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Kieren doesn’t think anything of it when he’s the first person into the room. He’s probably just really early, that happens sometimes.
So he doesn’t look at the clock and he doesn’t wonder where everyone is, just opens a sketchbook and tunes out everything else. It distantly registers when someone enters the room, but he doesn’t bother refocusing his attention. Class can go on without him for all he cares, this is a bullshit course anyway- seriously, why is Public Speaking a requirement, anyway? Especially for students like him; even if Kieren did have any interest in getting up to address a large group of people. there isn’t exactly a lot of demand for zombie guest speakers. Which is also bullshit, okay, he’s a person just like anyone else and-
"Excuse me," someone says next to him.
Kieren’s internal rant derails. He looks up to see one of his classmates- Simon, he thinks, with the accent and the face and the hands- and…no one else. What?
"What?"
"I thought you might like to know that no one else has arrived, and it’s half past ten. I don’t think class is happening today."
10:30, which means things should’ve started half an hour ago.
"Shouldn’t there have been an email or something? I checked this morning, there was nothing."
"Considering we’re the only ones who showed up," Simon says, "I think it’s obvious there was an email and that we didn’t get it. Probably not a coincidence, us being the only two undead students, don’t you think?”
Right; Simon, with his accent and his face and his hands, and his (rumoured) ULA connections. Of course he would immediately assume discrimination. (Kieren’s first thought was the same, actually, but that is completely beside the point).
"Right…well, thanks. I guess I’ll just…go wait in the library," Kieren says. It’s another three hours until his next class, he’s not looking forward to the tense boredom of the campus library.
"We could grab an early lunch? Together, I mean," Simon offers.
"You…I know you know we’re both zombies. What would be the point?"
"The company," Simon says, and oh.
Well, in that case.
"Just try to keep the radical activism to a minimum, okay?"