There were purple lasers flying everywhere! The enemy was closing in and Alfred himself had to rally up the troops.

The loud beat of "The Party Rock Anthem" pounded on Alfred's ear drums. He quickly lifted his arm and slapped the snooze button on top of the radio alarm clock. He could spare five minutes or so. He quickly snuggled into the comforter and drifted off to sleep. As soon as he was asleep he continued his dream about cyborgs and spaceships.

Once again, there were purple lasers flying everywhere! The enemy was closing in and Alfred himself had to rally up the troops. He started giving the most epic speech, when suddenly foreign spaceships appeared out of nowhere! And just when it looked like the enemy was closing in on the hero, he felt a tingling sensation on his left cheek.

This time, his dream was rudely interrupted by his brother rapidly poking on his cheek. Alfred slowly shifted his weight and glared at his twin.

"Dude, what the hell. Why are you up so early?"

His brother was soft spoken, so Alfred could barely hear him when he practically whispered his reply."Alfred it is past eight o'clock, I thought you said you would be up at seven."

Alfred fixed his glare on the alarm clock. "Shit!"

Alfred flew out of his bed nearly knocking over his flustered twin. He shoved his glasses onto his face and swiftly changed from his mismatching batman t-shirt and superman boxers, into jeans and a plain red t-shirt. No time for style today. He walked past the hotel bed which had red pillows, a white comforter, and white sheets. All of them were now twisted into a giant mess. He glared at the hotel alarm clock. He blamed it for not waking him up.

"You traitor." He grumbled at the digital alarm clock.

He went to the mini bar provided by the hotel room and was welcomed by the smell of pancakes. How long had he been asleep? Oh that's right, he woke up an hour late. He took three or four of Mathew's delicious pancakes off the travel sized Forman grill and stuffed them into his mouth. After, he proceeded to drink a large amount of syrup.

"Ew, Al, that's really gross."

"Whateves man, desperate times call for desperate measures!"

He wiped his mouth free from any maple syrup. Not wanting to hear his brother's sly remarks, he scurried on over to the first box of objects he saw and started to carry it down to the hotel parking garage. Not far behind was a furious Mathew carrying a box full of books.

"You know, if you had done this at seven like you said, we wouldn't have to rush in order to beat the crowds."

His brother looked unusually cross. You could tell he woke up only a little bit earlier before Alfred because his chin length dark blonde hair was a mess in the back. Behind his glasses you could see he still had dark circles. Alfred guessed he himself didn't look any better. He looked at a framed picture as they walked down the hallway. His reflection looked just as tired. His short honey blonde hair looked disheveled and behind his glasses were faint dark circles.

"Awww come on Mattie! What's done is done, no need to bitch about it!"

Great, the last thing he needed was Mathew exploding right now. He figured if he played his cards right, Mattie would forgive him. And maybe make more pancakes.

Mathew walked up in between the elevators and pushed the down arrow. They were silent as they waited for the next elevator to show up. Alfred perched his head on top of the large box he carried. He watched as the numbers gradually grew smaller.

"Look, Mattie, I'm really sorry that I slept in. I know I screwed up our schedule, but we are just going to have to deal with it." Alfred looked over at his quiet brother to see if there was any anger displayed on his face.

"It's okay Al. I understand. I just wish that sometimes you would wake up on time for once instead of putting it off for another one of your 'totally epic' dreams."

"Dude! My dreams are totally epic! This time there was robots that were defeating the Evil Marmite Aliens in outer space! The best part was that I was the leader of the robots! It was awesome! Don't ever diss my dreams man. They are probably way cooler than yours."

The longer haired twin just laughed and stepped into the now open elevator. Lucky for them, no one was inside already. Alfred nudged the Lobby button on the key pad with his elbow. Mathew was surprised to find that none of the other buttons were activated by his brother's sloppy motion.

Soothing elevator music played "The One Note Samba" while the awkward silence between the twins only grew larger by the second. After what seemed like ages, the doors finally opened to the busy hotel lobby.

The hotel their father chose for them to stay in was quite expensive. The lobby its self was decked out in beige marble. There were stair cases covered in red velvet carpet that lead up to various parts of the building. Practically every decoration was gold. Gold railings, gold vases, gold tapestries, even the trash cans were gold colored.

The lobby the twins had to shuffle through was full of people. Most of them were businessmen with huge brief cases, and other forms of luggage. They even passed some wealthy families on their short journey to the parking garage. Everyone was anxiously waiting to be checked in.

"Excuse me.… sorry… pardon me…"

Alfred could hear Mathew's faint apologies as people kept snobbishly bumping into him. One person shoved his brother hard enough that the box hit him in his face, causing his glasses to turn lop sided. Alfred decided to break the single file train thing they had going on and moved next to his brother. If people were going to be jerks and not have courtesy, then neither would he. Mathew showed him a look of gratitude.

Once they made it to the parking garage, Alfred set down his box, and searched his pocket for the truck's keys. Uh oh…

He gave Mathew a look that said 'please don't kill me' that was wrapped up with a sheepish smile. Mathew rolled his eyes, set down his own box, and pulled out a key.

"Thank god the rental car has a spare key. eh."

Their father had also rented them a rental car. Well, more like a rental truck. The truck was a dark green shade, close to the color of pine trees, and had a horizontal silver stripe going across the bottom of the passenger and driver doors. It wasn't a fancy new model or anything, but it was really spacious. Alfred was pretty sure he could fit a grand piano in the bed of the truck. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration.

They both unloaded the boxes they were carrying into the back.

"How many boxes do you think you have?"

"Ummmmmmmm, I would say about fifteen."

Mathew sighed and face palmed. "Al, do you seriously have to bring ALL of your comic books with you to college?"

"Hell yeah dude! I can't trust mom or dad to take care of 'em. They would just throw them in the attic and let them rot. They deserve better than that!"

"You do realize that you are talking about your comic books like they are real people. Right?"

"Well they do deserve a better home than a smelly old attic."

It's true. Alfred has always had a soft spot for his comic books. Most of them were the popular DC comics, Green Lantern, Batman, The Flash, Green Arrow, Justice League, and of course Superman. He also liked The Avengers from Marvel comics. His favorite being Captain America. Alfred had always liked the idea of the average joe becoming a hero. He kinda wanted to be a hero in his own way. He was going to college majoring in Chemistry. Ever since he learned about the risk of using nuclear power, he wanted to find an alternate chemical source that wouldn't be as harmful. He wanted to protect the world from destruction just like his heroes. That's why he couldn't let his comic books be treated so horribly. They were his nerdy obsession.

Mathew started walking back to the hotel room. "I guess we better get a move on, otherwise the whole college will be swamped with other people moving in last minute."

"Yeah"

Alfred was still slightly drowsy from being woken up suddenly. He simply followed his brother's orders, until they were finally finished loading up the truck. That's when Mathew threw the spare keys at Alfred.

"Kay. Good luck. Don't fall asleep at the wheel."

"What? Mattie you're not going to help me move in? Not cool dude." Alfred pouted, hoping his brother would reconsider and come with him.

"Yeah, well that's what you get for not planning things . Plus I want the day off from getting prepared for college."

Mathew was attending the same school as Alfred. Well, more like Alfred was attending the same school Mathew was. After all, Mathew had applied and had gotten accepted first. Mathew had moved all his stuff into his dorm, with the help of Alfred, the first moving day. That was on Monday. It was now Friday, the last moving day, and Alfred was already behind schedule. He was going to have to deal with a lot of people in the same boat. That's what he gets for procrastinating.

Alfred hoisted himself up into the truck, shut the door, buckled up and let out a huge sigh. He wasn't sure if he could move in all by himself. Surely someone at the college would be more than willing to help him out. Right? He put the key in the ignition and decided it's a risk that he was willing to take.

The drive didn't take long. Their hotel was located downtown, which was really close to the university. He continued down Sherman Street which was somewhere in the suburbs, except all the houses looked kind of old. No white picket fences or big yards either. The houses were two stories and squished up against one another. The neighbor hood finally cleared and he turned left at a sign that said 'Welcome to Sherman University of Maine'. The sign was decorated with light blue squiggly lines that most likely represented water. Alfred often forgot that he was now going to start living in Portland, Maine. While staying in the hotel, it didn't feel real. He felt like he was just vacationing away from his former home in California, but now it felt real. Once he took a whiff of the air outside, He could tell that he was on the other side of the continent. Here it smelled of fresh rain, soil, minerals and ocean. Back in the suburbs of L.A. it smelled like ocean, sand, and barbeque. Even the Ocean smell didn't smell the same. Or maybe that was just Alfred's imagination.

It only took one glance at the parking lot. Wow. There was absolutely no where to park. The whole campus parking lot was filled to the brims with last minute students.

"Damn."

Alfred cussed as he drove in circles looking for at least one spot. Mathew did warn him. Alfred almost gave up when all of a sudden a sliver of hope in the shape of a rectangular parking space showed its self. Cue the angelic choir. He pulled in with ease. This space was perfect. He proceeded to fist pump and yelled in an obnoxious falsetto

"BEST SPOT IN THE LOT!"

He swung the truck door open, nearly hitting the SUV next to him, and jumped out of the driver's seat. Feelin' high and mighty, he began to stroll right into the main office building. The crabby exhausted secretary slammed his dorm information down on the desk. Hey, Alfred wasn't complainin', he was just glad he found a parking spot in this madness. He grabbed the papers and galloped his way towards the dormitories.

"Building 132, room number 26-B"

Sweet! His room was on the first floor of the four story complex. This was going to totally kick ass! He wouldn't have to carry his stuff up and down the stairs!

The building was decked out in red bricks and had dark green double doors. Running along side the bricked building was a low hanging telephone wire that disappeared into one of the trees that hugged the wall and blocked someone's window. The complex had no corners. Instead it had rounded edges. Many surrounding buildings had the same structure and colors. Alfred guessed that those were other dorm buildings.

This is soooo cool! It's like a castle-apartment kinda thing! He entered the building through the double doors, not knowing he was entering chaos.

Piles of boxes upon boxes lined the walls, making the pathway down the hall very narrow. Running straight at Alfred was some albino guy. Taking notice that he wasn't stopping, Alfred squished against the wall as the chuckling albino guy barreled past him. Not too far behind was a scary looking girl wielding a skillet with both hands. What the hell?

Alfred looked down the hallway to see if anyone else decided to charge at him. The coast was clear, so he moved away from the wall and started to search for his room. 22-B…. 24-B… 26-B! The door was painted the same color as the hall way, a warm beige color. 26-B was engraved on a plastic name plate right above the door. He opened the beige door to his new room to find his new roommate inside.

"Oh! Hello, you must be Alfred Jones?"

"Yup! And you must be… Natalia Ar-lovs..kaya?"

Wait, isn't that a girl's name? Of course Alfred wasn't judging, but the person in front of him was a dude. He had light brown hair that settled just below his chin and dark blue eyes.

"Heh, no, sorry, me and her switched rooms. I told the secretaries that I was uncomfortable sharing a room with Ivan, so me and Natalia switched. My name is Toris Laurinaitis."

"Oh. Okay! Nice to meet ya Toris. I'm guessing you're not from America based on your accent?"

"No, I am from Lithuania. I transferred just so I could experience the world a little. I have never really been away from home before, so it is exciting being some place new."

Alfred couldn't help but notice how nervous his roommate was. Alfred couldn't imagine going to school in another country. Going to school in an unfamiliar state was weird enough.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay in the oh so awesome U.S.A!"

Toris laughed "Of course, Of course….."

He looked at Alfred with a confused expression.

"Hey Alfred? Where is your stuff? If you don't move in soon, you are going to have to wait for tomorrow to come."

" Heh. About that. Ummmm Toris, would you mind helping me move in? My bro kinda ditched me for pancakes." Alfred smiled and hoped that it wasn't too much to ask for. Toris didn't seem like a mean guy.

"So you are needing the helps? Ya I will gladly help you."

"Awesome! Thanks man! You're the best!"

He lead Toris out to where his car was parked. He truly did get the Best spot in the Lot. It was not far from the dorm building, and had a decent amount of room on either side. They walked up next to the car.

"Uh, Alfred? You realize you cannot park here right?"

"Huh?"

Alfred looked down at the pavement below his car. It was painted with several diagonal yellow lines. What? No way! Why couldn't someone park here? His gaze trailed to the front end of the truck. In front of his truck was a sidewalk that dead ended right into his vehicle. You have got to be kidding. Alfred swiveled his head from side to side looking to see if anyone was using the walk way. Nope. Not a single soul.

Since no one was using the side walk, he didn't feel he had to move his truck.

"I'll move it once we are done bringing in the boxes. It was a pain in the butt to find a parking space."

Toris nodded his head in agreement. "As long as you move before someone uses it."

The two were a great team, moving efficiently and sharing the work equally. Even though there were hundreds of students constantly bumping into them, they were done in no time. What was even better was that the parking lot had cleared up a bit, so Alfred moved the truck to a legal space. Now what was left to do was to unpack all his belongings.

"You sure do like comic books and video games. I think, without them you would only have eight boxes."

Alfred looked fondly at the several boxes that contained the various comics from his child hood and his favorite video games. Most of his video games were the gory science fiction, war, fantasy and even medieval types. That's not to say he didn't enjoy his Mario Kart, Luigi's Haunted Mansion, Super Mario Party 6 through 9 (You bet he bought the latest edition of Mario Party right when it came out) and his most prized possession, Super Mario Bros. for the old school Nintendo. He didn't have an old Nintendo, but he held on to the cartridge just in case he ever came across one he could afford. It has been on his Christmas list since he bought the game at a flee market, but his parents insisted that he should buy newer technology. Buying old things was just ridiculous.

In Alfred's opinion, it was ridiculously awesome.

"Dude I don't think I could live without those seven boxes filled with epicness. If I didn't have them with me for a whole year, I would probably DIE."

Alfred was glad to see amusement in the Lithuanian's eyes. He also caught a little bit of curiosity.

"Dude, have you ever played a videogame before?"

Toris tore his eyes away from the box containing a PS3, Wii, Xbox and multiple games.

"Hmm? No. Not really. Back home I was always working hard to pay the bills. Anytime I had for myself I would usually read, draw or sleep."

"Whoa man. That sounds terrible…. You should totally play some awesome games with me! I'm sure once you start playing you will love them! They really help to take your mind off things! Without my videogames, I think the stress would crush me."

Toris smiled and nodded his head. Looks like his roommate was going to be more awesome than Alfred had originally thought. Well, he originally thought his roommate was going to be a girl, so it was a nice change to have a bro who appreciated his love for videogames.

Alfred had unpacked everything and his side of the dorm finally looked like it was his. His bed was covered in a jean comforter, and his pillow was red with 'Pow! Bam! Smash!' written all over it in random speech bubbles. On the wall next to his bed he had a medium sized poster of Harry Potter. Hey, he read books too! And Harry Potter had to be one of the best. He stored all of his comics and games underneath his bed in an attempt to keep the dorm from looking messy. Next he moved all his clothes into his provided closet space. The last final touch was his totally awesome Batman radio alarm clock. He knew that this alarm clock wouldn't betray him like the stupid hotel alarm clock.

Just a glance at the inside of the dorm was enough to clearly see the line that split the dorm in half. While Alfred's side was covered in bold colors, Toris's was quite plain. His bed had a white comforter and white pillow. He had no specific decorations except a silver alarm clock and on his bed side table laid a single Fern Blossom. Under his bed was, from what Alfred could tell, some art supplies and books. Besides that, the Lithuanian didn't have many possessions.

Alfred felt his stomach let loose a loud growl. He looked over to his Batman clock, 12:49pm. He had completely forgotten about lunch.

"Well, I better get back to the hotel. Thanks for helpin' me man! I really appreciate it."

"It was no problem Alfred. Ya, I better go out and get some lunch myself. See you on the first day of classes."

They both said their goodbyes as Alfred stepped outside the door into the beige wonderland that was the hallway. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. This day had gone better than he thought. He managed to avoid trouble, had a totally awesome new bro, and had successfully moved in, all in five hours. It was amazing how things always seemed to turn out okay. Alfred was really excited for this upcoming year. He was going to take Higher Mathematics, some kind of Art class, The General Education classes (English, Science, so on and so forth) and a one semester course of Marine Biology. Marine Biology was an unnecessary class. He didn't even have to take it for his major. It pretty much was just a waste of money, but his dad was paying so Alfred thought "Why the hell not? I like marine life n' stuff." Those are all the classes he could remember without actually looking at his schedule.

He stepped out into the hallway only to bump into some short blonde dude carrying a huge box.

"Watch where you are going! You stupid Git!"

Alfred just stared at the slightly shorter dude in front of him. His blonde hair looked like he had just gotten out of bed, he bore enormous eyebrows, and his eyes were a deep shade of green that Alfred thought wasn't humanly possible. By his accent he was clearly British. Alfred was currently watching the angry British dude open up the room from across the hall. He caught a glimpse of a Union Flag that hung above one of the dorms beds. Then the door was slammed shut by the angry British dude's foot.

Well someone was feelin' a little grumpy. That was one of his hall mates. Oh joy. Alfred was going to deal with that every day. He adjusted his glasses and once more walked out into the hallway. He shouldn't let Mr. Grumpy Gills ruin his day. After all, today, so far, had been pretty epic.

Alfred continued walking down the hall and turned around the corner and exited the building. Outside, leaning against the wall, was a long haired man that looked like he needed to shave his face free from all the short hair coating his chin. Or maybe that was just the look he was going for. Alfred ignored him and kept walking.

"Oh mon Dieu, comment beau!''

Wha? Was he talking to him? Alfred turned his head toward the dude, but kept walking not sure if he was talking to him. The long haired man blew him a kiss and winked. Alfred looked to see if anyone was around him that the man could possibly be winking at. No one in sight. His face turned a deep red and looked back at the man speaking a foreign language. Was that..French?

"Cannot wait to meet you Alfred!" followed by another wink.

Alfred ran the rest of the way to the truck. Once inside, he stared back where the French guy was standing. The bearded guy had disappeared into the building. How in the freakin' hell did the guy know his name? Was he some type of stalker? That was just plain creepy. All this went through Alfred's head as he put the keys in the ignition. Perhaps he was over reacting. Maybe the guy was friends with someone he already knew at the college. The winks and kisses must be some weird greeting. He was speaking French after all. Mathew could speak a little French because that was the language course he took in high school. Alfred could tell the language the guy was speaking sounded similar. Unlike his brother, he had taken Spanish because it was way easier to learn. Plus, it came in handy when there was nothing interesting to watch on T.V. except for a drama on Telemundo.

Alfred eased out of his parking space and drove past the welcome sign. 'Welcome to Sherman University of Maine'. This school had turned out to be more like a World university than an American university. He wondered if there were any other foreign students that lived in his building. Perhaps not all of them were as nice as Toris had been. Alfred would have to make sure to steer clear of that French guy and that angry British dude. After all he did call him a…. what was it? A 'Git'?

The drive back to the hotel parking garage felt excruciatingly long. He could feel his stomach gurgling.

"Mattie better be prepared to pay for lunch." He mumbled. He did come back in record timing thanks to Toris. Hopefully Mathew hadn't already gotten lunch.

He walked through the now deserted lobby and raced up one of the red carpeted stairs. He was lucky that a family had just walked into an elevator. As he entered the tight space, the two kids, a boy and a girl, that were with their mom stared at Alfred with wide eyes. He smiled and waved at them. In return he got two smiles back. The doors opened to his floor and he rushed out of the elevator, only to hear the little girl say "Bye bye!"

Kids were so awesome.

Now that he was a little less grumpy, he slid the key card through the card reader.

"Hey Mattie!"

Mathew was lying on his hotel bed looking through an Outdoor Life magazine. He looked up at his twin.

"Oh. Al you're back sooner than I expected. Did you get someone to help you?"

"Yeah! My new awesome roommate helped me out. I'm lucky he was there today."

"What room did you get?"

"26-B it's on the first floor and not too far from the entrance. Where is yours? Oh! and how is your roommate?"

Mathew looked back down at his magazine, looking at various picture of wildlife, and outdoorsmen gear. The only thing that stuck out in front of his magazine was a curly strand of hair that defied just enough gravity to stand out. Alfred would have found it abnormal, if he didn't have one himself that stuck straight out of his hair line and bent slightly backwards.

"Mine is on the second floor, 17-H. My roommate is Francis Bonnefoy, he is French, and…. I guess he is ….alright. Who is your roommate?"

French guy? Alfred's eyes widened.

"Wait, does this Francis Bon-Bon dude have a beard thingy and long hair?"

His brother looked up from the magazine that was previously distracting him. "Yeah, why?"

Oh thank god! The guy wasn't some stalker! Mathew had probably told him that he had a twin. That's how he knew who Alfred was.

"I met him today. He seemed…..nice." Alfred couldn't tell him that he thought the guy was some weird flirt or something.

"Mmm hmm. I only met him for a brief moment before he left to help other incoming freshman. So who is your roommate?"

"My roommate is Toris and I can't quite pronounce his last name, but it started with an L! He is from Lithuania, and it's is his first time in America!"

Mathew continued looking at his magazine completely ignoring Alfred once again. Whatever he was looking at must be extremely interesting. Either that or…Oh crap. Was he still mad about this morning?

"…..Hey, Mattie….. I am really sorry 'bout this morning…. I didn't-"

The longer haired twin dropped the magazine on his stomach and interrupted his short haired twin.

"Alfred, it's fine. Jeez, I'm not mad or anything…eh….. I'm sorry for snapping this morning."

Mathew's apology sounded sincere. He even looked a little embarrassed. Huh. I guess he wasn't mad. Or at least he wasn't mad at Alfred.

Sometimes Alfred didn't understand what went through his brother's head. Well, not sometimes, more like all the time. And it wasn't just with his brother. He generally couldn't predict what people were feeling. That's why most of his girlfriends in high school called him an idiot or they simply said he didn't "understand" them. Hey, it wasn't his fault they decided to randomly break down and go into PMS mode. Alfred decided to stop that train of thought and started on his search for a restaurant or café that was close by. The promise of food made his stomach growl.

Mathew closed his magazine and threw it on the bed side table.

"Hey Al, …eh…..Lunch is on me today. Okay?"

Alfred couldn't help but laugh obnoxiously "Dude, you shouldn't have told me that. Now I'm going to pick the most expensive restaurant, and order every kind of food at least once."

Mathew smiled "Who said you got to pick out the place we eat at? If you pick it we will most likely be eating at a fast food joint."

"No way! Nuh-uh. I worked my butt off this morning and if I remember correctly, someone stayed home and read magazines all day, so that automatically gives me the right to pick out the place."

Alfred crossed his arms and pouted like a three year old about to throw a tantrum. Mathew decided to give in, knowing how stubborn his brother was.

"Okay, but you know I am not the richest man in the world, so please pick something with reasonable prices."

That deserved a giant smile from the louder of the two as he opened up the hotel brochure that listed all the well known restaurants and other places a guy could catch a meal.

"You got it man!"

Alfred finally decided on a small café down the street from the hotel. Mathew had ordered a small sandwich and cup of water, While Alfred had ordered the biggest sandwich on the menu and a cup of decaf coffee. No point in staying up all night today. After they had finished their lunch, they chatted about check out times and school schedules. The whole time all Alfred could think was: Wow. I'm really going to college. I'm really getting the fresh start I've wanted since junior year of high school.

Thank you for reading! Chapter 2 will be coming your way soon!

Special Thankies to: CityOwl3 for helping me sort out my ideas and for pushing me to publish! and to Rue Hajime!

Please leave a reveiw! I would be happy to read what you think :D