Dormitory

A skinny boy laying on his bed was snapping his fingers every three seconds. His black iris staring at the ticking clock, hung upside down. It was 11:30 on the clock, or it appeared so from his view.

It was still bright outside, some shimmering rays bypassing the barrier of curtains took away the darkness of greyed room. The black haired boy shifted his gaze from the clock, snapped his fingers one last time and with a mouth full of air jumped out of his bed.

It was a small room, painted in grey, a single bed cramped at the corner, a chair and table with some books laying around, a cupboard attached at one corner of the room, a window, some motivational posters as "being alone has a certain power, learn to master it." Maybe he had mastered it, and a white clock, upside down.

The boy untucked his T shirt out of his trousers and moved towards the wall. He took down the clock and readjusted it, putting it back at the wall upright.

"4 pm, I was supposed to meet him at 5:00," he took a yawn and started to ruffle his unkempt black hair. "I should take a bath."

It was a five storey dormitory with eighteen rooms per floor, and the ends of each side of a floor consisted of bathrooms and toilets. The dorm was relatively empty, start of the fresh batch was supposed to take place from the beginning of next week. Except for the early comers or the few who considered these dorms better than the rooms they used to live in, rest were not too eager to join a week prior. 

Looking at the empty corridor and some occasional laughs from an occupied room he went on his way to take a bath. After freshening up he changed to a blue T-shirt and black pants, went back to his room, took a can of coffee from a half opened bag thrown at his bed and sat in the chair.

He had recently turned seventeen and the college was about to begin from next week. He was supposed to go out with his friend for collecting the uniform and id from the university. They had to reach the registrar's office by 5:30, post university hours, and so he still had some time to spare.

His friend, or rather the guy he met yesterday was most likely sleeping, so lazily he took out his phone to pass some time. Time was still 4:30, ample time to spare he thought...opening the can, he took a sip of coffee, it's bitterness providing him with much needed sense of liveliness and enjoying some small sips he started scrolling his phone.

Although he wasn't poor to the brim but he didn't have the leisure to freely spend his money, so he avoided spending on the modern Holographic watches. They would be given a similar watch by the university so it seemed like a worthless expenditure to him. He believed all that he required was already available in his phone, a couple of years old model but worked to perfection. 

For the past couple of days all he did was sleep and eat on his way to the university, read some books and slept again, so for a bit of change he started searching for recent news.

"It still has five minutes of power left for today, when was my last charge? It should be ready for recharge by tomorrow morning." Glancing at the screen while sipping his coffee he started scrolling.

"If Kaeldia want our resources, they need to pay tariffs"

"who is Evar Sunhollow, the possible wielder of flame shard?"

"New hg watch invented by tech islanders, to only consume half aether"

"Frostspire island miraculously freed from everlasting ice sheet"

"Will the university also give us new watches? They should have the budget for them right." "The Sunhollow clan hah, they even got a shard."

*beep**beep* *pffft*

"Two hours up, hmm, do i really need the new three hour variants? Nah I'll make do with this one"

Throwing the phone back towards the back of his bed, he lazily laid down, after a while he glanced at the now upright clock, "4:55", putting on his shoes he went to the next door of his dorm, it was a brown wooden door, the colour didn't really seem to fit too well with the greyed out walls of the corridor.

He gently knocked at the door couple of times and waited for a while, the door opened after a few seconds and a brown haired man in a tank top sticking to his burly body came out, there was a contrast, amongst the door and the walls and the brown haired and black haired.

"Oh Zeill, wait a minute, let me put on a T shirt, come on in" he said in a frank tone. His room was the same, greyed walls and a single window, but it was still different, in vibes at least, a bit more vibrant, it lacked the being alone powers and had posters of beauties, a singer it seemed and one in bikini. 

"You have some taste Matthias" glancing at the posters Zeill spoke his mind. "Matt will do" he said while putting a shoe on his foot, "and great men have great tastes" he winked at Zeill still half bowed to put on the shoes. "Let's go."

Coming out of the dorm, Zeill turned back to take a good look. It felt deceptive to him, it felt very monotonous and lackluster inside the dorm but once outside it felt as he got teleported to a different place. It was simply so contrasting. Is everything in life really so contrasting he glanced at the building, then at Matt and then at his hanging shirt, I guess it is.

What appeared as a bland mixture of grey and brown inside was indeed very pleasing to the eyes from outside. The dorm stood five storey tall in a C shape, a C laying horizontally on the ground, without curves, just made of three straight lines. It was white with greenery all around, the windows which didn't give much sense of finesse inside rooms now appeared shimmering bright in the afternoon rays of sun. 

The white looked stainless, the trees and shrubbery made it even more scenic, then he looked away from his soon to be new residential area and started observing the campus. What could he say, it was neat, very clean and beautiful. he could see streetlights at the edges of a stone carved street and little patches of gardens in empty areas, it was green and colourful. Its much better than I imagined thought Zeill.

"What are you thinking of? Let's go" said Matt, already some ten steps ahead of Zeill. "Oh yess! You know the way to receptionist office right?"

Zeill looked at Matt with dead eyes, somehow that gaze pierced Matt's soul forcing him to give out a wry smile.

"Didn't you say you knew?" he threw a helpless gaze towards Matt.

"The Academy, that is what I know" replied Matt sheepishly, "the places inside academy, it'll take some time" he laughed nervously.

Zeill sighed and walked on observing the beautiful campus "Let's go then, what are you waiting for."