Chapter 2: A New Adventure

I wasn't the only Storybrooke child who had left our little town of fairy tales to seek a higher education. The mad hatter's daughter Grace had dreams of creating robotic limbs and other cool stuff with biomechanical engineering, and apart from maybe Dr. Whale, no one in our town has a clue how to teach her that.

She invited me over to see her room now that everyone's pretty much moved in by now. Problem was, the dorm building is really weirdly shaped and I was starting to get lost.

I paced down the third floor, searching for room 348. Let's see, I said to myself. 336, 338, 340, 342. Dead end. Again?

I doubled back to the last hallway intersection and stood at the crossroads. Which way, which way?

I was startled from my thoughts from a voice behind me. "Lost, little Alice?" she asked.

"I-uh-um" I stammered. "Do you know where room 348 is?" I asked sheepishly.

"Listen carefully." She made a serious face and took a step towards me. In a lower voice, she instructed me, "Just go where your high-top sneakers sneak, and don't forget to use your head."

I stared at her, confused. "Um…" I started to explain to her that while I appreciated the Alice in Wonderland references, they didn't offer much help in finding Grace's room.

Her serious face broke out into laughter. "I'm just messing with you, man. You're Henry, right?"

"Yes," I replied immediately. "How did you-" I glanced down at my shirt wondering if I was wearing a nametag.

"I'm Grace's roommate," she explained. "She sent me to find you. Come on."

I followed the girl down a different hallway. Soon we arrived at room 348 and she opened the door.

"Henry!" Grace exclaimed, rushing forward to give me a hug. "It's so good to see you. Are you all moved in?"

"Uh, mostly." I replied, scanning the girls' room. It was scattered with empty boxes. There was a third girl connecting the wires from a video game console to a small TV in the common area.

"That's Ally," Grace explained, gesturing to the girl hooking up the TV. She gave a brief wave to me. "And you already met Rose." Rose smiled at me. Her chocolate brown eyes were the same shade as her hair, and her t-shirt featured a comic book rendering of Loki the trickster god.

"Hi guys," I said, feeling somewhat awkward and out of place. Rose began shuffling cards on their small table. "Is that Set?" I asked, catching a glimpse of the colored shaped on the cards. Rose shot me an excited look.

"You want to play?" she asked. I nodded and sat down as she began to set up the game.

"What is this?" Ally asked, having finished with the tv.

"You have to make sets," I tried to explain the rules and concentrate on the game at the same time. "Each set has three-SET" I interjected, and claimed my set as Rose put three more cards on the table. "Three cards," I continued.

"What makes a set?" Grace asked. Both she and Ally had sat down while I was concentrating on the game. I continued scanning the cards. Rose picked up one of the cards and began explaining.

"Okay," she began. "So each card has 4 characteristics. Color (green, red, purple), shape (ovals, diamonds, squiggles), number (1,2,3), and shading (open, shaded, solid). In the 3 card set, each characteristic must be a similarity or a difference."

"Wouldn't something always be a similarity or difference?" Ally asked.

"No, no," I explained. "Say if there's two green ones and 1 red one. That doesn't work, because for color to be a difference, they have to be all different colors. To be a similarity, all the same colors."

"Is this a set?" Grace asked, pointing to three cards of the same color.

"No," Rose judged. "Color's a similarity and number is a difference, but shape and shading don't work. See, you have 2 squiggles and one diamond. But you can have 2 similarities and 2 differences or 3 similarities and 1 difference or 4 differences. That part doesn't matter, as long as each characteristic is a similarity or a difference."

We had to reiterate the rules a few more times, but they got the basic hang of things. Grace even managed to get a set by the end of the first round. Ally began growing increasingly frustrated at the ease at which the game seemed to come to Rose and me. We were both enjoying ourselves, glad to finally have someone else at our level to play with. It's not so much a strategy game, but it does require a lot of practice and concentration.

After a couple rounds of Set, there was a knock at the door. Ally opened it to see two other girls who squealed and enveloped her in a hug. I noticed both of the girls had matching T-shirts that said gamma omicron.

Rose rolled her eyes at the display. "Her sorority sisters," Rose explained to me. "They've known each other for like 20 minutes, but they're absolute besties" she said in a mocking girly voice. I stifled a laugh and glanced over to the three girls who had walked into Ally's room to comment on the style of her decorations.

"I'll give it two months before they decide they really don't like each other. Two years until they stop trying to fake nice and pretending they don't hate each other, though." Rose predicted.

There was more squealing and exclamations of 'cute,' during which Rose and I shared looks and stifled laughs.

Thoroughly satisfied that they had made her room as cute as possible, the girls came back to the common area to watch us play Set. There was more giggling and the two girls seemed to be pestering Ally about the boy she was texting.

"Is that Grayson?" one of the girls asked with a grin on her face.

Evidently Grayson was the name of the boy Ally had been dating for the past year. Stella, who had curly blonde hair, thought he was really cute. Juliet, who had dark hair and brown skin, thought he was adorable in a dorky way, but not quite manly enough for her. Ally thought that their opinion of him didn't matter, because he was her boyfriend and not theirs. Besides, she thought he was super attractive but would still love him even if he suddenly wasn't.

I don't think I understand love.

I've had a girlfriend before. Back in Storybrooke, I dated a girl called Violet. She was from Camelot and I had a lot of fun teaching her about the new things like music. I always tried to act like a proper gentleman to her. We went on a few dates and would hold hands. But I don't know that I ever really loved her. I mean, I liked her. She was nice and pretty and all, but I always felt like I was playing a part in a play. One time I gave her a kiss because that was what couples are supposed to do. True love's kiss and fairytale endings and all that. It didn't feel magic; it felt robotic and awkward, but I remember smiling because I was happy to have kissed someone. Happy to have someone to love. That's what everyone wants, right? True love is the most powerful magic of all. Yeah, I liked her. But I didn't love her. Didn't dream about her eyes everytime I close mine or whatever other people say when they talk about how much they love someone. I started to wonder if everyone else just pretends to be obsessed with other people, just pretends their love is more intense than it actually is to give their life more meaning. Maybe people don't love the person they're with so much as the concept of being with someone, I finally decided.

I dated Violet for a few months before she broke up with me. I understood why she did it—I was leaving for college soon and it wasn't like we were running away to get married anytime soon—but I was still a bit disappointed. That was when I fully realized that I never loved her. I was disappointed to be alone and rejected, but I didn't miss her. I didn't cry over her. My moms kept trying to comfort me, but I was fine. The fact that I didn't feel anything kind of weirded me out, to be honest. Like either people make life seem a lot more dramatic than it actually is, or I'm just some emotionless robot doing my best to pretend to be normal.

Ally didn't feel like that. She actually loved Grayson. She would have loved him regardless of whether or not he was her boyfriend, regardless of whether or not she was supposed to.

I don't know if I'll ever fully understand that, but the shared glances between Rose and me made my heart beat a little faster, and I was starting to think that I just might.