UU

An Overwatch Story

Lena was so excited! She was practically falling over herself running to the taxi with all of her things. United University! Her dream college! She felt like the taxi was going slower than a tortoise as she bounced up and down on the backseat.

Elevator music.

That was her phone alarm. Time to take another pill. The disease known as Chronal Disassociation was quite annoying, seeing as she had to take two pills every six hours, every day in order to not fall in and out of time (sound scary? It is.), but Lena had gotten used to it, and had done lots of paperwork so that she could take the pills on her own and live an -almost- normal life and not have to practically live in the hospital while the doctors studied her.

Besides that, Lena lived a pretty awesome life. She'd always loved to run, and was a track star all through her schooling. That's what she'd gotten her scholarship to UU for! God, she loved UU. United University was a school that taught pretty much everything. The campus itself was huge, practically the size of a neighborhood. In addition to that were all the dorms, which were like another addition of half the size of a neighborhood.

UU gave out scholarships for practically all facets of education. Math, Science, English, Art, Sports, and Music are just a few, and there seemed to be a million subcategories that you could study underneath.

The school was just. Wow. Lena could hardly believe it.

Ahhh! The campus just appeared. Huge white and grey buildings that were covered in art and murals from past and present art students and people all over the wide courtyard up front were already talking, catching up, and just basking in the summer-autumn sun were all across the campus. Lena couldn't help but let a squeal escape her lips.

The cabbie chuckled. "Dream school?"

"Yeah, it is." Lena said in a dreamy voice.

When the cab stopped, Lena wasted no time getting out and grabbing her stuff. She'd gotten an email that said that a guide would be waiting for her in front of Building A7.

"Lena Oxton?" An airy voice arose, and Lena saw that it was directed towards her. A beautiful girl with light blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and baby blue eyes was approaching her.

"Lena?" She repeated.

Lena blinked herself out of the trance. 'Stop it you useless lesbian.' She scolded herself. She nodded. "That's me!" She responded, a little louder than she should have.

"Angela." The girl introduced herself, holding out her hand for Lena to shake it. Lena giggled and shook.

"I'll be your guide." Angela paused. "Obviously."

Lena nodded. "Cool."

Angela grinned. "Way. Well, I'll show you around!" She said cheerily. And for pretty much the remainder of the morning, Angela gave her a tour until they came to the dorms.

"And, here's your key. Your dorm is TRCR, and you'd best not to forget it." She winked, and handed me the key. "I'll see you around. Maybe. We probably don't have a lot of classes together, as I'm in nursing, but I'll invite you to meet some of my friends sometime, okay?" She blew a golden hair off of her face.

"Sure. You want my number, then?" Lena said, pulling out her phone.

Angela laughed. "Yeah, I think that's probably necessary if I want to call you." She switched phones with Lena, and the two girls made a contact for themselves in each other's phones.

They returned phones, and smiled before Angela's phone rang.

"Oh, Fareeha!" She said, grinning. "I'll see you around, Lena." And she was off, she walked away as she answered her phone.

"Alrighty." Lena said to herself, and opened the door to reveal a medium-sized room with one small closet on each side. The room was half decorated and half empty. The decorated side of the room was covered in posters and adorned with a desk that was full of lots of electronic equipment, and a small daybed with lots of pillows. On the daybed was a small girl with bright hair that was shaved off on half of her head. She looked up from typing on a laptop.

"Hey. I'm Olivia. But please, call me Sombra." The girl spoke, flipping purple-dyed hair.

Lena smiled. "Lena. Where did Sombra come from?"

Sombra grinned. "It's my internet-alias, but I like it as a nickname. Everyone calls me Sombra."

"Alright, I'm down." Lena looked around. "Now, I guess I'll just be sitting on the floor with my laptop until my furniture gets here." She laughed.

Sombra beckoned. "Nonsense, chica. You can come sit over here." She moved over and patted a spot on the daybed next to her.

Lena grinned. "Alright." She put her large messenger bag down on the bed next to her, took off her leather jacket, and pulled out a laptop that was covered in stickers. Lena looked to see Sombra's long nails moving extremely fast over her keyboard.

"Whatcha doin?" Lena asked, glancing at the screen to see nothing but binary code.

Sombra looked away from her screen. "'M programming." She gestured to the desk. "I'm studying computer engineering. I can program, but I can also hack." She winked.

Lena raised an eyebrow. "You don't do anything bad when you hack, do you?"

Sombra laughed. "Of course not, cariño. I only, you know, hack people's social medias who've forgotten their passwords, hack some games to give me an advantage, etcetera etcetera." She replied, dismissively waving her hands.

Lena nodded. "Oh. That's pretty cool."

"So, what're you studying?" Sombra asked.

"Oh. I'm here on a sports scholarship, but I'm studying Communication just because I can't play sports all day, right?" Lena laughed.

Sombra nodded. "That's cool. But you should sign up for Communications Tech, because I'm in that class. We can have one together. You know, study together and whatnot."

Lena smiled. "Yeah, I'd love to."

Sombra's computer beeped, and she looked up at the clock on the wall. "Today's the activity fair on the courtyards, wanna go with me?" She asked Lena.

"Yeah, totally!" Lena replied, putting back on her leather jacket and orange-tinted aviator sunglasses and standing up.

Sombra went to her closet and pulled out a black hoodie. She pulled that on over her ripped black jeans and purple fishnets and her band tee. Grabbing her phone, Sombra walked to the door and opened it, looking back at Lena.

"You coming?" Sombra asked with a joking voice.

Lena nodded, running a hand through her brown pixie cut. She grabbed her phone as well and shoved it her pocket, following Sombra out of the room.

The activity fair looked awesome! There were booths for a ton of different clubs, teams, study groups, and so much more! People were advertizing used textbooks and tutors and all of this was under the cool autumn weather. Lena was bouncing up and down with excitement.

She looked to Sombra, who was surveying the area.

"Where're you going?" Lena asked her.

Sombra pointed to a group of similarly dressed kids with laptops. "Online friends. It's my first time meeting them. Wanna come?"

Lena shrugged. "Sure! Sounds fun. Why not?"

Sombra led her to the group of kids. They were sitting on blankets and towels and all typing away furiously.

"Hey, amigos!" Sombra addressed them all, holding onto her laptop protectively.

They looked up from their devices, some pulling out earbuds and taking off headphones. One boy with long dreads tied in a ponytail on the top of his head got up, grinning. He had a hoodie with an emblem on it that I recognized.

"Hey! You're Sombra, right?" He said, addressing the girl next to me.

"Yeah. Lucio?" She responded. "It's so awesome to meet you!"

"Lucio, himself?" Lena asked in disbelief, a gasp also added to the mix.

Lucio is a famous singer-songwriter online who writes and mixes awesome electronic music.

He laughed. "Yep. It's me! I'm goin' here for college."

Sombra laughed. "We met online in the same chat group I met the rest of these nerds in."

She gestured to the rest of the group.

"They're all awesome people, just more comfy online than offline!" Sombra said, smiling.

As Lena looked across the group more comprehensively, she noticed a couple more familiar faces, internet celebs, if you will.

One that caught her eye was a Korean girl that was next to Lucio.

" ? The streamer?" Lena asked, eyes widening.

The girl laughed. She raised her hand in a peace sign, and winked.

"Yep! We're all here because this is the best school around!" She chirped, her voice cheery and bright.

Lena couldn't help but feel at home with the group, but she understood that they still were all people whose time was spent on computers, inside. That wasn't really Lena's forte, and she preferred the outdoors.

"Sombra, I'm gonna leave you here. I'm not into all this computer stuff." Lena said. "No offense. But I'm gonna check out the other activities and clubs and whatnot." She added.

"I should get your number, though, so we can meet back up later today." Sombra replied.

Lena tapped her temple then pointed at Sombra in a 'You're smart.' gesture, and quickly relayed her number for Sombra to write down in her notes. "See ya."

Sombra nodded, turning to her friends. Lena noticed that they were all surprisingly familiar with each other for people who'd never met in real life.

She turned and left, wandering aimlessly around the fair, not really sure what to look at, as everyone seemed pretty into everything they were doing, anyway.

Ding!

Her text tone went off.

It was her mom.

Mom: How's it going? Is the campus as amazing as you described in FULL detail to me on the two hour drive to the airport?

Lena giggled.

Lena: better !1! It's so cool, mom. this is really my dream school!

As Lena typed it out, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hm?" Lena turned around, searching for the person who'd tapped her. She locked eyes with a blonde boy with a red white and blue leather jacket with a '76' insignia and jeans.

"Sup?" She asked, tucking her phone into a pocket of her own leather jacket.

The boy waved a bit awkwardly. "Hey. I'm Jack. Ooh, this sounded cooler in my head." He laughed half-heartedly. "I noticed your leather jacket. The patches and whatnot. Thought I'd introduce myself since we're like related via leather."

Lena laughed heartily. "It sounds cool enough to me!" She held out a hand. "Lena Oxton." Her British accent contrasted greatly with Jack's vivid American one.

Jack shook. He then gestured to Lena's British flag patch on her jacket. "I can see you're quite patriotic." He said, the laugh visible in his voice.

Lena rolled her eyes. "Please. You recite a pledge to your flag every morning in school."

Jack feigned offense. "You know we have no choice!" He said melodramatically.

Lena grinned. She could tell that they were going to be fast friends. Their joking, cheery manners complimented each other perfectly.

"So, you seemed a bit lost, that was more the reason that I came over." Jack added, running his fingers through his hair.

Lena giggled. "Oh! I just wasn't sure where to start! There's so many activities, you know."

Jack nodded knowingly. "Sure. If you're cool, I'd like to hang around a bit. You seem young enough to be a Freshman, so I can direct you a little, as well."

Lena nodded. "I left my roommate with her tech buddies, so I'm totally free. Why not?"

Jack grinned. "Alright. You seem like a swimming girl. Swimming?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

Lena stuck out her tongue. "Ew, swimming is for fish. I'm a track gal."

"Ooh, entitled? You know, some of the best athletes I know happen to be swimmers." Jack replied, his tone serious but his expression playful.

Lena shrugged. "I guess they're okay. I just don't like swimming that much."

Jack nodded solemnly. "I get that. So, you want me to show you to the track club?"

Lena scratched her chin. "Nah. Show me another sport. I'll connect to the runners another time."

"Gotcha. Let's check out the basketball?" He asked, looking thoughtful.

"Sure. You play?" Lena asked, following him through the maze of booths and groups of chatting kids on the pristinely kept bright green grass.

"Nah. But I have a friend who's the captain of our team. Fareeha Amari. She's a genius on the court. And even if you don't play, the team's really cool. It'll be nice for you to meet 'em all." He said, walking purposefully.

Lena had to slow to keep up with his pace. It was purposeful, sure, but not fast. People at her high school had learned to avoid her as she ran practically everywhere, whether she was late or not, whether she was on the track field or not. So, Lena usually felt as if she was moving painstakingly slow whenever she was walking.