Chapter Text
It was back to school, and much to your reluctance, you heeded the blare of the alarm, got dressed, and headed out, gnawing on apple mindlessly. You happened to arrive much too early, finding the classroom much sooner than expected and upon viewing the giant screen for the projector suspended over the teacher's desk, you opted for middle seating to avoid craning your neck. Most of your classes were difficult and time consuming thanks to your choice in a Bachelor's of Science, so you chose elective classes like Food Science and World Literature to balance out your schedule.
Booting up your laptop, you tracked Book-In-Your-Face news, scanning for anything new involving human and monster rights. Civilization in general got a lot more interesting once the self professed “monsters” broke out from underground and had simply asserted themselves into society and every day life. About a year ago, there were even monsters attending universities and human schools, and even though there were supposed to be a few monsters attending your university the campus was so large you hadn't seen heads or tails of them yet.
Unsurprisingly there were advocates of pushing monsters out, but considering the fact that humans have long lost any abilities even remotely resembling magic, there wasn't much they could do legally. In reality, monsters simply added to the growing list of ethnic and minority groups that suffered from hate crimes. You for one, just desperately needed to see a monster. Like, any monster. Your creative impulses had been suffocating under the constant flow of work study and acadamia and the great variety of physical appearances in the monster race was just too damn cool to ignore. That being said, you probably had to make your observations on the down low. You didn't need to offend anyone, especially given your tendency to put your foot in your mouth on occasion.
As classmates shuffled in, you sighed and clicked off your social account, seeing nothing particularly new or interesting. You were about to close down your laptop when someone literally yelling marched in jauntily.
“IS THIS FOOD SCIENCE 101-201 FOR ALICE LEVAN?!!”
Your first thought was that someone was playing a dumb joke, because the person in question appeared to be an anatomy class skeleton??? In a superhero costume of some sort? The only thing about this that seemed remotely reasonable fashion was the ragged scarf turned cape wrapped around the neck. As you watched your new classmates glance to each other uneasily, the skeleton essentially bounced it's (his?) way to the very front of the classroom. You were suddenly very aware that this was actually a monster, and no one had even responded to his question.
“Uh-um, I think this is it. I'm pretty sure your section number doesn't really matter, except for the 'lab' portion,” you, called to him, wiggling your fingers in air quotes for lab, since it was just a kitchen.
The skeleton literally just stepped over the front seats to settle in the row right in front of you. You considered yourself to be pretty tall, but the monster kinda looked like someone just stretched him out, with the “armor” making him look more buff than he really was. You know, considering he was just bones.
“GREETINGS NEW CLASSMATE I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! WHAT IS YOUR NAME, HUMAN?”
You cringed at the sheer volume of his voice, and seeing him grin so broadly at you, made you worried that you made a mistake speaking up. Despite having read the news about monsters online, your new encounter made you realize that you had no idea about what differences there were between monsters and humans, socially. You wanted to ask him to lower his voice, but he might get offended? Nonetheless you introduced yourself, and after a moment's hesitation, asked him if it was possible to lower the volume of his voice.
“IT'S POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO MANY THINGS!! THANK YOU FOR ASKING!”
You laughed a little sheepishly at that. It seems you walked right into that one.
Fortunately, once the teacher arrived and started class, Papyrus turned around, attentively scrawling away everything she said. Only half listening yourself, you studied him a little, and then shrugged to yourself. He wasn't quite what you were thinking of when you decided you wanted to draw a monster, but at least you didn't make him mad or hurt his feelings. Class almost ended uneventfully, except he jogged up to you suddenly on your way out to the buses.
Fidgeting, he almost looked embarrassed. “SAY, WOULD YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SOME OF THE CHEMISTRY THAT WAS MENTIONED? I'D ASK MY BROTHER, BUT HE'S LAZY AND HE'LL MAKE AWFUL PUNS THE WHOLE TIME! I'M AFRAID WE'LL GET OFF TRACK. PLUS, HE HAS THIS AWFUL TENDENCY TO PRANK PEOPLE THROUGH SPACE AND TIME WHEN YOU GO INTO HIS ROOM.”
You cock your head at this, “Wha- how?!”
“I DON'T REALLY KNOW?!! IT JUST USUALLY INVOLVES A TREADMILL AND A SELF SUSTAINING TRASH TORNADO,” he huffed, clearly exasperated with the situation.
You struggle to contain your confusion, until the image of trash arcing around some guy's bedroom flitted through your mind. The imagery got you giggling, and despite his severe look, you finally say “I... don't even know how to respond to that. But back to your question, I've gotten through general and organic chemistry so I think I'll be able to help you. Do you have a Book-In-Your-Face?”
He shook his skull, “DO I NEED ONE?”
You waved it off, and pulled out your cell. “No, it's okay, I need to remember to check my phone more often anyway. Let's work on class assignments somewhere on campus, later?”
He nodded enthusiastically and you exchanged numbers. Heading off to your next class, the image of a self sustaining tornado popped back into your head and sent you through another fit of laughter. Some of the people around you stopped to give you odd looks. Despite your previous misgivings, it was kind of fun to talk to him once you figured out he wasn't going to try to talk to you during class time. You highly doubted “whispering” with him would actually be sneaky. Then you sighed, seeing the next class in your schedule. The rest of the day is probably going to be really boring now.