Classes were done for the day; the students only had an introductory lesson to meet their homeroom teacher and be told what to expect. It was 11:12 AM, and the campus was packed with first-year students. Some students were looking around the campus, some were socialising and getting to know more people, while others were shopping for essentials. The campus was extravagant; it didn't look like a campus. It had restaurants, coffee shops, clothes shops, a grocery store and even a designer store. This setup was perfect for the students as it imitates the real world and lets them act like adults. That being said, with this kind of setup and the amount of freedom these students now have access to, it doesn't mean they'll be responsible. It could be shown by students splashing their credits on designer and extortionate drinks. To them, the credits were limitless, but they'll soon realise how long a month is and how much credits are needed to live like an average human in a day. Meanwhile, in a convenience store, two boys were shopping for essentials they would need to live together.
"You brought a toothbrush with you, right?" Lucas asked, holding a basket full of essentials.
"Yeah, why? Did you?" Benjamin replied.
"I did, but I didn't bring toothpaste. Did you?" Lucas said while looking at the shelves filled with toothpaste.
"Nope", Benjamin replied with his hands in his pockets, looking around.
"Damn, we could've saved some credits", Lucas picked up two tubes of toothpaste.
"Hehe, you're pretty cheap. It's fine, we're living together. We can split who pays for what", Benjamin followed Lucas, who put the toothpaste in the basket.
"I just don't wanna run out of credits".
"You're not. Unless you buy something stupid," Benjamin said.
"I guess…. What else do we need? We've both got our towels, uh", Lucas mumbled to himself.
"Bro, it's fine. We haven't even got our keys yet. First, let's get our key and our suitcases from the office. Then we can see if we need anything else after we've unpacked", Benjamin said.
"Hmm, okay. That sounds good", Lucas agreed, still looking at the shelves on either side of him.
"Damn, I imagined David acting like this, but not you", Benjamin joked while they walked to the till.
"It's just that I'm organised. I don't like being messy or all over the place", Lucas replied.
"I hear it. That's probably why you didn't pick Malakai or William as a roommate".
"Pfft never. I think Malakai would be okay. He seems a little organised, he's just lazy. William would be an animal", Lucas dreaded the thought of it.
"The two of them as roommates are a match made in heaven", Benjamin laughed. They both laughed while walking, not paying attention to their surroundings until…
CLANG! Some metal pots and pans fell to the floor.
"Oh shit! My bad, dude", Lucas bumped into someone.
"No problem, I'm okay, don't worry about it", He said while picking up his items off the ground. He stood back up, looking at Lucas.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking at where I was going", Lucas apologised, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine, you don't have to apologise. I'm not hurt. It's a pretty small aisle, an accident was bound to happen", he replied. "I'm Ryan, by the way. Who are you two?"
"I'm Lucas."
"Benjamin"
"Nice to meet you two. If I'm not mistaken, are you two friends with that guy that said he had an AK-47?"
"Yeah", Lucas answered, smiling.
"Really! I want to meet him, he's a strange guy", Ryan said enthusiastically.
"He's nothing special, he's just an idiot". Benjamin replied.
"I still think it will be interesting talking to him". Ryan looked down at his watch. "I need to get going. I'm in Class B, so if you want to talk more, you know where to find me", Ryan said, waving while walking away.
Benjamin and Lucas watched him go. "What a nice guy", Lucas said.
"He looked good as well, no homo. I think he might be a model", Benjamin uncertainly said. They both made their way to the till.
"Yeah, he's got to be. He has long brown hair, clear skin, and is tall with stylish glasses", Lucas listed Ryan's appearance.
"You got some competition", Benjamin mocked.
"No, I'm not a model. I just look good". Lucas confidently replied.
"Yeah, yeah, just pay for the stuff dumbass".
With that, they both left the convenience store with the sun shining in their eyes, causing them to squint.
"How long did we take?" Benjamin asked, covering his eyes.
Lucas checked his phone. "Woah like 25 minutes", he replied while his eyes still readjusted.
"Should we look for the others or just get our key?" Benjamin asked.
"Let's get the key, but if we see any of them on the way, we'll get our keys together with them".
They both went to the main office, wandering past shops and glancing at the windows. It was a peaceful stroll until, in the distance, they could hear.
"Why the fuck did you buy that?" A voice shouted in pain.
"What do you mean! We need it. How are we gonna have fun?".
They both looked towards that direction and walked closer until they could determine who was arguing. It didn't take long for them to realise.
"They haven't even moved in yet".
"All four of them are there. Let's go".
They both walked towards their friend group.
"Why are you two already arguing?" Lucas asked. The four of them looked towards Benjamin and Lucas, who were walking towards them.
"Look what Malakai bought", William pointed at the shopping bag.
"What?" Benjamin asked, he couldn't tell what it was.
Malakai grinned and placed the shopping bag on the floor. He then pulled out a PlayStation 5.
"We needed it. What are we gonna do when we're bored? We ain't gonna be studying all the time", Malakai tried to argue his case.
William looked over at David like a child looking at their dad to solve their problem.
"He's not my roommate", David shrugged his shoulders.
"It can be a good thing because if any of us want to play some games, we can come to your dorm", Ray said, trying to stop the argument.
"See, Ray understands. He sees the vision", Malakai happily said, pointing at Ray.
William gave a disappointed look towards Ray. "No, he is trying to see the positives", William complained. "He's too nice, he was always going to say that".
"There are only positives with this. Why are you hurt? I wasted MY credits, not yours", Malakai argued.
Benjamin, Lucas and David looked at each other, knowing Malakai might have won the argument.
"Yes, you bought it with YOUR credits. Now you're not going to use YOUR credits for stuff we need because you bought a PLAYSTATION FIVE! We only have 2500 credits. All of MY credits are now going to be used for essential becuase YOU wasted half of YOURS", William ranted.
"ONLY 2500?!" Malakai replied.
"Okay, okay. Let's calm down. He already got the PlayStation, there's nothing we can do about it now. How about we get our dorm keys? If we go together, we'll probably get rooms next to each other", David jumped in before William could reply and escalate the argument.
William rolled his eyes in defeat while Malakai looked towards the rest of the group and smiled like a younger sibling who got away from being scolded. The six started walking towards the office; Ray and David were carrying no bags as they didn't buy anything. On the other hand, William had a bag full of ingredients to fill the fridge, and then you had Malakai, who was carrying a big bag with a PlayStation 5 inside.
"So you two didn't buy anything?" Benjamin asked David and Ray.
"We just looked around. We didn't know what to buy, so we decided to get our key first. Then we saw these two outside and joined them", Ray answered.
"Yeah, I hope we get rooms next to each other. That would be cool", Lucas said.
"We should because we are going one after another", Malakai replied.
"I think Lucas and Ben should get the room in the middle. I don't want to hear noise from Mally and Will arguing when I'm trying to sleep", David quickly got his say in. Both Benjamin and Lucas turned towards David.
"No, no, no, I need to sleep", Lucas quickly replied.
"We're not going to be noisy", Malakai said.
"You're both going to argue a lot", Benjamin told him.
"No, we're good friends. We would never argue. Am I right?" Malakai said in a sarcastic tone, smiling and looking towards William.
"Don't talk to me", William replied, not even looking at Malakai. Ray giggled.
The six kept walking straight, loudly joking with each other ahead until they all noticed something that made their noise awkwardly disappear.
Two bodies stuck together.
The boys kept walking closer as they had no choice. They had to continue in that direction. The closer they walked, the more awkward it got. The six of them silently speed-walked past the two figures and looked at everything but those two figures.
The sky, the floor, the buildings around, the nature, and each other. Anything but those two figures.
Once they were past that awkward attraction.
"Bro..." Malakai said, keeping his voice low just in case. "French kissing at 11:30 in the morning is crazy."
"In an open place in front of everyone," William added, wanting to peek behind, but was too scared.
"Making me feel lonely already," Benjamin joked, trying to get rid of the awkwardness.
"Should us two recreate that, Ben?" Malakai said, grinning, taking the joke to another level.
"Shut the fuck up," Benjamin laughed, lightly pushing him. "Get out of here, man."
The jokes made everyone start laughing again, like the awkwardness wasn't even there to begin with.
David glanced back, "I didn't think I'd see that on the first day."
The two figures, French-kissing, finally stopped. They pressed their foreheads together and locked eyes, which immediately unlocked each other's smiles. To each other, it was like they were the only two people existing.
"Babe, I love you," Daniel gently said, while he caressed her cheek, lost in her eyes.
Olivia pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tight.
"I love you too," she replied. "I still can't believe we made it to this academy."
"I know," Daniel said, burying his head into her hair.
They stayed in each other's arms briefly before pulling away.
Daniel went into his pocket and got out a card. "Should we go to our dorm?" he asked while waving the key between his fingers.
Olivia excitedly nodded. "I can't wait, I'm so excited. We get to live together," she squealed while getting hold of Daniel's hand and clasping it.
"Me too. But we need to make sure we study so we can stay in the same class," Daniel mentioned as they began to walk.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine", Olivia reassured him, swinging her held hand. "Our class seems nice. I'm glad we didn't get that boy from the assembly"
"Why? He seems funny," Daniel honestly said. "I think he would be a good person to have around".
Olivia turned to Daniel. "No, I don't think he's funny," she replied, shaking her head. "What he did was really insensitive. I know people who were in school shootings. It's not something you can joke about."
"Yeah, but he wasn't serious," Daniel lightly said.
"People have died from school shootings, Daniel! How can you joke about that?" Olivia harshly replied, stopping on the spot.
Daniel's eyelids flicked up. He didn't expect that reaction."I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about it like that," Daniel immediately apologised, turning his body to her. "I don't think we'll have to see him that much because I think he's in the class above us," he continued, trying to cheer Olivia up.
"Seriously?! He is in 1-C. Is he smarter than us?"
That, in fact, didn't cheer her up.
"I thought he would be in 1-E," Olivia furrowed.
Her mood soured after hearing that. Daniel quickly noticed and then suggested, "Forget about him," he said, lovingly squeezing her hand. "Are you hungry? We could get something to eat before we go to our dorm."
Olivia couldn't help but smile a little, "Yeah, I want a milkshake."
Daniel smiled wider and pulled her forward, "Okay, let's go!"
They both walked towards the mall holding hands, like a scene from a Disney movie. On their way, they passed a coffee shop with a plain-looking brown-haired boy sitting alone at a table outside. He watched as they happily strolled past him. He followed their movement across him with his eyes, keeping his head in the same position. He wasn't thinking anything bad about them. He was just watching them, not thinking of anything. When they both passed him, he was back alone in his thoughts.
"I need to find a roommate," he thought to himself. "I don't care who it is. I need someone. Maybe I should've tried to talk to someone in my class."
His thoughts kept piling up. He wasn't stressing. It was just more things he had to do.
He noticed a group of people walking towards him from the corner of his eye. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling, not to look weird. At the brief glance he got of them, he recognised two of the five people, as they were in his class. He didn't see all his classmates' faces, but the two he remembered were quite memorable.
The group finally reached him and stopped in front of his table.
"Hey, you were in our class. Want to join us?"