It wasn't hard to pick out freshmen from the rest of the students. You found you could tell what grade students were in based on how they dressed for morning classes in fact. For example, both you and Vivi had an 8 o'clock class. While she took her time doing her hair and makeup, you slept in for a bit longer. When she was getting dressed in a cute outfit, you tossed on a hoodie and your favorite pair of jeans. As she made herself breakfast, you dragged a brush through your hair and cleaned up in the bathroom, still in a half asleep state. You left a little before her to go pick up your own breakfast and coffee at a cafe on campus.

The point was, the further along someone was in school, the less they worried about how they looked and the more they worried about getting enough sleep. You were going to class, not on a date. You didn't care if you looked like death warmed over. It made it easier to avoid people anyway. No one wanted to talk to the girl who looked like she was fueled by coffee and self-loathing.

Even after sleeping in and stopping for food, you made it to class early enough to pick a good seat. Your favorite spot, no matter what class you were in, was always in the far back corner. It was away from the door so you wouldn't have to deal with people coming and going around you and you had less neighbors.

You took your seat and lazily watched as more students filtered into the room. A lot of them were dressed like you. Some looked hung over from a night of drinking while others looked too tired to be here. Some were probably questioning their decision to take classes so early in the morning. Not you though.

Getting up early sucked but it meant you'd have the rest of the day to do whatever. You sipped your coffee and turned your attention to the front of the room as the professor took her place behind her desk. She was drop dead gorgeous with long black hair and curves that could kill. You'd had her before in other history classes, Professor Hancock. She looked like an absolute goddess but her attitude left much to be desired. She tolerated the women in her classes but hated the men. You never figured out why.

She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a student coming in late. Long blonde hair and a scruffy goatee. He was one of Heat's friends of course. You assumed he was scanning the room for an open seat, it was hard to tell with all the hair covering his eyes. But eventually he found what he was looking for and started moving again.

"Better late than never I guess." Hancock scoffed, earning a few tired chuckles from the crowd.

You focused back on her as she started her lecture, only to jump a bit when the blonde man sat down by you with a sigh. There were plenty of other open seats down closer to the front, it made no sense for him to sit by you. You tried to ignore him and pay attention to what Hancock was talking about, but the man beside you proved to be a noisy neighbor. He fished through his bag to find a spiral notebook and a pen and began taking notes.

He settled down to the point that all you could hear from him was scribbling on paper. Each time he'd look up to see what she had up on the projector, you caught a glimpse of blue eyes.

"Not taking any notes?" He asked quietly. It was loud enough you could hear without disturbing anyone else.

"Me?"

"Yeah you. Who else would I be talking to?"

You just now noticed there was no one else sitting on the other side of him. In fact, there were a few empty chairs in the row. He definitely sat here on purpose.

"Oh, uh, no. I don't take notes."

He nodded. "What's your major?"

"Liberal arts." Your hands nervously fiddled with the warm disposable cup your coffee came in.

For a moment you thought he was going to leave you alone as the lecture went on but he spoke up again.

"Conversations are supposed to go both ways you know."

"I don't know you and I'd really rather pay attention so I don't fail this class."

"What's got you so nervous?" He brushed off your hint for him to leave you alone and made a show of pointing out your fidgeting.

You forced yourself to clasp your hands in your lap instead and glared at him. Definitely a bold move for you.

"I'm not nervous."

"You look it. In fact you did the other couple times I've seen you."

"Can you not?" You snapped, raising your voice a tad.

"There you go, that's better." He nodded, lips twitching up slightly.

"What do you want?"

He shrugged. "My friends and I just moved to town and we don't know anyone. Heat seemed to like you so we might as well get along."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He put his pen down and swiveled his seat around to face you, offering a hand. "Killer."

"Sorry?"

"That's my name. No not a nickname, my real name."

"Oh, okay. I'm (Y/n)." You took his hand hesitantly. Though it was late, at least he was polite enough to offer an actual introduction.

"I know." He smiled. "Heat told us."

"He talked about me?"

"Yeah. I told you, he likes you."

"My dog ran him over yesterday. There's no way he likes me after that."

"He's a big guy. It'd take more than that to throw him off. Nice dog by the way, Meatloaf's a tank."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"If you're not busy after this you should drop by-"

"I've got another class." You stopped him there. It was easy enough to talk to him for some reason but you didn't want to hang out with him.

"Okay."

And that was it. He was quiet for the rest of the class. Hancock droned on, throwing in her haughty attitude whenever she deemed appropriate. Killer continued to scribble away at his notes, filling up a couple pages by the time class was over.

When you got up to leave, Killer did as well.

"By the way." He said. "Heats classes are finished by around 2 and he'll probably be in the game room for a bit after that most days."

And then he left before you could even fully process what he said. Was Killer really trying that hard to get you and Heat to hang out? That seemed to be a bit much to you.

----

The rest of your day went on pretty slowly. All your teachers and professors wanted to be there about as much as the students. Some vocalized that, one was even sitting at his desk literally napping for half the class with a sleeping mask over his eyes. You felt like doing the same thing but worked through the online assignment he gave the class instead and then took the rest of the free time you had to get a head start on homework and studying.

Killer wasn't in anymore of your classes and you were glad to know Kid wasn't either. Heat had told you the first day you met him that he was a junior as well and though the chances of him sharing classes with you was slim, you still didn't want to meet up with the other guys again.

When you were done for the day, you found your feet taking you to the game room, where Killer said Heat would be. It was in the same building as the school's ballroom and cafeteria. You liked Heat, there was no doubt about that. But you weren't sure you'd be able to keep up a conversation with him. Not to mention the game room also doubled as a bar and tended to be packed with other students. Shoving your way through the day drinking crowd wasn't your idea of a good time.

Instead you stopped in your tracks and turned around. You'd been right at the building doors but you couldn't bring yourself to go through them. At first, you felt a little guilty for not going in. There were other things to do though. Your homework was done but you were sure your pup was in dire need of some love and you could always look into working on your real job.

You did online tutoring for a couple particular English classes. It was all on information you knew very well and you never had to deal with the other students face to face. And it paid well enough to take care of what your loans didn't. Yeah, that sounded like a better plan to you. It's not like you couldn't run into Heat another time.

----

After spending a bit of time wrestling Loaf, you settled into the couch with your laptop to see if anyone was already in need of tutoring. Some of the more diligent students started on things like that early. As you pulled things up, your dog and Karoo both cuddled up to you. The latter settled right on your chest so you had to work around him to get anything done. It didn't help that Vivi had put a little colorful beanie on his head. The duck wore it proudly and now it was blocking the view of your computer screen.

"Hey (Y/n), how'd your day go?" Vivi popped in and Karoo launched himself off of you to go greet her.

"Alright I guess. Classes were dull but I think there's a guy..." You were looking to finish that thought but couldn't find the right way to word things.

"A guy?" She chirped and sat by you, duck in her arms. "What's he like?"

"Well, it's not like that first of all." You closed your computer. Work wasn't going to happen today. "I met him about a week ago and he was nice. I had a class with one of his friends that told me I should hang out with him later."

"And did you?" She asked, caught up in playing with Karoo's feathers.

"No." You sighed. "I chickened out."

"You've gotta get over this (Y/n). People aren't all that hard to deal with."

"Easy for you to say. People like you." It'd only been a short while since she moved in but you already knew a lot about her social life. Hers was busy enough for the two of you.

"You're very likable too when you put yourself out there. You just need some practice."

"Practice how?"

"I could invite a couple friends over later to hang out."

You scrunched up your nose. Seeing others after being in school all day wasn't all that exciting to you. "Is there an option B?"

"You could try meeting up with the guy again. I'm sure when you do it, it won't be nearly as bad as you think it'll be."

"Okay, I'll try again tomorrow. How's that?"

"Good!" She smiled brightly. "I'm sure it'll work out great!"

"If you say so." You couldn't help but smile. Vivi had such a sweet disposition.

"Speaking of guys, I met one today."

"Yeah? Already have a crush on someone then?"

"Well I wouldn't call it that." She blushed and immediately became flustered. "But he was really nice and we have a couple different classes together."

You weren't an idiot. She definitely had the hots for whoever this guy was.

"Well don't stop there."

She giggled and began her long description of him and her day. Maybe dealing with new people wasn't your thing. But you were one hell of a listener once you'd gotten comfortable enough. And Vivi had no problem going on and on about the guy she insisted she didn't have a thing for.