Chapter 2
Thomas had planned on having a relaxing evening since his afternoon class had been canceled due to the professor being sick. He was going to invite James over so they could watch a movie or something. That had been blown out of the water when Alexander showed up.
He didn’t dislike the kid, per say. He seemed like he would be very amusing. What he disliked, however, was having to show him around the campus. It was a rather large place and showing him even just the major spots would take a good while. He hated that Lafayette had tricked him into doing this so that he could more than likely go have personal time with his boyfriend.
He looked from the corner of his eye to Alexander who was walking quietly beside him, observing the buildings they passed. He thought the boy seemed a bit quiet but then again, he hadn’t seen him for long so he realized he couldn’t really judge that yet.
“The dorms don’t really have any names but they are referred to depending on their direction. Ours is the south dorm and there are other dorms in each corresponding direction. You can follow the sidewalks to each one as they make a type of rectangle,” he stated.
Alex’s only response was a nod, obviously trying to ignore Thomas as best he could. He let out a sigh and stopped, turning around to say something. Instead, Alex ran into him, having not been paying attention. The freshman released a grunt of surprise and Thomas grabbed him to make sure he wasn’t going to fall.
Alex blushed at the contact and quickly backed up, clearing his throat.
“Say something when you stop walking,” he grumbled.
Thomas held back a chuckle but the smirk appeared anyway.
“Well, maybe you should pay more attention, pipsqueak. Now, show me your class schedule,” he stated.
Alex seemed to get a bit defensive upon getting called pipsqueak and Thomas had to hold back another laugh. The shorter boy seemed a bit cute when he tried to look angry.
“Why do you need to see my schedule?” he demanded, obviously defensive now.
Thomas let out a sigh. “Do you want to know where your classes are or not? You can always try to find them on your own when you are heading to them but just know that the professors here are pretty strict about being late,” he said with a smirk.
Alex seemed annoyed by this revelation but stayed silent as he fished the schedule out of his jacket pocket. He took the piece of paper with a smirk and looked it over. His smirk soon died down as he noticed that Alexander seemed to have a few classes with him.
“How did you manage to score so many upper-level classes, pipsqueak?” he inquired, looking at the boy with a raised brow.
Again, Alex was obviously annoyed by the comment, his hands balling into fists at his side.
“Stop calling me pipsqueak, you tree. And it’s because I’m smart, unlike you probably,” he stated.
Thomas simply smirked, not bothering to respond. The kid would learn how wrong his words were during their classes.
“Well, I’m afraid you have a few classes with this ‘idiot’ so it looks like we’re both out of luck, short stack,” he said.
He heard Alex let out an annoyed huff at the new nickname but simply crossed his arms in annoyance, not bothering to say anything about it. He decided to stop messing with him for now, not wanting to waste any more time outside than they already were.
“I can only show you the buildings that some of them are in as many of the buildings close at a certain time. You’ll have to find the rooms themselves on your own. Think you can handle that?” he questioned.
“I can handle it just fine,” he replied with an annoyed tone.
Thomas thought he heard him add the word ‘asshole’ at the end of his statement but he decided to ignore it.
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It was six pm when they finally finished with the tour. Thomas gave a sigh as he looked at his watch.
“Well, that took longer than I had hoped but it’s time for dinner. Here is the cafeteria,” he said, stopping inside the moderately sized building.
Other students could be seen entering it and either going into the cafeteria or up the stairs. He led Alexander to the door and into the now busy cafeteria. A thought then passed Thomas’ mind and he gave a smirk as he turned to Alex.
“Have you been given your id card yet, Hamilton?” he inquired.
Alexander seemed to blush at this, causing Thomas to laugh in amusement. He wouldn’t be surprised if Lafayette had forgotten to give it to the boy with the rush he had been in to leave.
“N-no, Lafayette never gave me one and I never made it into the admin building,” he explained.
Thomas held back a smirk as his suspicion was proven correct. He gave his best sympathetic look.
“Well, maybe if you ask nicely I might be tempted to buy your meal for you this once,” he said, doing his best to fake an innocent tone.
He could tell from Hamilton’s face that he didn’t fall for it and crossed his arms in an annoyed pose, obviously not wanting to do what Thomas had said.
“Can you please buy my meal for me, Jefferson?” he asked, his tone making it obvious that he was pissed.
Thomas gave a smirk and leaned in.
“Well, normally I don’t buy dinner for people I’m not interested in but I guess I’ll make an exception for you, short stack,” he teased with a playful wink.
With that, he left a flustered Alexander and walked up to the lady scanning id.
“I’ll be paying for two meals today, miss,” he informed the woman.
The woman gave a polite nod and motioned Alexander and himself ahead. Upon entering there were several options such as salad, home-cooked meals, pizza, ice cream, and much more. Thomas gave a snort of amusement upon seeing Alexander’s shocked face.
“Careful. You might catch a fly with that,” he said before heading to the pizza line.
Alexander followed a moment after and Thomas figured it was probably due to not really knowing what to do. They stayed silent in line, though the room itself was far from it. Chatter could be heard from every corner, making it obvious that it was full of talkative students.
When they were finally up, Thomas picked what appeared to be a very cheesy slice of pizza and sprinkled it with parmesan. He noticed Alex picked a slice of pepperoni and sausage and mentally shook his head. He could never understand how people managed to eat those greasy things.
Thomas looked around for Madison and gave a smile when he finally saw his friend but it wavered a bit when he saw that he was sitting with Aaron Burr. He gave an eye roll but approached the table.
He reached the table and sat his tray down with a sigh. Madison gave an amused chuckle before speaking.
“What’s wrong, Thomas. Having trouble with the new kid?” he inquired, observing Alexander who was now sitting at a table with Lafayette, Hercules, and John.
“I can’t believe they roomed me with a freshman,” he responded, sitting in his seat with an obviously annoyed look.
A laugh sounded from Burr and he only grew more annoyed before the guy even spoke.
“I didn’t think a freshman would be able to annoy you so easily, Jefferson,” he said, a smug look resting on his face.
Thomas held back the eye roll that he wanted to do in response. Instead of him having to say something, Madison stepped in for him.
“Well, Aaron, if you think that he isn’t that bad, why don’t you let him room with you?” he inquired with a snicker.
Aaron went silent and his eyes went wide. He seemed to get nervous as he scratched his head.
“Uh, yeah, about that. I uh…got somewhere to be,” he said before quickly leaving the table and the cafeteria.
Thomas gave an amused chuckle, shaking his head in admiration.
“Wow, James. You really know how to get unwanted people to leave. Maybe you could do the same with my roommate,” he suggested, taking a bite of his pizza.
James gave a chortle and shook his head. “Nope. You run off every single roommate you ever get. It’s about time you actually have to deal with one,” he stated, crossing his arms and giving Thomas a judgmental look.
Thomas gave a defeated sigh and looked over at where Alexander and the others were, shaking his head.
“Dealing with him will be a handful. I can already tell this year is going to be rough. Especially since we apparently share some classes,” he explained, staring at his partially eaten pizza.
Madison gave another amused look but didn’t speak again, the two finishing their food in silence as the rest of the cafeteria continued to chatter.