Mage:What Passed Before

On tuesdays and thursdays when Alex had the real workload of academic classes, he would sit in front of the minor fine arts building smoking his cloves. He would often close his eyes and sit against one of the large pillars and let his mind wander. Subjects of fancy ranged from his next project in sculpture to just exactly how he would act if he ever met Neil Gaiman.
He and Neil were just shaking hands and about to leave together to meet Tori Amos for coffee when all of a sudden,
"Hey, you didn't come to class again." the voice was that of a woman, more like a girl and by no means Tori Amos. Alex opened his eyes and looked up at the girl looking at him with playful fury. At least Alex hoped it was playful fury. She was short and looked around seventeen or eighteen. Maybe a freshman at most, but she was beautiful in the classical sense. Pale skin, expressive eyes, heart shaped face, full lips and very long cascading red hair. Alex took in the dark green tee shirt and overalls she wore and she seemed a lot younger although familiar. She looked good, would look better if he knew whether he was looking at jail bait or not.
"You aren't one of those high schoolers who come up here for classes are you?" Alex asked.
Now the girl looked really irritated. She breathed in and held it for a moment and then let it out as if she was relenting to some long fought battle. "I'm twenty, the same age as you. We've had a lot of classes together."
"Really?"
"Yes, we actually have communications together this year."
"Thats how you know my age..I hate those introduction excercises."
"They are supposed to improve your listening skills." she said giving him a pointed look.
"They were more like a waste of time to me."
"What is my name?"
"Excuse me?"
"I remembered your name and age because I listened," she stressed the last word, "to you. Were you listening" she stressed the word again, "to me?"
Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, I just didn't recognize you with your..hair down. I've just got a shitty memory. Sandy, right."
The girl sighs. "My name is Julia, my favourite color is either dark green or red, and I..."
Alex looked up suddenly "went on an abroad program to Europe where I interned at the Globe!"
Julia smiled "I'm glad you remembered something about me."
"Well that was interesting." he said and quickly amended, "Not that you aren't interesting or anything like that. It was just the most interesting." he started running his hands through his hair and she looked at him with amusement.
"We are partners on the big project in comm."
"There is a big project?"
"Why am I not surprised you asked that?" she sighed a little exasperated.

And that is how Alex and Julia or Jules as he would call her, met.