A/N: Here's Chapter Two, everyone. Hope you like. I would like to thank you for your reviews, I really appreciate it. :)
Disclaimer: Victorious belongs to Dan Schneider.
Chapter Two: Settling In
By GallaudetLurker
It takes a while for Robbie to finally locate his residential dorm building among the buildings that dot around the university's vast campus. It is so unlike anything he has seen at Hollywood Arts - and he had thought it was pretty huge.
The dorm building, formally called the Schneider Dorm, is a large five-story building consisting almost entirely out of reddish-brown bricks. For some reason, it reminds him of an oversized fire department building.
As he nears the dorm, Robbie thinks about the 'journey' that he has had to make after he left the gymnasium. He has gone over to the university's Department of Public Security building to get his ID card 'activated' and to get a term validation sticker, even although it has - like this dorm - taken a while for him to locate it. Several passing students were somewhat helpful - that is, if you consider pointing or gesturing to some vague northerly location or outright ignoring you to be helpful.
Afterwards, he has trudged across the campus to the parking lot, where he retrieves his bags and equipment from the trunk of the car. It would take at least a couple of trips, and Robbie - as stated earlier - really is not looking forward to that. As he makes the grueling return journey, Robbie wonders why he hasn't gotten a physical map of the campus or even downloaded it from the university's official website prior to arriving at the school. And he has no idea where the university's computer lab is - yet.
The royal blue sticker on the ID card, with the year 2012 printed on it, shines under the sun as Robbie clumsily takes it out of his jeans to swipe it across the automated ID reader near the front double doors. After doing this, Robbie grunts as he heaves his bags - two large luggage bags containing his clothes and stuff that he needs along with his backpack - with him as he passes through the front doors, his limbs, non-existent muscles, and joints creaking and throbbing from fatigue and exhaustion. Robbie feels like he is about to collapse there and then.
The dorm doesn't look half-bad, Robbie thinks tiredly as he takes a look around. There are several assorted posters plastered around on the beige walls, and he could see a pair of elevators off in the distance.
He heaves out a breath as he makes his way to the front office.
Wow. Robbie feels like he is about to enter into a trance as his eyes locks into a sole person sitting at the desk in the office, the exhaustion that has been dogging his body temporarily fading away.
That man has...awesome hair! The handsome young man sitting at the desk has an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Jesse from Full House, or at least what Jesse looked like before he cut his hair and became a family man. His dark brown hair flows down his olive-tanned face, and he is wearing a red-white button-up shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt. Though he has a somewhat slim figure, he radiates a calm, collected, and confident aura.
Though Robbie is completely straight, he thinks he is rapidly developing a man crush on the long-haired Adonis who is sitting in front of him.
The man looks up, and Robbie's breath hitches in his throat. The man's dark eyes peers deeply into his, and what surprises him is not only the intensity that feels like it penetrates directly to his soul, but the warm friendliness that radiates from them.
"Hey! Welcome to Schneider Dorm." The man says as he flashes a smile, revealing bright white teeth.
Gosh, his voice and smile is breath-taking. Robbie realizes that he is mentally gushing like an awe-struck girl in the presence of a famous actor, but he admits to himself that he would be acting like that if he was in actuality a girl (which he isn't, despite the rumors that plagued him in high school).
"I assume you're new here, right?" When Robbie mutely nods, the awe apparently sapping his ability to speak for the moment, the man continues: "That's cool, man. I'm Beck, nice to meet you."
"I-I'm Robbie...n-nice to meet you too." Here's that stammer again. The episode with Tori Vega from earlier is re-playing, only this time with Beck as the star. Beck raises his eyebrows as he gets out a folder from somewhere on his desk.
Beck reaches into the folder and pulls out a couple of papers, one smaller than the other. "I see you're nervous...I can understand how you feel. I was pretty nervous myself on my first day two years ago." He says with a reassuring smile that does wonders in alleviating Robbie's nervousness, although the reason for that nervousness was not what Beck had thought.
"Really...?" Robbie asks. Beck nods as he begins to scribble something into the smaller paper.
"Yeah, you could've seen me on that day, man. Made a complete fool out of myself, it wasn't pretty." Beck chuckles good-humoredly as he slides the paper across the desk toward Robbie. It is a dorm check-in/check-out form. "Sign your name and date here." Beck instructs as he hands his pen to Robbie, who takes it and scribbles his name and the date onto it. Robbie notes that he is to live in W-425, meaning his room is on the fourth floor in the west wing.
Beck gets up from the desk - he is wearing faded jeans - to a small locker on the wall behind him, and opens it. It is something of a key locker, as Robbie could see rows of identical golden keys hanging there. Beck retrieves a key and returns to the desk.
"Here's your key. Try not lose it-there's a $70 fee to replace that." Beck explains as he hands Robbie the key. Robbie's eyes widens slightly at this revelation.
"W-wow, $70?" Robbie finds himself grow a bit terrified at the thought of losing his key and having to fork over a staggering $70, which is not something he has with him or can readily get it.
He doesn't have his Bar Mitzvah money anymore.
Beck shrugs nonchalantly.
"Yeah, the replacement fees used to be much lower in the past. I guess many freshmen in the past few years lost their keys so often that the university had to take action or something. But hey, dont worry about it. It's actually harder to lose your keys than you think."
So you say, Robbie thinks.
"Oh! One more thing," Beck says as he gives the larger form to Robbie. "It's an inspection form. You have to go to your room and inspect it by placing a checkmark on these boxes, as you can see." He gestures to specific parts of the form, and Robbie nods his head in understanding. "Got it. Thanks Beck."
"You're welcome, man." Beck smiles and Robbie feels breathless once again. "Welcome to Schneider Dorm and the Wood! That's a nickname for the university, by the way."
Robbie nods his head, remembering Tori's explanation about that particular name earlier.
Grasping the inspection form and pen in one hand, Robbie grabs his bags and begins to walk out of the office when Beck's voice calls out to him.
"Oh, and before I forget, the elevators are broken. You'll have to use the stairs." Robbie groans to himself.
"Thanks..." He mumbles as he trudges to the stairwell.
As he stands on the fourth floor, Robbie feels like his heavily-pounding heart is going to leap out of his chest at any given time. Compared to the stair-trek up three levels, dragging his heavy luggage bags behind him the whole way, the journey from the parking lot to the dorm was a pleasantly relaxing stroll. If he doesn't get to his dorm and do what he is supposed to do, and soon, he is going to collapse right there and then and black out until the next morning.
Probably.
His chest heaving, Robbie manages to make his way to W-425. As he fumbles around for his key, Robbie wonders who would be roommating with him for the year, and who he or she (it was a coed dorm) would be. He hopes it wouldn't be a psycho or worse.
Fitting the key into the lock, and turning it, Robbie enters the darkened room and flips the light switch. As his eyes adjust to the lighted room, Robbie notes that it is completely deserted - his roommate hasn't arrived yet.
The room, though a bit on the small side, is plainly furnished. There are two beds (mattresses placed atop a metal bed frame) placed on opposite sides of the room, each accompanied with a night stand. A large desk is placed next to the bed, and there are two closets, one for him and one for his roommate. A large window outfitted with plastic shutters overlooks the room.
It looks okay, Robbie thinks to himself. Not the best, but not the worst either. He places his bags near the desk and plops down on the mattress, feeling exhaustion sweep over him. The mattress is a bit firm, but Robbie doesn't mind it one bit.
Robbie heaves out a sigh as he looks at the ceiling for a moment. He feels his eyelids grow heavy and is overcome with temptation to simply doze off...
He gets up from the mattress, shaking his head. There was only one thing he had to do.
Grabbing the inspection paper and pen, Robbie proceeds to perform an inspection around his room, making check marks (A for 'acceptable', D for 'damaged', and NA for 'not available') in all the appropriate checkboxes on aspects such as his bed, his closet, nightstand, sockets, etc. It takes a few moments before Robbie is finished, deeming the results to be satisfactory.
Making his way down to the first floor (he'd traversed up and down the stairs twice and already he hates it), Robbie goes back to Beck's office.
There is another person in there this time, sitting on one of the chairs near Beck's desk. A girl, to be exact. The conversation between Beck and the girl fades into silence as the girl looks away from Beck to him, and Robbie finds himself breathless for the third time today.
She is stunningly beautiful. Her raven hair falls past her shoulders in soft waves, tipped with jade-green ends, resting right above her chest. Her slightly-tanned skin is flawless, and her blue eyes peers into his dispassionately. She is dressed nearly all in black, from her black leather jacket down to her tight black jeans that reveals her shapely legs from what he could see where he was standing, topped with black boots. In short, this girl could easily rival the beautiful Tori in sheer beauty.
However, what sets this girl apart from the welcoming Tori is, well, her icy exterior. Whereas Tori's chocolate-brown eyes had made him feel warm and tingly all over - similar to the sensation that one gets when one sips hot chocolate - the raven-haired girl's blue eyes makes him feel like he is freezing, like if a pitcher of ice-cold water was being poured all over him. Whereas Tori's smile was infectiously happy, this girl was joyless, her unsmiling face sending a chill through his soul. He could see a flicker of annoyance flare up in her eyes before she refocuses her attention on Beck.
Swallowing as nervousness washes over him, Robbie walks over to the desk, where he hands Beck the inspection papers. "Um...h-here you go...I finished the i-inspection." He stammers slightly as he could, for some reason, feel the girl's glare on his back.
Beck gives him an easy smile. "Great, I guess you're all settled in." He says as he scans the paper before filing the paper away. "Oh, and I want you to meet someone. Jade, meet Robbie...what's your last name?" Beck begins to introduce before he realizes something.
"S-Shapiro." Robbie replies.
"Jade, meet Robbie Shapiro. It's his first year here." Beck repeats as he gestures between Robbie and the girl named Jade. "Robbie, meet Jade West."
Robbie musters up a nervous smile as he turns to Jade, his stomach churning and twisting like it has done a few hours earlier. "H-hello." Robbie manages to make out, aware that it is his first word to the mysterious raven-haired girl who looks like she wants to do anything other than talk to him right now.
Jade gives him a blank look that doesn't alleviate the sense of nervousness and discomfort that surges through him. "Jade, say Hi." Beck admonishes.
Jade rolls her eyes. "Hi." She says simply, her tone sounding forced. Despite marveling at how beautiful she sounds, Robbie now gets this feeling that she doesn't like him for some reason.
But why? He wonders to himself. He hasn't done anything to her!
"Well, we're now acquainted with each other." Beck states with a smile. Robbie wonders how Beck can be so...easygoing, especially around a girl who apparently has the power to freeze anyone - him especially - solid with her eyes alone. "Robbie, you can take a seat if you want."
Robbie gulps. The chair near Jade has never looked so unwelcoming before, and Robbie isn't sure if he would want to stay here, right next to a girl who, despite her intimidating beauty, now intimidated him.
"Um...t-thank you but I-I have to unpack my...my stuff. G-get ready for school tomorrow, y'know..." Robbie stammers as he tries to maintain a smile on his face. "...but thanks, Beck...we could hang out s-sometimes-um, I'm gonna go now. See you around."
He barely hears Beck's slightly-disappointed "Ok, see you around, man" as he hastily leaves the office, all but hightailing it to the stairway, mentally berating himself for being the coward that he was.
Robbie's legs quivers like jelly once again as he goes up the three flights of stairs before reaching the fourth floor. His hands trembles slightly as he struggles to fit his key in the lock before succeeding after the first few times. As soon he's in the sanctuary of his room, Robbie heaves a relieved sigh as he leans against the door.
Why does he feel so intimidated by Jade? Robbie wonders to himself. He'd dealt with plenty of intimidating girls before, in high school. But why did he feel the way he felt while he was in the office? Was it because of her beauty? Was it because of the way she greeted him? Was it because she was a girl?
Robbie doesn't know.
Shaking his head, Robbie goes over to his luggage bags and unzips it. He gets out a pillow that he'd managed to stuff into the bag alongside his clothes before he inadvertently lets out a yawn, the tiredness finally weighing upon him.
He'd finish unpacking later, Robbie decides as he makes his way to the mattress. Kicking off his shoes, Robbie plops onto it, removes his glasses, and places his head onto the pillow.
Ironically, sleep doesn't come to Robbie as easily as he expects. His mind instead swirls around the events that has transpired so far today, from getting ready to drive to the university for the obligatory orientation process and getting all nervous about it, to arriving there and getting all nervous about it, to meeting Tori Vega and getting all nervous around her, to checking into the dorm and meeting Beck and getting all nervous about it, and finally to meeting Jade and getting all nervous about it.
That was quite a day he've had, Robbie thinks to himself. His eyelids finally starts to droop, ready to overtake him with the welcoming darkness of sleep...
His eyes snaps open as realization hits him, and he lets out a groan.
The university's President is scheduled to make a welcome speech at 11pm in the Grande Hall Auditorium, which is in half an hour. From what he has read, it is required for all freshmen to attend. Why must everything be mandatory, he wonders.
His body silently protests as Robbie reluctantly drags himself from the mattress and gets on his feet.
Might as well attend and get it out of the way. Robbie slips on his shoes once again and walks out of his dorm room.
A/N: Hope you liked. Read and review!
