Lloyd walked towards Roosevelt Hall, his thoughts going crazy over his study date with Julia this evening. Even though it was only a ten-minute walk between his and her dorm, he must have run through a hundred different scenarios of how this evening would play out. The one thing he knew for sure was that he had to find Victor's dorm tonight, otherwise the ninja would have no clues as to what the gang was planning.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder after feeling it starting to slip off. He couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at the direness of their situation, yet to any normal bystander he looked like a regular student getting ready to go do some homework somewhere.

It was crazy to think that he could've had a life like this if he hadn't been the destined green ninja. His mother wouldn't have left him to go find answers on how to stop him and his father from battling one another, he would have never gone to Darkly's Boarding School, and craziest of all, he would have never met the guys who had helped him train to become the green ninja. He could've had a perfectly normal life being a perfectly normal student, where the biggest threat he'd ever have to face was being reprimanded for not turning in his homework on time.

Of course, he didn't regret becoming the famous green ninja and saving the world from the Overlord, but sometimes he couldn't help but wonder how normal his life could have been if he hadn't been chosen.

His stream of consciousness was interrupted as he arrived at the front door of Roosevelt Hall. As if she was right on cue, he peered through the tiny glass window to see Julia running up to the door. Lloyd felt his pocket one last time, feeling for the small listening device before the door opened, revealing the cute, curly-haired girl herself.

"Hey Lloyd!" she said, motioning him to come inside. "Welcome to Roosevelt Hall."

Lloyd looked around. It certainly did seem nicer than the dorm he and the guys lived in. Their building was old and worn-down whereas Roosevelt seemed newer and better kempt. Next to the front entrance was a nice lounge, which had a decent-sized couch and a large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall on front of it. Behind the couch, there were several leather desk chairs surrounding a large mahogany table—a place supposedly for group studying, Lloyd presumed.

"It's nice," he said, turning to Julia.

"Yeah, one of the perks of being an upperclassman," she said. "Freshman always get the cruddy dorms."

"I hear that," Lloyd replied. "I'm a freshman and I live in Pierce."

Julia crinkled her nose in disgust. "Yeah, that one's pretty bad," she said. "Well, shall we get to studying now?"

Lloyd glanced around the dorm one last time before meeting her gaze. "Sure," he said.

Julia smiled. "Great, I'll show you to my room."


It turned out that Julia's room was on the second floor of the dormitory, which was an all-girls floor. While it was an inconvenience to Lloyd, he could at least be sure that Victor wasn't staying in any of those rooms, at least permanently.

"Here we are," Julia said as she stopped in front of one of the doors. "My roommate's not here so we have the place all to ourselves."

Lloyd looked at the door and saw that, indeed, one of the nametags on the door read Julia and the other read a girl named Annabelle. When they walked inside, he immediately could tell that this was a girl's room. All things bright, colorful and fuzzy took up every square inch of the room. The only difference was one side was pink-themed and the other side was aqua-themed.

"This is my side of the room," Julia said as she pointed to the aqua side. "You can have a seat on my bed if you want."

As Julia had invited him to, Lloyd slowly walked over to the aqua-colored bed, setting his backpack down on the floor before taking a seat on the bed's edge, careful not to ruffle the comforter too much as he did so.

To be honest, it was weird being in girl's room. Lloyd had been in Nya's room a few times over the years, but she was family. Julia was practically a stranger.

"So, uh, why'd you come ask me to study with you? If you're an upperclassman?" Lloyd asked, trying to start a conversation. He immediately regretted being so forward, but he was curious as to why she was being so friendly towards him, especially after almost trampling her at the library.

Julia sighed as she picked up her study materials from her desk. "Can I be honest with you Lloyd?"

"Um, sure," Lloyd said, trying to hide his surprise. Whatever she wanted to tell him, it was clearly something personal.

She walked over to her bed and sat down with her study materials, avoiding eye contact with him.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was trying hard to ignore the proximity between them. Studying her profile, he couldn't help but note how her dark hair fell in curly tendrils down her face and neck. From the side, her doll-like features were enhanced, including her long, thick eyelashes and her small but full lips, making his cheeks grow warm.

"I started college early so I'm younger than most juniors here," she said. "I'm actually 19."

Lloyd's eyes widened. He was turning 19 this month, too.

"I mean, it's nice being in this dorm and all, but since I started earlier than everyone else, I never really got a chance to be around people my age."

She then looked up, meeting his gaze.

"Which is why I'm glad I met you," she said. "It's hard for me to meet other people. I'm just really shy, I guess."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that," he replied, trying to reassure her. "I'm sure if you talked to other freshmen, they'd like you."

I mean, I like you...he thought of adding, but quickly decided against it. He didn't want to scare her away.

"Why me, then?" he asked. "After I ran into you and took the book you wanted, I'm surprised you wanna talk to me at all."

Julia studied him. "I don't know, you just seem...different for some reason."

For a moment, he felt his ninja instincts kick in. Was she seeing right through his student facade?

"Ha, well, there's nothing different about me," he began, rubbing the back of neck nervously, "I'm just a normal college doing normal college student things..."

He didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but she seemed closer to him than before. He froze, noticing she was studying him curiously. It was hard for him not to get lost in her dark brown eyes, which shone with such warmth and humility.

"Well we should probably get to studying," she said, breaking the eye contact to open up her notebook.

It took Lloyd a second to process what she had said before he quickly took out his own notebook from his backpack, sitting next to his feet.

"Y-Yeah, studying would be good."