Camp Paradis || Jean Kirstein

She's Not Nice But She's Cool

Unknown Number:
I'm on my way to the studio
see you there

  I had to assume it was Jean who texted me that morning. I saved his number as I headed down the stairs, walking past Reiner on his way up, "Cover for me?" I asked without looking up.

  "Yup." he responded, continuing up the steps.

  I didn't really care about what my parents would have to say about me running off with Jean for the day, it was more to cover Jean's ass so he wouldn't getting in trouble for running off with the boss's daughter.

  I put my phone into my crossbody purse and headed for the studio. When I got there, it was crowded just like last week. People outside were making sure they had everything they needed and the people inside the building were grabbing their paintings from this week.

  After about waiting against the railing of the steps for about fifteen minutes, I heard the door close behind me as a pair of women came down the steps. Jean's footsteps came right behind them, "Wow, you came."

  He stopped next to me on the other side of the railing. I craned my neck up to look at him, "Are you going to make fun of me all day or are you going to teach me to drive stick?"

He continued down the steps, "Can't I do both?" I followed him as he led me towards the exit of the camp. God, I was so ready to get out of here. Even if it was just for a day, I felt like I was going crazy in here. It was going to be nice to get a taste of the real world,

  "You're still ok with going to Trost?" he glanced at me over his shoulder, spinning his lanyard around his hand, "It's like two hours away, but I know there's the high school parking lot that'll be empty we could drive in."

"It's whatever. I'm just glad to get out of here." he led me to the parking lot where he walked right to the older red truck that I knew right away was his. It was towards the back of the lot with what I was assuming were other staff vehicles.

It was a small red truck that was actually in decent shape for how old it looked. It had to have been from the nineties, maybe even earlier. It definitely seemed like a Jean thing to drive. I could picture him driving it to school, or picking a girl up on for a date in it.

  I heard the truck unlock and I walked over to the passenger side as Jean got in the driver's. The bench seat offered a decent amount of space between us and the gear shift was directly in the middle under what looked like a radio. It had the dials of one, but it looked like it would only play cassettes.

  My foot knocked on a box and when I looked down I saw a small cardboard box that was full of them. I picked them up and put them in my lap, "Oh, sorry." Jean apologized, "I forgot those were there."

I picked one up to look at it, "I didn't even know they still made these."

"They don't. I've found these." he pulled the box out of my lap and put it in the space between us, "You can find one you want to listen to if you want."

He shifted the gear and started up the truck. It turned over, but wouldn't start at fist. He had to turn the key a few more times and it finally started, "Is that normal?" I didn't want the truck to explode while I was in it.

"Yes." he put his arm along the back of the seat and turned around to back out, "I told you this thing is old as shit." he looked back forward and we headed off.

I shifted around in the tapes some more before picking one up. Jean's taste in music wasn't the best, he appeared to be into the classics but considering his radio, it seemed like he didn't have much of a choice. I pushed it into the slot and after a moment, music started to come through the shitty speakers.