High Point University

James started arranging some of the prompts in order, spreading papers out on the desk.

"My hearing's never been exceptional," James said. "And even I'm bothered by the noise. I can only imagine how much harder it would be to bear with good hearing."

He hummed in thought.

"Maybe you can convince everyone on your floor to file a complaint against him."

Hopefully, Carter wouldn't bribe them all. He was likely to, though.

"I don't know if it would work," he admitted. "But..."

He sighed.

"White noise helps too."

Benji gave a small smile.

"White noise is my best friend at this point," he said. "I have a playlist I always listen to. I even made a MP3 version of it so I could listen to it without WiFi."

Filing a complaint was a good idea. It hadn't even crossed his mind that he could. He wasn't sure if a single complaint would do anything, but maybe he could ask Daniel to, too-

He pushed the thought away.

"Do you ever listen to music to block things out?" James asked, still multitasking, reading, and organizing papers.

He nodded.

"Only instrumentals," he added. "I get distracted by any lyrics."

“Same here,” he said. “I listen to a lot of classical music, actually. It helps me focus. But it depends on the mood. You?”

Benji had to think for a moment before replying. He didn't actively look for a certain kind of music; he usually just checked his history or his recommendations. "A little bit of classical music, but mostly playlists from channels like The Soul of Wind. I've also listened to piano covers of Studio Ghibli songs."

“Piano covers are always good to listen to too,” James agreed. He paused for a moment to read a prompt more carefully, before checking the syllabus, and then setting it down near the end. He was making a row of the prompts.

“This side is for the start of the semester,” he said, pointing. “And this side is the end. We can double check when we’re both done sorting and then put it all in one pile.”

Lordy finished microwaving the giant tub of spaghetti (was that even safe?) and used far too many sheets of tissue paper to carry it back to his office.

"Hey! That's gotta be at least a gallon of spaghetti!" A professor shouted as he passed by.

"It's half a gallon!" Lordy shouted without stopping.

"Haha nice! Have a good day!"

"No you have a good one!" Lordy made his way up the stairs and back into his office where he found the boys had organized everything much more quickly than he anticipated.

He set the tub of spaghetti on the table and threw the tissue paper to the side. Lifting the bottle of whiskey that was suspiciously untouched by the two college boys, he smiled and raised his eyebrows, looking between them. Neither one of them seemed to know what to say.

"Well what are you waiting for kids?" Lordy took a swig of his whiskey and set it down again before he picked up two of the glasses and scooped up spaghetti in them, handing one glass to each student, "Dig in!"

James looked at the tub of spaghetti and blinked slowly.

Spoiler

He glanced at Benji, then at the tub. Lordy offered them no utensils. Only a loose tub of spaghetti. This was his idea of dinner. It was barely 4pm.

"Thanks..." James said in monotone.

In honesty, he was suspicious of the spaghetti. He reached over and grabbed the tub, sliding it closer, looking in. It didn't look abnormal, but... it was all very odd.

"I think I'll focus on getting the work done first," he said, turning his attention back to the papers before him. "I'll have some in a bit."

Benji awkwardly took one of the glasses.

"I'll, um, do the same," he hesitantly said, putting his glass off to the side. He gave the tub of spaghetti a wary glance before turning back to the papers. He was glad he had been able to talk to James more, but he was starting to regret agreeing to this deal.

"Um, Lordy?" Morri looked at the scene going on in Lordy's office.

Whiskey? Opened.
Spaghetti? Tubbed.
Utensils? Missing.

"Did I miss something?" Morri asked.

"Of course not! I was just offering the kids a snack while they worked." Lordy raised his arms in an inviting motion, "Come on in!"

Morri walked into the room and continued behind the desk where the students were working. They seemed a bit confused but he would be more surprised if they weren't. He sat on the floor at the back of the office and folded his legs.

Lordy poured some whiskey into the last empty glass and handed it to Morri, "I think I found a good couple of replacements to that boy that was helping me out before."

"Mm." Morri took the glass and had a sip, "They seem very studious. I'm thankful you haven't scared them away yet."

"Scared them awa-" Lordy turned to the boys, "Would I scare you guys away? I'm the definition of the perfect teache- ah nevermind it." He turned back to Morri, "You want to go to that bar later tonight? I hear they have five dollar margaritas until 12."

Morri looked up at Lordy,


Lordy took another swig from his bottle, "Then it's a date."

James was relieved when Professor Morrigan walked in, because the moment he did, the attention seemed to be off of him and Benji, and from there, they were able to focus. Lordshire and Morrigan started talking, and James quickly blocked it out and started focusing on the task in front of him. It really was simple, just a little tedious. But with Benji, they were able to get through it pretty quickly. When they finally stacked all of the prompts in order, matching up with the syllabus, and tucked it back in the folder with the syllabus on top, it had only been under an hour of time.

It was a wonder Lordshire's TA wasn't able to do it. Either the TA was incompetent, too busy to be a TA, or lazy. Either way, it didn't matter. They'd finished, and James had no plans to eat the spaghetti.

James stood up unannounced, leaving the folder on the table.

"Everything should be organized as you wanted," James said. "I have somewhere to be soon, so I'll be heading out."

It was a vague lie, but it didn't matter. Where he had to be was none of Lorshire's business, and James was not obligated to eat food that he was offered, even if it might be perceived rude not to do so.

"Thank you for the opportunity, Professor Lordshire. Let me know when you'd like my assistance again."

He looked back at Benji. He had a feeling it would be easiest to group Benji with him so Benji didn't have to come up with an excuse. After throwing his backpack over his shoulder and walking around the table, James looked back at him.

"Benji, let's go," he said, acting like they were supposed to be leaving together. They weren't, but they could split off once they were out.

Benji withheld the urge to sigh in relief.

"Thank you for the opportunity," Benji repeated. He was looking at Dr. Lordshire while he spoke, but the gratitude was very much intended for James. He grabbed his backpack off of the ground and joined James by the door.

James and Benji parted ways after they left Lordshire's office with polite nods, and James checked his watch for the time. It was getting close to 5 pm, and Carter had started partying at least... three or four hours ago? It had been a slow build of spontaneity, inviting more people over. It was a 50/50 gamble on whether or not they would be "done" yet or not. Parties in the middle of the day typically had a much shorter lifespan than those in the evening, but James wouldn't rule anything out entirely.

That said, he wanted to go home. He hoped the part was over.

He made the walk back to his building. After dropping Jerica off, he didn't want to go out driving again if he didn't have to. The library was only two blocks away, and it wasn't worth the gas money. So he took his time, passing other students on the sidewalks and eventually making it back to High Point Plaza.

He could see the porch of his apartment from below. There were lights flashing, and he could hear the music from the sidewalk.

He stared at the porch for a moment before blinking slowly, sighing, and shaking his head. Fine. Fine. He was too tired to turn right around, and he didn't want to run into Lorshire at the library again, so James walked over to a nearby bench and plopped down on the opposite end of someone else. There was a woman on her tablet with headphones in, working on something. He didn't make eye contact.

Maybe now he could finally get some reading done.

He set his backpack by his feet and pulled out the book he'd been meaning to read at the library, and flipped to where he'd stopped. After a few minutes, he was able to block out the distant pulsing from his apartment above as he was pulled into a deep focus.




Finally. Good company. Lots of drinks. A crowded apartment. And boxes and boxes of pizza.

Carter had sent out a bunch of texts (copy/pasting invites) and one by one, more people showed up until the entirety of the apartment was busy and full of life. Bo was back in the kitchen somewhere, probably cooking or something. Kayla had finally woken up and had a second wave, and after napping on Carter's shoulder, was pretty much glued to his side. There were people playing games in the living room and in the game room, and some people playing beer pong in the middle of the living room on the coffee table.

Carter was satisfied. He neared the porch doors with Kayla and took a glance back into the room to make sure all was well before they slipped out together.

The boys finished the work and thanked Lordy before they left. Together. For some reason. Sus, Lordy thought.

"They barely touched their spaghetti." Lordy looked down at the cups full of noodles.

"I'm sure they just weren't that hungry." Morri chimed in.

"Hm." Lordy turned to Morri, "Shots?"

~-~The Next Morning~-~

Morri awoke to the sound of a honking horn outside. His head was pounding as the sunlight beat down on his face. With a struggle, he sat up and rubbed his temples while the honking outside continued.

I already know what I'm about to see. Morri walked over to the window and peeked outside.

Spoiler

It was Lordy.

Spoiler

Lordy rolled down his window and peeked his head out so Morri could hear him better, "Get in loser, we're going to the Provost's office!"

Morri sighed and motioned to Lordy, five minutes!

~-~One Hour Later~-~

"I should have just made you walk." Lordy said, getting out of the drivers seat.

"Listen, hair like mine requires special attention the likes of which you would never understand." Morri told him, shutting the passenger side door.

"Your stress is one born of choice and therefore you will not have my sympathy." Lordy opened the door to the building and let Morri walk in.

"That is fine because I wasn't asking for it." Morri winked at him.

They made their way to the office of Provost Moe and knocked on the door. Within seconds it was open.

"Um, morning, Dean Lordshire." Joe nodded at him and turned to Morri, "Professor Morrigan. Please come in."

They all took their seats, Lordy and Morri across from Joe with a desk separating them.

"So, are you aware of what I'm of what I'm about to talk to you about?" Joe looked at Lordy.

"As aware as I am of this weeks winning lottery numbers, Joe." Lordy told him.

"Right," Joe tapped on the table, "Well, a professor came to me and mentioned you were in your office yesterday, um, drinking and giving alcohol to students?"

Lordy scoffed, "What a dramatic exaggeration. Do I seem like I would do such a thing? Of course I had students in my office, that's what office hours are for! If there so happen to be some alcohol laying around, I would never offer any to the kids."

Joe stared at him blankly, "Right... well, while technically speaking, you may not have given the students any alcohol, morally speakin-"

"You can morally kiss my as-"

"What Dean Lordshire means to say is," Morri cut Lordy off, "Both the students and him knew better than to do something that would cause any trouble."

Joe blinked at Morri, "... why are you here again?"

"Um," Morri thought for a second, "Research?"

"Okay," Joe stood up, "Listen. What you all do off campus is no concern of mine. So I'm going to ask you just this once to please keep anything that may look even SLIGHTLY suspicious out of the eyes of the other professors. Can you do that for me?"

"For you?" Lordy stood up and put his hand over his heart, "Anything for you, my dear. Morri! Let's go."

Morri stood up and waved to Joe, "Nice seeing you, Joseph. Tell the wife I said hi."

Before Joe could respond, Lordy and Morri made their way out the door and back into Lordy's car. It wasn't even 11 a.m. and at this point, they started think the day could only go up from here.