"Come on, this is boring! When're ya gonna get in?"
"Be patient. I told you this will take awhile."
"But it always does!"
"Shut... Up. Pleeease." Ranger groans and smashes his forehead onto his keyboard. "Ughhh... It's taking longer than usual..." he grumbles.
Tony blinks and sighs, going over to the window. He folds his arms and rests them on the windowsill, gazing out at the vastly-lit city around them. "I heard rumors a lightning storm's comin'. You know, from the people I'm in that club with." He puts his chin on his forearms and squeezes his eyes shut. "It might be messin' with the WiFi." Hesitation. "Hey, maybe you shouldn't go on today." I have a bad feeling. Tony purses his lips and knits his eyebrows together, staring down at the campus scenery two floors below him.
Ranger snorts and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. He shoots his friend a snide look. "Oh, no way! Your club is crap. Besides, they would've had an announcement already.. And anyways, if Notch is really that oblivious to my presence, then what do I have to lose? Today'll be a waste if I don't go on! Ha!" He cackles and rubs his palms together as the laptop brightens the moody attitude of Ranger considerably with a glitchy Minecraft title screen. "And he always logs in at seven PM. Always." he proclaims proudly, smiling in egotistical glory.
"Right..." Tony replies uneasily, moving away from the potentially-dangerous window to the comfort of his own twin-sized dorm bed. "And what are you gonna do if he isn't on?" He smirks and raises an eyebrow. Ranger blinks and growls. Tony laughs nervously and waves his palms in the air.
He sighs and flicks his disinterested eyes back down to his screen. Removing his arm from the back of his chair, Ranger turns fully to his computer with a snort and mutters to himself as he carefully maneuvers through the half-finished Minecraft start screen. "Now then... Multiplayer... Notch's world... Heheheh."
Tony rolls his eyes and pulls his backpack in front of his dangling legs. "Look, you hack. I work on papers." Grunting, he yanks out a large textbook from his backpack, causing random pencils to soar over the lip of the red bag and crash melodramatically onto the carpet. "Just remember that tab - y' know, the English grammar one - to hide Minecraft if a professor comes in."
"Right, right... I hate English." he grumbles, breathing a breathy sigh, his fist serving as his chin's pedestal.
"But you speak it pretty good." Tony replies with a shrug. "I learned Swedish pretty quickly."
"Yeah, but it took you less than half a year! English isn't that easy! It's taken-"
"-you years to fluently learn the language, yes, I know, I know."
"Huhhh... Whatever. Now, come'over here! I gotta show you somethin'!" Frowning, Tony sets his heavy textbook aside and slides off his bed, striding over to his friend and roommate. "Now look here! Look look look!"
"What?" he says, annoyed.
As Notch's world painstakingly loads, grows, and builds itself from the ground up, the furious tapping of Ranger's finger quickens to the speed of hummingbirds' wings. Be patient, be patient... I'M NOT GOOD AT PATIENCE! His thoughts scream loud enough to be heard audibly.
"Eerrugh-! Oh, hey, it finished loading." Ranger blinks and grins widely, removing his long fingers from his yellow hair and cracking his knuckles with a satisfied grunt. "Sweet, Notch built a new house. Oohhh, look, here comes Notch now." Tony scoffs and walks back to his bed. Ranger's avatar watches the programmer as he crunches on the grass toward-
Ranger's muscles freeze.
-another player. A standard skin, just like him; but unlike him, Notch seems to know the new player. In Ranger's mind, his mental processing of this new information kicks up to full speed, ordering his heart to palpitate, his lungs to hyperventilate, and his pale skin to clam up like he had just gone swimming. Gasping, he fans himself briefly before swallowing hard and grabbing the mouse again with a single flustered motion.
"You alright?" Tony asks, opening a silver laptop on his lap. "Oh, hey, what do you want the topic of your paper to be about? It can't be the same as mine though, or Professor Fresco'll get suspicious."
"Ah, ahhh..." The hacker darts his small eyes over to the window. "Electricity!"
His friend double-takes, then grins and begins typing wildly yet expertly, hitting every key precisely with his head lowered into the depths of the laptop. He'll be like that for a while, Ranger thought, smiling weakly. which is good, 'cause I need the space. That, and I need to work on my paper. I really should've had Tony do it earlier this week... Heheh, before it was due tomorrow.
"Quick, shoot me a title."
"But you're the one who's writing it!"
"But it's your paper!"
"You're just bad at coming up with anything good." Ranger replies coolly, smirking and folding his arms.
"That's not true!" Tony complains in a huff.
He sniffs and turns back to his computer. "Is too."
"Is NOT!" he yells, standing up. His laptop defies begging gravity in Tony's clenched hands.
Suddenly, making both boys cringe, a sharp knock raps hard on their door. The doorknob rattles, then gives to a master key on the other side. The white-painted wooden door squeaks forward, revealing a very annoyed college professor. He releases the key on its extending keychain and lets his lanyard drop back down to his filled chest.
In his horror, Ranger slams his laptop closed and turns to the door, gasping and sputtering. In his haste, the open-capped water bottle goes flying - a sparkling gush of water soaring in a wide arc in the air - to the floor, soaking it. Tony looks like he's going to die, but not because of the spilled water. The computer slips from his sweat-covered hands and onto the ivory carpet. "Uh, Professor Fresco! Hi!" he ad-libs, rebounding back very quickly. Ranger just cringes, however.
"In Swedish, Tony. You may be a transfer student, but you're in Sweden now."
"Ah-ah-?!" He slams his hands over his mouth and laughs sheepishly. "S-sorry, Professor. See, I ac-cidentally p-procrastinated on my paper, sir, a-and I'm just so..." His voice trails off, leaving its owner high-and-dry-shaking in front of his bed. He moans a little.
"Stressed, sir. To the breaking point." Ranger adds flatly, lifting his pointer finger in comment. "That's why we fought, sir. He was stressed. Needed my help in figuring out a paper title. Before you ask, I'm already done." He smirks, crossing his legs and placing one arm behind him on the back of his desk chair. "The paper is still the theme of computers, correct?" he asks stuffily.
Professor Fresco narrows his eyes. "I'd like to see your paper, Albin. Tomorrow, of course." He promptly stalks off, ignoring the door behind him. Tony, shuddering, stumbles across the carpet and closes it, leaning on it with a long-suppressed exhale crossed with a groan. He promptly faints.
Ranger - real name Albin - blinks and rolls his eyes at his friend before turning back to his poor laptop. He talks to it in a quiet voice as he opens it carefully, ever so carefully, dusting off the lucky screen in a stroking, caressing manner. But at the same time as Notch and the new player wander off, he openly wondered if Professor Fresco really knew his game.
