Andrew sighed as he walked along the main road of campus, simply pacing right now. Evidently the class he'd been late for was cancelled today thanks to the professor bailing for some unknown reason, so he'd had no reason to rush. Now he had almost an hour before his next class, and nothing to do in the interim.
He didn't mind being bored. He preferred the relatively peaceful life he had here, and now that things were even crazier at home than usual, he appreciated the campus all the more. Here, there were no dragonkin and no destructive lolis to bother him.
"Andrew, hi!" called a voice, and he turned around, stopping his pacing as an Arabic man ran up to him. The man was only 20, but he already looked older than Andrew, several inches taller than him and with long brown hair framing his face.
Andrew smiled and turned to face the man. "What's up, Jesus?" he asked, laughing as the man scratched the back of his head.
"Still calling me that? I shaved the beard already, I don't look like him anymore!" he complained. "Call me Youssef, that's my name!" He blinked, before shaking his head. "Anyway, names aside, what's up? You looked like you were in a hurry...didn't realize class was cancelled today?"
Andrew blinked. "Were you following me again?" he asked, and Youssef laughed.
"I just happened to be in the area, I was helping Michael with lesson planning again." he replied.
Youssef was taking the same anatomy class that he was, but the man had an obvious passion for teaching, and he often helped Michael, the professor for the English 101 class he'd had the semester before, with planning out lessons for the day.
"Why did Professor Valenti cancel class anyway? I didn't get an email about it." Andrew said, and Youssef sighed.
"Apparently he had a headache and that was enough for him to decide not to get up. Honestly, that guy is always sick, they really should get him a substitute or something. We've had to cancel so many classes already thanks to him opting out…"
"It's not that bad getting to stay home, isn't it? I know I like it, even with Caitlyn screwing around like usual…"
Youssef laughed, wrapping his arm around the shorter man's shoulder and grinning. "Only you could complain about living right next door to a world champion. Seriously, she's got like 40 or something medals, and you act like she's a little kid!"
Andrew pushed the Arabic man's arm from his back and crossed his arms. "That's because she basically is a child. World champion wall-kicker, pretty much. I bet even now she's just bothering Granberia-" He blinked, groaning as he held his hand to his forehead.
Youssef grinned. "Oh, who is Granberia? Did you finally get a girlfriend or something?"
"No, she isn't my girlfriend!" he replied defensively. "She's just...my cousin. She's visiting from..Romania."
The lie was as clear as glass, but thankfully, Youssef's concept of geography and ethnicity was absolutely terrible, and so he just thought for a few seconds over it, before smiling and backing off. "Okay, okay, no need to get all worked up. It was just a joke!" He tilted his head. "But why would your cousin visit you specifically? Why not your parents?"
Andrew shrugged. "No international airport near Greenwood." he replied. "So she's visiting me first. She probably won't be here long."
Youssef hummed in thought. "Does she know about that global monster attack?" he asked, suddenly changing the subject, and Andrew flinched, though the man didn't seem to be suspecting his homestay.
"Yeah, I heard about it...Why?" he asked, and Youssef laughed.
"There were reports in like 300 cities already, and even more unconfirmed ones! People are calling it the First Wave...you should warn your cousin about it."
"Oh, she knows too...definitely." he replied. "And…'First'? Why first? Are they expecting a second?"
Youssef shrugged. "I don't know if they are, but I think it's because it's like how in video games, monsters come in waves a lot, don't they? That's probably what it's from, it's probably not the same in real life...It's pretty scary though, they're wrecking stuff all over the world. Did you hear there's even some Greek ones like Medusa? It's pretty freaky when you realize stuff like that is actually real…"
"Andrew laughed. "I'll believe it when I see it. Until a dragon literally falls from the sky on top of me, I won't consider it more than a hoax."
"I don't know, I think it would be pretty cool to meet a monster, I'm sure not ALL of them are mindless criminals after all! Imagine having a little fairy pet to guide you, or a friendly slime to eat all your trash!"
"That seems kind of mean, to use a slime as a garbage can. Besides, it would probably attack you, you know how game mechanics are."
"Probably, but hey, if you could tame a monster, it would be a great ally, wouldn't it? You'd never need to worry about burglars, and isn't your dorm known for getting a lot of robberies?"
"I haven't had that issue in my building, and I think most of that's just overreactions. It's the same there as anywhere else. Robbers don't mess with ex-military, and there's a bunch of those guys near where I live."
Plus the fact that even if Granberia went undiscovered forever, there was still Caitlyn living there. Nobody was foolish enough to try to face her in close range.
"You're a real buzzkill sometimes, you know that?"
Andrew grinned. "I try my hardest to be."