Chapter Text
Derek was laying in bed reading when Avery returned to the dorm, “Hey.”
“Hey,” Avery returned. He wasn’t up for conversation, but spoke anyway, “what are you reading?”
“The Iliad,” Derek responded.
What kind of a maniac reads The Illiad willingly? That book took Avery months to finish, and when he did, he couldn’t figure out its message. Avery was going to make a comment, but held back when he reminded himself that he doesn’t know this man well enough yet to mock his reading choices, even if it was playful mocking. He didn’t want to accidentally get on his roommate's bad side on the first day of knowing him.
“Nice,” Avery said. Avery was thankful the conversation ended there.
That night, Avery lay awake in his bed. Derek seemed to be asleep, facing towards the right side wall and back facing Avery. The moonlight shone through the small singular window the dorm room had, and it was quite comforting. Avery had been up for an hour after he and his roommate turned their lights off and claimed to sleep. Avery couldn’t sleep. He was used to staying up until 2am or later calling his friends, which he now missed even more than he already did due to most of them being long distance. Avery had accepted the fact that he would have to meet new people. He was normally great at it! What changed, he didn’t know. But he wouldn’t dwell on it for long. Avery wasn’t the type to dwell on problems and anxieties.
The man turned away from the window and rested his head on the cold, unfamiliar, and flat pillow in hopes of falling asleep.
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Countless papers were handed out to the hundreds of students in the artificially lit lecture hall. As Avery was handed a packet, he saw that it was a schedule, with colorful brackets and text filling every page. The complexity of it repulsed Avery’s attention.
“Good morning. Take a seat, take a seat, there’s plenty to go around,” the dean, Avery could assume, laughed as he confidently stood on the stage of the lecture. His voice was amplified by a microphone, yet he still quite quiet due to being drowned out by the noises of the students talking and shuffling around, taking their seats. After about 5 minutes, the dean cleared his throat and the room’s volume quickly soothed down to only a few whispers.
“Good morning, my name is Wifies. I will be the Dean of Admissions here at (damn what do I call this college I’m not creative enough to think of a reference). This will be my first year working here, so I’m just as new and nervous here as you guys,” he let out an awkward laugh, causing a chain reaction of very quiet laughter from a handful of students. “I am here to talk about some of your schedules and classes throughout the year, including what to do if you need to change your schedule,
need clarification…”
Wifies spoke for about half an hour, giving a clear, yet very monotone, lecture about classes and schedules and what the complicated spreadsheet color vomit Avery was holding in his hand meant. After Wifies left, a different guy with dyed purple hair came on the stage to speak about ‘our community and positivity’. Avery listened a lot more intently on this lecture than the previous, though he probably was the only person who took the lecture seriously, in an attempt to improve on his social life there, which had been lacking in the last few days.
Finally, presumably the last guy walked onto the stage to talk about what the next few days before classes would hold.
“Today, you all will stay on campus for a tour of your individual classes. This will be an opportunity to meet some of the students in your subjects. Also, this will give you a better feeling of what specific rooms to go to for your classes than what you got during orientation…”
After a little over 25 minutes, the lectures were over. Well, they were for a brief moment, until one of the faculty instructed the residential students to stay an extra hour for a briefing on dorm life and etiquette. Avery’s mind groaned with impatience.
“Hey,” a voice whispered from the right side of Avery's head. Avery slightly flinched at the unexpected noise, turning to see a familiar blonde with a low ponytail and glasses.
“Hey,” Avery smiled, taking the lecture guy’s advice of being warm and inviting to everyone.
“Mind if I sit by you?”
“Not at all, go ahead,” Avery answered, before bending down in his seat to move his bag to make space for the other man to sit.
The speaker had started his speech, but Avery’s eyes were on Derek. Derek was a fine looking man. Avery didn’t think that in a romantic sense or anything, it was just one of his first observations about him. That and Derek’s voice. Derek had a deep voice that sounded affirmative and confident, despite his quiet demeanor around others. Avery transitioned to Derek’s outfit, a red polo and khakis, before Derek’s eyes landed on Avery’s, and Avery averted his vision away to avoid giving the wrong idea. Avery listened to the lecture instead, as he should have been doing in the first place.