Rowan rolled her eyes as he got up to walk out of the room and stood up as well because she wanted to walk him out before things got nasty, “You know I technically have to escort you out of the dorm, right?”

“You do?” Andrew questioned, until she winked at him and then he agreed, “Oh, yeah, that’s right you do have. Hall policies, right?”

She nodded to confirm that his statement was correct as she took Andrew by the hand and led him out of her dorm room. Once somewhat down the hall from where her door was still open, she stopped them and turned to apologize to him,

“I’m sorry about that… I didn’t want to tell either of them until I knew for sure what was going on. They make such big deals out of things. You should’ve had to see that.”

Andrew understood where she was coming from. He wouldn’t have told the guys about if Griff hadn’t been there when he first met her.

“I would’ve done the same thing, Ro.” He shared with her as he gave her hand an assuring squeeze. Before he began to lead them both down the stairs to the commons of her residence hall.

Once they were outside, their hands broke apart as they stood there waiting for other to do something. Neither of them was too sure of what to do. What would’ve been their first kiss had been ruined by her friends, which left them both confused to if they should kiss now or not.

Blushing, they both decided that now was the right time or place to have their first kiss. Instead, they just settle for a lingering, parting hug. At the point, Andrew noticed just how perfectly her tiny fame fit into his arms. It was like he could protect her just simply wrapping his arms around her. She was the prefect size for him even if her hear barely reached his chest.

They were both reluctant to part, but they knew that they had other things that need to be attended to.

“Have fun with the guys. You’ll probably be having more fun than what I will be." Rowan sighed as she stepped out of Andrew’s embrace.

“Yeah… Don’t stress out too much about it. I think that she’ll get over it eventually.” Andrew encouraged her, grasping her hand with his large bear paw of a hand as he gave it a comforting squeeze. “But if you need anyone to talk to afterwards. Feel free to call me.”

“Okay,” She nodded, squeezing his hand in return, “See You later?”

"Definitely!" Andrew confirmed, “Have a good night.”

With that Andrew headed off in the direction of the house that he lived in with some of his teammates. Rowan stood where he had left her, watching him walk away until she could hardly see him anymore before she turned back to face her roommate.

******

Rowan unlocked the door and walked into her dorm room. The shower was running so she decided to sit down with her back against the door. Quinn must’ve come back to their room while she had walked Andrew out.

"Quinn?" She called.

No answer

"Quinn?"

Still no answer...

"Quinn, I know you're ignoring me but I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry for not telling you about Andrew." Rowan apologized, resting her chin on top of knees and hugging her legs.

Quinn turned the shower off when she heard this. She knew Rowan wasn't lying about being sorry but it still didn't stop how much it hurt that Rowan hadn't told her. Wrapping a towel around her body she tried to open the door.

"Rowan! Move!" Quinn commanded.

"No!" Rowan defied, "Not unless you let me tell you why I didn't want anyone to know."

"Really Rowan?" Quinn huffed, "I don't want to hear it." Pounding on the door for Rowan to move, but no avail she stayed true to her cause.

"Quinn, I didn't tell you because I never thought I would see him again... After that morning I ran into him. Literally. I thought it wasn't a big deal and if I told you that you wouldn't believe me." Rowan admitted, twirling her hair around her fingers.

"Did you run into him the morning we were all supposed to meet for breakfast?" Quinn inquired, leaning against the other side of the door.

"Yeah..." Rowan sighed, "I just happened to run into him. He was so nice about it and invited me to breakfast because he felt bad. I still don't understand why he felt bad though." Rowan laughed at the memory.

"He offered to take you to breakfast after you knocked him down? That's odd." Quinn laughed, "How could you even do that? You're so tiny!"

Rowan laughed with Quinn as well. She was having a difficult time grasping it herself. He was huge compared to her and yet she was easily able to knock him down. Instead of being mad about it, he asked her to breakfast.

"Yeah, I know. I don't think he was paying any attention either." Rowan pointed out,

"Dallas only knew because I guess he saw when I ran into him again after class on Wednesday. He called me out on it before the game Saturday and gave Andrew my name and number."

"Why your name?" Quinn asked, "Wait, hold that thought. Can you let me out? I'm freaking freeze!"

Rowan laughed and stood up, allowing Quinn to come out of the bathroom to put some clothes on. As Quinn came out, she punched Rowan's shoulder and then walked over to the closet. Rowan winced and turned around so that Quinn could change.

"What was that for?"

Quinn sent her a pointed look, even though Rowan wasn't facing her,

"You know why?"

"Because I didn't tell you about Andrew?"

"Yep." Quinn confirmed pulling her 'Star Wars: A New Hope' shirt over her head and then put on her red shorts with white hearts on them. After that she flopped on her bed. "I'm done."

Rowan then went to sit on her own bed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand as she waited for Quinn to say something. Fortunately, for Rowan, she didn't have to wait long.

"So why did Dallas give Andrew your name? Would he have already known it since he took you to breakfast?"

Rowan blushed and shook her head.

"You didn't tell him your name?" Quinn was surprised at this. Rowan wasn't usually the kinda of girl to mess with a guy's head.

"No, I didn't. I thought it was fun to watching him squirm." Rowan shrugged. Quinn almost laughed because it was so unlike Rowan to do that.

"You're horrible... So are you dating?" Quinn questioned, looking directly at her. Rowan tilted her hand in an kinda-sorta way. "What does that mean?"

"We just kinda agreed that we wanted to be more than friends but... I'm not really sure on the label." Rowan smiled, happily, wrapping her arms around herself.

"So are you guys going to be like FWBs?" Quinn giggled, when she saw Rowan's jaw drop in surprise. Quinn knew that Rowan wouldn't do stuff like that with anyone unless it was a real long term relationship. Which as Quinn realized was something that Rowan had never had...

"No!" Rowan gasped, "No way!! I-I'm not comfortable with that at all. We are seeing each other casually."

Quinn nodded, she was in a similar position with Dallas. They had recently reached a cross roads in their relationship where they either commit to each other or just stayed being friends.

"So are we good?" Rowan asked.

"Yeah, we're good." Quinn agreed, "So Andrew Luck, huh? What's that like?"

Rowan could only blush and giggle at the question, so she threw a pillow at Quinn.

*****

The next day Rowan, Quinn, and Dallas were seated in Mr. Harmon's communications class waiting to hear what he had come up with for them. The tension in the room was so thick that it would've had to have cut with a steak knife. Anyone could see Rowan shaking as she leaned back in her chair, looking around the room or glancing at the clock.

"Ro, chill out. Whatever he has planed for us isn't going to kill you." Dallas teased, trying to get her to calm down. Her ADD was getting in the way of her focusing.

"No, Dallas, I will not chill out!" Rowan snapped at him, slamming her fist on the table in front of her. She chose to ignore the stares that followed. It didn't matter now. Professor Harmon would give new assignments to everyone today.

There was one person in the group, who was fed up with her. No, it was not Alison. She wasn't in attendance today. Surprise, surprise. Wonder what she was doing over the weekend... Well, it was Josh. Yeah, the guy from before...

"Rowan, will you please shut up? You are getting annoying. No body cares that you got your assignment changed on Saturday." He snarled which turned everyone's attention from Rowan to him.

Rowan was surprised that Josh had actually snapped at her. Over the past couple years, she had grown to consider him as a friend. She wondered what happened to make him act like that. She wouldn't ask him now because he would need time calm down.

Just after his outburst, Mr. Harmon entered the meeting room. He had a pile of papers in his arms, most likely copies of the articles everyone had been assigned to write over the weekend. Rowan shifted in her seat, hoping that here's didn't have too many errors. She didn't know because she never did read it completely after looking at it in the gas station.

"I would like to congratulate everyone's effort in their articles. They were all exceptionally good. For that I am pleased." He began, making eye contact with Rowan before continuing,

"We had one young woman in here excel when her assignment got switched and I will be rewarding her and her partner a chance to work on my newest project. Which was inspired by their own work as Freshman."

Rowan and Dallas looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces, neither of them could remember them working on anything impressive when they were Freshman. The only thing that they had done was a series of webisodes of their 'Extreme Spring Break of '09', but that was the only thing...

"I was on YouTube looking for inspiration for a new project for the TCOMM course and I happened to stumble upon a series of sports videos made by our own Rowan Kowalski and Dallas Compton." He paused, briefly to clear his throat,

"Which were very well done and that was when I got the idea. Why can’t we have a sports show similar to 'Sports Nation'? So I proposed the idea to the board and they accepted it, immediately. All I need for the both of you to do is come up with a name and some segment ideas for the show."

Dallas then raised his hand and Mr. Harmon nodded signaling he could speak,

"What kinda of media are we going broadcast it on?"

Mr. Harmon was about to say something but stopped,

"We will start it out as a webcast on the school website and then go from there depending on the number of viewers."

"Anything specific theme?" Rowan spoke up, casting Dallas an excited smile.

"I had thought about it but I thought it would be a better idea to have you two come up with something on your own." He informed them,

"You two are dismissed to go plan. I would like a list of everything you come up with tomorrow so that I can get any materials or items you may need."

Dallas and Rowan nodded, gathering their things and walking out of the meeting room, and down the corridor. They went outside to hang out in Memorial Court as they waited for Quinn.

Sitting down in the grass, Dallas pulled out his iPad.

"Wanna come up with the name first?"

Rowan nodded eagerly and plopped down on the ground next to him,

"Um... Duh, but let's keep it Stanford-ish without the word Stanford in it."

Dallas nodded, "The Wild World of Dallas and Rowan?"

Rowan scrunched her nose up at that, "No, how about 'Angry Bird Sports?'"

Dallas mulled it over for a moment before saying, "That would be a great idea for a segment... What if we had Angry Birds where we picked games or something for Football?"

"Or we used it to make fun of people or plays... I don't know. Let's just focus on the name to start with... Bird is the Word?"

"I like that... It sounds like a talk show name." Dallas agreed,

"Now for some segments... How about like off the Morning Mash up we have 'Rowan vs the Campus' with a sports question or topic."

Rowan nodded, the gears turning in her minds eye as she spoke, "Then we follow that up with talking about PAC-12 Football. Any news related. We could have polls. Interviews. A fan guide to the up coming football game..."

"Anything sports related? Just PAC-12 or NCAA?" Dallas interjected, typing out ideas Rowan had just rambled off.

"Personally, I want to cover it all. Make it more diverse, but we will have to see how far we are allowed to go... What about having Winners and Losers, 3 Jeers and 3 Cheers? Oh and a 'Have Some!' moment."

"I totally was just thinking the same thing." He laughed, adding to the list again, "I think we are good. I'm sure Mr. Harmon will have some of his own ideas to throw in here and there."

Rowan agreed, texting Andrew the good news. Dallas knew it because she had this look on her face.

"Making plans with Andrew for this afternoon?" He couldn't help question with some bitterness.

"Um... No, I told I would tell him why I didn't get to interview him... Other than their post game press conferences which seem like are going to be what will be used instead of interviews..." She trailed off as she got received a txt back,

"He has an away game this week so you, Quinn, and I could all go to the movies."

Dallas considered this suggestion for a moment and was about to say something when Quinn wrapped her arms around his neck and exclaimed,

"And go bowling or roller skating?!"

Dallas winced in pain from the sound piercing his ear drum and covered his ear.

"What movie?"

"I wants to see Cowboys vs Aliens!" Quinn squealed again.

"Will you quit shrieking? Woman, I am going to go deaf from your high pitched noise!" Dallas groaned and Quinn kissed him on the cheek.

Rowan smiled her friends, noting how they fought like an old married couple and would have to tease them about it late. Quinn then interrupted their love Fest to ask Rowan,

"So what name did you losers come up with?"

"Bird is the Word." Rowan beamed as she texted Andrew back, filling him in on the details of what had happened after they had parted ways.

"That sounds like the title song from 'Grease'. 'Grease is the word, is the word that you heard'" Quinn started to sing.

"'It's got grove, its got feeling!'" Rowan chimed in, throwing her arm around Quinn and Dallas' shoulders and then they all sang, "Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion! Grease is the way we are feeling!'"

They all laughed at how off pitched they were so they stopped singing and got up because they had to get to their next class which was Journalism for Rowan, European history for Dallas, and Graphic Design for Quinn.

As they parted ways, Rowan caught Dallas kissing Quinn. She wondered if he had finally grown a pair and had asked her to be his girlfriend. She hoped that would be her and Andrew some day in the near future, but those thoughts would have to wait as she scurried off to her class hoping she wouldn't be late!