“Hey! Jasper!”

Jasper turned around, hearing a voice he wasn’t accustomed to being frequent friends with. Still, someone he knew— Cody from the combat specialization caught up to him, panting at the busy college intersection. At least the walkway was spacious enough for them to talk without getting middle-fingered or side-eyed, so Jasper stopped.

“I wanted to ask if you wanted to partner up for the Entity Studies project?” Cody asked. “I feel like I don’t get to work with anyone in the incantation specialization much.”

“That’s just because it’s our first year. I hear there’ll be loads of cross-program studies in the fall.” Jasper said.

The spring semester had just started and the air held a crisp winter cool. Cody had a beanie atop his blonde wavy hair, and a few streaks of red on his cheeks that were always present, even when it wasn’t cold. Though the red on the tip of his nose was a new addition.

“A head start wouldn’t… hurt…” Cody trailed.

“Oh, yes!” Jasper startled himself. “I just pulled an ‘answer one part of what you said but not both parts.’ Please hold me accountable if I ever do that again, I hate when Bryan does it! Yes, we can partner up. I have enough solo projects as is.”

For context, Bryan was an annoying straight guy in their class, Jasper's specialization. Cody didn’t know how annoying that man was.

Cody laughed. “Are you still mad at him for releasing that spider queen last semester?”

“Noooo…” Jasper said. “Bitter, maybe. But I don’t hold grudges! Except for this morning when he made me late for class, yesterday when he messed up a spell and burned my left arm-hair off,” Jasper held up his arm and pulled the sleeve down to show its unintended smoothness, “and last week when he melted my headphones and spilled my drink and—”

“I have a feeling you’ll never stop.” Cody interrupted, which wasn’t terrible because he was also laughing.

“Sorry. Straight people, right? No offense.” 

Cody shrugged. “None taken. So are you the type to get a head start on projects, or do you wanna wait until spring break to even think about ours?”

“Oh. Spring break. Unless one of us gets inspired.”

“Might happen. I like learning where…” Cody zoned off to the side as people passed on either side of them, wrapped up in their own class destinations and worlds. “To kill things…” Cody monotonously added, then snapped his head back. “Sorry. That was—”

“Weird?” Jasper interjected. “But I also don’t blame you for it. Knowing where to stab is like, y’all’s thing. And the atmospheric energy has been weird lately, I’ve zoned out a few times. Anyway, should we be talking about this stuff so freely around… normal students?”

Cody smiled. “You mean students who aren’t part of our Dungeons & Dragons campaign?”

Jasper widened his eyes. “That’s a fantastic excuse!” He then looked Cody up and down. “But you look a little too… windswept to be a D&D player. Me on the other hand? Gay nerd, all over.”

“Windswept?” Cody asked. “You flirting, Jasper?”

“In your wildest of dreams.” Jasper said. “I have no problem finding men! They just annoy me so I don’t go looking.”

“And you can’t talk about entity hunting with a partner until you’re married.” Cody sighed.

Jasper agreed, then realized something. “Were you going in the same direction I was? We could like, walk and talk instead of standing here.”

Cody responded by stepping forward. “Just don’t leave me in the dust. I’ve seen how urgently you walk.”

“The quicker I get to my destination, the earlier I can relax.” Jasper said, holding himself back to Cody’s pace. Cody was three inches taller but four inches slower. Gay walk speed math.

“You mean relax by sitting on the floor when there are like, seven empty chairs?”

“Oh, we’re throwing stereotypes today.” Jasper said. “Not in my Gen-Eds! And what are you, like, stalking me?”

“You, Maria and Josephine. You all do it.” Cody retorted.

“’Cause we’re all gay.” Jasper said.

Cody deadpanned to him. “Oh, we’re throwing stereotypes—”

“I get it, I get it! Fine. The sitting weird one is actually in the rulebook.”

“Rulebook? Can I read it?”

“Why, are you trying to become one of us?”

“Jasper, you are trying to flirt with me.” Cody taunted.

Jasper began walking away faster, nearing his building. “Sorry! I can’t hear you over your massively overconfident male ego! We’ll circle back to the project later, I’m off to algebra!”

Jasper practically echoed himself off, seeing a small wave from Cody as he turned off toward the library.

Jasper hated algebra. He was in an ok mood, though. He hadn’t realized Cody would be so easy to talk to one-on-one. As a group, their class seemed to have plenty of fun. But Cody was right— the combat and incantation specializations hadn’t had much curriculum crossover yet. Entity Studies was the only class they had together in the spring semester.

Jasper lucked out having English with Maria. He was also thankful to have algebra with Josephine and Jorge.

Last semester he had to deal with Bryan and Claire (annoying straight couple) in government class. Which meant he had to fit a lot of information and perspective into their privileged little brains.

Jasper walked into Curt Hall where his algebra class was, heat from inside the building welcoming him in. But it wasn’t exactly a welcoming sight. Jasper froze in the doorway.

“Oh, not now.” he drawled.