Mechanical engineering

The three of them rushed through the halls to make it in time for their first class of the year. They'd spent quite a while rushing around trying to find a place which the guy was familiar with. It turns out that even if you spend a year in a maze type college, you won't learn how to navigate the whole thing.

By the time they reached the room designated for engineering they were somewhat late, they knocked on the door and entered quickly.

Joshua and Tom bowed their heads slightly and called out into the large room, "Sorry we were late, professor!"

The guy who was standing to the side of them also apologised, but he looked and sounded somewhat insincere. "Sorry, sir."

The lecturer only sighed as he told them to get to their seats and sit down, Josh and Tom sat next to each other and the guy followed them, the guy sat to the left of Josh whilst Tom sat to the right.

Josh suddenly had a realisation and prodded the guy multiple times on the shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, no need to do that… you know, I'm sitting next to you. You can just say it." The guy said whilst sighing and glancing at Joshua.

"Oh well, I was just wondering why you were in out class, i men this is a class for first years, right? For freshmen." He said, stating the obvious, "So why are you here?"

"Why am I here?" The guy repeated his question and looked Joshua in the eyes, he raised his arm onto the table and proceeded to rest his chin upon the back of his hand.

"Yeah, aren't you our upperclassman?" Joshua asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Well, yes, I am." He pondered for a moment before he continued, "Why am I here?" He asked once again, mainly to himself, and Tom and Josh both gave him a bizarre look, wondering if he actually didn't know why he was here. The guy began tapping the table with his index finger, Tom and Josh were feeling rather awkward before he opened his mouth and continued, "It's probably due to the amount of absences I had last year." He said finally as he stopped tapping the table.

"You had a lot of absences last year? How come?" Asked Josh

The guy stayed silent for a moment, a solemn expression appeared briefly on his face. The expression was soon substituted for a happy one and he smiled, it was hard to differentiate from a genuine one, but it was definitely fake, Joshua, however, didn't pay much attention and didn't notice anything wrong, the guy then replied, "Well, you know how it goes. Being popular you get invited to loads of parties and the lot."

"Right… okay." Joshua responded, somewhat understanding but unable to know why he'd rush repeating a year of classes to go out and party instead.

"Well anyway…" the guy said, trying to quickly change to topic of their conversation, but not being able to think of anything since he didn't know Josh and therefore didn't know what to talk about. However, he then looked at Josh and suddenly started saying something, "By the way, about Tom-" the guy started but was soon interrupted by Josh who donned a look that seemed to say he had just thought of something.

"Yeah, Tom, you're always quiet around strangers, no need to be shy, you should talk too. After all, it would be better to make more friends, right?" Josh said to Tom with a smile, a questioning look was in his eyes, and with this the guy sitting by Josh also had a questioning look on his face.

"Well, anyway, Tom-" the guy tried to say but was once again interrupted by Joshua.

Josh was still looking at Tom who looked somewhat uncomfortable and shook his head indicating he didn't want to speak, actually, Tom was trying to warn them about something, but both Josh and the guy didn't take the hint.

"Sorry, I guess Tom doesn't want to speak to you, he's always been shy since I first met him when we were four. It's nothing personal so don't worry."

Tom further shook his head and lifted a finger to his mouth to tell Josh to quieten down, but Josh didn't understand and was about to keep talking to the guy when the professor at the front of the room suddenly called their names.

"—— and Joshua, would you like to share your conversation with the class? If not, quieten down. This is class, not a party. We're here to learn, not make friends." Hearing this the guy and Josh both straightened and their faces paled slightly.

"We're sorry, sir." They both said in unison as they bowed their heads slightly.

"Yes, yes." The professor replied as he briskly continued on with the class. This time without students chattering away in the back.

Josh suddenly understood what Tom meant and laughed to himself silently. Tom was always smarter and more sensible than him, he should've listened. He sighed mentally and glanced at Tom with a knowing look, Tom looked at him with a slightly pitiful look with a smile. A look that Josh could've sworn meant "poor you, getting scolded on the first day over something so trivial?" Josh smiled at this and nudged him while sticking his tongue out.

The professor who had seen this could only sigh to himself, it seemed he'd have another troublemaker this year yet again, it seemed he always had the rowdy students applying for his classes. He shook his head slightly and continued on with the class, trying to pay the boys little mind.

The class continued on and the three boys were concentrating hard on what the professor was saying, and when the class was over Josh and Tom walked out of the room, with the guy who sat by them hurriedly following behind them.

"Hey, hey! Wait up, man." He called out into the hall.