Ilene's timer buzzed and she put her pen down. That timer could only mean one thing: breakfast. It couldn't have come at better time; the coffee and trail mix she had eaten before heading off to astronomy class had long since worn off.
Today, she had been especially eager for the buzz because of the mysterious letter she found earlier. She had even caught herself checking the clock as she worked to see when she could leave the dorm. As she checked the clock again, she noticed that there were only minutes before she needed to be under the drama department's stairs. Throwing her pens and papers into a bag, she dashed out the door at breakneck speed as her dorm mates were still debating what color underpants to wear today.
Running across campus, she mentally berated herself, "Stupid. Need to be somewhere at seven promptly, and you go about setting the alarm at the same time you'd set it at for leisurely strolling someplace at 7:15. You are an idiot."
When she came to the staircase, out of breath and wheezing slightly, eleven other people had already gathered there and were standing awkwardly, not talking to each other. They earned odd looks from passerby, no doubt remarking on this group's vast difference to the crowd who normally hung around here: the shady ones with heads gathered together for hushed conversation or loudly jeering at bystanders.
"Great," Ilene thought miserably, "now I have people to witness my failure at keeping track of time."
Out loud, she said, "Are any of you 'T'?"
A tall, athletic man probably only a year older than Ilene herself who wore a shirt that said "Swim little swim team fish, swim!", most likely a gift hand drawn by a younger sibling, answered her. "No. We were all told to meet them here, same as you." He sounded irritated, as if he'd had to explain this several times before.
Just after this terse exchange, a short girl with proportionally long legs sprinted up to them, laughing. "I knew I could make it here in less than two minutes!" she said. Ilene happened to know this girl was a freshman who had come to this college on a full track and field scholarship. The girl opened her mouth to ask a question, and Ilene could guess what the question would be.
The swimmer man interrupted her before she could even ask, "No, nobody here is 'T'. We don't know who or where they are, and we don't know why we're here."
"Gosh, not very friendly, are we? I just wanted to ask a question." The sprinter replied. Her dazzling smile slipped just slightly down her face.
"And I'm going to answer it." A blond man with a beard stepped under the staircase. A tremor of recognition crossed the faces of all thirteen college students already under the stairs; an outsider would have thought that the thirteen complete strangers had all come a across the bearded man at a party once. "Sorry I wasn't here sooner. Much like yourselves, I don't like repeating myself."
A man with just a stubble of hair covering his head opened his mouth to speak, but the bearded man cut him off, "No interruptions. I'm going to tell you something crucially important, and I understand that all of you are on a very tight schedule." He looked at Ilene as though reprimanding her for not paying attention to the time and almost being late. Ilene felt her cheeks redden.
He continued, "At this point, introductions should be made, seeing as none of you could muster the civility to talk to one another while waiting for me." The swimmer's cheeks reddened, and the mystery man kept talking, "I will not tell you my real name yet, but for now, call me T. As for the rest of getting to know each other, do it on your own time; I need to leave soon."
A tall woman with a long brown ponytail interrupted him, "Why have you gathered us, of all people, together? As far as I can tell, nobody here has anything in common. What could possibly be so far reaching as to apply to us all?"
He smiled, "You'll figure it out on your own time." His face became serious again. "I need all of you to meet me here at the same next week with your answers. Don't forget and don't be late." He gave Ilene one more look and walked away. The young adults simply stared at him with identical expressions of confusion of their faces.
The first to break out of the expression of stupor was a boy with mousy brown hair and thick glasses. "That was extremely unhelpful."
"You just made the understatement of the century," a girl with strawberry blonde hair responded.
The sprinter girl responded, "Who cares? Let's go eat breakfast, if that's where you're off to."
"The first good idea I've heard all day," said a man with long red hair and the most calloused hands Ilene had seen in her life. There were assorted mumbles of agreements all around, and the thirteen of them headed off to the cafeteria.
It was possibly the most bizarre party ever to walk through the campus as a group. Upon reaching the cafeteria, Ilene, who walked towards the rear of the group out of habit, and ten others pulled out student cards and wrinkled handfuls of cash that looked to have gone through the wash one time too many. A gangly man with a blonde ponytail and the man with the buzz cut pulled out money that looked even more bedraggled and identity cards that marked them as being from the flight academy and the military school near campus, respectively. They payed for food and went to sit down at the last remaining large table.
They ate in awkward silence until the girl with strawberry blonde hair said, "So how about those names, huh?"
A curvy woman with thick blonde hair responded, "Excellent. And while we're at it, we should tell a little about ourselves. It would help us to figure out why we of all people were gathered together to answer a question. And you know, we still don't even know what the question is. I think maybe we'll have to figure it out for ourselves, and-"
The swimmer cut her off. "Let's get to then. I'm Ryan, and-"
"If we were a therapy group, this would be the point at which we'd all say 'Hi, Ryan'," a girl with rainbow stripes through her hair examining the knife next to her half-eaten bagel interrupted him. Ryan glared at her, and she levelly met his gaze. "What? It's true."
He continued, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I'm majoring in marine biology, am currently a junior, and am on the swim team. I do a bit of sailing, as well."
The incessantly happy runner girl spoke, "Okay, cool. My turn now. My name is Vanessa, and I'm a freshman. I run everywhere. I'm on track team." She gave a huge smile a received a half-hearted one from the mousy-haired boy with glasses.
A girl who had been twitching as though she thought Vanessa would talk until they were all dust said, "I'm Penelope, but that's dreadful. Call me 'Penny' instead. I'm an expert in dead languages and histories mostly forgotten; I'll be an archeologist. I'm a senior this year."
The girl with rainbow hair muttered, "This is just like a therapy group."
Ryan glared at her and said, "Why don't you introduce yourself instead of griping about how you think we're a therapy group."
"I'm called Trista, which is short for Trista," she said, smiling in a way that reminded Ilene of a cat her neighbor once owned, "and I actually am in training to be a therapist. Yes, the irony is amusing. Sophomore."
"Well, Trista, short for Trista, maybe next time you can help get into the swing of therapy things," said a man with bright red hair longer than the hair of any of the girls at the table. He smiled a bit at his joke and continued, "I'm a junior, named Arthur, and a sculptor."
Trista looked like she was about to say something to make Arthur regret his joke when the strawberry blonde girl interrupted with a look on her face like she just saved his life. "My name is Jennifer, but Jenny works for me. I'm a freshman, and I just started pre-med."
The boy with mousy hair and huge glasses whistled, "We've got a smart one over here." Jennifer blushed and smiled at the table. He took his turn with a very pleased look on his face. "I'm Corey, a junior. A psychologist. I find human behavior simply fascinating, so don't be alarmed if I start taking notes in the middle of a conversation." He smiled; Ilene wouldn't have been surprised if he had been mentally taking notes of their reactions to each other.
They stared silently at each other for a moment. The man with the buzz cut quietly said, "Name is Dustin. Twenty three years old. At the marine academy." He spoke so softly Ilene could barely hear his words.
Down the table, a tall woman with a brown ponytail snorted. With more contempt than Ilene thought possible to put into words, she said, "Warfare. Tuh."
"Do you have a problem with that?" Dustin responded, equally quiet as before.
"I dislike the thought of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on machines and men of destruction to fight a war avenging the death of few compared to the many who die every year because of disease," she snarled.
Trista and the curvy girl spoke at the same time.
"Don't be rude."
"And what's your name?"
While the curvy girl glared at her, she said, "My name is Terra. I'm a junior and an ecologist."
The curvy girl spoke again, "I don't like your attitude, Terra. You have no reason to be mean to Dustin. You don't know why he joined the marines. He could have done it because he didn't have the money to go to school. If you hate the marines so much, you shouldn't have gone to a college right next to a marine academy. In fact, if it bothers you that much, you should just-"
It was Dustin who interrupted her, and during her speech, his ears had turned the color of a radish. "How about your name, pretty?"
She blushed. "My name is Helen, like Helen of Troy. I'm a freshman, eighteen years old. I'm in training to be a teacher. I just love little children. They're just so-"
Ryan interrupted her, "So who's next?"
"My name is Joshua Jackson, the third. I prefer to be referred to as Jojo. I am a senior. I am a geographer," a man with high cheekbones and dark eyes said slowly as if he had to measure each word.
Vanessa looked at Ilene and the ponytailed blonde man sitting next to her. "That just leaves you two, then."
Ilene pushed a strand of black hair out her eyes and introduced herself, "I am Ilene. I chose to follow of path in astrophysics and am a sophomore. Who are you?" she said, looking at the man next to her.
"Well, Astro-geek," he said, smiling in a manner that was all too fond for someone he had just met, "I am Zephyr," he blushed as though expecting someone to laugh at his unusual name, "the pilot. I recently turned twenty."
"And I am running out of time," said Arthur, looking at a watch with a duct tape band, "I think we should all meet later and discuss mysterious T and his unasked question, but I really have to go."
"What's the time?" Terra asked him.
"I'd say 'Time for you to get a watch'," he smiled slightly, "but you don't look like that sort of girl. It's 7:23."
"I need to leave as well," she said, standing up.
"I'll walk with you." Arthur offered Terra his hand.
She ignored it but said, "All right. We can get to know each other on the way." They left, Terra still idly eating a banana.
Trista looked up from her bagel. "That's probably a good idea."
"What is?" Jojo asked.
"Small groups. Probably two people in each one. Cause less schedule issues. They'd get to know each other and we take turns sharing what we've learned next time we can all gather up."
"I'm game. Who's my partner?" Corey smiled at everybody.
Jennifer claimed him, saying, "I'll get to know you, Corey." She looked immeasurably pleased to be spending more time with the one who called her smart.
"Cool. Let's leave the cafeteria before we get accused of loitering," he responded.
"Okay."
Penny asked, "Anybody have a free period at nine?"
"No, but I'm sure we'll find other free time in common," Jojo enunciated, "I'll work with you. Geography and archeology are very similar fields; I'm sure we'll find plenty to talk about." They left, comparing schedules to see when they could get together.
"I'll work with Dustin," Helen beamed.
"And what if," Dustin asked her, "I don't want to work with you? Hypothetically speaking."
"Who do you want to work with?" Helen said, perplexed.
"Point taken. We'll talk more outside."
"That sounds excellent," Helen nodded, "Fresh air is good for so many things. Also, the weather this time of year is-" As they walked out of earshot, Helen talked on and on, and, oddly enough, Dustin seemed to be listening to every word she said.
"I claim Ilene." Zephyr proclaimed with a look that said he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"But I-" Ilene started.
"I have a private pilot license, Astro-geek. I can take somebody closer to the stars. I have a four passenger plane all to myself."
Ilene fell silent; he knew exactly what to offer her.
"Group of three then!" Vanessa exclaimed, jumping up. Ryan and Trista had identical expressions of Save Me on their faces. "Come on, lady and gent, let's go someplace that doesn't reek of grease." She dragged her two companions off.
Ilene checked her watch; there was plenty of time. She dumped all the loose papers that had been unceremoniously shoved into her bag onto the table. Zephyr stared in open mouthed astonishment.
"All that fits in there?" he said, pointing.
Ilene paper clipped two different essays into the right order and replaced them. "No." was her very honest answer.
"Going anywhere soon?"
"No, I have an hour before my next class."
"And I've an hour and half before mine. Come on, Astro-geek. Let's go get to know each other someplace where I can see the sky."
"The sky sounds great." Ilene neatly put her laptop and the rest of the papers in her bag and left the cafeteria with Zephyr. A confused cafeteria worker went to their table, wondering why eleven of what she had noticed to be the most socially challenged kids at the school as well as a pilot and a marine she had never seen before were all having conversation with each other.
Author's Note: This chapter was a pain to write. I kept forgetting who was who and such; towards the beginning of writing it, I got frustrated and made a chart. If you can't remember names (which I totally understand; twelve new characters in one chapter, what?), I recommend a you make yourself a chart, too. If you have a question about the names, feel free to ask.
Speaking of characters, I just introduced almost all of them. Yay!
On another note, a long chapter! Here it is. I said there'd be one. Happy birthday. Incidently, this about as long as all the others combined.
Disclaimer: All belongs to Tolkein. (Except random college, but I can't imagine why he'd want that.)
Speaking of random college, it is nonexistent. Completely fictional. I needed the marine acedemy and the flight school right next to it for plot reasons; I don't there's a real college like that.
(Oh my Eru, that was a long Author's Note. I just can't shut up.)