A/N: Hi, I've been meaning to finish this fic for awhile. I wrote it a few months back and I never finished it. After reading a truly amazing Rusco fanfiction I got inspired to finish it. I hope you enjoy it!
It was a strangely sunny day. The impending doom of fall weather had not yet struck, leaving every moment of sun's glow precious. It was the day before college courses started – a glorified parent-teacher day, minus the parents. Nathan Ingram glanced around at the other young adults sheepishly; most of them were dressed to perfection and if not then they gave the immaculate being a good run for its money.
Nathan wasn't from a poor family, but his family was not rich by any means. He could easily tell which new students were relying on scholarship funds and which ones never even considered the cost of post-high school education. Normally he was a rather confident man; his greenish eyes, light brown hair, and sturdy build made him rather popular in high school. But this was different; this was college.
Where in high-school he was an overachieving, ambitious young man that was considered a model student by the freshmen and juniors alike, Nathan was now thrown into a completely new category of standards. He wasn't the popular senior anymore; he was back to being a first year in an ocean of over-achievers exactly like him. He was already in the crowd the moment he stepped in.
He glanced over at the students while adjusting his tie, already feeling like he had overstayed his welcome. He already felt like a fool in his expensive suit that cost so much more than he had. There were no friends or enemies – just a sea of faces that he could either incorporate into his college experience or reject on command. Although it was probably his anxiety talking, Nathan already felt like he was blowing the most important social-related moments of his adulthood. Quickly he scoured the room until he found someone to talk to.
The welcome hall was huge; there were small tables set up and a stage set up in front where various speeches were made prior to casual conversation that he was now pressured to join. Nathan attempted to coax himself with confident thoughts – a tactic that had helped him overcome the childhood stage-fright he endured at a young age.
'It's just one conversation.' He thought, walking around as he tried to find a clique to associate with. 'You're a great conversation starter. Hell, you've had to do speeches in front of hundreds of strangers, so why is this a big deal?'
Though Nathan already knew the answer to that question – he didn't associate with those strangers for the next few years of his life when giving a speech. It was in and out; as easy as that. However, keeping in character with his usually calm and cool persona, he decided to introduce himself to two young men. The one with jet black hair and strikingly light blue eyes noticed his presence immediately and greeted him.
"Hey, those speeches went on forever, huh?" His voice was husky and low – a characteristic that matched with his tall filled out figure. He stood at least a foot taller than Nathan, who although wasn't short, was definitely not above average height. "The name is Victor Thompson." He offered his hand out to Nathan as they shook hands.
"Nice to meet you; my name is Nathan Ingram." Nathan introduced himself, feeling unusually accomplished when he didn't trip over or stumble on his words. Maybe this wasn't going to be so difficult after all. The other man took notice to Ingram's presence and quickly followed in with an introduction.
"Thomas Henderson," the man with blonde hair and brown eyes said as he gripped Nathan's hand, Nathan mentally took note of the tight clasp – clearly this man had been in some form of sports prior to entering college. "So, Nathan, where are you from?"
"Originally? New York." Nathan responded, mentally sighing in relief when he realized that he wasn't going to be brushed off after a cheap introduction for some more interesting topic.
Victor's curiosity perked at Nathan's response. "Where in New York do you happen to come from, Nathan? Were you right in the city or were you in the rural districts?"
"Suffern, do you know it?" Nathan asked with curiosity. No one knew of the small area outside of the heart of New York City. Suffern happen to be one of those last stops you make on a road trip just to say you saw it. Nathan absolutely hated it – it felt like a representation of the dead end he would have ended up with if he had stayed.
Victor nodded, seemingly surprised at Nathan's answer. "Yeah, I used to live there. We had to move though – my dad did quite a bit of business work when I was younger." Nathan was impressed that he had managed to find someone who could point to Suffern on a map, let alone lived there at his new school.
"What are you studying, Nathan?" Victor asked, the casual chit-chat was going swimmingly for the young man.
"Business, how about you guys?" Nathan responded, feeling the pressure of conversation leaving him as they talked. He had always been interested in the business world. I suppose when some of his friends wanted to be firefighters and doctors, he always saw himself controlling a multi-billion dollar company with him behind the desk. It was a dream that he was going to make come true.
"Computer science. You know, the fun stuff," Victor smirked, stiffing a slight laugh. Nathan nodded politely before turning over to Thomas.
"Mechanical engineering. Almost as fun as Victor's job." Thomas offered in a light, airy tone of voice. The three shared a polite chuckle before going into other topics.
It was generic conversation for the most part. What other courses are you taking, have you met the teachers, excreta. It was the kind of conversation that loosens you up if you're planning to befriend someone. Nathan appreciated it; working his way up to socializing would be easy as long as he knew at least one person at the college.
Finally the conversation directed into a topic that perked Nathan's interest.
"So, did you hear about the new student?" Thomas asked the two, Nathan shook his head, but Victor immediately caught on and responded.
"Oh, you mean the prodigy genius? Yeah, it figures we ended up in the same year as him – the professors are probably going to drool over him." Victor said, his tone indicated he was clearly jealous of this new student. Nathan hadn't paid too much attention as to who was in his year; he knew that no one from his school was going so he didn't really see the point.
With his curiosity piqued, Nathan couldn't resist asking. "Who are you talking about?"
Victor and Thomas both turned to him, but it was Victor who decided to fill in the blanks. "Harold Wren; he's a fourteen year old prodigy. I heard he scored one-hundred per cent on all of his exams. It's insane; I mean, who has luck like that?" Victor was right – getting into such a prestigious college at fourteen was most definitely not luck.
"Are you serious? Oh man…where is he?" Nathan began glancing around the room. Unfortunately for him, prodigies don't generally stand out in a crowd unless their ego dominates them.
Thomas snorted and chuckled before answering. "He's a complete introvert. I heard he went outside. It's probably for the best though; I'm sure all the professors would be crawling all over him if he stayed."
The conversation continued into more mundane topics; it was expected considering they had all just met. But Nathan's mind was still on the newfound prodigy Harold Wren. The idea of a genius had always fascinated him (despite the fact that he was indeed smart, Nathan was no prodigy) and perhaps he saw the new student as more of a freak-show advertisement than a person, but he had to see him for himself.
"Hey you guys, I'm just going to go to the bathroom - I'll be back." In all honesty it was a pretty stupid lie; one of the types of fibs that you could easily question. However, Victor and Thomas bought it hook, line, and sinker. Nathan carefully slipped away from the students, his curiosity getting the best of him as he sunk out of the building.
The campus was beautiful; there were elegant trees planted on the side of concrete sidewalks and the paths that covered the college were insanely intricate. If Nathan hadn't been so fired up with curiosity, he would have appreciated the scenery much more than he did as he took a path at random.
He was walking around for quite some time, and pretty soon Nathan realized that he had absolutely no clue where he was or where he was going. With a sigh he shook his head and sat down at a table. He was so interested that he had forgotten the size of MIT – it was a campus you could easily get lost in. Nathan wasn't afraid of getting lost; he knew that there were various maps to get back to the front of the college. Unfortunately, maps don't point out how to get to geniuses. It would be nice, however, if they did.
Nathan sat there for a moment before retracing his steps in a lazy fashion, an endeavor that eventually let him to a selection of benches that were around flower beds. There was a young man sitting at one of the benches, and Nathan's lost cause immediately became found once more as he walked over to him.
The man had dark brown hair and he was short – much shorter than Nathan, he could tell this even though he was sitting down. He had large glasses and a book covering most of his face. He was wearing a suit that while looked stereotypically nice also seemed like he put no care into wearing it. When Nathan walked in front of him, he eyes refused to waver from the book as if it was much more interesting than the human in front of him. "You're in my light; would you please excuse yourself?" He requested in a blunt tone. It was a rude statement, but Nathan obliged. Sheepishly he sat beside the younger man on the bench.
"Hey, are you Harold?" He had to confirm the identity of this mysterious man before pursuing further.
Again, his eyes didn't move from the page of the book he was reading. "I am Harold Wren. Normally I would tell you that you are distracting me from my reading, but considering I just told you who I was I request for the same pleasantries directed my way."
Nathan cringed slightly - clearly this was not the social type of genius. The first bout of awkward conversation had set in. "My name is Nathan Ingram; it's nice to meet you." He offered out a hand that was either ignored or not noticed by Harold.
"Well, Mr. Ingram, thank you for informing me of your identity. You are distracting me from my reading, please stop." It was an instant response. There was no emotion or infliction in his voice; he didn't seem visibly annoyed, but Nathan already knew that he had agitated the genius.
"I just wanted to ask some questions, could I?" Nathan attempted to pursue a nicer tone of voice, smiling nervously.
"Unless it involves an activity other than distracting me from my reading, an activity you are currently doing, then no." Nathan felt like he had been slapped in the face, but he just had to pursue on. Sure, Victor and Thomas were nice enough, but they didn't interest him. Nathan was always interested in the odd or the peculiar, and a 14-year-old in college definitely fit into those categories.
"Are you the prodigy everyone is talking about?" Nathan asked, although he already knew the answer.
"I doubt the entire human population discusses me for idle conversation." That along with a page flip was the only answer Harold offered.
"Well is it true you are really fourteen?" Another obvious question that he thought might open up the conversation.
"Check my birth certificate if you doubt it." His answers would have been considered sarcastic if they had more of an emotion to them. Nope – Harold Wren's personality could be compared to a chalkboard or piece of cardboard.
"Well are you-"As Nathan was about to ask another question, Harold cut him off with a firmer tone of voice. Clearly his annoyance had reached its limit.
"I regret to inform you of this, Mr. Ingram, but I'm not a class pet for your interviewing endeavors. Please leave me alone."
Throughout his final decline, Harold refused to glance away from his book. Nathan was officially agitated at the genius. Although it was not the most thought out action of his life, Nathan snatched the book from Harold's hand, causing Harold to look around like an animal thrown into a new habitat. His eyes widened as he stared in disbelief to Nathan, like he couldn't believe someone would ever take his precious source of knowledge away from him.
"I just want to ask you a couple of questions. How do you expect to have any friends with that sort of attitude?" Nathan asked, keeping the book a good distance from Harold's grabbing hands as he waited for a response. He knew with the book he attained power over Harold; there weren't any distractions once the book was out of the way. No shields to hide behind other than chipper conversation.
Harold turned to Nathan and their eyes locked in a staring match. "Friends are not a requirement. Everyone here sees me for what I am anyways." For once, Nathan actually heard some emotion in Harold's voice; it was melancholy.
The two young men stared at each other, neither of them breaking the silence until Nathan finally talked. "Friends are…social interaction is…" He stammered out, feeling like he just got completely duped. Nathan was smart, but Harold was just that much better at leaving him completely wordless.
"Not required as I said." Harold finished for him, placing his hand out in an impatient manner. "Give me back my book, please."
"Wait…care to explain why you don't think it's required?" Nathan asked, his mind trying to think of a way to prolong the conversation. The discussion with Harold was the most indulging one he had been in for awhile.
Harold gave a glare to Nathan, but then finally sighed and gave in. "Give me back my book first." It wasn't a demand; it was more of a plea. Finally Nathan obliged and Harold took his book back, but didn't open it. "People like me don't live on the same social plane as people like you, Mr. Ingram." Nathan tilted his head, giving time for Harold to groan and shake his head, as if he hated having to explain things to him.
"Once you're labeled as a genius, you have certain advantages and disadvantages. The easy accesses to colleges and the lack of difficulty comprehending chemical formulas are seemingly useless perks when it comes to the cons." When Nathan didn't respond, Harold continued in a smaller, less secure voice. "If you're seen for just what you are, then people presume, they guess at you and therefore they are under the presumption that they already know you. Therefore, the need to meet people and let them get to know you is irrelevant."
Just as Harold was about to get his book back out and go back into his introverted shell, Nathan intervened. "Wait…isn't judging everyone else beforehand the same thing you're doing?" He wondered if his question was good enough for the genius to answer, but after Harold appeared thoughtful he became slightly relieved.
"I have yet to meet someone that doesn't fall into the category of irrelevant." He responded affirmatively, but there was a just a hint of stalling, as if he was trying to convince himself rather than Nathan.
"Well, I could tell you what I have gotten from our conversation." Nathan suggested, suddenly Harold was interested and Nathan couldn't help but smirk. Maybe he was actually getting somewhere. "You seem reserved, quiet, and extremely nervous to talk to anyone. If I hadn't just talked to you I would have just assumed you were intelligent and that's it. Therefore, our conversation was relevant and productive."
Harold stared at Nathan for a moment, not completely wordless but definitely stunned. He finally responded after a few minutes of thinking and stalling. "Care for me to give my judgment on you?" Nathan nodded and waited for a response. As usual, Harold was fearlessly calculating with his words. "You're confident, almost arrogantly so. You appear to be rash and over-social, which are all stereotypical behaviors for someone of your age. All of these things I assumed the moment you walked up to me." Nathan cringed – this was not going as well as he thought it would.
There was a slight pause and a loss of conversation for the two of them. Harold's words had sliced the conversation to pathetic silence. After a few moments of awkward stillness, Harold prompted the conversation again.
"However," Harold mumbled out, his voice significantly lowered. As if he was admitting some dirty little secret, he pressed on. "You do seem to actually be concerned about my personality rather than just my intelligence level. I drew this information from the fact that you did correctly analyze my interaction to you; I did not assume this when you first infiltrated my reading session, Mr. Ingram."
"And therefore…?" Nathan couldn't help but ask where Harold's judgments led him. With him it seemed to be up in the air.
"Therefore our conversation, and therefore social connection, could potentially be relevant." Although the wording was hilariously too proper, Nathan knew what Harold meant – he had passed the first test in befriending Harold Wren.
The two men sat there for a moment until Harold finally said. "Well, I suppose since you are going to be my companion we might as well get to know each other."
"Alright, tell me a fact about yourself, Harold." Nathan didn't know why he said it, but the first name seemed to slip naturally out of his mouth.
Harold gave what could be considered a small smirk, a rarity from what he could tell, before responding. "Well, Mr. Ingram…Nathan, I am a sucker for surveillance."