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One class of their first day down, now two to go. Only two hours or so before Chara would be given the grace of a lunch break—which they would certainly be spending in the most secluded, out-of-sight corner they could find. High school was one thing, but college was an entire other ordeal. There were just so many more people. It was the opposite of the kind of place Chara would want to be.
The school they picked was nothing particularly special. The tuition was reasonable enough—at least as reasonable as tuition in this damned country could be. The campus was large and sprawling to accommodate the massive student body, and many buildings were in need of some upkeep. The dorm rooms were unassuming and barely large enough for the two freshman for which they were designed, especially when your roommate happened to be a big fuzzy monster. It wasn’t the sort of school that would evoke any sort of impressed reaction when you told someone where you’d graduated from. It was, on most fronts, unremarkable.
But in one way, this place was perfect. It was on the opposite side of the country to their home town—many, many hours away from their so-called parents. Here they’d easily coast through 4 years of not-overly-demanding schooling, making the trip back home as few times as possible, claim they love it here so much that they just have to stay, and never look back. It could have been anywhere, really, it didn’t matter to Chara all that much. But this one in particular happened to have a quite nice English department, supposedly, so it was an easy enough choice.
They settled down in their seat, right at the edge of the long line of desks. Not quite in the front, but not all the way in the back---the sort of spot that would not be filled in quickly by the shyest or the most outgoing of kids. Now all they needed to do was smile creepily enough that any prospective classmates would choose every other possible seat besides the one directly next to them, hope that the class wasn’t one hundred percent full, and they’d be home free. They figured everyone would get the memo after the first day.
Idly, they pulled their laptop out of their bag and placed it in front of them, opening it up and letting the screen automatically flick to life. They quickly unlocked it, and let it sit open on their empty desktop. They pretended to glance at the screen every so often as they surveyed each student that filtered in through the door.
Chara grew up in a mostly human-only community. Their grade schools were not exclusionary of monsters on paper, but still none attended. Very few monsters lived anywhere within their vicinity, and it took multiple years of Chara’s life before they’d even seen one in person. Their choice of college, though, was nothing short of diverse. Monsters and humans alike of all kinds wandered in one by one, all equally as awkward as college freshman tend to be. It was… refreshing, Chara was pretty sure.
Fifteen minutes left until class began. They were early, but their break between classes was only around 30 minutes and was in the building right next door to their first one, so they saw no point in waiting.
As they were eerily glaring down another human who looked like they might want to take the seat beside them, they heard a voice from their opposite side.
“Mind if I sit here?”
Chara couldn’t hide their surprise as they whipped their head around.
Curses.
Before them was another human, smiling gently.
“Of course,” Chara quickly replied, regaining their composure and falling back into their insincere smile.
Mission of sitting alone all day failed, they supposed. Oh well, as long as they could sit quietly and not bother each other it should all be perfectly fine.
“Thank you!” they beamed, rolling the chair next to Chara out and plopping themself down. Chara assessed them, whilst simultaneously trying not to make it obvious that they were scrutinizing.
Short, dark brown curls framed their rounded, soft-featured face. Freckles dotted across their cheeks and over their nose, though they were hard to notice with their deep tan complexion. Their clothes were, quite frankly—a mess. A probably DIY’d tie-dye shirt poked out from underneath their purple-striped blue windbreaker. They wore a pair of magenta bike shorts underneath a white tennis skirt with two teal stripes. Their socks were mismatched, their shoes were a sickening shade of lime green, and a myriad of colorful plastic beaded bracelets rested on their wrists. They placed their bag on the opposite side of their chair to Chara on the floor, but Chara could just barely catch a glimpse of a number of colorful pins and keychains dotting their light pink backpack.
Somehow, the color scheme…worked? Maybe if you throw enough colors into the same outfit, it immediately looks cohesive by default? Chara had never tried. It was a strange assortment of colors, yes, but Chara couldn’t help but think they had some sort of eye for it.
It was a little hard to tell with their slightly oversized jacket covering their arms, but Chara got just enough of a glimpse of their legs to see that they were notably toned. An athlete of some sort, then, perhaps? Their clothes were all quite sporty.
Before Chara could make up anything further about this mystery human in their head, though, they chose to speak again.
“This your first class of the day?”
Rats. They’d been checkmated by social convention. Typically, when asked a question, you’re obligated to answer it.
“It is not. I’ve got one before this at eight o’clock,” Chara told them, in their most natural ‘polite but off-putting’ tone that they could manage.
“Early! You a morning person, then?”
A second question. Chara was starting to feel as though this person was entirely immune to their usually flawless eerie smile. They were now making full, polite eye contact with Chara and did not appear nervous whatsoever.
“Mm, no, not particularly,” Chara said, trying to up the uninviting smoothness of their tone. “I suppose it’s just the way things worked out. I’m much more active at night, truthfully. But a little caffeine can always keep death’s cousin at bay if the need arises.”
And then, the unthinkable happened. They laughed.
Since when do people laugh at things Chara says? Chara had certainly been laughed at, as a young child, but they cannot remember the last time they said something funny enough to elicit laughter in another person.
“That’s true! I’ve been getting up early for practices and stuff for forever, so it’s kinda normal to me. But a little boost now and then is nice.”
Further confirmation that they’re an athlete. Despite this information being, on all accounts, boring, Chara could feel they were slowly becoming intrigued by this person. They’re strange enough to laugh at Chara’s not-jokes, for one, so they must be strange on other fronts.
“Oh? So you’re not a fan of coffee?” They inquire, continuing in their effort to obtain more useless facts about this human.
“Coffee’s nice! Caffeine usually makes me all jittery, though. So it’s only a sometimes thing for me.”
They pushed their rolly chair out just a little away from the desk, seemingly getting comfortable. Chara spun around in their chair to better face them, and crossed one leg over the other.
“I see. Some people are just not fit for a life of darkness, it seems.”
They laughed again, even harder than last time. It made Chara’s smile falter for a moment.
“You’re funny. Do people tell you you’re funny?”
“I… cannot say that they do,” Chara said honestly, somewhat taken aback by the question.
“Well they should!” they replied, sitting back up with an unnatural amount of conviction and getting just slightly too close into Chara’s personal space bubble. “What’s your name, by the way?”
Chara was feeling… intimidated, they think, by this person. Intimidated that their own intimidation tactics seemed to be either completely ineffective or, conversely, very effective in the complete opposite than intended direction.
“...Chara. And yours?”
“Frisk! Lovely to meet you!” Frisk held out a hand for Chara to shake, which they reluctantly obliged. Their fingers were a little shorter and wider than Chara’s long and slender ones, and their nails were painted a nice shade of glittery teal blue in contrast to Chara’s sleek glossy black. Their grip on Chara’s hand was quite firm as they shook it.
Chara had never been this frightened by another human in their life. They readjusted themself in their seat, squirming under their gaze a little. Despite feeling wildly out of control of the situation, they were slowly growing more and more fascinated.
“Sooooooo…” Frisk dragged out as they seemed to search for the next perfect polite conversation topic. “Is this class for your major, or just general ed?”
“Mm, this one’s technically within my domain, even if it’s a requirement for all students. I’m majoring in English Literature. And… yourself?”
Chara had begun to make a mental list of tidbits of information about Frisk over the last several minutes. They almost wanted to study them like a lab specimen. If only they had a science class together instead of English 101.
“I’m in Recreation! Though, I might end up changing it at some point, who knows! I’m keeping my options open.”
“Recreation seems fitting enough. You are… also an athlete, correct? What sport do you play?”
“Oh, yeah! Forgot I mentioned that. I was mostly in tennis and cross country in high school, but I’ve tried some other stuff too!” They brought up both hands to start counting on their fingers. “Basketball, pickle ball, softball, you name it. My roommate plays lacrosse and I was thinking about giving that a try, too.”
“Impressive. You are incredibly indecisive.”
They laughed again. It was… a nice sound, Chara had decided. They were not sure why this thought occurred to them.
“Haha, that’s true! I just like to try a bit of everything. Art, music, sports, clubs, whatever.”
“You know if you stuck with just one thing, you might have mastered one of them by now.”
“Maybe! But you don’t need to be a master at something to have fun! Have youuuuu mastered anything yet?” Frisk leaned a little closer into Chara’s space as they dragged out their syllable. “You’ve got really long pretty fingers, you know. Do you play piano?”
Chara could feel themself flush slightly at the compliment. Chara had been told this before, but they’d never heard it sound so… genuine.
“I do, yes, though I wouldn’t say it’s a passion of mine. I’m much more adept at the violin.”
As they finished their sentence, Chara couldn’t help but realize they’d been exceptionally honest with Frisk over the past few minutes. Not that which instruments they can play or what major they’re in is particularly damning information, no, but Chara’s not usually one to talk about themself at all if they can help it.
“You are? That’s so cool! You gotta play for me sometime, I’d love to hear it!”
Before they could word vomit out something to the tune of Why yes of course, Frisk, who I just met, I’d love to play the violin for you, Chara bit their own tongue. They needed to compose themself.
“Hmm… moving quite fast now, are we? Have we made it to the playing instruments for each other level of friendship?”
Frisk seemed amused by the comment.
“And which level is that, oh wise friendship sage?” They asked in return, their voice somewhat teasing.
“Mm… I can’t say for certain. At least twenty.”
“That’s a high bar! So how do I raise my friendship statistics? Are there items I have to give you? Ooh, or quests I need to complete?”
“Perhaps there are. I think you’d have to at least go out for coffee first. Maybe do some homework together, who knows. All normal displays of human friendship.”
Frisk giggled. “Seems reasonable enough. Good linear progression, not too much grinding. Well thought out level design.”
Chara felt the urge to laugh along but managed to hold it back into a singular amused exhale through their nose.
“You’ll have to let me know if you can feel your EXP increasing.”
“It might be.”
They paused for a moment, before seeming to think of an idea.
“...Though, I might have to accept one of those quests to really get it rolling.”
“Oh?”
“I’m thinking… coffee?”
Was… Frisk asking Chara to “hang out?” Like, outside of class? For fun? Willingly?
For some reason, Chara was not displeased by this revelation.
“Careful… wouldn’t want you to get too jittery,” they teased, still mildly taken aback at the prospect of being asked to get coffee together. They don’t think they’d ever let anyone get that far.
“I can handle it! And I didn’t hear a no in there.”
That is, in fact, true.
“You did not, in fact, hear a no from me.”
“Sooo… is that a yes?” they asked, looking to squeeze a direct confirmation out of Chara. Their voice sounded almost… hopeful?
“I suppose it is, yes. Coffee it is.”
“Yes!” They actually, physically pumped their fist. “Let’s say… this weekend? Don’t want to interrupt our very important first week of studies, of course,” they said, facetiously.
“...How’s Saturday?” Chara suggested, for no particular reason. They had no other plans on Friday or Sunday other than to sit around in their dorm enjoying the silence.
“Saturday works!”
“Saturday it is.”
And, with almost immaculate timing, the flame-headed professor finally made her way to the podium and ushered for everyone to quiet down. Almost immaculate, because Frisk looked like they wanted to open their mouth to speak again before she did.
Funny. In the midst of their conversation, Chara had almost forgotten they were even waiting for class to begin in the first place.
Although, Chara found themself almost grateful for the interruption. They are sure that for your average college student, going out for coffee with an acquaintance is just about as normal of an activity as you can get. But for someone who can count the number of times they have “hung out” with a “friend” over the course of their life on one hand, Chara was quickly realizing they had very little clue how they got here.
The conversation progressed so… naturally. At no point did Chara feel the intense urge to roll their eyes or to say something cruel enough to get Frisk to stop talking altogether.
Wait.
Why didn’t Chara just say something nasty? That never fails to deter prospective peers from getting further than a sentence or two into a conversation, if the initial creepiness didn’t do the trick. They’d seemingly forgotten it was an option.
Maybe, crazily enough, they actually enjoyed the company of another human for once and didn’t feel the need to spoil it. What a strange development.
This would require further investigation.
So… coffee, then.
After a few moments of passively listening to the professor begin to drone on about the syllabus, Chara noticed from the side of their view that Frisk had pulled out a singular yellow sticky note and was writing something on it. Their pen was an electric blue color and topped with some cutesy cartoon character that Chara was ashamed to admit they were online enough to recognize.
After a moment, Frisk unsubtly passed off the sticky note to Chara.
Let me know what time you’re free!
(XXX) XXX-XXXX
Oh.
For some reason, Chara felt a little more nervously fluttery than they did a moment ago.
Wordlessly, Chara pulled out their phone underneath the table and typed the number out into a new contact. When they were finished, they flipped the sticky note over, pulled out their own pristine black ink pen, and began writing.
…
(XXX) XXX-XXXX
+10 EXP