"You mean there is NOTHING available tonight?" Randall pleaded, his eyes wide, even though this did nothing for his poor eyesight.
"I'm sorry there uh…"
"Boggs" he responded, with a flick of his tail.
"Mr. Boggs. It's not the universities policy to transfer the accommodation of a student immediately outside of an emergency." The receptionist responded, with questioning eyes. Randall did not really want to explain his case, but he had the feeling he might be pushed into a corner. "There is paperwork that needs to be-"
"-This IS an emergency!" Randall cried, waving his arms and pulling his tail into an upside down U shape.
"Our records indicate you are staying in the Roar Omega Roar fraternity housing." The receptionist replied, eyes solid, emotions unmoved.
Randall turned away. "Well, as of tonight, no longer…"
"Well, officially Mr. Boggs, you still are. I can't do anything within the university tonight until tomorrow. Even then, it could take two to three days to sort the paperwork."
"Great." His voice broke a little as he pulled his fronds back towards his head. He felt entirely helpless. He'd never known what it was like to be homeless, even if for a few days. But now he knew, it was horrible. Degrading. He felt like the dirt monsters walked on.
"Wha-What do I do?" he whimpered.
The receptionist suddenly felt rather guilty about his assertive tone. Cases such as this rarely happened at Monsters University; he was just another fellow student, a year above the freshmen, just trying to earn some extra money. He'd been trained in the rules to deal with such requests and he knew he couldn't bend the rules for anyone. Not if the principal had anything to do with it.
"There is a B&B about 400 yards from the entrance of the university? When our international students arrive, they usually use it before their accommodation is sorted." He offered. "Although, the university can't pay for it this time, since this isn't an-"
"Emergency" Randall finished sadly, staring distantly towards the wall. "Yeah. How much is it?"
"50 mondollars a night."
Randall sighed again and rested his head in his hands. It didn't seem like he had much choice in his position but to accept. His parents had given him a credit card before he'd left for emergencies. He was now thankful to have it.
"Right I'll go." He decided, his voice quieter than usual. "I'll be back tomorrow to sort the paperwork."
"Okay Mr. Boggs." The conversation ended there and Randall was almost glad to know he wouldn't have any more bad news.
He grabbed his suitcases and groaned as he pulled them out of the dorms and towards the exit to Monsters University.
Randall lay in the bed he had for the night, unable to fall asleep. He hadn't bothered to take any of his comforter pillows out of the bag to reduce the discomfort on his back right now. His body wasn't particularly made for an average monster bed. In this one, his bottom pair of legs were outside the length of the duvet and his tail had to curl on the wooden floorboards. The receptionist had not really paid too much attention to his size requirements and him being too drained and anxious from the day, he hadn't made a particular fuss of changing his room. He wasn't outside and that counted for something. And this floor was quiet, something that rarely happened in the dorms.
Only now, did his mind begin racing about the day, keeping him awake. How much things could change in the space of a few hours. Just this morning he had woken up in his rather luxurious sleeping quarters in the Roars house. He'd been more positive and determined about that scaring challenge than any other. True, his abilities perfectly matched the 'hide and seek' challenge, but he'd never held his blend that long before. Proving that he could succeed in this, he was even more confident about the 'Scare Simulator, despite the Oozma Kappas becoming their opponents and not, for instance the Jaws Theta Chi's. That fraternity had never even passed the first round before for a reason. Or so Johnny Worthington had said.
From the day Worthington had approached him, he'd had it drilled into him that the group was elitist and anyone below that would not make the cut. Randall had been, he rather pathetically admitted, scared of him. He was as intimidating as jocks went; well, as intelligent jocks were that is. Worthington was completing his master's degree in scaring and he had already openly proved his brawn and intellect at exam papers.
Randall, out of his kindness, rather hated to speak rude of the other fraternities and sororities, but he had to admit that he did see many representations of university stereotypes. The JOX, PNK HSS and EEK's were strength, cheerleaders, goths and athletic obsessives. The JOX were close to the RORs but did not possess the same standard of intelligence. Many of the other fraternities and sororities had large similarities to these categories, even though they were clans in their own rights. But it was always the RORs that were the top of the pile, the group that always associated with the very best scarers. Randall couldn't have believed his luck when he fell into their group.
The memory of his initiation ceremony made the thought of his dismissal even sourer to his mouth. It had been elaborate, honorary and almost religious. He'd sworn his oath, taken the fraternity brotherhood unbreakable vow and promised success. It was this unbreakable vow which had really prevented him from joining the OK's. Truthfully, even though he had felt the burden of refusing Mike's request to join Oozma Kappa, he had an overwhelming sense of pride for being affiliated with the Roars instead. They weren't laughing at him then. If he had known his affiliation would end like this, in a lonely hotel room, his unbreakable vow would have felt like hand cuffs dragging him to his fate.
Now here he was. A true nobody. No fraternity, no friends, no accommodation. A huge weight of loss. Was it even worth getting up in the morning?
Randall hugged himself as the tears finally fell, dampening his pillow. A few hours later he fell asleep.