Chaptet 2

"Why do we even have this class?" Thomas silently seethed to himself as he stomped out the doors of the scare building, brushing past his classmates as he went. He despised the science of scaring.
Hated it.

Professor Knight wasn't a bad lecturer- of course he could lay back a bit on kissing Sullivan's ass at every possible opportunity- but no matter how much caffeine Thomas pumped himself with or how hard he tried to pay attention, he could never grasp the idea of 'fears'.

If he could agree with Sullivan on one thing, it was that scaring was predominantly skill, not knowledge. You could know all the ins and outs of how to perform a scare but it wouldn't help if you couldn't do so effectively in a real world situation. Theory was important of course, Thomas knew that well enough, but he didn't understand how heavily focused the syllabus was in this regard. He'd formed a mental block on the idea, and it was stopping him from taking in any information from class.

It had been a week and Thomas was on the verge of giving up entirely on trying to pay attention and not even go to lectures. But he knew his father would disapprove, and the small fact that Sullivan did just that made Thomas want nothing to do with the idea.

Nothing of much note had happened after the party. Thomas had gone back but found that Naomi had already left. He instead hung out with a few girls from EEK but that ended swiftly, turned out one of them had a boyfriend. So instead he went to help several monsters fix the ping pong table which Sullivan had apparently broke on his rampage through the house. It wasn't quite even anymore so instead they decided to play beer pong and promptly invited Thomas into a game. By the end of the night he was beyond lucid and had clumsily made his way back to his dorm. Edward wasn't pleased being woken up so late, but Thomas ignored him and fell in a heap on his bed, promptly falling asleep.

The next day he had heard of a few of his achievements throughout the night, most honourable of all: beating a monster named Zeke in a pick up line battle. Thomas was glad he never remembered it though, he knew of some very vulgar pick up lines. He'd also learned of the theft of Fear Tech's mascot, Archie the scarepig, which explained Sullivan's antics the night before. He'd been picked up by the president of JOX- Big Red, if Thomas remembered correctly- and had promptly been accepted into their ranks.

Since then he's seen Sullivan with that yellow and red letterman jersey acting like an even bigger douchebag. It made Thomas feel slightly bad about not being invited into fraternity yet. He knew it would come eventually though, all he needed was patience.

He entered the United café, finding a seat quickly and ordering a large coffee and pizza from the waitress he'd become familiar with. Her name was Angie.
Thomas immediately grabbed some of his books and chucked them onto the table, where he glared at them hotly. He supposed he had to go through the work again, otherwise there was no way it would stick and he'd flunk his next test.

With a muffled groan he opened up his fear encyclopedia, a thick book holding the definitions of every fear imaginable, including what tactic to implement, a breakdown of its history, examples of where it was most prominent and at what age and what may cause it. It all felt like a heap of unnecessary information that Thomas would never put to use. But it wasn't about what he wanted to do, it was about what he needed to do. He needed to do well in practical and theory in order to remain in the scare program and graduate to become a scarer.
And by God, he needed that.

His pizza and coffee came and he dug in hungrily. He felt bad eating pizza, since it wasn't exactly healthy, but he always found he thought better with some grease in his stomach. He just needed to work it off later.
As he read, he realized how little attention he was paying to what the words meant. He would read a paragraph, only to realize at the end of it he hadn't actually paid attention to the words and had to start over. Eventually he shut the book angrily and let out a frustrated groan. He shoved his head into the table, tugging at his ears.

He understood why his father said that university life would be hard. He didn't believe it at the time, not when he said that it was also boring, which it turned out to be anything but.

Soon all Thomas did was sit there, eyes closed and mind almost blank as he ventured between memories of home. It hadn't been a month yet and he was already missing it. He wondered how his sister was doing.

"Thomas." A small voice spoke out. Thomas didn't respond, believing it was his imagination. But when the voice persisted with two tentative pokes to his shoulder, Thomas looked up.

The purple lizard before him waved his hand awkwardly.
"Hi."

Thomas panicked, his mind wracking to find a name. His eye twitched as he let out a long 'uhm'.

"Randall." The purple monster smiled sheepishly.

"Randall!" Thomas nearly shouted, "hey, whats up, buddy?"

Thomas felt bad that he hadn't remembered, but the lizard didn't seem too concerned.
He shrugged.

"University, I guess. You?"

Thomas chuckled as he gestured to his encyclopedia.
"Ditto. This stuff is such a pain. Oh, hey, sit."
He pointed to the empty booth across from him. Randall hesitated before putting his bag down and climbing in. Thomas watched how his lower body moved into the seat and wondered how awkward it must be to sit in any seat.

"You want something?"

"Just a soda."

Thomas threw his hand around in the air, catching the attention of Angie, who came by and took Randall's order.

"So you normally study here?" Randall implored, looking down at his book.

Thomas shook his head.
"Nah, normally the library. Just needed some grub in me to help make…" he opened the book to the page he was working on, squinting a the words before shutting it again, "'arachnophobia' stick."

Randall grinned.
"Not listening in class?"
He dropped his grin when he saw Thomas' unamused expression.

That was exactly the problem. He was listening, it just wasn't staying. He didn't want to come across as some sort of dumb brute either, regardless of his less than stellar academic record and notoriety in high school, he wanted to appear somewhat knowledgeable.

"Nah, its just easier to learn immediately after being taught." He lied.

Randall nodded and diverted his gaze out the window, locking on to something in the park. Thomas got a better chance to look at his face now that it wasn't covered in frosting.
In the dark of the night, Thomas hadn't really noticed the fronds atop his head or the squint in his eyes. Vision seemed like something he was fighting for.

"You wear glasses?"

The lizards eyes widened slightly before fidgeting.
"That obvious?"

"You look like you're glaring," Thomas replied honestly, "where are they?"

"In my dorm."

"You're not gonna wear them?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

Randall opened his mouth to speak before shutting it again. He did this again before finally saying, "They give me away, when I'm camouflaged."

Thomas frowned. He had thought the monster could turn invisible. Camouflage made more sense though. He made a note to ask Randall about it later.

"So? Not like you're gonna use it all the time."

"I know… its just…"
The lizard hesitated, deciding to take a sip of his soda.

"Don't worry about it, buddy." Thomas shrugged. He didn't really care what sort of insecurities this guy had. He wasn't even sure why he had been so invested in this conversation in the first place.

Randall hummed, taking a deep breath as he spoke.
"If you want help-" he paused, "if you want to join a study group, me and my roommate are available every afternoon. He's big on the fear stuff, definitely helped me a bunch."

Thomas narrowed his eyes for a moment. He saw Randall's not so subtle change of wording. He was glad the lizard hadn't outright called Thomas out on his previous bluff, but just knowing that he knew made Thomas annoyed. But the idea of a study group was appealing, especially since it would be with what sounded like a nerd. If he could get simple summaries of the work they covered every lecture, then Thomas may be able to cram that into his head significantly easier. If he didn't like it he'd just leave. There was nothing to lose.

Thomas' ears perked as a smile appeared on his face.
"Sure, I'm up for it."

"Great," Randall reciprocated the smile, "tomorrow after class?"
He got up reaching for his bag.

"See you there."

Randall smiled again, reaching for his wallet in his bag. Thomas decided he'd try and make a good impression.

"Hey, don't stress, I got it."

Randall gave a sort of frown, sort of wide eyed look.
"Are you sure?"

"Its just a soda." Thomas affirmed. Randall reluctantly put his wallet back into his bag and thanked the maroon monster before leaving.

Thomas thought to himself where he was going with this. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of befriending a monster like Randall. But what kind of monster was he? Thomas ate the rest of his pizza in pensive silence, trying decipher whether the study group was really a good idea.

"Hey, Thomas!" A familiar lithe figure snaked its way across the space between them. Thomas watched in fascination as Randall come up to rest in front of him. The lizard's body appeared boneless at times.

"Randy, hows it going?"

"You still coming to study with us?"
Randall gestured behind him, making Thomas gaze over his head. He spotted the green sphere from the front row coming over. Mike Wazowski was his roommate? Thomas couldn't keep the small frown that creased his eyebrows. He hoped Randall didn't notice his apprehension.

Handling the lizard was one thing, he was agreeable and somewhat unsure of himself, Mike however was his own monster and would often sass classmates who looked at him wrong- almost always Sullivan- and walked around in this annoying, pretentious way. Thomas retained his opinion; Wazowski didn't belong here.

"Yeah." Thomas replied stoically as he watched the sphere approach.

"Ghola." Mike acknowledged the maroon monster.

"How's it going, Michael?" Thomas responded with just as little effort.

Randall hadn't noticed any of Thomas' reluctance and quickly begun the trek back to their dorm room, something Thomas also felt uneasy about. It was like crossing a threshold. If you knew somebody and spoke to them occasionally, you weren't obligated to greet them if you happened to see them outside of class or make small talk. When you stepped into someone's personal space it was another ball game.

Thomas wasn't sure about Randall. He just didn't see what a friendship with him would achieve. Perhaps he was worried Randall would attach himself to Thomas and follow him around like a lost puppy all day. Kinda how Chet did with Johnny. Every time he'd seen the ROR president he'd seen the crab following. The thought that Randall would do this was enough to give Thomas a cold shiver. He'd have to make boundries.

"Home, sweet, home." Randall opened the door to his room. He was only five or so doors down the hall from Thomas' own dorm. Strange to think they'd been so nearby all this time and they hadn't bumped into one another. Mike walked in wordlessly, throwing his bag on his bed and pulling books out onto his desk before Thomas had even entered.

Randall stepped up to his bed and pulled out books slower, more deliberately. He was definitely nervous. Thomas wondered how many friends this guy really had. The maroon monster walked up beside him, inspecting the posters and pictures on Randall's side.

A few promotional MU merch. A large picture of a tree with leaves being blown from it, beneath the text read: 'winds of change'. Thomas rolled his eyes at how cheesy it was, turning his attention to a poster that made him hum.

"What?" Randall questioned.

"You listen to 'Violet Monsters'?" Thomas felt the sides of his mouth tug sideways in something resembling a grimace.

Randall looked up in confusion at the poster, which depicted the boy band in a compositionally unsound order, pulling model-wannabe postures.

"Yeah? Why?"

"Nothing," Thomas looked away, afraid he might show his amusement and surprise at its presence, "just never took you for a pop kinda guy."

"Alright, let's do this." Mike announced loudly, falling back on his bed with an encyclopedia in his hands.

Thomas grabbed his own and opened it. He hoped this wouldn't last long.

Thomas had eventually found himself on Randall's bed, splayed out open it lazily as he listened to the lizard and Mike pass questions to one another. Turns out Thomas had been slow to finding the rhythm that their sessions apparently had. He agreed to sit out for a little bit after an hour of annoyed glances from Wazowski and read on his own for a while. He'd grown bored quickly and begun to fool around. First he tapped his claw again the cover of his book, creating a almost musical rhythm before a long glare from Mike forced him to cease. He then busied himself with studying the ceiling above him before that became too boring. He then shifted his long ears around in a circular motion, practicing so that he could do it more effectively. Not many monsters had ears, almost none, and the monsters who did couldn't move them like Thomas could. It was a useful party trick.

Eventually Mike had cracked. He'd noticed it for quite a while and found it distracting. Thomas merely stated Mike was jealous because he had ears. After telling him off, Mike decided he needed a break and went off to get everyone coffee.

"You think I made him mad?" Thomas chuckled.

Randall smirked a little.
"He's pretty easy to aggravate. Especially when it comes to studying."

"You don't take it as seriously as he does." Thomas stated factually.

"I admire that about him actually," Randall answered, leaning back in his chair. Thomas looked up, over to him, "I've always had good grades, but it always seems like time wasted studying. Mike just… does it."

"He just overdoes it." Thomas corrected. Randall shrugged. Silence ensued.

"Anyways," Thomas pulled himself off the bed, "I'd better get going."

"What about your coffee?"

"Eh, you can drink it. You'll be needing it more than me." Thomas walked to the door, opening it and readying to leave. He stopped though, a nagging feeling keeping him back.
Manners- his mother often reminded him to keep his manners through thick and thin. He supposed he had to compensate in words for cutting this study session short. He turned to see Randall standing in the middle of the room, watching him.

"Thanks for inviting me, it helped."

It didn't.

"We should do it again some time."

He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Thank Mike for me as well."

Wazowski hadn't been helpful in the least.

"Sure," Randall fidgeted, a nervous smile on his face, "thanks for coming, I wasn't sure if you actually meant it."

Thomas pretended to be offended.
"I stick by my words, buddy. Next time you wanna hang just come find me."

He sincerely hoped it wouldn't be often, or soon if he was honest.
"A-alright," Randall walled to the door, watching as Thomas begun walking away, "thanks Thomas." He called out.