The next morning, Abe was once again up early. This time, though, he’d learned his lesson from the day before and wasn’t planning to go to the dining hall right away. Instead, the self proclaimed nerd gathered some supplies in his messenger bag and left his room. 

He started walking at a casual pace, the complete opposite direction from the main cluster of campus buildings. The sidewalk soon became a dirt path as his steps took him into the woods. This early, there was a sense of peace hung over the trees. Another might describe the trail Abe followed as having a mystic sense of wildness despite how close it was to the civilization of the college buildings, but he saw the order and logic of it. Nature just has a different definition of order than how humans understand so they tended to misidentify it. 

Of course that tree was the height it was and that bush grew where it did… Everything made sense with the natural flow of things in the area. Even the creatures of the forest followed the flow with the flexibility to be influenced by outside factors. 

Abe serenely walked a while until he found an appropriate spot. He sat on a large rock in a small gap in the forestation that was high enough to look over a wide range of the view over the lake. Opening his bag, the young man took out his sketchbook and pencil. It was perfect here.

He started with the basic shapes he saw as he looked out from his perch. It took him a half hour or so, but the page was well filled with circles, triangles, diamonds, ovals, and squares along with some lines that didn’t make any defined shapes yet. Then he started on redefining the rough outlines of things into more accurate versions. This one went out of the shape here. That wasn’t so angular there. There was more lines for this part… The sun had visibly changed position by the time he took a break.

Abe purposefully wiggled his fingers to reduce the slight stiffness in them from how long he’d been holding the pencil in certain positions as he drew. Last thing he needed was carpal tunnel or anything like that from all the handwriting and such he’d be doing at college because he didn’t take care of himself properly. He thought he remembered his mom backing something to help, so that was good at least.

Just as he decided to start packing up to head back for a proper break, his stomach grumbled. Food would probably be a good idea. And then he could do some light reading before working on adding more details to his sketch. He was pretty sure he would remember it well enough that he wouldn’t need to trek all the way back out here for a basic sketch.

He went to pick up his bag to put the book and drawing tool away, but noticed a beetle no bigger than his thumbnail slowly making its way across the bag flap. “Sorry, Little one.” He put his hand down in front of it to force the creature to climb onto his hand. “You should stay here where you belong so I can’t be having you hitch a ride with me on my stuff…” Once the beetle had climbed onto his hand, he delicately moved said hand to allow it to crawl off and onto the other side of the rock he was sitting on.

Abe carefully put all his supplies in his bag before getting up and walking back the way he’d come earlier. Once out of the forested area, he headed straight to the dining hall instead of dropping his things off at his dorm room. He hoped he timed things right to where it wasn’t too busy.

Luck seemed to be in his favor as there was barely anyone in the dining hall when he arrived. Oo~ and one of the food stations was make your own breakfast tacos. It sounded really good to him at the moment… A spinach wrap to start and then the eggs, carmelized onions, diced tomatoes, of course cheese, a few strips of green pepper, and was that chopped mushrooms? Abe leaves the wrap open so as to add some black pepper and salt when he gets to a table. With so many choices, he easily made his way to a seat by a window and sat down. How could anyone not appreciate such a beautiful view and campus? Especially when it was so majestic this early in the morning. It would be a shame not to enjoy it.

***

Artemis groggily started to get up, subconsciously wiping her mouth of the possible drool from the night. She grabbed her phone, a change of clothes, a fresh towel and her shower caddy without even looking at the time before quietly leaving the dorm room. Even though the sunlight coming through the windows indicated it was later in the morning, if not already afternoon, her roommate seemed to still be asleep so she didn’t want to disturb her.

Arty dragged herself the short walk down the hall to the communal women’s showers. It might have been a lazy day, but it just didn’t ever feel like her day had started until she was under the stream of water. She quickly entered the shower room and set up her stuff. On her phone she started streaming a music playlist and adjusted the volume loud enough for her to listen but not disturb others before getting undressed and entering the actual shower. 

As the warm water ran over her skin, Artemis finally started to properly wake up to the world. The doziness of the dream world slowly seemed to wash off her along with the physical griminess and sweat she’d gained in her sleep. Along with the epic orchestra music playing from her phone, she felt energized and motivated for the day. Yep, it was going to be a good day. At least what was left of it…

She stepped out of the shower and dried off before checking her phone. It was already one in the afternoon. Well, she supposed that made sense as she had stayed up late the night before watching movies. She stopped the music and got dressed. Halfway dressed, she realized she’d forgotten to grab anything for her hair. Artemis grabbed the shirt she’d changed out of earlier and used it to wrap up her hair so at least her clean shirt wouldn’t get wet in the meantime. It wasn’t like she was in a rush to go anywhere planned, anyways, so she could just let it dry naturally today. She finished getting dressed and walked back to her room.

She noticed her dirty laundry hamper was getting a little full. Maybe she should start a habit of making Sunday her day to do laundry… But first, she should probably go get some lunch. Proper meals were important, as her stomach was now reminding her. She unwrapped her hair and combed it before quickly putting it up in a ponytail. Then she grabbed her purse, making sure her keys and phone were put in it first, and headed out.

At the dining hall, she ran into some teammates and was soon distracted from any tentative plan she might have had. Thus her laundry was forgotten before she even finished her burger and fries in favor of a casual game of soccer. After everyone was done eating, they headed out to the quad and started a game. And then one game became two, which became more… Until it was already almost time for the dining hall to switch over to their dinner menu.

It was only then that Arty remembered she was going to do laundry. She left to do that with the promise to hang out more later. Some people pretended to complain and give her a hard time, but it was all in a joking tone with smiles and friendly waves goodbye.

Once she got back to her dorm, the hardest part of the process was just remembering where the residential assistant had told them the laundry room was. The machines were easy to use and it wasn’t like she hadn’t done laundry back home plenty of times. Once the load was started, she debated if she should stick close to switch it over once done or go to dinner while she waited. She decided to just wait in her room. Going to and from the dining hall wouldn’t leave her much time to eat before needing to switch it over. Plus, there was an online video series someone recommended to her that sounded interesting. She could watch that…

Once her laundry was entirely done and put away, she headed down to the dining hall. Unfortunately, it seemed to be coming up on the busy time as there was a slight line for getting in. Maybe five or so people in front of her was that short guy she’d tried to talk to yesterday. Well, if he was just getting here himself, that means he’d probably have time to talk today, right?