Work Text:
A young woman stands in her bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 24th of August, 2020, is the day this young woman starts college!
Your name is JUNE. As previously mentioned, today is your first day of college. In the process of dressing, various articles of clothing are scattered about your room. You have a variety of interests, including a passion for really terrible movies. You like to program computers, you have a fondness for paranormal lore, and you are an aspiring magician. You also like playing games sometimes. What will you do?
You decide to check yourself in the mirror. You are quite a tall woman, sporting a pair of skinny jeans and a casual sweater that matches your blue eyes. Your shoulder length black hair is currently tied up behind your head, and large rectangular glasses frame your face as you break into a grin, showing your particularly large front teeth. It isn’t too cold today, but despite that you are wearing your favorite scarf; the lower half of your face is often found buried within this bright green garment. You’re quite happy you don’t live in a place that gets especially hot, because you wear it practically everywhere you go. The scarf is warm and soft, and will provide extra comfort for your early morning commute. It’s only 6:30 right now, but you should be leaving soon. Your first class is way too early for your taste, early enough that your twin sister Jade has elected to take her extra hours of sleep, and subject you to the cold morning air without any company. Might as well get going, no?
You step out in the morning, and boy howdy are you happy to have brought your scarf. It's about 70 which is warm for dawn in Washington, but you used to live in Texas. Summer highs of 110 have lent you a healthy appreciation for cool weather, and allow you to dress warm year round. Your feet brush the concrete sidewalk down the hill you live on, to the bus stop a couple blocks away. Your commute is a bit long, but you’re glad to be living where you do. The rent is cheap, so you and your sister can afford it with only part time jobs. You’re quite close to public transport, too. Sure, heading to your Intro to Film class so early might be a pain, but most of it will be spent in a bus or subway station anyway. Just as you pull out your phone to check the time, your bus pulls up, and you get on. You scan your pass and shoot a glance at the handful of people riding. Nobody familiar, obviously. Taking a seat near the middle and popping an earbud back in, you relax for the trip.
It is now very late. You stand in the back of the coffee shop you work at, elbows on the counter, eyes on the clock. It’s almost closing time, so nobody is in at the moment. Today has just been so strange, hasn't it? All on your bus ride, you could have sworn you heard a voice you recognised, but once you pulled out your earbuds, the voice stopped. And the same thing in your first class, the same voice you thought sounded so familiar, but the second you tried to focus on it, the person stopped talking. It was a strange voice too, one you probably wouldn’t hear on too many humans; grindy and shouty, like the speaker didn’t have much volume control. Not that you could blame them, you have the opposite problem. Your voice is very soft and people are always telling you to speak up. It’s not like you can help it, it’s just your natural volume. But work isn’t much respite either. Some cherub came in and started screaming at your coworkers earlier. Thank god you were on your break when that happened, you weren't sure you could go through both your first day of college and a horrible work shift within a few hours of each other. It’s been a long day, but you spent a good bit of it texting Jade with updates, just like old times. You’ve never been great at school, but you didn’t have any ideas for what to do with your life, so like most directionless teens, you hoped you’d find some purpose in higher education. It’s mostly been a great time reunited with your sister for a whole summer, not to mention at least one entire school year in the months to come. You'd been raised by your dad (your grandma’s foster son), while Jade grew up in the middle of the Pacific with your guys’ grandpa. You saw her on holidays, which was amazing, and you guys always talked over the internet, but living with her has been a completely different experience altogether, and truly a dream come true. She and you had spent your whole childhoods joined at the hip via several different online message services, to almost the exclusion of other friends. Sure, you had people you talked to, but there was never any doubt in your mind you two were twins. You and her shared everything together, and spent so much time talking, that Jade feels almost like a part of you now, like you two never spent most of your childhoods in different hemispheres. But you're suddenly pulled out of your reverie by the store’s computer. A new mobile order just came in, which surprises you. The store’s been empty for ages, plus who the hell is ordering at 10 at night? You click through the order, it’s for... a medium vanilla frappuccino, and a large mocha with four shots. Four shots?!? That's... a lot of caffeine. And the name for the order is....... ah. SWWEETbro420. Hilarious. You jump with a start as one of your coworkers taps you on the shoulder
ROXY: hey imma head out early if thats ok with u!
ROXY: callie’s been buggin me abt some new restaurant they wanna go to n i dont wanna b late
JUNE: oh yeah sure!
JUNE: wait first, check out this guy’s order
ROXY: lmao
ROXY: someones not gonna sleep tonite
ROXY: think it's a troll?
JUNE: oh, maybe...
JUNE: i forgot they can be nocturnal too
ROXY: yea aliens do b weird
ROXY: anyway, good luck with the memelord juney
JUNE: yeah, have fun on your date night!
They give you a little salute and head to the back room to get changed. Finishing up the drinks, you set them both down at the pickup counter and start preparing to close, moving the various milks and other ingredients into the fridge in the back, right as the bell at the front door rings. You quickly finish shoving it all the in the fridge and rush to the counter only to see a short troll just fucking booking out the shop as his buddy laughs his ass off in the truck parked out front. Oh my gog, his friend has sunglasses on, way past sunset. You desperately wish you could snap a picture as the troll hops in his buddy’s truck, hiding his face, and they pull out in a flash. You take a beat to process the entire scene that just unraveled in front of your eyes. What the fuck? That’s so weird! If anything, this is going to make a great story.