College Degrees

[mithrarin]

One week in, and Dust knew: this was going to be difficult.

Problem was, his education thus far hadn't quite been... up to speed. He'd thought homeschooling had been just fine, and his test scores had managed to get him here -- but, he realized, he'd learned the tests rather than the material. Now this broad sweep of general classes had already started piling things on him he wasn't sure about. Which meant that he had a lot of studying to do, and a lot of work.

Heaving a sigh, he stepped out of the elevator and trudged down the hall towards his dorm room. Hidden under his hat though they might be, his eyes still reflexively flicked left and right out of curiosity when he passed open doors. Curious to see how other people lived, especially humans, who he'd met so many of coming here...

Comments

[healingincantation]

Rapunzel's homeschooling had been... Incredibly sparse, to say nothing else of the awful situation she'd grown up in. However, she was free now. She'd self-taught herself over her childhood and teen years, and had learned enough to get herself into college. Here, she could be herself, and meet new people. It was exciting.. And overwhelming.

She'd seen Dust around campus plenty, but hadn't worked up the nerve to approach, well, anyone yet. She'd made a few friends, but they'd approached her first - generally curious about her hair, which she still wasn't entirely comfortable explaining, though she was working on that!

For now, though, he hair wasn't on her mind - something about Dust had her normally curiosity dialed up to an eleven, and so she wanted to be brave. She wanted to say hello to him.

Their dorm rooms were almost exactly across the hall from each other, and Rapunzel kept her door open while she studied most of the time, so she saw him heading to his dorm room. She pushed her wheeled chair back from her desk and into the doorway of her own room.

"...Hey. Dust, right?"

[mithrarin]

Huh? Dust turned her way as if he'd been stung, overtly surprised she'd addressed him. "Yeah, that's -- I'm Dust. And you're Rapunzel..."

He remembered her name from one of those "getting to know everyone on your floor" deals the RA had declared essentially mandatory the first day everyone had been here. Because of her hair, naturally. Also because she was really cute, but that wasn't the sort of thing you admit.

[healingincantation]

Rapunzel smiled sheepishly in response to seeing his surprise, but it was a smile, all the same. "Sorry," she mumbled, before getting to her feet and offering her hand.

"Yes, that's me. It's nice to meet you." Sure, there'd been the ice breaker meeting on the first day, but this was more personal.

[mithrarin]

Not that Dust had been really good about those icebreakers. Rapunzel was easy to remember because she stood out just a bit...

"Nice to meet you too," he said, shaking her hand rather formally to cover for his awkwardness.

[healingincantation]

"So what do you think, so far?" she asked, not at all put off by the formal manner of the handshake. "I mean, this is all pretty new to me."

[mithrarin]

"It's -- going to be a lot of hard work." That was true enough but didn't sound like he was getting really worried, right? Admitting that would be much too embarrassing. "It's new to me too."

[healingincantation]

"Really, it is?" she asked, finding comfort in that. "I feel so much like a fish out of water, to be honest... I'm glad it's not just me."

A beat.

"Not that I want you to be a fish out of water, but... You know."

[mithrarin]

"It's not just you." Dust unconsciously relaxed a little, a little less on his guard now that she'd said that. "Other people seem to be adapting so much better..."

[healingincantation]

"Exactly! And I guess it makes sense, since I've never gone to school with anyone else before," she explained, giving a more complete explanation of her side of this. "I'm glad to be here, but it's not easy."

[mithrarin]

"Yeah, me neither!" He wouldn't have thought anyone else here felt the way he did... "And it feels like they have expectations that you went to a normal school..."

[healingincantation]

"You're right, everyone seems to just assume..." She chuckled awkwardly, shrugging. "I mean, I guess I can't blame them, but it's- It's nice to know that there's someone who gets it."

[mithrarin]

"Yeah." Saying it out loud just really emphasized how true it was. A real relief, and for the first time since he'd gotten here, his smile lasted longer than a brief second. "Well, we could... at least now say we have a friend, right?"

Was that too much? Is that how to make a friend, just say it? Ugh, why had he opened his big dumb mouth...

[healingincantation]

Too much? Certainly not in Rapunzel's book. No, from where she stood, it was a huge relief that he'd taken that first step in establishing their friendship.

"Right, we can."

[mithrarin]

Oh. Phew. That was more of a relief than he cared to admit.

Wait, she'd actually agreed to it, too!

"...I feel like we're supposed to do something now, but I don't know what that is."

[healingincantation]

"I'm not sure, either," she admitted. "We could always hang out. Maybe study a little together?"

[mithrarin]

"Oh. Studying." That wiped the smile right off his face, replacing it with a grimace of distaste. "I have to do that. A lot. That was what I was about to do."

[healingincantation]

"Not a fan?" His expression means that she doesn't really has to guess, of course... "Well, maybe it'll be a bit more fun if we're doing it together. Or we could do something else."

[mithrarin]

"It isn't that I'm not a fan," Dust said, awkwardly tugging on one of the straps of his backpack. "I just need to do it. A lot. And learn to get better at it."

[healingincantation]

Rapunzel smiled a little, nodding. "I see. I've never really had to study, so..." She paused, wincing slightly when she realized how that sounded. "Not because- I mean, I just never really had a lot of real schooling, even at home. There definitely were never tests."

[mithrarin]

"Yeah, me too." He tried to sound calm and not... utterly relieved that she understood. "It's gonna be an adjustment."

[healingincantation]

Rapunzel, on the other hand, had no reservations about sounding exactly as relieved as she was - which was very. "It's going to be such an adjustment! But at least we can tackle it together."

[mithrarin]

The simple way she said that almost embarrassed him, unused to having friends as he was. "Yeah. I was starting to feel bad about it, but... now it seems a little better."