The next morning, Abe woke up and looked at his schedule. All he had for today was a basic drawing class to fulfill a fine arts credit around late morning. A truly easy day considering he’d already completed all the other classes’ work for the week. It would be beneficial once his workload picked up later in the semester, but for now it would likely be a more relaxed and boring weekend.

Well, he should probably head to the dining hall and then perhaps he could stop by the library to pick up a few books to occupy his weekend. Maybe if he went now, the dining hall would be fairly empty considering it was the weekend. Abe sluggishly got out of bed and started getting changed. 

He only had two more polos clean so he supposed he should do laundry after class today. He probably should have packed more than a week’s worth of clothes but he’d already filled Nicky’s car up so much with his books and such when coming up. There hadn’t been much room for more clothes. He’d just have to remember to bring extra when he next came back from visiting family, he guessed.

He put on some black slacks, a pale yellow polo, his satchel with basic school supplies, and a light jacket for the wisp of coolness since the sun had just recently shown itself. When he was confident he was ready, Abe left his dorm room and locked it behind him.Once he got outside and started across campus, the still sleepy atmosphere caused him to relax his pace as he walked. It was really quite beautiful this early in the morning before the grounds became crowded with students.

Abe soon found himself in front of the building that housed the dining hall. Walking in, he discovered something he hadn’t taken into account… The dining room was still closed for another half hour. Well, now what was he supposed to do while he waited? It seemed like a waste of energy to walk all the way back to the dorm. There was a little sitting area directly outside of the dining hall that he could sit and read digital books on his phone, he guessed, but it looked like a club was setting up a table in that area. 

The table had a large poster tape to the front with shooting stars drawn on it that said ‘Wishing you a wonderful year’. On the table was a simple box, some notecards and a bunch of four inch plushie white squirrels with little green shirts that had the school’s logo on it. The person setting up noticed him looking and gave him a welcoming smile. “Would you like one? All you have to do is write down what you hope for this school year using one word and put it in the box. The idea is you’ll think of it every time you look at the stuffed animal and that’ll motivate you.”

Well, there didn’t seem to be any harm in it and the squirrel did look kind of cute. He shrugged as he walked over. “Sure, why not?” Abe thought a moment as he held the pen over the notecard before finally writing the single word. ‘Knowledge’. He put it in the slot and the person handed him a fluffy white creature. Putting it in his bag, he took out his phone and sat down in a chair to the side to wait for the dining hall to open up.

Twenty minutes later, a few other early risers were also waiting around when the dining room opened up. Everyone started to file in for breakfast. Abe got up after finishing his current chapter and joined the line. It didn’t take long for him to get in and grab some food before sitting down by a window with a view of the lake outside. The thin fog over the water with the rising sun really was a pleasant sight to behold.

He didn’t even notice for a moment when someone else sat down across the table from him. It was only the sound of someone eating that caused him to look over, only to see… Nope, no, not today. The muscular blonde woman gave him a smile that seemed almost predatory.

“Hi, I’m Artemis. I’ve seen you around and wanted to talk, but I guess we just kept missing each other…” Abe felt like a rabbit trapped by a large dog.

“Sorry.” He picked up his, thankfully, now almost empty tray and tried to politely as possible excuse himself. “I have a class I need to get to.” He still had easily a half hour until his class, but she didn’t need to know that. He just hoped she didn’t try to stop him or caught him in the lie. 

She just gave him another smile and let him leave. “Maybe some other time, then.” Abe didn’t dare to reply as he rushed out. 

***

Artemis frowned sadly as the boy left. She’d finally gotten the chance to talk and he’d had to leave before she even had the chance to get around to apologizing for what had happened that other day. Not that she thought she should be responsible for her teammates’ actions but it could have at least been a good conversation start, she thought. She hadn’t even gotten his name yet.

Sighing, she started eating her food. Maybe next time she could figure out a way to time things better. He had obviously been almost done eating so it would make sense he would be leaving soon. How had she not noticed that when going to join him? Simply, she’d just been excited to not miss the chance to finally talk with him. She had noticed they shared a few classes but it was a case of either her having to rush to her next classes or one of the guys pulling her away for some hang out thing. Or, the one time those didn’t happen, the studious looking guy was the one rushing out after class.

Picking at her eggs, she noticed some of the woodsmen team coming in and she waved them over. Their energy would quickly distract her from the feelings of failing the supposedly simple thing of talking with that one guy. There would be other chances. For now, she had an athletic sort of chaos to surround herself with. It was her favorite kind of energy whenever she felt down and she soon forgot about the other thing at least for now.

At some point, a few other teammates came in with these adorable little snow white squirrel plushies. Artemis just had to ask where they got them. “Oh, didn’t you notice the table when coming into the dining hall?” She did now remember a small crowd near the doors to the dining room when she was walking in. It had been hard to tell what they were all crowding around and she’d been hungry so she just went in without seeing. “I don’t know which club set it up but they’re giving them out to everyone who writes what they want for the semester using just one word. It’s really easy.” The specific athlete looked quite proud of himself, which made Artemis think it was actually a touch on the hard side for him to decide on a single word to describe what he wanted.

If the table was still there when she finished with breakfast, maybe she could also get a stuffed animal. But what word should she use to encompass her wish for this upcoming semester? She definitely wanted to try new experiences and get to meet plenty of new and exciting people… But that was definitely more than a single word…

She considered words passively as they ate and talked around the table. By the time she finished and went to leave, the crowd around the table outside had mostly dispersed. Arty walked up to the table, having decided on a one word answer and wrote it down. ‘Adventure’.  The person gave her a knowing smile as she put the folded notecard into the box and they handed the squirrel to her. 

“I foresee your wish coming true in unexpected ways, Miss. Good luck on your semester.” Before she could respond, they turned to another student to hand them a stuffed animal as well. A touch mystified, Artemis turned to join the others in her group. The person’s words weren’t anything too unusual, but it gave her an odd feeling all the same. As if the person was telling her fortune or prophesying a likely future.

She tried to shake off the feeling as the group headed out of the building and towards the woods where their practice field was located. With no classes, today would be a perfect day to get in some extra practice before things started to get busy. She wanted to be decent enough that people couldn’t tell she was a newbie by the time their first meet came around in a month or so.