Gods almighty, it was finally Friday, and only a few more minutes of this monotonous class lecture before lunch. The slow grind of a Monday was nowhere to be had today. Everyone seemed to have their minds set on the weekend, eager for the freedom that awaited. The classroom buzzed with a quiet excitement as students whispered about their St. Patrick's Day plans, eagerly anticipating the parties and drinking they'd be partaking in.
The holiday had actually passed, but it fell on a Tuesday, and no one barely passing their classes was going to risk a kegger with an important test the following day. If it had been a normal week I'm sure there'd be many empty seats, but the faculty wasn't one to miss a beat.
But not Zacharias or just Zach as everyone called him. As the clock ticked down towards freedom, Zach's thoughts were otherwise occupied, disconnected from the typical Friday hype. Unlike his classmates, his mind wasn't held by the allure of weekend keg parties or the thrill of civil disobedience. Zach's weekend plans diverged, he had planned on heading back to his parents house for his mother's birthday after classes ended that day. Heading through all the traffic was going to be a nightmare, being the weekend of a holiday and all.
Ugh, Zach thought to himself, I'll probably be spending all my time sitting in queues just trying to get out of the city. If he had ditched classes altogether, he could have been halfway home already, but he would have totally freaked out if he'd lost his perfect attendance.
Suddenly, everyone started to leave, and it pulled him out of his thoughts. He had been too lost in his plans and had missed the dismissal cue.
He quickly threw everything into his bag and did a quick double check of his seat, to make sure he had everything, then headed for the door. He was meeting his friend Caleb for lunch before their next class, and now he'd need to hurry up to the canteen or risk missing out on lunch. Getting a good seat for lunch was paramount to having the energy to make it through the rest of the day.
He turned a corner walking super fast and bumped into a young woman, sending her papers flying everywhere. But this wasn't some romantic movie, and Zach wasn't exactly a Prince Charming. He mumbled a quick "sorry" and kept going, catching a few choice words as she yelled after him.
He took the stairs two at a time and rounded the corner, spotting his prize through a window. The canteen was surprisingly empty, which was weird. Everything looked normal, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Oh my god, he thought, Please tell me Caleb's there with my food.
He spotted his friend's table and strolled over, dropping his bag on the floor and sliding into the opposite seat. He reached across the table, grabbing at the fast food bag and checking out his goodies. He noticed the canteen was closed, which seemed odd for a Friday at noon. The whole place felt weird, like something was off.
Digging through the bag of delicious goodies, he acknowledged his friend Caleb. Even though Zach was only four years older, he still saw his friend as a prepubescent kid. Zach knew Caleb was a good-looking dude, attracting girls like crazy, but to Zach, he'd always be a whiny little punk – who also happened to be his best friend.
"Did you crawl here? You barely made it!" Caleb snickered. His energy was infectious even when it wasn't needed, or wanted.
"Pretty much, I bumped into someone trying to get here. But it wasn't a total waste of time, cus i made it," Zach shot back, picking up on his friend's sarcasm.
"Oh yeah? I scored us an awesome table today!" Caleb patted the table. If only they were this lucky every lunch break, but the place was usually way too packed for that.
After what felt like forever talking about boring stuff like routes and shortcuts, he finally grabbed his lunch from the bag, drooling a little.
He slammed his burger down and grabbed his drink, thinking to himself, "My precious," as he unwrapped the massive double bacon burger. He munched on a fry while ripping open a ketchup packet.
Zach immediately started scarfing down his food, only coming up for air to agree or disagree with whatever Caleb was going on about. His friend was annoying, but he found peace in it—his ride or die, or whatever. Caleb was going for an Art History degree, while Zach was focused on Architecture.
As he finished his food, the tolerance for his friend's nonsense increased dramatically, mustard and a smile both stuck on his face.
"You good? Maybe I should just bring food around with me everywhere I go," his friend said.
"Sounds good to me, double up though," Zach teased Caleb.
"You're incredulous," Caleb sighed.
"Incredulous? The heck you using big words for, besides you used it wrong," Zach gave his friend the 'you're an idiot' look he'd coined just for him.
"Maybe, but guess we'll never know." Caleb stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, just remember to get to the car on time; we've got major traffic to deal with," Zach reminded him, crumpling up his wrapper.
He got a thumbs-up as his friend disappeared into the sea of students, probably heading to their next class. Zach quickly cleaned up his mess on the table; the rest of the tables had cleared out, leaving him with a brief moment of quiet before he turned and sprinted to his next class.
The walkway and hallway crowds were starting to thin out as he made his way to architectural theory. Crap, he wasn't going to make it.
The front entrance was closed for construction, so he had to take the long way around to the back. As he got closer, he slowed down. The hallway door was wide open and looked packed with people. He stopped behind the crowd and looked around. The chatter died down and suddenly everyone backed up to the walls. Campus security, he thought, checking out their uniforms.
He stood there as security came out with someone in cuffs. They'd caught their perp and were wrapping up to head out. Having clearly dodged a bullet, he and the others started heading back to their respective classrooms. Perfect attendance, just how he liked it, and no one the wiser.
He followed the others into class, but to a seat in the back. Today was already stressful enough, and he didn't want to risk getting called on. Plus, his churning stomach needed time to digest.
The seats filled up fast. Everyone wanted to be in the front row. It only took a minute for every seat to be taken. The class was super popular. Mrs. Fontera made it one of the easiest A's to get.
Most of the class was male, probably because she was hot, had a rocking body, and was super charismatic. But that kinda stuff didn't interest him. He didn't know anything about women but he had it on good authority that they had cooties. His chair was getting warm and comfy, but he couldn't risk napping. Mrs. Fontera had hawk-like vision.
Mrs. Fontera's class was already pretty much on track, mostly because most of them were already focused and at attention – and if he had to guess, the guys were all sporting a boner. Every few sentences, he'd look around and see blank stares or mouths hanging open, and one dude was even drooling like a faucet. Dude, that's nasty, he thought.
Mrs. Fontera's surprise quizzes were legendary, and Zach knew he had to show up for class – that, and attendance was key. Today, Fontera was going on fervently about architectural theory; Zach was zoning out when she suddenly dropped a pop quiz on them. The groans were so loud you'd think a zombie horde had invaded the classroom.
Zach reached behind his seat for his notes – college was a breeze if you had good notes, but Zach's note-taking skills were lacking. It was just too much effort, especially after lunch when he was always sleepy and still hungry.
He sighed with relief as the brutal pop quiz finally ended and shoved his notes back into his bag. He practically ran for the door before Mrs. Fontera could even think about giving them another one.
"Wait!" she yelled, "Remember, even though it's a holiday weekend for some, we still have that big test on Monday." She tried to sound super serious, like there'd be consequences if they failed. "So, don't get too crazy this weekend, and I expect everyone to pass. That's all. Have a good weekend," she finished and shooed them away. Well, he thought as he walked out into the hall, If I can find someone to lend me their notes, I should be able to squeak by with a C. The second Zach was out of the building, people rushed by, pushing to get wherever they were going. Zach just needed to get to his car and meet Caleb.
Zach finally made it to the parking lot, but after all those people, he totally forgot where he parked. Thankfully, he spotted his friend two rows over, just chilling by his car and watching Zach wander around like an idiot. Zach cut through the spaces and went over to him.
"Thanks a lot, Dick! You totally saw me looking around, didn't you?," Zach said with a grin.
"And miss the show? No way," his friend shot back.
Zach shook his head and unlocked his beat-up old Toyota Tercel. "Get in, we gotta hightail it if we wanna reach my folks' place before dark."
They jumped into his awesome car and sped out of the parking lot. Some haters might say he was a little too proud of his ride. Feck those people, he thought. He turned right, heading for the Santa Ana freeway. Surprisingly, every light turned green as if they wanted him to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
*RING*
The car swerved a little when the phone rang – it had startled him.
"Hey, get that for me, it's probably my mom," he asked Caleb. He didn't want to jinx his good luck and kept riding the green wave.
"Where is it?" he asked me, looking up from his phone.
"Left pocket," I said with a grin. I glanced over and saw him roll his eyes.
Caleb digs through my pocket and snatches the phone. He answers it and mouths "mom" to me – those two always had the weirdest chats. After about ten minutes, he hangs up, but something's off. I have to ask him what's going on.
"Amelia got dumped again," he says, looking totally unbothered. "Your mom says she's been at their place bawling her eyes out all day."
"Wow, that's gotta be a new record," I reply. Amelia had been his bestie way before Caleb came along, and they were still close.
"Well, she kinda is a mess, no offense," Caleb grins, going back to his phone.
RING
"Hey, can you get that? It's probably my mom again," he grumbled as the traffic started to build up. "Dammit!"
RING
"Hey, get..." Those were his last words before everything went dark. Just before he blacked out, he thought he saw a screen floating in front of him, like in those Isekai books. "That's crazy, right?"
Initiation commencing
Tutorial candidate confirmed
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