Abe sat happily in his room with a book almost as thick as his arm. There was just something special about physical books and the knowledge they held within. He was so excited to discover what the pages would reveal to him.

Oh, but first he needed to set a timer. It wouldn't do for him to get too drawn in and miss a meal. Or worse, his next class.

He didn't even notice the soft smile he had on as he opened it and started the first chapter. He'd been on the verge of a bad mood earlier and then Artemis had just naturally known how to turn the situation around for him. She was a really good friend.

Abe froze as the thought passed through his head while turning a page. He considered her a friend? They didn't yet know each other very well, but he supposed he did… And she'd also been able to figure out how to cheer him up with very little information about him. It was like they'd actually known each other a lot longer than they had.

He finished turning the page and continued reading. The next thing he knew, his timer was going off. The contents were just so fascinating. Who would have realized the campus had such a history?

When he reached to stop the alarm on his phone, he noticed a message from Artemis. She'd suggested the exchange of numbers so they could arrange studying time and communicate concerning the research paper so he opened the message. Instead of something about school work like he'd expected, it was about food… 

‘Don’t forget about lunch. Today's specials are fresh made pizza and a rice dish… I want to say rice with curry but haven't been able to get close to the station to be sure. We can talk project if you get here before I have to leave for my next class.’

She'd sent it ten or so minutes before so she was probably still at the dining hall. The question was, did he want to go have lunch with her? Nicky would be practically shoving him to go if he was here and knew. Of course, Nicky would push Abe into any social interaction he could and encouraged him to sleep with anyone and everyone that caught his fancy so maybe he shouldn't make decisions based on his older brother's potential opinions. On the other hand, he probably had a point about Abe needing to socialize more.

Abe sighed and started getting his bag around to head out. He'd leave if he arrived in time to see Artemis up to the universe. It wasn't like anything he did would get him there quicker at that point.

***

Arty sat at the table, casually eating her food as she listened to the conversations around her.

“Maybe the curse got them,” joked one of the upperclassmen about their missing teammates. It had barely been a full day since any of them had seen the two boys so no one was actually worried.

“What curse?” She asked curiously.

“It happens every year. One or two students will drop out without a word to anyone. Just one day interacting with others and making plans and the next… like they never existed. And then it happens again within a month or so, for the whole semester.” He took a sip of his cola. “Once in a while, one of those students will show up after a few days but they act like nothing even happened and are always completely drained the rest of their time at the school. Most people think it's ghosts attempting to take the student's life force for themselves. Or vampires is another common theory.”

“It tends to be mostly freshmen disappearing, though, so it's been dubbed the freshman curse. New blood tends to not yet know well enough what to avoid doing to not get cursed, ya know?” Another student nodded along in agreement.

“So just pay heed to us wiser folks. We've picked up a thing or two about not getting cursed over the years. And we know it works since we haven't been cursed.” From there, multiple more seasoned classmates started pitching in tips. Most were places to avoid at certain times or under specific conditions. 

Make sure to be wearing one color when near one place, don't wear anything of a different color near this other place. Don't speak to anyone you meet here, be friendly but not reveal any personal information there. Entirely avoid one place during a new moon, touch a specific rock every time you pass it no matter what…

Arty didn't know how anyone could consistently keep all of them straight. Well, she could think of one person who was probably capable of keeping track of all the different information. At least, if the little she'd seen was any indication.

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Abe walked through the dining hall doors at that very moment. One or two people she was talking with turned to see the cause of her subtle change in expression. Meanwhile, Arty waved to get his attention.

“You're inviting him to join us?”

“Yeah.” She didn't see what the big deal was. “He's shy so he hasn't made many friends yet. Our group could use some more variety to it and he's also sure to increase the average IQ of the group… You can't think that's a bad thing, right?”

Abe nervously came up to the table before the other student had a chance to respond to her.

“Hi… um…” Arty noticed him observing the lack of any empty chairs. She gestured to the empty table near her. 

“Feel free to just grab a chair from one of the other tables. There's enough room next to me for an additional chair.”

“Oh, um, thanks…” Abe awkwardly pulled over a chair beside her and set his bag on it before heading to grab food. 

“...Why him?” Arty shrugged.

“He seemed like he could use a friend. Plus, he's actually kinda really cool once you get to know him… He let me study in peace at his dorm and even brewed us some tea when Stacy had a potentially noisy guest over. His mom creates her own tea blends and the one we had was addictingly good.”

“You hung out at his dorm? I heard he doesn't have a roommate so you two were all alone…”

“It's definitely not like that… We're doing the English partner project together so it makes sense we'd get together to work on school work. Plus, we were both upfront about it not being that sort of arrangement. Just a potential friend letting another have a quiet place to work.”

“Uh-huh… if you say so.” No one paying attention seemed very convinced, but it was dropped as Abe came back.

“So, Abe, how were the books we took out earlier?”

“Riveting. Did you know the college was one of the first things ever built in the area? The surrounding area was barely developed before the founders purchased the land to start their college.” He seems much less uncomfortable while talking about what he'd found out. It was like his excitement to share what he knew overwrote his social awkwardness. He just kept going on about different facts he'd discovered to the point Arty was worried he'd forgotten completely about his meal. Finally, there seemed like a good pause to interrupt.

“...Abe, your food's getting cold.” He seemed to suddenly remember he should be eating and sheepishly started to take a bite.

“Right…” The other conversations around the table filled in the sudden silence between them while he ate. Arty participated in them but made sure to also not ignore Abe. He'd gone back to being withdrawn and shy after she'd interrupted his information sharing. After he had eaten at least a healthy amount from his plate, she decided to try rekindling the conversation between them.

“So, what time are you done with classes today? Maybe we can meet up for dinner and then work on the project immediately after.”

“My last class is scheduled until seven.” He took a sip of his juice. “So I suppose we could meet here around seven thirty if you want to meet up for dinner. I might have homework for other classes as well, though, so I'll need to put aside some time to do that as well.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. No point getting ahead in one class if it's just causing us to fall behind in the rest…” She smiled. Now she was looking forward to another evening of that delicious tea while being able to focus on her work. Not that she was being friendly with Abe just because of benefits like said study area and drink. She genuinely enjoyed interacting with him and was trying her best to not accidentally take advantage of him or his kindness. He deserved a real friend that liked him for him.