Akiza went through her mental checklist of what she needed to have for her first day.

Textbooks? Check.

Notebooks? Check.

Folders? Check.

Binders? Check.

Calculator? Check. Do I even need it?

Pencil? Um, no.

Akiza hurriedly rummaged through her packed boxes. She had already unpackaged most of them and already organized some of the things in her room. However, she hadn't exactly gotten through everything. Akiza had to be honest with herself: Yes, she had been lazy and procrastinating, and a lot of good it had done her. She couldn't even find a single dang pencil.

"Darla?" She called, panic in her voice, "Do you have a pencil? I really need one!"

From the adjacent room, she could hear her roommate groan as she was woken from her slumber by Akiza's loud yell.

Akiza checked the time on her phone. It was 7:48. Her first class started at eight and there was a lot of walking involved to get there.

"Darla!" Akiza yelled, raising her voice. Impatiently, she barged into her friend's room without caring whether she stepped onto any dirty clothes. Planting her feet firmly in front of the said person's bed, Akiza demanded, "I need a pencil or pen. Now help me." Politely, in a softer tone, she added, "Please."

Darla groggily opened her eyes and scanned around her messy room, even more so compared to Akiza's mostly empty and neat room with a few still-needed-to-be-unpacked boxes.

"Geez, it's only seven in the morning and I'm trying to sleep, can't you see?"

Akiza made a small irritable noise in the back of her throat.

"Yes, I can see, and it's almost eight, and my first class is starting in about ten minutes."

Darla sleepily crawled out of bed and shuffled across the room to her desk, poking through the various drawers. Eventually, she managed to find one and handed it to Akiza. Gratefully, Akiza accepted it and thanked Darla profusely as she turned to leave.

"You owe me," Darla called balefully after Akiza's retreating form.

"Yeah, ok, I'll treat you to some ice cream later! Byekaythanks!"

Fortunately, Akiza made it to her first class, Biology, with less than a minute to spare. Quickly, she settled down in the first open seat among the sea of other students. Some of them openly gawked at her and others pointed at her and whispered to their friends.

Yes, I'm Akiza Izinski, and please don't mob me now!

Akiza breathed a sigh of relief as she placed her load down onto the table. When she turned her head to see who was sitting beside her, she almost had a heart attack.

The person was none other than Ryu Swansea, the very guy who had landed her in the middle of a crazy mob the other day. Akiza stared at him, albeit a little rudely. He was staring back with wide owl eyes.

Then, he grinned, flashing at her his perfect pearly white teeth, and said pleasantly, "Hey there. So you're in the same class as me?"

Akiza had been staring at him too long with a dazed expression. When he spoke, something clicked in her brain, sending her back to normal function.

"Uh…yeah, yeah," She said awkwardly, nervously brushing back a loose strand of hair. She was saved from further embarrassment when the class suddenly started.

Soon, the hundreds of students in the lecture hall were scribbling furiously in their notebooks, copying down notes. Akiza began to write as well when, BAM! The pencil tip broke. Akiza mentally cursed.

Just my luck. And here I was thinking maybe my luck was getting better.

Ryu was jotting down his notes in his green notebook when he noticed Akiza's distress of not having a usable utensil to write with.

"Here," He said, offering a mechanical pencil to the flustered Akiza, "You can have this."

Quietly, she thanked him, then gave him a weird look. The pencil was pink and decorated with flowery patterns.

He laughed a little at her confused expression and explained that his sister had bought all his pencils and writing supplies while he had gone shopping for his books. Apparently, they were the only mechanical pencils available (and Ryu detested regular pencils – they broke too often and had to be sharpened too often) so his sister ended up buying them for him.

Soon, Akiza was chatting with her newfound friend throughout the class and realized that hey, he's not a bad guy…he's actually pretty funny.

That was exactly what Akiza texted to Yusei directly after class and said bye to Ryu as they departed to their different destinations.

Akiza arrived at her dorm room and fumbled through her purse – but no keys.

"The gods of luck must really hate me today," She muttered under her breath as she proceeded to knock, then pound on the door.

At last, Darla arrived to open the door, still sleepy.

"Don't forget…" She warned as she closed the door behind Akiza.

"Yes, yes, I know…we can go now actually, I'm kind of hungry…"

As Darla headed back to her room to change, Akiza continued to text to her boyfriend.

you know, im starting to think that college wont be as stressful as I thought it would be…speaking of which, how is your first day?

luv you as always

Akiza

p.s text me back soon! i miss you

And it was true. Akiza wondered how college would be so much more different than now if Yusei was here with her right now. She missed the feeling of being kissed by him. She missed all of Yusei, everything about him that she loved and adored.