Miserable Comedy - 5
[Seth Lee]
Well, guess I have a roommate.
The guy on the top bunk is a jackass. That thing has three quilts on it, and the covers they gave us were pulled off and thrown on top of a little pile of his own clothes right in the center of the room. His desk already has some papers on it, but half of them haven't even been written on. He brought chips in here and spilled half the bag on the ground. What the fuck?
My bags got shoved into the closet, right next to my uniform. This bastard can't even bother to treat other peoples' shit with bare-minimum respect. I tucked them out of the way and everything, and he specifically pulled them out of place just to make that area messy too. Is this moron a person or a miniaturized tornado?
What was he even doing last night? The place is trashed from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. At least my uniform is clean, thank god.
Speaking of which, there's a couple of those in here. Five sets each for the same two uniforms, and they all look pretty good. Summer outfit of a short sleeved dress shirt and a weirdly casual pair of neat shorts, with a winter outfit of a brown suit, underlying dress shirt, and some slacks. All in all, not bad, even if it makes me look like an accountant.
The shirt's are both white and everything else is the same light brown, except for a light blue crest on everything. It's easy to miss, but it's a stylized little cursive I that marks this as a uniform and not just what I like to wear.
Anyway, guess I'll go see what's for breakfast. What time's it, anyway?
- - -
[Observer]
Seth Lee sprinted down the path connecting the school to the dorms at top speed.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUCK!" he panted.
His dorm's common space had a clock on the wall. It was a lucky break for him. What was not a stroke of good luck was the fact that it was almost noon.
Class had started around four hours ago. He'd been supposed to get there an hour earlier for a brief overview of his schedule, then would struggle through his first day before getting a wider tour. This tour would take all five days of the week, considering the size of the school, but he had been told to wake up early.
Clearly, he had not seen success.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUUUCK!"
- - -
[Seth Lee]
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUUUCK!
There's goddamn guards at the gates of this fucking place. Why is there even a gate? This is inside the same school, right? What the fuck is this? Are they here to check for stragglers? Why are there no stragglers other than me?
Actually, wait, no, there's one other kid.
Why the fuck are there only two stragglers?
Mmm, well, maybe since it's noon.
Why the fuck is this kid here at noon?
Why am I here at noon, actually? Did I not set my alarm yesterday?
- - -
[Observer]
The boy in front of Seth wasn't dressed in the school uniform.
Surrounded by copses of tall trees stretching high above the path, a boy in an unmarked black hoodie, shorts, and some very worn sneakers trudged towards the Ilus gates. His clothes were coated in dust, some of it Cheeto. He was skinny to the point of it looking unhealthy, but was holding a sandwich with bacon, eggs, and cheese oozing from between the bread. Every so often, he'd open his mouth to the point of appearing to unhinge his jaw, eat half of the triangle, then, if he had nothing left, pull another portion seemingly from an endless supply in his pocket.
It was 12:05 PM. He was still only about halfway through the journey from the dorms.
One step. Two step. One step. Two step.
Slowly.
Very slowly towards the gate, and its two guards.
Oh, and in case you were wondering: Seth did not set his alarm yesterday.
- - -
[Observer]
The figures at the gates of Ilus's main school buildings made an odd pair.
One of them was a hulking boy, with a figure that rivaled bodybuilders. He stood a good seven and a half feet tall, a little bit of fat spread over bulging muscle. He gave the impression of an athlete who'd been a bit heavy with his diet and light with his work recently.
He was leaned against the pillar at the right side of the gate, spinning a baton in his hands like it was a pencil. His hair was trimmed into a strict buzz cut underneath a practical work cap, and he was overalls on top of the summer uniform. His dress shoes were shined to perfection, and he would have made for a pleasant and reassuring sight were it not for the brooding, impatient look on his face.
The other was shaping up to look like a model. With long, flowing hair and a perfectly proportioned, unblemished face, a 6'2" frame and a fit yet slim build, he was everything that conventionally attractive should be, besides his constant scowl and position.
Lounging on top of the gate that was resolutely shut, the overall impression combined with his expression was of somebody bored, looking down on a peasantry they could never understood. Rather than beautiful, or handsome, or even attractive, he looked haughty.
"Stop acting like a damn bird and get down here. We've got two kids coming, it's probably one of them," the larger one barked. His voice was smooth and deep, but he was clearly trying to add additional gruffness and gravel to it in an attempt to sound more commanding than suave.
"You can handle it by yourself, can't you?" the thin one drawled. His voice gave the impression of being, with no other word fitting for it, sharp. Every word he said had a sort of pointy feeling in at least one of its syllables, like he was using words to jab at whoever was listening, even when saying "it" and "by". It was as pleasant as the rest of him, but still prickly. His words may have been serious, but they were said so bitterly that any message he was sending was lost amidst assumed spite.
"Shut it. They might think I'm a gangbanger picking off strays," the big one retorted, crossing his arms and leaning more.
"They won't be scared of you for a second, and no idiot would be waiting in front of a school for people coming in late four hours after class starts. Now stop prying the gate out of the ground," the scowling one responded.
The muscular boy turned to him. "How do you know what they'll think, huh? And tell me something besides bullshit this time," he demanded.
Sizing up the hulking young man in front of him, the sharp, perfectly identical eyes scanned all seven and a half feet of muscle and power.
"Well, I'm not."
- - -
[Observer]
Quite a ways away, the bottomless void of endless sandwiches took slow steps towards the two much bigger boys. Though, by this point, he had moved past ham sandwiches to a bag of cheesy chips in his pocket, getting dust all over his sleeves and front.
He could hear loud footsteps some ways behind him. Every so often, he glanced back to see Seth, eyes to the sky, sprinting his lungs out.
Whenever the distance between them had closed too much, however, the now-cheesy hoodie wearer would seem to speed up impossibly, closing massive distances in seconds. His pace would remain the same. His strides would seemingly remain the same. Any outside observer would not notice him changing how he walked. However, every step he took seemed to propel him impossibly far, so that the distance between him and the hurriedly dressed boy behind him fluctuated, but never dramatically lessened.
Out of the pocket another chip came. Thrown into the air. Caught in a smiling mouth.
The walk continued.