Title: Fae-zed and Confused
Summary: Lauren is in her last year of undergrad and a bit socially awkward. She teams up with Hale for a semester long project for a filler course. Hale introduces her to his co-ed house-mates Kenzi, Dyson, and … Bo. Partnering with Hale turns out to be one of the best choices she's unintentionally ever made, or the worst? And what the heck are Fae?! College AU. Doccubus endgame. Unsure of other ships.
Notes: I do not have a beta. I will continue this if there seems to be an interest in it. Criticism is welcome. I am unsure how often I will update as I am also unsure how long I want this story to be. Let me know if you all think I should write more for this.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 1: Introduction
"This is Introductory Psychology, a course typically taken by freshman," a tall thin man with a graying hair sat on top of the desk in front of the room. "How many of you are freshman? Show of hands."
Lauren was sure every hand in the room went up. She twisted in her seat directly in front of the professor to see if anyone had not raised their hands. While she was only taking this class to satisfy some basic requirements for graduation, she already felt dread and anxiety at the prospect of working with a freshman.
Lauren had yet to unpack a notebook and pen for one reason only. Usually, Lauren was prepared and ready to attentively take notes; however she had downloaded and gone over the syllabus for the course before hand and was devastated to find that fifty percent of her overall grade was based on a semester long project. Not just any kind of project, no. A partner project. She loathed any kind of assignment where her grade depended on another person keeping up.
Nope. She was not going to get stuck working with a freshman. Her plan was simple, if they were given the opportunity to select partners today, she would be prepared to be up and out of her seat at a moment's notice, ready to single out one or more of the upperclassmen if there were any and ask them to be her partner before any first years got the chance.
After a quick scan of the room, she realized she didn't recognize anyone immediately, but surely there would be someone she vaguely recognized in a three hundred and fifty person class.
"How many sophomores?" the professor gazed up at his students as about fifty or so raised their hands.
Lauren wouldn't settle for a sophomore.
"Juniors?"
Thirteen.
"Seniors?"
Lauren held her breath as she tentatively raised her hand and looked around the room.
Three. Her included.
She was sure many, if not most, would think her over dramatic about how much though and worry was being invested in something as simple as a partner. She would be inclined to agree, if this project was worth less five percent or less of her overall grade. Of course she realized that even she was being harsh on freshman, some of which she is probably sure are just as driven as she is. Several too many bad experiences however have made her distrustful of underclassmen, however upperclassmen were not to be trusted most of the time either.
Just like Michael Shnuuuude, who to her dismay was one of the other two seniors who raised their hands. Lauren frowned and followed his line of vision to a young man wearing a fedora. Hale Santiago. Senior. Political Science major. They've never met formally but saw each other in passing while sharing some classes.
Hale glanced around the room and caught her eyes and gave her polite smile acknowledging her and turned back to face the professor.
The professor pushed his glasses up and clapped his hands together.
"Well then! Now that that's out of the way, my name is Pryce. Yes that is my last name and no you can't know my first name, yet." The room buzzed with light laughter. "Since this is the first day of the semester and Friday, I will let you go after I go over something in the syllabus. Partner projects! I'm sure I don't have to explain any of this and I won't, however I would like for you to find someone to partner with before you leave and exchange contact information. Monday I expect a page typed with you and your partner's names and a topic to be approved by me."
Pryce walked around the desk and slung the strap of a leather satchel over his head and looked back at his class who were all still in their seats.
"Go!" With that he walked toward an exit and the room was suddenly the lecture hall was flurry of students trying to find their friends or anyone to work with.
Lauren wasn't as prepared as she had thought as she watched Michael engage Hale and let out a frustrated groan.
"Hey, um, do ya want to work together?" a tall muscular male wearing a Ed Hardy shirt approached her and gave her what she assumed his charming smile.
"Ehhhhhh." Smooth Lewis.
"Sorry bro, but Lauren and I silently agreed to work together from across the way a few minutes ago." Hale smiled at the two and the other man mumbled as he turned and walked away.
"You know my name." it was a statement and it took Lauren a moment to remember her manners, "what I meant was, thank you, for that, and hello!"
"You're what almost every student here strives to be, brilliant!" Hale offered her his hand to shake and she accepted. Lauren was charmed.
"Hale Santiago's the name." He gestured to the door and he and Lauren moved to exit the lecture hall.
"So Doc," Hale noticed Lauren raise an eyebrow and he elaborated "That's what I've heard you aim to be isn't it? A doctor?"
"That's one of the few accurate rumors about me around here." She rolled her eyes and adjusted the strap of her satchel.
"Well, since we do need to come to an agreement about a topic, how about you come over to my place tomorrow around one? We can get to know each other a little more since were partnered for an entire semester anyway."
Lauren was impressed that he wanted to get this going right away, it's not like she had anything to really do this weekend. Or any weekends for that matter.
"Sounds great!"
"Fantastic," Hale ripped out a sheet of paper from his notebook and quickly wrote down his address and phone number. "Here's my address, I have another class in twenty minutes but I'll see you tomorrow!"
With that hale left and Lauren was feeling fairly optimistic about the first day of her senior year of university.