Chapter Text
“I once saw him during chemistry, when he was-“ a second-year student began.
“Wait, I thought he was a literature student?” a first-year student interrupted.
“Oh. She doesn’t know,” a third-year student said with a glint in her eye. “How exciting!”
Vriska held onto her drink for dear life as other students gathered around her to hear the stories about her new roommate. This was certainly not what she expected after she happily announced that she had finally managed to move out and rent a room on campus. She was just trying to make conversation while partying with some other students.
It had taken her over a year to move out, but she had gotten around to it last week. Vriska had thought that moving out would take too much time. She despised owing other people, and with her busy schedule it was hard to move all of her stuff on her own. Don’t even ask how she managed, but she did. She had found an ideal place that was close to the university building of her faculty, so the move would save her a lot of commuting time in the long run. Totally worth the effort!
Vriska had her room to herself, including her own bathroom, and had to share her kitchen in the common area with only one other roommate. Most students she knew had to share their common area with more than four other people. What a drag that would be. Any potential roommate would likely be a lot lazier than she was. Then again, she set a high bar. Vriska considered herself lucky having to deal with the whims of only one lousy roommate.
That is, until tonight.
The third-year student, her friend Feferi, looked at the short first-year student. “So you don’t know! You first-years always fall for it!” She laughed heartily and called over one of her peers. “Hey, where were you when you saw that weird guy? You know, polka dot pajama pants!”
The girl looked a few years older than Vriska and appeared to be another third-year student. Her face turned to excitement when she understood that it was time to introduce another unsuspecting young student to the tale. “Oh, you mean Gamzee? I saw him at neuropsychology once. But my friend the next town over said that she has seen him in her psychology class, and she doesn’t even go to the same university as us.”
Vriska’s shock was tangible, and Feferi seemed to be enjoying it. “Tell her what you saw,” Feferi said to her peer.
“I couldn’t believe it, Vriska. He was sitting in the lecture hall at five minutes before nine. I had trouble getting to that early class on time and believe me, I tried to. You’d think he had all his shit together, being up early like that, if it weren’t for those pajama pants. Everyone I’ve talked to has seen him wear the exact same polka dot pajama pants everywhere he goes. You know, I was actually early to that class for once and I didn’t even see him walk in. Suddenly, he was just there. You’d think I would’ve seen him walk in, but I didn’t. Anyway, you know what he did next?”
She paused, and Vriska shook her head to get her to continue her story.
“Right as the professor was about to start the class, he reached into his backpack and took out this huge fucking McDonald’s bag and began eating. It was like a full menu with extra fries or some shit.”
“So, you’re telling me this guy is weird?”
“You have no idea,” said Feferi. “He’s a bit of a legend around here, Vris. I can’t believe you haven’t seen him, ever. You’ve been here for, what, two years now? Everyone has their Gamzee story. I guess there was bound to be someone who hadn’t seen him at all, though I didn’t think it was possible. Ah, this whole just keeps getting better and better.”
Vriska began feeling annoyed. “You’re messing with me. How can a guy be in all these different classes. What’s he a student of, for real?”
The other girl replied: “No idea. Not even us senior students know. He’s been around longer than all of us. Nobody knows if he’s even taking any classes.”
“Or if he’s ever been enrolled at all.” Feferi added with a wink.
“You’re messing with me,” Vriska repeated. “Trying to get me to worry about something as stupid as that.”
“Nope. We really don’t know, Vris. I’m sorry. Good luck with him, though. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be roommates with him.”