Chapter 21: Study Hall
D huffed and puffed what little air he could get in his lungs as he jogged. He and Nashoba had ran from the physical sciences building after their confrontation with Flynn. The last D wanted was to get into trouble and get more things added to his already full plate.
D and Nashoba had split off near the student union where Nashoba took a right to go back to his dormitory Eastman Hall while D persisted to his own dorm. D continued stopped jogging as he came up to Rookman hall, figuring that was enough cardio for the day.
He looked down and pulled up his V-band’s holo-screen only to see that Roxanne had sent him 30 messages since he’d taken off from the science building, each one more scathing then the last. He perused through them as he walked towards the front door of the hall and made his way through the doors to the elevator.
The elevator ride up was uneventful, however D did get sick of looking at Roxanne’s message which all essentially boiled down to the same thing ’Where are you?’. He put the holo-screen down and let out a sigh as the elevator brought him to floor ten.
"Where the fuck, did you go?" Was the first thing D heard from Roxanne before even being able to fully enter the room. The room smelled of scented lavender candles Roxanne had gotten from the school store that D had actually grown to like as it had a pleasant calming feeling, especially when he went to sleep.
Inside the room Roxanne sat on her bed where she’d been watching some sort of anime, before shutting it off and beginning her interrogation. Max was no where to be seen inside the room, D figured he was either showering or at Izzy’s
"I got caught up in a fight with this asshole, Nashoba helped me out though." D said as he closed the door behind him, not wanting the information he said to spread to anyone else. He noticed his bag from class was sat neatly onto his desk by Roxanne.
"And you couldn’t come back to get your own stuff?" Roxanne asked sharply, a look of over-blown contempt on her face.
"Class was already letting out, we didn’t want to be seen near where the fight happened y’know?" He said a softness in his voice that usually escaped him, he had felt truly thankful to her for grabbing his belongings but he wouldn’t let her know the full extent of his gratitude.
Before they could continue Max walked in the door behind D almost bumping him with it as it flew open. He was freshly showered and had on freshly washed clothes, and holding his old ones. He’d smelled of cheap body spray and soap and had opted for his trademark black tank top and sweatpants. D had noticed that typically when Max was freshly showered the chances of him heading off to Izzy’s was somewhere close to 100%.
"Sup dude, you headed to Izzy’s?" D asked his pal as he put out his fist for a fist bump, which Max reciprocated.
"Yah, she’s having this get together and inviting some members of her new club." Max said throwing his towel and old clothes into the red hamper that was between his bed and desk. He quickly gathered some of his things and headed out the door, but before he left he leaned back in and looked at D.
"Did you study for the test we’ve got next week?" He said as D went about relaxing on his bed, a day of peril behind him.
"Nah not yet, you?" D said as he placed his arms behind his head and looked and thought about which reality TV show he’d put on for tonight.
"Me and Izzy have been studying the past couple of days yah, you should probably get on it." D waved off Max’s words of warning with reckless abandon.
"Sure, me and Roxanne will do some studying together," he said as he looked at her also gathering up her things. D didn’t notice Max nod and slip out of the doorway.
"And where are you headed off to?" D swiveled on his bed to face her, the black soft sheets and blanket crumpling under his body.
"Library, I...just remembered I need to go." D looked her over with suspicion. Wondering if she was only going because she’d heard Max of all people was putting in time studying, and she didn’t want to be left in the dust.
"Well maybe...I could come with?" D asked tenuously, not wanting to be left alone to study by himself in their room.
"Oh no, absolutely not." She said looking over a scheduling app on her V-band. "Plus the one on one tutoring sessions, are exactly that, one on one." She began marching for the door as she also stopped in the door way in a similar way Max had.
She stood there for a moment contemplating how to help her...friend? How to help D get some studying in when an idea dawned on her.
"You should see if your teacher for your class has office hours today, maybe you could go to those." That was the last thing she said before shutting the door behind her and walking down the hall to the elevator.
D sat alone in his room scrolling through different apps on his V-band before relenting and looking to see when his teacher would have office hours. As luck would have it the professor had office hours going on from 2:00 till 5:00 that day. D looked to the clock on his wall seeing it was only 1:55 he got up reluctantly and began gathering his things deciding that he would go to his teacher’s office hours
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D was going to be late as hell to meeting with his professor, if his professor was even still going to be there when he got there.
The sound of his hurried sneakers sounded on the pavement as the relatively quiet campus began to buzz with the sounds of students free from their weekly classes at last. He drudged towards the teacher office building, lamenting that maybe his teacher wouldn’t care that D had somehow managed to show up to office hours with only 20 minutes left despite meaning to leave his dorm earlier.
’Damn it, it’s not my fault this building is impossible to find!’ He thought to himself. He creaked open the glass front door to the building and was immediately hit with a burst of ambient air conditioning. The cold laced air sent a slight shiver down his spine since he wasn’t expecting the building to be so damn cold.
The building where the teacher offices where was old as hell, D thought. It wasn’t painted black or gray like most buildings on campus, instead it had bare brick on its exterior and interior walls. It had a simple box design that D figured belied how far back the construction of the building had been.
Upon entering the building he was surprised to also note the smell of gathering dust. This building really had been ancient.
D sculked around looking for the correct office number, "119, c’mon." was what he’d been repeating to himself until he happened on room 119, it was one of the last rooms on the first floor he’d checked.
He pushed open the door and was shocked to see no one else in the room besides Scarlett Hemlock.