Hi friends! It's been a minute since I last wrote on Wattpad... about four years to be exact. YIkes! Anyways, I decided to dabble in a little more writing at this point in my life... Maybe it'll continue. We'll see.

For this story I want you to imagine Soldier:24 aged Gabriel, maybe even a little younger...

Anyways, this is a college AU . For those of you unfamiliar with a traditional american college classroom, in the lower level classes geared towards freshman you usually end up in a lecture of over 200 students. With that many students it's hard for the professor to help and answer every single students questions so they have TA's in every large course. These are Teachers Assistants and are usually graduate students who are working towards a higher level degree like a master's degree. Often the lecture of 200 meets two- three times a week, and once a week a smaller group of students will meet with one of the TA's to have a more one on one learning experience and to get extra help.

Enjoy!

You bit your teeth into the gentle skin of your bottom lip to hold the growing fear swallowed in the back of your throat. You had said goodbye to your mother quickly, hurrying her out the door like ripping off a bandaid. The sooner she left campus the sooner you could get through the pain of being left alone in an unfamiliar place where you knew no one.

You gripped the fresh bed sheets of your twin bed and felt the tears drain down your face. What were you getting yourself into? There was a perfectly good college in your hometown yet you chose the one hundreds of miles away. The idea sounded pretty good several months ago when you made your choice, but now that you were here it felt like your whole world was falling apart. You left your home, your friends and the familiar for a place you visited once a year ago. For the first time in your life you were totally and completely alone.

Your phone buzzed next to you and you were thrown back to reality. You smudged the tears out of your eyes and tapped the screen of your phone.

Angela

I'm 30 min from campus. Are you all moved in??

Angela was your roommate. You had never met her and only texted her a handful of times. She seemed nice enough but you were still nervous to meet her. You texted out a response.

Yeah, I'm all done. I'll see you soon

You hopped off your raised bed and looked into the mirror over your shared sink. The very little makeup you had put on was totally ruined. Using a makeup wipe you removed the smeared makeup and started over. You wanted to make a good impression on her. Besides, crying all day won't do you any good, no matter how shitty you feel.

You applied enough to look presentable and fixed up your hair. She should be there soon so you straightened up your half of the room. Your room was surprisingly large, especially compared to your neighbors. For some reason your room was significantly bigger than theirs. All your clothes were stored away in the closet and dresser. You had set up your desk with your laptop and school supplies and put your new TV on top of the dresser. Your bed was raised off the ground about four feet and you had stored more clothes and makeup and any other things in containers underneath. You finished the room with a gray and purple tapestry behind your bed and a gray carpet on your half. It was a pretty damn cute room... but still felt uncomfortable.

Angela arrived with her dad, they were both super nice and happy to meet you but you didn't want to get in the way while they unpacked so you grabbed you backpack and headed for the school bookstore. You needed to pick up your textbooks before monday. Finding your way to the bookstore wasn't too hard, the campus was huge but your dorm was close to the student center. The bookstore had a huge line of people in front of the textbook counter. Standing in the file of people you realized the line was composed of students and parents... Maybe your mom left too early, you thought. Maybe you should have asked her to stay a while longer. Before you could stop yourself from thinking about your mom your eyes stung. You blinked hard to stop the tears from coming again.

The line went slowly, you scrolled through your phone to pass the time. You thought about striking up a conversation with one of the girls around you but something stopped you. Maybe it was fear of them not liking you, maybe it was general anxiety about new people. If you couldn't talk to someone standing next to you how were you gonna make any friends here, you thought.

Finally you reached the textbook desk, you handed the woman behind the desk your schedule you had printed out a few days ago. She scanned over it before saying,

"Wait here." and disappearing into the rows of books behind her. She returned a moment later with a stack of three books. "You can rent one of them but the other two you'll need to buy."

"Okay." You said, afraid of the price tag attached to that statement.

"The total is $265, do you want to put that on your account or pay for it now?"

Your eyes went wide and you felt your stomach flip, "Uh, I'll pay now."

Your parents were paying for tuition and the dorm, but you had to pick up every other cost. You handed the woman your debit card and started worrying if you even have $265 in your checking account.

"For the rented book you need to bring it back within a week after the semester ends to avoid fees. The other two you can try to sell back at the end of semester but we can't promise that we're buying these specific editions." She rambled, "But you're all good to go."

You thanked her and took your stack of books. The line took about an hour so you figured Angela would almost be done so you headed for your dorm. You walked down the main path through campus and looked around. Most of the buildings were old brick, the paths were paved but there was still lots of grass and trees lining the concrete. You were reminded what drew you to this school, it's beautiful. You couldn't wait to see what it looks like in the fall with all the trees bright red and leaves rustling over the concrete.

Back at dormitory girls were running all around with their parents and carts full of their belongings. This was an all-girls dorm. You didn't specifically request an all-girls dorm but it was kind of nice. You wouldn't have to worry about walking down the halls in a towel after showering and running into boys.

The door to your room was open and Angela was perched on her bed, she has raised it off the ground as well. You looked around and saw her dad was gone,

"All done?" you asked. She looked at you and flashed a bright white smile,

"Yep!" She said cheerfully. You wondered how the hell she was fine with her dad already being gone.You looked over her stuff. It was a bit girlier than your side but it was nice. She had sets of fairy lights all over the walls. Her bedding was white with pink and light blue pillows. She had plastered up a poster with a cheezy quote about chasing dreams on the wall. "What do you think?" she asked after noticing you looking around,

"It's nice." you smiled,

"Hey, how much were your books?" She asked as you set the stack on your desk,

"Like, 250." Her eyes widened,

"Oh my gosh, seriously?" She threw her head back on her array of pillows, "Ugh, how am I gonna afford that?" She groaned.

You and her chatted for a while about your classes and what you were expecting the workload to be like. She didn't show any signs of being afraid or nervous, just frustrated with how much work she was going to have to do. She was on a pre-med track so it made sense, medicine is a lot of work. But, it was refreshing to see that she was confident about being alone here, it gave you some peace about it too. Despite the ache in your throat when you thought about home, you felt comfortable in this room with Angela, and it gave you hope about the year.

Monday morning your alarm went off at 7:15, you quickly grabbed your iphone and tapped the alarm button. You looked across the room to see if the alarm woke Angela up, it didn't, luckily. Her first class wasn't until 10:00, so she could sleep and extra hour. You slid off your twin bed and pulled up the sheets and rearranged the pillows. You slid into your desk chair and began rummaging for your foundation and everything else you would need to look more presentable. After that you quickly style your hair and started looking for an outfit. It was going to be fairly warm so you slid on shorts and a college t-shirt. You looked at your phone, 8:30, just enough time to get some breakfast before heading to your first class.

Just as you were opening the door Angelas alarm went off,

"Have a good day," She mumbled sweetly.

You thanked her and shut the door behind you. You hurried down the stairwell and out the front doors. For the first time you saw the campus bustling with people and buses full of people. Everyone was on their way somewhere and had things to do,and now you were one of those people. You stuffed headphones into your ears and went off to the nearest cafe. You ordered a chai latte and grabbed a granola bar from a basket at the counter. You thought your coffee addiction would stay behind you with high school... but maybe not.

For a moment of walking around you were afraid you couldn't find Healy Hall, but with google maps and enough looking around you found the biological sciences building. Inside the old building you saw a sign saying Healy Auditorium: DOWN ONE FLOOR. That must be it, you thought. You and a few other students walked down the stairs and through two double doors.

A giant auditorium with white boards in the front of the room and a podium stationed to the left of the stage. There was at least two hundred seats in rows scaling up to the back of the room. This is it, Chem 103. You weren't in Chem 101 thankfully.. But you weren't quite in Chem 105 either. This class was a transition class for people who were past 101, but not ready for the next level, 105.

You fumbled down the leftmost aisle to a row 4 lanes from the front. It wasn't the very front but still close enough to look like you are taking the class seriously. Which you planned to of course.

After only a moment of setting up the small folding desk in front of you with a notebook and mechanical pencil, someone plopped down next to you. He reached his hand out to you and beamed,

"Hi! I'm Genji! What's your name?" You startled and stared at his bright green hair,

"Uh... Hi." You mumbled, who was this guy?

"Uh? That's a crappy name. What parent would name their child Uh?" He chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully. You snorted and told him you actual name. "Well, it's nice to meet you. I decided I'm going to sit next to you all semester, okay?"

"Okay Genji, sure." You smiled. You weren't expecting to meet anyone in your first class on day one, but Genji seemed set on making you his friend.

More people filed into the auditorium and started chatting with the people around them. Genji told you he is majoring in Communication, because it's easy of course. You told him you weren't really sure about a major but knew you liked science. Before you could ask him about where he's from, a loud voice over the loud room quieted everyone down.

"Alright class," You looked down and saw a mop of dark curly hair and tanned skin standing up front, he wasn't there a moment ago. He looked young... he couldn't be the professor, right? He had black jeans on and a dark, faded camo long sleeve shirt. The sleeves were shoved up his muscular arms and the fabric of the shirt stretched over his broad chest. He cleared his throat and you looked up at his face. He had a dark, full goatee and bushy black eyebrows to match. He scowled at the class, almost hiding his chocolate eyes.

"Fuck" Genji said under his breath, your cheeks turned pink as you looked at your new friend.

"Yeah..." You murmured.

The auditorium had fallen completely silent except for the obvious giggling from girls across the room. The man continued, "Your professor, Dr. Moira O'Deorain, is running a little late today." His voice was as deep and sexy as he looked, "I'm your TA." He left out his name, purposeful probably, "I'm just gonna start the lecture until she gets here."

He scanned the room as he positioned himself behind the podium. His eyes glazed over all the giggling girls until he reached you, you swore his eyes stopped for a moment as he noticed you. His lips twitched before looking to the computer screen before him.

Genji grabbed your arm, "What the fuck was that?" He whispered-screamed. You bit into your bottom lip and stifled a grin.

"I have no idea."