Snapshots

14. Izzy

Ironically, Izzy doesn't really get to know Finn and Piper until after they've all left The Next Step behind, when they're in their last year of college and she's in her first.

She's going to school in Peterborough, an hour and a half away from home and her family. It's just far enough away to feel like she actually has the independence she's always wanted but close enough to go home on the weekends, which she does perhaps more often than she should, much to the utter dismay of her old 2006 Nissan Altima that she inherited from her mother on her sixteenth birthday.

It's the last night before spring break, and she's looking forward to a week at home. She and Ozzy have big plans of binging the entire Blade of Dragons series before the next installment comes out next week.

Most of all, she's looking forward to getting away from her roommate. Skyla Morris- very friendly but has absolutely no concept of personal space. Izzy's come back from class to find a new guy with her roommate every week. To each their own. She's not one to judge. She just hopes Skyla has enough decency to not be fooling around with them all behind their backs.

The only guy who sticks around for longer than a week is Miles. He lasts for three but apparently decides to end things with Skyla right before spring break. She's so distraught about it, she drinks herself sick (literally). Izzy's friend Maggie, who's going to school for nursing, declares Skyla to have alcohol poisoning, and Izzy's fairly certain that means her roommate will be stuck in the dorm at least a few days, effectively ruining whatever plans she had for the break.

But that's not Izzy's problem.

She loads her car as soon as classes end on that Thursday afternoon and prepares to head home- but her car doesn't start. No matter what she tries, her 2006 Nissan Altima seems to give out, refusing to take one last trip home.

She's devastated, stranded at her dorm with a roommate suffering from alcohol poisoning. Maggie's already left, so she has no choice but to tell her family she's stuck and return to her room to figure out what to do next.

A couple of hours later, she's sitting on her bed, earphones plugged in and blasting music to block out the sound of Skyla's whimpering. She's sorting through what little money she's earned from her job at the campus bookstore and wondering if it's enough to afford a bus ticket home when a sudden pounding on the door draws her attention.

With a dramatic sigh, Izzy hops off her bed, striding to the door since Skyla's in no state to answer it herself. She assumes it must be someone coming to check in on her roommate but freezes when she pulls open the door.

Piper and Finn are standing in the hallway of her dormitory.

Izzy blinks, her brows knitting together. Why are Piper and Finn standing in the hallway of her dormitory?

"Hey," Finn greets with a grin and a nod of greeting, as casual as if he shows up at her dorm room every Thursday night.

Izzy pulls an earbud out. "Hi?"

Piper seems to pick up on the bewildered look in her eye and quickly explains, "Ozzy sent us on a rescue mission. He said you're stuck."

"Yeah," Izzy says slowly, "My car won't start."

"We're here to take you home," Piper continues, "Ozzy would have come himself, but he has a night class on Thursdays, and you know your brother. He doesn't miss school for anything."

It's a nice gesture and not at all unlike Ozzy to do something out of the ordinary in the name of having her back. But Izzy still can't believe that Piper and Finn, of all people, would drive an hour and half just for her. Heathcliff or Winnie, maybe, but Piper and Finn? She hardly knows them compared to the rest of Ozzy's friends.