High Point University

James suppressed a laugh, but he smiled.

"It's Professor Lordy," he corrected. "It sounds like we're in the same class, then."

Meanwhile, Bo got distracted by Jerica and turned to her.

"Oh, you play tennis?" he asked. "What else do you play?"

"Wait, who are you?" Jerica asked as the boy started rambling about her beating him in tennis. She... vaguely? remembered him. But she couldn't have said his name just then to save her life. She'd just been there to troll the intramural teams and beat anyone and everyone who'd wanted to play. She did remember this boy was better than average and he had a long name... Theodore? Nathaniel? Edison?

Who knew.

She turned towards Bo as he directed his question towards her, far more interested in him than in whatever Tennis-Boy's name was.

"I like most sports." She shrugged nonchalantly but was secretly pleased at the opportunity to talk about athletics. If nothing else, that was something she knew she was good at. "Anything that lets me win."

She flashed a grin to make it clear she was joking, even though she wasn't sure that she WAS joking. She wasn't a fan of sports that were nothing but running for the sake of running or seeing how far you can bend your own body. But if she could get the rush of competing against someone, in real time, and beating them -- then she was happy.

"My favorites are probably football, rugby, and hockey." She smiled again. "And soccer... How about you?"

Bo smiled as Jerica started listing off different sports. He had a feeling she liked sports when he'd seen her stacked plate of food, and she looked really fit too. Sports really worked up your appetite.

"I'm not really playing anything anymore, but I do lots of weightlifting, and I work out on my own," he said with a warm smile. "I used to play basketball, football, and soccer. The latter was always my favorite, though. Never played hockey, but it looks like it'd be really fun."

Jerica liked him. She smiled again, more genuine this time, as she continued shoveling food into her mouth. But, she still talked past it to try to get to know Bo a bit better.

Not that it really mattered. She wasn't going to make a friend in a single meal, and what were the odds of seeing any of these people ever again? Basically none.

"We should lift together some time."

Panic surged through her at the sound of her own voice. What was she doing? Even she didn't know. Was this her stupid attempt at making a friend? Was she challenging him? Why had that come out of her mouth? Embarrassment flailed in the pit of her stomach as she continued quickly.

"Although, I hear it's pretty embarrassing to have a girl out-bench you, so you probably don't wanna."

What are you doing? Her mind was screaming in her ears, heart racing. Every time she opened her mouth she made it worse. And worse. And worse. Just. Stop. Talking. She shoved another chicken tender into her mouth, flushing at her own stupidity. You. Complete. Moron.

Daniel got a look in his eyes.

It was a look that Benji hadn't ever seen before, but he had a feeling he could perfectly understand its meaning when he glanced up at Daniel by chance. It was an excited, almost scheming kind of look. He had no way of knowing that it was a look that Daniel regularly got - but rarely got when he was around a random group of people like this.

"I could lift with you," Daniel said.

Benji glanced between the three in question. Jerica was smaller than Daniel, but was more muscular than him. And Bo beat him both in height and muscles. But when Daniel sat there with that glint to his eyes and now almost sly smile to his face, Benji had the strangest feeling that he could out-bench the two of them.

Benji ate another forkful of his pasta.

Bo laughed warmly. He wasn't worried about being embarrassed. If Jerica could lift more than him, he'd just be really impressed.

"Conversely, I would be cheering you on," he said to Jerica with a smile, pointing his finger at her in a finger-gun before scooping up some mac-and-cheese and turning to Daniel. "And sure, I wouldn't mind if you both joined me. It would be nice to have more lifting buddies and people to spot me for bench-pressing. You should come with me sometime if you want. I just use the school's gym. They've got nice weights, and the atmosphere's a little stale, but throw in some headphones and blast some music and you're good."

Elias was about to eat another forkful of salad but then stopped before it could reach his mouth when James said they were in the same class.

"We're in the same class?" he repeated, and then grinned. "Oh, sick! We could be partners for any projects."

He had no idea if Lordy's class had projects or required partner work. The syllabus was out, but why bother preparing beforehand if the professor was going to spend some time the first day of class to go over it anyways?

"Why are you taking this English class, anyways? I thought you'd be taking more advanced classes by now," Elias continued, finishing his bite.

James waited until he was finished chewing his bite of salad before answering.

“Well, when I transferred from community college sophomore year, apparently one of my English credits didn’t transfer over, and no amount of petitioning fixed that. I would’ve take this particular class sooner if I hadn’t heard so many mixed reviews on the professor...”

He paused, then turned to give Elias a meaningful look.

“You know Professor Lordy teaches philosophy, right? It’s Morrigan who teaches english.”

Elias took a sip of his coffee as his eyes widened in excitement.

"Wait, you're telling me you're in Lordy's and Morrigan's class?" he asked James with anticipation.

James had a feeling he knew what Elias was about to say.

"Yes...?"

Elias grinned, his hand with the cup of coffee haphazardly raised in the air like he was doing a toast. Luckily, there was a lid on it and nothing spilled out.

"We're both in the same class!" he exclaimed. "You don't have to tutor me now that we can be partners for everything."

Well now, Jerica had gone and done it, hadn't she? Could have just left it at chatting about sports -- or even talking about the gym -- but nooo she'd had to run her mouth. When she knew fully well she probably couldn't out bench Bo... Daniel she wasn't sure about. He didn't look like he could, but the smirk on his face made her think he was probably as secretly good at lifting as she was at football, so she didn't want to underestimate him.

How do I get out of this?

She could keep trash talking, but that would risk one of them suggesting a time for them to meet up. She could always ghost... but if they were gym rats, it was almost guaranteed she'd run into them there. Was it more embarrassing to back out now, or to end up going and losing?

"Sure, I can always use another spot." Jerica shrugged nonchalantly. She felt like she should mention that she was just talking trash so that it wouldn't look so bad when they got to the gym. But, then, she didn't have anything to be embarrassed about. She could lift an impressive amount.

Jerica looked up as Elias started shouting and waving his hand wildly. The perfect distraction. She leaned forward to look past Bo. "What class?"

Elias didn't even wait for James's response. Tennis lady—oh what was her name? Jessica? Anyways, Jessica seemed interested on what he had to say, and that grabbed whatever was left of his attention.

"Lordy's philosophy class and Morrigan's English class," he repeated for her, setting his coffee back down on his tray and peering over at her. "What, are you in it too? Hah, wouldn't it so unreal if we were all in it? That'd be funny."

"Hey, that's cool that you're all in the same class!" Bo said. "I took Lordy's class last year. It was pretty fun, I think you'll like it."

"Philosophy?" Jerica scoffed, looking at him skeptically. "Yeah right. As if anyone actually likes philosophy. It's gonna be a dumb class, I just need it to graduate. Check that box."