First Day
Eight was way too early to get up for school, who the hell starts school on a Friday? Those thousands of stairs the day before killed him. Jake’s legs felt like they would buckle underneath him at any moment. How was he supposed to go down the stairs and walk to class? They were going to break and he was going to fall down the stairs and die. That’s not how Jake wanted to go.
Jake’s first class was at nine, but he wanted to be nice and awake when he left. He also wanted to leave a little early just in case he had difficulty finding his class. He hadn’t had time to do that yesterday.
After a quick shower and getting ready as fast as he could, he noticed his roommate still asleep. He wondered when Eridan’s first class was. They hadn’t even talked about schedules in their short conversation yesterday. Oh well, that didn’t matter now. He glanced at his watch, he still had half an hour before class. Perfect. That would give him plenty of time to find his class, looking around the small campus, and pick out a nice seat.
Jake glanced at his schedule just to see what he had lined up for the day.
9:00 am Speech
10:00 am English Comp 101
11:00 am Introduction to Sociology
1:00 pm Theatre Production (Friday Only)
6:00 pm Improv I (Monday Only)
(Scholarship Class: Required)
These were his MWF classes, so it wasn’t too bad. He could do that.
Speech class was pretty easy. All he had to do was find a partner and tell the class about them. His partner was some sweaty guy named Equius. He was on the soccer team. His favorite color was blue and his best friend was a girl named Nepeta? At least that’s what he remembered. The most interesting part was that his name was related to the horse and kind of referenced from the boy who found a sexual attraction to horses? God, he felt sorry for that guy.
English was also relatively easy. They just had to write a paragraph telling the teacher what they did over the summer and what the most fun part was and why they thought it was so. There weren’t any partner opportunities, so he didn’t make any new friends there, just kept to himself.
Sociology. That was an interesting class. Jake was kind of early to the class, so he picked a random seat in the middle of the room. Not too close, not too far. A few other students came in, sitting away from him. Suddenly, there was this blonde student that came in. He had spiky hair and a hat on backwards. He was wearing a white polo. Wait...were those three collars?! Could this guy get anymore douchey? Oh yes, he could. He was wearing men’s sperrys and glasses indoors for crying out loud.
To top it all off, he sat right in front of Jake. Of all the seats he could’ve sat. He sat right in front of him. Jake groaned silently. He didn’t want to deal with this hot mess of a student in front of him. He just laid his head low and absentmindedly doodled in his notebook. The boy ahead of him was rather quiet. Until some other jocks came in. They sat around him and talked as loud as they could. Why did they feel the need to talk so damn loud? They’re right next to each other!!
Finally, the bell rang and the teacher quieted the other students down. He began roll call. Jake barely squeaked out a “here” when his name was called. He zoned back out and his attention was brought back when he heard “Dirk Strider.” Followed by, “Yo, yo, yo Stri-yuh-dah!” Which then was followed by some weird hand motions which THEN was followed by “Don’t forget it!” Please tell me this guy isn’t for real. The male now known as Dirk, sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest with a smug look on his face. Holy shit. This guy is serious Jake felt like dying of embarrassment for him.
The rest of the class went by rather smoothly despite the start of it.
After that class, he had lunch. He saw Jane again and waved at her. She had already grabbed an empty table. He was rather glad that he had the same lunch opening as her. Grabbing his lunch, he headed over to Jane and sat with her. She began to speak as soon as he sat down. “I hope you don't mind if my roommate joins us,” she said, sheepishly.
“Oh no! Not at all.” He chuckled and smiled at her. It was as if on cue, another woman with short black hair and incredibly pale skin. She almost looked like a vampire. The dark make-up didn’t help that case. She also seemed really tall. Maybe it was just because he was sitting down and she wasn’t. Yet. Who knows.
“Oh, Jake! This is Kanaya!” Jane smiled at him and her friend. “Kanaya, this is Jake! The one I was telling you about!” Kanaya inclined her head at him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jake.” Jake nodded. “You too.”
“Jake!” Another voice called him. Boy, he was popular today. He turned around and saw his roommate with someone. A girl who was short and plump, dark skin and hair. Really long hair. How long did it take her to brush all of that. She also looked very artsy. Oh! Maybe that was Feferi. Eridan sat down at the table with him, as did his friend.
Introductions went around the table and when they were finished, something caught Jake’s eye across the room. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said. Jane looked at him confused. Jake began to explain, pointing at the blonde from his previous class. “That guy was in my class last hour,” he muttered. He then explained what happened in his last class. They all looked stunned.
Feferi was the first to speak. “Please tell me you’re joking.” Jake shook his head, causing everyone to groan. Then Jake caught eyes with the blonde. Which, he couldn’t really tell because he was wearing those stupid glasses with their dumb triangular shape. But, he could feel it? If that made any sense. It did to him at least. Anyway, what kind of douche wore glasses indoors? And that extra? God, this guy was too much for Jake to handle. He turned back to his peers as they discussed what everyone was up to for the rest of the day.
When lunch ended, Jake, Jane, Kanaya, and Eridan headed to their next class, Theatre Production. It was a required class for all theatre scholarships. Feferi headed off to soccer practice, bidding them adieu. They all headed towards the theatre, talking about different things they were all interested in. Jake learned that Jane enjoyed acting, like he did, Kanaya was all about costume design and making, and Eridan dabbled in a little bit of everything. He also seemed a little cocky, but whatever. He wasn’t going to piss on anyone’s dreams.
They all entered the theatre, sitting together. Jake was excited. He loved the theatre. He loved everything about it. Sure, he loved being on stage, but he was just excited to be backstage and help out. They watched as others filed in, some paired off, some sitting by themselves. Class began and an eccentric man came to the front and introduced himself as Lord English, which was interesting because he like to be called ‘Lord’ instead of the usual ‘Mr.’ He had everyone come up on the stage, one by one and introduce themselves. There was Jade, who was mostly into stage design and props, Rose, who was into make up, Sollux, who was mainly into tech stuff, Gamzee, who was all about improv, Karkat, who wrote and directed some of the plays, and then the other’s, he already knew. They seemed to have an interesting set of people as well.
The class was just introductions, so it wasn’t too stressful of a class. After everyone was done, Lord English dismissed the class, reminding everyone that there was an improv show Monday and no actual improv class. Gamzee seemed really excited about that one. He was gushing about how great it was going to be. It sounded like he was a sophomore with the way he was talking about it.
Once class was over, everyone parted their ways. Jake and Eridan headed back to their room while everyone did the same. It was an exhausting first day and they all just wanted to relax and retire for the day, even though it was barely one-thirty. When the duo entered their dorm, they both collapsed on the couch they had in there.
“God, I am so exhausted. And it’s only the first day.” Jake nodded, even though he was pretty sure he was up way before his roommate, he was too tired to even argue the fact.
Next thing Jake knew, Eridan was nudging him to wake up. “English,” he said. Jake groaned and slowly opened his eyes. “What?”
“It’s 5:45, wanna go to dinner?” Jake groaned again and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.” He stood up, vertigo hitting him hard and sitting back down on the couch for a moment while he gathered himself. He stood up again, this time with Eridan’s assistance and all was good. He smiled at his roommate and they headed out to dinner.
They saw a couple theatre kids at dinner and sat with them. It was a pretty relaxing time and there was no sign of the blonde kid. Why was Jake even looking? He shook his head and turned his attention back to his friends.
After dinner, him and his roommate headed back to the room and they both passed out from exhaustion.