January 10th 2019

Chapter 10
Their Introduction to Classes

He'd very nearly gone into the wrong class, which would have been a terrible way to kickstart this semester, but he had been rescued from that mistake by one of his soon to be classmates, who spotted the textbook under his arm. It was the same one he carried, too.

"Hey, it's in here," the boy had called, having to repeat it before Lucas realized he was talking to him. He turned to find a boy pointing through an open door, and he couldn't help but do a double take. The guy was easily three or four inches taller than him, and a strong-looking sort of heavy, giving the distinct impression that you would not want to meet him in a fight. But then taking in his whole demeanor, his face… and then you knew he'd sooner hug you than fight you.

"Thanks," Lucas moved to join him, and they moved into the room, which already counted a handful of students, all of them dispersed. No one knew each other yet, and it didn't look likely to change. Two of them were on their phones, another was paging through the textbook, another was tending to their nails, and another was leaning to the wall, looking out the window. Lucas looked to the boy, and the boy looked back at him.

"I usually sit in the back, otherwise whoever sits in front of me…" he indicated his height.

"Right," Lucas nodded. "Alright if I join you?" It was the first time he was treated to that great big smile, and already he felt the two of them would get along great. He held out a strong hand, and Lucas shook it. "Lucas," he introduced himself. "Friar."

"Bishop," he introduced himself. "Nicholas," he went on and, seeing the hesitation on Lucas' face, he specified, "Bishop's my first name. Don't worry about it, I've had to explain it all my life. No chance my mother would have given me a name that didn't sound like a family name, with one like Nicholas. Guys at school would call me, 'Hey, Nicky!'" he intoned in a booming voice that roused the other students and made them look over. Shrugging it off, Lucas and Bishop had moved to the back of the class.

"Are you from here in Houston?" Lucas asked as they sat in the back row. Bishop shook his head.

"Paris," he replied, and Lucas had to blink.

"France?" he asked, as though there would have been others… Were there? Now he'd wonder until he looked into it. Also, now that he knew about where he'd grown up, he thought he could just hear the hint of accent in the guy's voice, like it had colored his tone over time.

"My mother was transferred there to work when I was four years old. It was just me and her."

"And you came to Houston to go to college?"

"My dad lives here. It's a long story," he explained, and if any subject could make the guy look small, Lucas figured it was best not to touch on it for the time being. "What about you?" Bishop finally asked.

"Austin," Lucas told him, with a half smile on his face that seemed to say 'it's not much, compared to Paris, but what can you do?' Bishop seemed as interested for his short journey as his own long one though, so maybe it was alright.

He had just started telling him about how he and his friends had been to Paris over the summer, if only for a day on their whirlwind tour, and to find himself happily conversing in French in the back of his first class, Lucas couldn't think what he'd been so worried about anymore.

His first class was fairly straightforward, as first classes went. They only stayed about half an hour, while the professor ran through the syllabus with them, had them read a short text and discuss it with a partner – he chose Bishop, naturally – and then they were sent off with more reading to do for the next class. When the guys walked back out of the classroom together, they were quick to discover they had a few other classes together, seeing as they were here to study the same thing.

Bishop had moved to Houston midway through the summer, and it was the first time he'd been in America since he and his mother had left, nearly fifteen years ago, at the time living in his native Seattle. It had been like stepping into a brand new world, the way he said it, and he was still finding he had to adjust to certain things. Lucas gladly volunteered himself to assist if needed, and his new friend gratefully accepted.

Their second class together was also this morning, and if they'd been kept the entire length of the scheduled time they would have had all of fifteen minutes between the first and second, but they had considerably more time than this now, so they went and sat on the grounds until it was time to go back in. They briefly considered just starting in on the assigned reading from their first class but decided against it, seeing as it was the first day and they could get to it later.

Lucas talked some more about the trip to Europe when Bishop asked about it. He told him about how he and his friends had been planning to go and saving up for it for three years, and then finally how they'd gone, the massive group all together. He told him about some of the things they did, like the lost bet between Maya and Asher and all the shirts and hats which had ensued, and then about the videos they'd done with the girls from the band.

For a second or two Lucas had wondered if Bishop would suddenly look at him like he knew about TXNY, which, after all the people they'd met over the summer, in all those countries, who were fans of their music, wouldn't have surprised him as much as it used to. He didn't know about them, though he did say he'd check it out, and Lucas could tell, even after having known the guy for so little a time, that when he said he'd do something he meant it.

Their second class went much the way of the first one, where they found seats at the back and, after twenty minutes in the class, they were dismissed. This left him with an hour to kill before he was due to meet Maya for lunch, so he followed Bishop to the bookstore to grab a textbook which had been late to be stocked. They arrived to find the place so crowded that the line for the cash registers stretched well out of sight.

"Wait, it keeps going, look," Bishop pointed and Lucas followed his finger's trail as it indicated the line which did indeed keep going, and going… This was going to take forever. "If you have to leave to meet your girlfriend, don't worry about it."

"I'll stay as long as I can, it's all good," Lucas told him, so they went and found Bishop's textbook before going in search of the end of the line. The further they went, the other students looked increasingly frustrated, ending in the pit of despair where the last few of them stood. Lucas looked at his watch. He still had about forty minutes before he'd need to go, so the wait started.

If nothing else, they got to learn a bit more about each other as they waited. Lucas told him about how his grandfather was living with his parents now, following his injury, and he told him about his dog back in Austin, how he and Maya, and the rest of their roommates, technically, were looking to adopt a dog or two before long. This led into discussion of the pup fund from senior year and his having been on the basketball team and how it had been cancelled for two of his four high school years.

Bishop told him how his mother had remarried when he was ten, gaining him a stepfather, one stepsister who had been just his age and his classmate already, and eventually five half-sisters.

"Five?" Lucas asked in surprise. Bishop chuckled and nodded, pulling out his phone to show him a picture of the whole family back in Paris. He was proud to say he recognized the location, and how they had been there last summer. "You miss them," he stated.

"Yes," Bishop confirmed, looking at the picture again. He must have inherited his size from his father, seeing how he towered over everyone in the image, even as he held two of his young sisters, in either arm, with the others arrayed around him.

The line had made a notable progress where everyone had been able to take five or six steps at once, which had been encouraging, but after this they had been lucky to make one small step in the span of five minutes. When Lucas pointed this out, Bishop stared into the distance, which was substantial, with how tall he was, before letting him and the others ahead and behind him that one of the registers looked like it had broken down, pulling one of the other cashiers away to assist, therefore reducing the number of registers receiving students to two.

"I'm sorry, I need to go," Lucas finally had to say, looking to his phone to find a text from Maya, saying where she'd be waiting for him.

"Please, go ahead," Bishop insisted. Before going, Lucas gave him his number, asked him to text back so they could keep in contact.

He only had one more class today, in mid-afternoon, and if it went the same as his morning classes, the rest of the day would be pretty breezy, which made his walk to rejoin Maya feel much the same. He was anxious to see her, to hear how her class had gone. Going by the fact that she was only reaching out to him now he had to guess that, unlike him, she'd been kept for the length of the period.

Bishop texted him, as promised, letting him know he had looked up TXNY as he'd also promised, and not only was he enjoying it but it was also making the wait that much more bearable. Lucas grinned. He could just see Maya's face when he'd show her this.

They met at a restaurant nearby. He found her sitting at one of the outdoor tables, her laptop open before her and her hands off the keys as she was reading. He came up behind her, all ready to surprise her, but she turned first, like she'd sensed him approach. It didn't diminish either of their gladness in seeing one another, and he slid into the chair next to hers, greeting her with a kiss.

"I have missed your face, Lucas Friar," she hummed, grasping it in her hands. "And the rest of you, too, obviously."

"That's good, yeah?" he laughed.

"Very much," she promised, closing her laptop to slip it back into her bag.

"I've missed your face and the rest, too," he declared as she turned back to look at him.

"Good," she smiled. "How was your morning?"

"Uneventful for the most part. I had two classes and neither of them lasted long. Made a new friend though," he revealed, before telling her about his meeting of Bishop Nicholas and all that had followed. "Converted another one to the band," he concluded, showing her the text he'd received. Maya smiled.

"You'll have to introduce us sometime."

"So what about you?" Lucas asked, after they'd ordered their lunch. "Did you have to stay the whole class?" She nodded, as he'd figured, although it was a happy sort of nod, like she hardly minded having had to stay that long and would not have minded staying longer.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners