I woke up in a strange and unfamiliar place. I wasn’t in the black car anymore with my “too cool” shades-wearing bodyguard. I was in a room with a bunk bed, a desk, two bean bag chairs, and a nightstand. There was also an open door that I saw led to a bathroom. This must be my dorm. I assumed that someone had carried me to my dorm because I was asleep, but carrying an 18-year-old high school graduate seemed like a weird thing for someone to do. You’d think waking them up would be the only solution, not picking me up like an 8-year-old who fell asleep in the car. I’ve always been a horribly light sleeper, so it was very strange that I stayed asleep until right now. I must’ve been really, really tired. Scanning the room, I realized I didn’t see any of my belongings. I had brought a suitcase and a backpack with clothing and necessities, but they were nowhere to be seen. Also, now that I thought about it, a bunk bed would insinuate that I had a roommate, and they weren’t here either. I suddenly worried that I was late for the entrance ceremony and looked at my watch, but my watch wasn’t there. I was sure that I had brought it. Rather than dwell on that thought, I looked around to try and find a clock somewhere around the room. On the wall, there was a clock that showed that it was a couple minutes after ten in the morning. The ceremony was at nine so I was more than late, it was likely already over. I stood up and walked towards the only exit in the room, realizing now that it was weird that there were no windows. What if there was a fire?
“I thought this place was supposed to be state of the art,” I mumbled under my breath.
Heading towards the door I could see that there was a note on the nightstand.
“Come to the entrance hall when you wake up.”
There was no signature. It almost seemed ominous. Everyone’s waiting for me? I hate being the center of attention. I really don’t want to walk in there and have everyone look at me and start talking to me about how late I was. Especially now that it’s more than an hour after the event had started. It should be over though, so there’s no way they’re still waiting for me, but this is my only lead, so I guess I’ll have to follow up on it. I walked out of the room into a hallway that seemed to go on forever. I looked at my dorm room’s door and a sign read: Ryder and Marin. I assumed that must be the name of my roommate.
“Weird name for a dude,” I said out loud to myself. “Must be a tough life to live.”
Obviously not tough enough considering that they’ve been invited as one of the best and brightest of U.S. high school graduates. I walked down the hallway seeing a lot more similar doors that matched my own. Eight total to be exact, which means I can assume there are sixteen students in this hallway. I kept walking down the hall and saw a directory sign posted on the wall.
<— Cafeteria, Gym
You are here — Dorms
Entrance Hall —>
Thank goodness the sign was pretty straightforward. The last thing I needed right now was one of those overly confusing directories like you see in malls. I kept walking down the hall towards the entrance hall and saw a massive black door. It was one of those doors that was actually two doors connected by a seam in the middle. I thought I heard the murmur of voices from behind the door as I got closer to it. Now I was really nervous. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to see new people right now, but there was no turning back. I still had to get over the hurdle of whether or not this was a “push” or “pull” door though. I’m sure there is a way to tell, but it always feels like the second you figure out a pattern, you then smash your face into a door in front of a crowd of people. Rather than overthinking it, I decided to just pull and hope.
Miraculously, the door opened. The happiness I felt by guessing correctly in the “push” and “pull” dilemma was immediately dashed once I saw a group of people around my age looking over at me as I slowly crept in. I counted quickly in my head and there were fifteen people total in this room. A tall man was the first to speak.
“Well, look who finally decided to join the rest of us,” the man said with his arms crossed.
The man had to be over six feet tall. He was quite handsome too. He was clean cut with a chiseled jaw, green eyes, and light brown skin. His hair was short, clean cut and pitch black. He was wearing a gray suit and looked very formal. He seemed like the “born leader” type.
“I guess that means we’re all here,” he said while walking towards me.
“Come join us. We’ve got a little bit of a problem, and we could use all the perspectives we can gather.”
He put his hand on my shoulder and ushered me towards the others.
“What kind of problem?” I said while avoiding eye contact.
“We’re not sure where we are or how we got here is the issue. It’s safe to say that this is not how a university would welcome its guests.”
He was now facing away from me looking up at the ceiling.
“It’s quite the predicament,” he said.
“Yeah, I mean I just woke up about five minutes ago and I had no clue what was going on. I don’t even remember getting to my room,” I said, staring at my shoes.
“We all went through the same circumstances. Everyone had a note telling them to come here and I assume that you did too. I was the first one here, but everyone started trickling in after not too long. You’re the last one we were expecting. I’m Keon by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ryder.”
“Likewise. It might not be a bad idea for you to meet the rest of us before we get down to brass tacks. It’s a good idea for us to share our names and strengths with each other just in case this situation becomes worse than it already is. I was invited to FFU because of my negotiating skills.”
He seemed rather proud when he mentioned that.
“Now, go talk to the others. It seems like we have all the time in the world seeing as how we’re the only people here after all,” Keon said while gesturing towards the others.
It was fair to say that since he spoke for the rest of them, he must’ve instituted himself as the leader of our little group. Being a master negotiator must have its perks. There’s nothing worse than having to introduce yourself to a bunch of strangers and I had to do it fourteen times. I must’ve gotten here a lot later than the rest of them considering how they seem to not be introducing themselves to each other right now, although a few of them seemed to be making light conversation with one another. Before I could make a move, a very pretty girl walked right up to me. She was stereotypically beautiful like what you imagine in your head when you think of an untouchable popular girl. Blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and fair skin. She looked delicate even though she was about my height. I am only 5’6, so I guess that checks out. I often find it hard to make and keep eye contact with people, but, with her, it was like I couldn’t break her gaze.
“Hey roomie! I was wondering when you’d show up. I thought about trying to wake you up but you were sleeping so peacefully I decided to let you be. I’m Marin.”
She was smiling while she was talking but I couldn’t focus on that as she just gave me a lot of crucial information.
“Wait…you’re Marin? You’re my roommate?! This is a lot to take in.”
“You don’t have to act so excited!” She was visibly pouting. “Yeah, apparently all the dorm rooms are co-ed. Which is really strange, but I’m a forward-thinking person, so as long as we set some clear boundaries, I don’t think we’ll have any issues.”
This felt like I was living every young man’s dream, being roommates with a beautiful girl in college. And not only that, but she isn’t weirded out by the idea! My mind then goes back to the fact that the situation isn’t that of a love-filled college life but a confusing – Where the hell am I? – life. Now back in reality, I wipe the slight smirk off my face.
“So, how did you get invited into the school?! What’s your special talent?!”
She was visibly excited.
“Oh. Um…I’m actually the Lucky Student this year. I wouldn’t say I have any special talent.”
Everyone was listening to our conversation intently, and they all seemed to have a pretty strong reaction to my statement. The only person whose expression didn’t change was Marin. In fact, she seemed slightly more excited like she already knew my answer and just wanted me to say it.
“H-hey that’s okay!”
I must have seemed visibly upset because it seemed like she was trying to console me.
“We’re all equals now anyway in this weird place, so you don’t need to worry about not fitting in.”
She then took me off to the side with a hand around my shoulder.
“Y’know… A lot of these guys are Grade-A weirdos, so I’m happy to know that there is someone who comes from a more normal place,” she whispered to me.
She then led me back to the rest of the group. They all seemed curious about what we were talking about.
“Anyway, I’m sure you’re curious about what my special talent is, so I’ll tell you! I'm the Ultimate Baker!”
She struck a weird pose when she said this. Not seeming to have any embarrassment of me and the others seeing her do this.
“You should introduce yourself to the others as well. We’ll have more time to talk later,” she said, waving while walking away towards the crowd.
Next an extremely muscular man walked up to me. His shirt was barely containing his manliness. Another person who made me look quite ugly by comparison. I don’t consider myself ugly but being short and normal looking probably makes me a five and a half out of ten at best. This guy was even more chiseled than Keon and rather than looking distinguished, he looked like a generic frat boy who would spin me around above his head with one hand for fun. He was slightly shorter than Keon but definitely looked like he would eat him for breakfast. He had the same brown hair and brown eyes combination that me and most of the U.S. Caucasian population had.
“Hey man it’s nice to meet you! Not gonna lie, I’m kinda freaked out by this whole situation so I’ll make this quick for the both of us. I’m Conrad and I was invited here as the Ultimate Contractor.”
His speech made him seem personable albeit slightly cowardly, due to his obvious uncomfortability with the situation. Not that he could be blamed for that.
“I heard that you were the Lucky Student this year. It’d probably be best if you stuck with the rest of us and let us figure this situation out so we can all get out of here. Just make sure to not slow us down and we’ll get along just fine.”
He looked at me almost in a fatherly way when he said that.
I guess being the Lucky Student does come with a bit of special treatment for better or for worse. Maybe I should’ve just made up a special talent that no one could refute. It’s definitely too late now though. Without saying anything more, Conrad walked back to the others.
Another man walked up to me now seeing that it was his turn. I still had a lot of introductions to go. I haven’t had many opportunities to talk so far, but it’s not like I’m very good at that anyway so maybe it’s not so bad. This guy was the only other man in the room who was shorter than me. He had the textbook definition of a baby face and had light blonde hair with brown eyes. He looked frail, but the look on his face made him seem anything but.
“Hey, kid. I’m Cyrus. I am declining to tell you my special talent no matter how much you or the others beg. We cannot be sure this situation is safe and it's better to keep some things secret. After all, there is no way to be sure that you or one of the others is not behind this situation.”
He had a lifeless look in his eyes when he spoke, and left without letting me contribute to the conversation.
Something about someone smaller than you calling you “kid” always pissed me off, but I’m not the type to say or do anything about that. Cyrus did have a point though. About one of us being behind it. I guess there really isn’t a way to prove that someone here wasn’t. That’s a pretty scary thought though. The fact that someone could capture the best and brightest who were invited to go to the best college in the country so easily and trap us here, definitely means they must not be easy people to oppose. Now two girls walked up to me. It was easy to see that they must have known each other.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Nice to meet you,” they said in unison. They looked very much alike, so it was slightly creepy.
They both had blue hair, with one having a ponytail and the other having her hair straight down. They also both had gray eyes, were the same height (a few inches shorter than me), had clear porcelain skin, and were very cute.
“I’m Maya!” shouted the girl with her hair straight down.
“And I’m Mia…” said the other girl in a quiet, almost depressing tone.
“We’re twins in case you couldn’t tell already! I know critical thinking skills aren’t taught in public schools though so I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t,” Maya exclaimed mockingly.
Not only was she loud but she also gave off a shitty first impression. These people are really all going to treat me like a helpless pet, aren’t they?
“Mia and I are always together! We both got invited to FFU for our amazing video game programming skills! I write the stories, do the art, and the music, but Mia is in charge of the code! It feels good to be recognized for our brilliance, so I feel sorry for you that you had to get here the cheapest, dumbest way possible-”
Before she could continue Mia took her arm and dragged her off towards the others. Maya definitely doesn’t seem to hold back how she feels to say the least. Next was a girl with a very peculiar style. She had long orange hair, orange eyes, a white t-shirt with an orange on it, and orange shorts. She was slightly taller than me and had freckled pale white skin. She kind of reminded me of the Wendy’s girl only with a lot more orange going on.
“Hi! I believe I heard that your name was Ryder? I’m Amber. I got invited here as an arborist. I’ve always loved trees, so it was pretty crazy to get the call that they wanted me to study arboriculture at one of the top universities in the world. I always thought being an arborist was a pretty thankless job. Really makes you curious about how they find people to invite, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s a good point. Hopefully, it’s not some super invasive surveillance or something. I’d really prefer to keep pretending like I have privacy,” I said.
Amber giggled.
“Yeah, I sure hope not. Anyway, it was nice to meet you!”
“You too!” I said as she walked away.
Regardless of her sense of style, she seemed to be one of the more normal people I’ve met so far. I even made her laugh! Every dog has his day, I guess. Meeting all these people is exhausting. I haven’t had to interact with this many strangers in a single day since the first day of my freshman year. Another girl came up to me while I was deep in thought. I wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there, but she didn’t look super happy.
“Hellooooooo,” she said while waving her hand in my face.
She was beautiful in a very refined and elegant way. I’m no expert on makeup, but I could tell that she had a lot on. Not in a way where it looked caked on, but in a way where it looked like she knew exactly how to elevate all of her facial features using it. She was quite a bit taller than me, probably by about three or four inches. She had long silver hair and gray eyes. You’d think with this combo she’d look like an old woman, but she wore it in a way that made her look young and futuristic rather than old and prehistoric. It probably helped that she had no wrinkles to be seen.
“Anybody in there?” she said while knocking lightly on my head.
“Oh, yeah! Sorry. I zoned out for a second,” I said, feeling my face turning red.
“Well, anyway, I’m Sienna and I got invited to study cosmetology. Nice to meet you.”
She sounded rather cold when she spoke and turned around and walked away from me before she even finished talking. She probably wanted to get this show on the road and didn’t like that we had to catch me up to speed. I guess I can’t blame her.
Now a very strange man walked by me and if I had one guess on who the traitor was, if there was one, it was this guy. There’s no way someone this dirty could’ve been invited to the best university in the country. He wore a heavily stained white dress shirt with a ripped sleeve that was partly tucked into his hole-ridden black dress pants. Luckily none of the holes showed off anything too risqué. He was maybe a couple inches taller than me and had a unibrow above his dark brown eyes that for some reason I couldn’t stop looking at. His hair was short and black.
“Hey buddy. I’m Robert, but you can call me Robbie.”
He sidled up to me and put an arm around my shoulder. He smelled horrible.
“I know I might not look like much, but would you believe me if I said I was a master thief? I had never been caught, but somehow this stupid university had proof of my biggest heist I pulled last year, so it was either enroll or they were gonna take me down for grand larceny. It was an easy choice.”
“I didn’t know thievery was a program at this university…” I said, trying to face away from him.
“I’m not sure what their game plan is myself, but I’ll be dead in the ground before I take the wrap for something I did!”
He had a crazed look in his eye.
“Uhhhhh…sure man.”
Finally, out of his grip, I put some distance between us.
“Anyway, I’ll see you around kid! Stay out of trouble!”
He then waved and walked away.
People sure love to talk down to me here. There have officially been more weird people than normal people so far, so let’s see where the trend goes now.
The next guy to walk up to me wasn’t much of a looker either. Looks like I’m moving up the totem pole slowly but surely. He had a smug look on his face as he was walking up to me. He had dark brown hair put into a messy ponytail, emerald, green eyes, and was pretty overweight.
“I’m Atticus. I was invited due to my supreme intellect. I have a great knowledge about all facts and there is no one who can beat me at a quiz game, so don’t even try.”
Atticus was a very imposing figure. He was very tall and very large. He also proclaimed himself as being extremely intelligent, so whether or not my dad’s quote will reign true remains to be seen. Being invited to this school definitely makes it seem like there might be some truth to what he said.
“Now, just by looking at you, I can tell you went to public school your whole life, and never thought you were going to be anybody special because you weren’t. This opportunity was given to you on a silver platter and once we get out of here, you better not waste it and make the rest of us look bad. Luck is a fickle thing, don’t take it for granted.”
While Atticus did come off as a dick and humility was definitely not one of his strong suits, he did have a point. I still don’t believe luck had a part in this though. I mean, look where we are! There’s no way this building with no windows or views of the outside world is FFU. I’d say that makes us all pretty unlucky.
Atticus was another one of the many people here who just said their piece, didn’t give me a chance to speak, and then left. Another tally for the “weirdos” column. I can see why Marin was relieved to see me now, because I may not be much, but I am more normal than most of these people. Next up was another extremely fit man reminiscent of Conrad but without the sheer mass that he had. He was fit in a healthy looking way rather than looking like he was one needle away from popping. He had medium length purple hair that was gelled in a quiff hairstyle. I am not gay, but he was definitely the hottest looking guy here in my opinion. Looking at him definitely wasn’t good for my self-esteem which was finally slowly climbing due to the last two I just met. He was also very tall but not as tall as Keon or Atticus. He had tan skin and dark blue eyes that I’d almost describe as indigo. Indigo is one of those colors that never really comes to mind even though it’s one of the main colors of the rainbow. I can never tell the difference between dark blue, indigo and purple though, so it was hard to put an accurate label on his eye color. He got really close to me and started talking to me quietly seemingly so the others wouldn’t hear.
“Hey dude, what’s with all these hot chicks huh? It’s crazy for there to be so many beautiful women in one place. Don’t even get me started on the men. Keon and Conrad sure are lookers too, huh? As a guy who plays for both teams this is quite the place to be.”
He had a sparkle in his eyes when talking. This guy definitely seemed to have a one-track mind.
“Y-yeah, it is kinda crazy. I think the theory that good looking people usually succeed more is definitely being proven here,” I said not really knowing what else to add.
“The name’s Miles, and I know I should be serious in a situation like this but all I see are opportunities y’know what I mean? Not like my talent of being a personal trainer is going to help much with getting us out of here. I’ve never been one for critical thinking. I’ll tell you what though, being a personal trainer has a lot of perks when it comes to meeting beautiful people or molding those with huge potential into the best possible version of themselves! I originally got into this line of work for reasons you can probably understand without me telling you, but seeing people finally be happy with themselves has definitely become my favorite part.”
Man, this guy could sure talk a lot. He seemed like a genuine guy though, and other than the obvious horniness for the men and women here he was displaying in this weird situation, he seemed dependable for some reason.
“If this situation turns into a longer stay, we should be each other’s wingman! I saw the way you were looking at Marin dude. I can help you guys' hurry things along as long as I know you’re gonna have my back too.“
He gave me a big smile and a thumbs up.
“Anyway, we can have that conversation in more depth later…I should stop talking your ear off because everyone is starting to look at me funny. Catch you later, bro!”
Miles definitely probably belongs in the “weird” column as well, but he also seemed like a good guy who just thought with the head down south a little too much. He walked away and looked like he was trying to hit on both Conrad and Sienna simultaneously. They didn’t seem to care much for it. The next person was a woman who also looked really fit. She definitely looked like the strongest looking girl in the group and absolutely could wear me like a hat. She was tall, had a very pretty face, and her body looked very firm and toned. She definitely seemed to care about fitness. Maybe her and Miles would get along?
“H-hi…” she said, blushing, “I-I’m Sabrina, and…I’m okay at softball I guess.”
I was immediately taken aback because I figured it was my job to be the uncomfortable one in these conversations, but Sarbrina couldn’t make eye contact with me, and I couldn’t look at her either. We looked like a couple at a middle school dance.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ryder. I’m happy to be working with you.”
I used my best customer service voice that I’ve been cultivating over these last couple years.
She nodded and walked away. Just for a split second through her light brown hair I could see that she had two different colored eyes. One blue and one brown. I always thought heterochromia was so cool. I wonder if it affects how she sees the ball? She seemed really shy, and it was weird that I was finally the one with the most words spoken in one of these introductions. I saw her in the background during some of the other introductions and she didn’t give off the vibes of a nervous person, so I wonder what her deal is. I’ll put her in the “maybe” column for weirdness. It’s not fair to just say someone is weird because they might be shy. I’ve dealt with that enough during my own life.
The final man who I haven’t met came over to me and looked very, very scared. He was twitching all over the place and seemed like he might have a heart attack while standing in front of me. He had snow white hair that was short but not quite a buzz cut, and dull gray eyes that on him seemed lifeless contrary to his obviously life-filled, twitchy body. One of the shorter men here, he was an inch or two taller than me and looked very scrawny and weak.
“I-I’ll make t-this quick because I-I want to get out of here p-pronto.”
He could barely get his words out through his chattering teeth. He looked like he was freezing cold and terrified at the same time.
“L-Louis is what you c-can call me. I-I’m an electrician. N-now I’ll be g-going.”
He shuffled away seemingly consoling himself with his arms wrapped around his chest.
Another tally for the “weird” column obviously. I feel for him with that stutter, because I used to have a pretty bad one, but the vibes with him are not immaculate. Talking to him was brief, but it felt much longer. Now we were down to the final two people, and they were both relatively normal looking girls, so let’s see how this goes. One walked up to me and eyed me from top to bottom.
“You definitely don’t look like much.” she said.
She looked to be of Hispanic descent and had long black hair put into pigtails. Her eyes were very dark brown, almost black, and they gave off a supercilious energy. She was an inch shorter than me maybe and was very attractive and very curvy.
“What a first impression to make…” I said, sounding kind of irritated.
“Sorry dude, I’ve got no filter. I call ‘em like I see ‘em. And I don’t see much to get excited about.”
“It’s not like this is a job interview, why do you care how I look?” I said.
It wasn’t like me to put up a fight like this, but something about the way she was looking at me made me reject my previous role. Also, there was probably a buildup of frustration from some of my previous conversations. She gave me a little smile.
“Maybe you’ve got a point. A small one. I was wondering when you’d finally come out of your shell. I was sick of seeing your one-sided conversations. It looks like the little mouse has some fangs in there somewhere,” she said. “My name is Carmen, and I got invited for my study of the world’s languages. I can speak over 30 languages and I was hoping to have an opportunity at FFU to learn even more, but this situation has put a wrench in those plans. So, I know you’re the Lucky Student this year, but I hope you can be of some use. See you around.”
She walked away and I had to do my absolute best to not stare at her assets while she did, but I’m a weak man. She probably doesn’t belong in the weird column, but in my head, I put her in there anyway out of spite. She definitely didn’t seem very pleasant and was pretty condescending, but there was something I saw when talking with her that made it seem like she was a little more complicated than that.
The last person I have yet to meet finally had their turn and they were one of the few normal looking people here. No weird hair color, no weird outfit, or weird body language while walking over to me. Maybe the “normal" club would gain another member. She had brown hair (about the same shade as my own), pink eyes, and wore black wire frame glasses along with a black undershirt surrounded by a moss green sweater jacket.
“Hey, I’m Emma. I was invited because of my mathematics skills. I’ve always loved math, and I was just so happy to be given an opportunity to go to FFU so I could try and solve the Millenium Prize Problems.”
She spoke passionately and didn’t seem to have any weird quirks other than her love for math and slight aloofness.
“What are the Millenium Prize Problems?” I said, scared of if I’d even understand what she was about to say.
“They are these unsolved math problems that the Clay Mathematics Institute set $1 million bounties on for someone to solve them. There are still six that haven’t been solved and I want to solve the rest.”
There was a fire in her eyes when she spoke.
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing. I guess it’s because I’m not really much of a math guy though.”
“Math is everything! It’s the building block of our entire world, no, our entire universe! Don’t worry though, if you have any difficult math problems, you can just ask me. I’ve spent my whole life studying math and I’d be happy to share my perspectives with you all while we’re here. It was nice to meet you. I hope we can work together to figure this all out.”
She gave me a slight smile.
“Thanks. I’ll make sure to remember that,” I said.
It was a breath of fresh air to meet someone nice and normal to end the introductions. Hopefully, I didn’t come off as a weirdo. I always second guess the things I say to people I like but don’t know super well.