You know, to be honest, I love to read – but I don't like Hemingway. Like, at all. I don't get the hype, really. And I'm not even one of those guys that's like, "Ugh, I read the Old Man and The Sea and it was so boring" and then they just write him off. No, I'm not like that at all! I'm an intellectual, I swear. I go to the University of Traverse which is apparently a pretty damn good school, so there's your proof. I started learning about the guy in my General Honors English Composition two class, which is not at all what it sounds like (you know, an instructional on, well, composition). It's actually one giant course on Hemingway. No, I don't get it either. I just know the professor is one big giant Hemingway wannabe, and that is pretty much every single class he teaches. A Hemingway fiesta. Estravaganza. Hemingwaypalooza. And hey, that's great, I'm glad he likes Hemingway! People should have their passions. But we have to read every single one of his short stories – his over fifty short stories – and I am not digging them. And that's like fifty stories I'm not digging. And I really want to, but how am I supposed to like all this stuff about bull fighting, hunting, fishing, blah blah blah. I guess I was never really the manly type in the first place, though, so that's all lost on me from the beginning.

Otherwise, I've come to the conclusion that in the one month I've been here, the University of Traverse has some great professors, decent food, cool town, and the people here are fun. I don't have too many friends yet, though, except for Roxas, my roommate, but he doesn't count because we grew up together. We're that duo, the ones that are like brothers, that come in a package deal; you invite one of us, you get both of us. You know those guys. They're annoying and flakey. Well, that's us. The only natural follow up would be to go to college together, obviously. Together we've been making a pretty solid friend group. We've got some Tidus, some Wakka, some Selphie and Pence, and occasionally Hayner decides to mold himself into us; it all makes one giant and healthy friendship salad. I like the salad. It has lots of good flavor, and it's filling.

And yet, here I am, alone in the cafeteria, with none of my crouton or cheese buddies to be found at the most important meal of the day: breakfast. Luckily, there's not too many people that eat with big groups at nine in the morning. I think no matter what kind of person you are, the mornings should be reserved for some 'me' time. Sausage and eggs can come too. Even I, the guy who came in second for "most friendly" in highschool, need some time to hear my own thoughts. Even if they're about how much I dislike Hemingway.

Across the cafeteria, there's some guy with a mullet that came in a few minutes ago and he's walking around to all of the tables and talking to the people sitting there. He's gonna make his way over here soon. There's lots of upperclassmen that do these kinds of things. I'm not really sure if I should try to finish my food before he comes so I can leave – but a few minutes pass and I am not a fast enough eater it seems.

"Hey man, do you have time to talk?" He smiles, tall and lunging over me. He's freakin huge. How could I say no to the Great Wall?

"Yeah sure."

"Awesome, awesome. So do you... well, okay, first of all my name is Demyx, and I guess I should ask you about your year here. I'm guessing you're a freshman."

"Yep, I am."

"Great, cool. So have you been getting along around here? Got to know a lot of people?"

"Yea-"

"Because if you want to make lots of friends here, you should definitely look into greek life. Especially chi epsilon, that's my fraternity and it's the best fraternity, and anybody who's anybody will tell ya that." He pulled out a flier from his pocket and slid it over to me, on it written, 'GI INTEREST MEETING ΧE CHI EPSILON'. "We're having our general interest meeting this Thursday in the student union building room two thirty-eight. You should definitely stop by, we're looking for new pledges."

Politely I nodded and grinned. "Yeah dude I'll think about it. Thanks for letting me know!"

"No problem!" He gave me a thumbs up and walked away, while I waited the lag time for him to be gone to avoid awkwardness, I watched him out of the corner of my eye and saw him walk over to some other guy with long, white hair (weird); I was a bit skeeved out when I realized the white-haired guy was looking in my direction. They talked briefly, and as I got up and ignored them, I was shouted at by Demyx.

"Hey!" He yelled. "What's your name?"

"...Sora."

I wasn't graced with a response, instead of being stared at by the both of them. Whatever.

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I came back from classes at around five and found Roxas laying on his bed, face down, looking pretty finished with life.

"Fuu ay ams." He mumbled into his bed.

"Uh, what?"

He turned his head to the side for my hearing pleasure. "Fuck. Eight. AMs."

"Ooooooh. Today was the long day?"

"I can't do this for three more months, Sora."

I plopped down on my bed and opened my laptop. "You can, and you will!" I exclaimed.

"Whatever, mom."

"Tsk. What happened to my baby Roxas? He used to be so nice to me."

He groans, "He's dead inside."

"Hmm." I checked the syllabus for every class, as I did everyday, and saw the oncoming deadline for one of those horrible papers college kids have to write. "I already have a deadline in two weeks. First paper of college. I have to read a book about European imperialism during the 1800's – I'll probably wait until the last night... you think I can do it? It's a six pager."

"No, if I have to be a good student, you have to be too. Just start it now."

"...No." I pouted, trying my darnedest to be cute at him, but my attempts were thwarted by his roll over to face the wall. Almost resuming my procrastination on my computer, my eye was caught by the very same paper that Demyx had given me earlier in the cafeteria sitting atop the fridge that separated mine and Roxas's beds.

"Ha. He bothered you too?"

"Huh?"

As if he were looking at me, I picked up the paper and waved it in his general direction. "The fraternity thing. That guy with the mullet was trying to make me join today too."

"Oh, that." He rolled back over and sat up, taking the flier from me and examining it himself. "I didn't get the guy you did, I don't think. My guy had this really weird hair."

"My guy had a mullet!"

"Mullets aren't that weird... you've probably seen my guy, his hair is like, bright, bright red, and spiky, and he has tattoos on his fucking face."

Actually, Roxas was right; I had seen him around. It was impossible not to pay attention to him.

"The guy with the green triangles on his face?"

"Yeah."

"I can't believe that guy would be in a frat. I remember seeing him my first day here and I was like... woah."

"Me neither. The guy should be in a fucking circus." It was true.

But still, "He's kinda dazzling in a way..." I admitted. Roxas leered at me silently, and to not discredit myself I added,

"Not that I'm gay or anything, it's just, y'know."

He stuck his hands in the air, flat and surrendering. "I know, I know, we've been over this a million times. I get it now, really."

I still glared at him. "Good." Even though I said it, I can't help but be ticked off a little bit every time he makes that stupid gay comment about me.

For about twenty minutes there was a lull in the room that both of us occupied by the internet, scrolling through posts of inspirational quotes or puppies or stars or inspirational quotes on a picture of puppies under the stars. Roxas cleared his throat.

"I actually really like Axel."

I looked up from my computer to stare at him. "Axel?"

"That's the red-haired guy."

"Oh. That's cool..." Suddenly the implications of Roxas' statement thrusted on my brain. "Oh no. You're not joining that fraternity are you?"

Roxas shrugged and looked out the window, studying the trees that reached the third floor of the building we lived on.

"Dude, I thought we would both never do that stuff! No, you're not doing that."

Backing onto his bed, he crossed his arms and furrowed his eyebrows at me. "I'm not saying I'm joining a fraternity. Relax. I just really like Axel. We both like the same weird bands and stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "I like every band you like."

He returned the gesture. "Yeah, you think they're okay. Axel is a huge fan of Blue Bamboozle."

"Blue Bamboozle? I like them! They're good. They have lots of songs I like."

"I know Sora," he sighed, "I know."

He's patronizing me. Peeved, I muttered, "Well if you like Axel so much why don't you just marry him?" He just snorted at me and continued to browse his phone. I whispered, "maybe Roxas is the one who's gay, hm?" just so much that he would probably hear me.

He took a deep breath in and then released it. "Sora, it'll be fine. I'm just gonna go to the GI meeting and see because Axel wanted me to..." smirking at me, he added, "and I'll try to get him involved in the group, and I'll even find out what way he swings for you."

I felt my face heating up. I resented him for that, and as soon as I threw my pillow across the room to hit him, I knew I reacted stupidly. He knew it too.

"This is mine now." He put the pillow nicely on his bed and lay down on it, cascaded in a pool of wonderful puffy pillows. My bed was barren.

"Damn."

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Walking back from history class, Tidus comes riding up next to me on a really sweet long board (that I could never afford) and yanks out my headphones, forcing me to be social.

"Hey dude, how was class?" He asks, stepping off of his board.

"That teacher really doesn't like me, still. I really can't get into Hemingway. He will not leave the guy alone!"

"Yup, I've heard this song before." He smirks. It's true, I've talked about it in detail to everyone.

Especially to Tidus, because he is the closest friend I have here after Roxas. Roxas and I weren't in the same orientation group, and when I was having a pretty difficult time talking to other people, he went out of his way to introduce himself, and was just as cordial when I was eating alone too. All in all, he's a pretty great guy.

"Are you going to lunch with the group?" He asks.

"Uh, am I supposed to?"

"Oh, I dunno. I just assumed because Roxas sent out a text a half hour ago."

I feel like a twit for it, but my heart cried for a moment when I heard that, and how I am for some reason assuming he doesn't want me there. "I didn't get it."

"Oh," he says, and I feel even more like a twit because Tidus looks pretty obviously guilty for a second. "Don't worry dude, he probably just assumed we were meeting up, we usually do."

"Yeah, probably, you're right." It's pretty obvious we both feel awkward, but one of the things I love about Tidus is that is a great conversationalist, and he changes the topic to spare me.

"Did you decide on any teams or clubs yet dude? Fraternity?"

"No, no clubs, and it's too late to join a team. Something about fraternities really weird me out." "I know what you mean. There's too much commitment involved. I'm on the blitzball team – actually, that's what I'm going to now, and I should probably go. I'll seeya later dude."

"Wait," I say, before he speeds off, "should I go to lunch then?"

He looks confused. "What? Yeah man, don't be a bitch."

"Alright." I can't help but smile, and he does in return, then rides in the opposite direction.

It's two o'clock, which is "awkward hour" at the cafeteria, so it doesn't take long for me to spot the gang, it doesn't take long for them to spot me walking in, and it doesn't take me long to spot a giant, blazing flame of red. It is hair, and I recognize it as Axel sitting next to Roxas. It is a pretty full looking table, and they are going to need to put in effort to make room for me. I am actually astounded by my own flash of anger at my obvious isolation from the group. But nice, sweet Selphie's arm shot up and started to wave and it was too late. Hayner, Pence, Wakka and her then congregated for a moment and started to spread out slightly as I slowly approached.

With a smile on my face, keeping my eyes on Selphie and her general direction, I tried to gauge Roxas's reaction out of my peripherals, and I was pretty pissed when I realized he wasn't even looking at me. He wasn't moving, either, and neither was Axel. By the way he scratched his head, and kept his gaze toward Axel, I could tell he was annoyed by my being there.

And suddenly, I walked a little more proudly just to spite him.

"Hey guys!" I wave, there seems to be a little bit of room between Hayner and Wakka for me to squish between.

"Sora!" Selphie squeals, "I was hoping you'd come!" There are nods of agreement, none from Roxas and Axel, though. Unlike Roxas, Axel is looking at me.

"Hey." He says, with an unenthusiastic wave. "I'm Axel."

"Yeah, I know."

I turn and go get food, leaving my sass floating around in the area. I give myself some time to choose from the paltry selections (some hotdogs, salad, fries, the usual). When I come back, all seems normal. I take up some conversation with Wakka about blitzball and his leg injury, the reason he is not there today particularly. Wakka is a sophomore and a veteran of the team, and therefore is allowed some leverage. When he talks about the sport, it sort-of kind-of makes me want to join, but also seems like too much to do for my first semester. Occasionally Hayner joins in, mouth full of "struggle" propaganda. I think I might be better at that, considering my previous sword experience.

"You guys should skip sports and join my fraternity." Axel interrupts, and my (probably) unwarranted hatred for him admonishes me to almost punch him in the face. No, I'm not joining your stupid fucking fraternity. He's not really looking at me anyway; he's eyes are switching between Wakka and Hayner, and I think he's doing that to piss me off.

"It's a little late in the game for that, at least for me." Wakka says.

"Seems like a lot of work not to be able to smoke or drink for a month." Hayner adds. Though I don't drink or smoke all that much, I nod anyway.

"Yeah, but then you have friends to smoke and drink with all the time." Roxas retorts, which surprises me.

"Except you have to trade a chunk of your dignity for them." I bite back.

"Who says?" He asks with obvious irritation.

"It's called "hazing", Roxas, sometimes people die from them."

"Not all fraternities haze!" It's almost funny how angry Roxas is getting.

Axel steps in, putting his hand in front of Roxas's face. "Woah, okay, just to be clear, our fraternity..." Axel lowers his head, and instinctively the whole table, including myself, lowers heads to meet him, "...does haze." he says in a whisper. "But we all have to do it. It's a bonding experience."

"What do you guys do?" Hayner voices for us.

He laughs. "I can't tell you that."

I roll my eyes. "Some satanic, goat-eating shit."

Wakka, in a subtle gesture, pats my hand with his own under the table, and I assume he's trying to tell me to calm down without embarrassing me. I glance to him and give him a small smile, trying to cool down.

"Well, I'm done. Are you done Axel?" Roxas asks, and Axel nods. They both get up, and Roxas bids everyone farewell without looking at me in particular.

"Bye Selphie, Wakka, Hayner. It was nice to meet you." He looks at me, with a more sarcastic look. "Sora." He takes off, and I try to keep Wakka's gesture in mind.

No one speaks until they leave the cafeteria.

"Holy crap. That guy was weird." Hayner says, and expectedly I laugh.

"Don't worry, Sora, we like you better!" Selphie interjects, and I laugh again. I can't help but wonder if I am really that transparent.

A/N: This story has a lot of dialogue, I'm sorry. This is very guilty pleasure for me. Lol. Anyway, this chapter didn't have much Riku, but I promise you this story is gonna be Riku/Sora, and he will come in eventually.