♢Noel♢
The activity fair was being held in the gym today. The leaders of the clubs were allowed to come early and same with the RA’s obviously. We wouldn’t be allowed to really be in the dorms with out having the RA’s and RD’s here with us freshmen. Who knows what would happen if that was a thing.
Austin answered me back that he was at the fair so that was a plus. “Austin’s a-already there.” I stated locking my phone closed and putting it back in my pocket as Elena and I walked down to the gym.
It was a nice warm day out. It wasn’t overly hot and there was a nice breeze. ‘I think you two should just blow off the fair and explore the campus to be honest.’ Nori said obviously already bored and we haven’t even gotten to the fair yet.
I laughed a bit and Elena looked at me. “What did he say?”
“Nori thinks that we sh-should just ditch going to the fair and explore t-the campus.” I smiled at her.
Elena giggled a little as well. “We can’t just ditch Austin and Alexa though.”
I nodded, “I know, I wasn’t planning on it.” I answered.
‘Boo, why do you have to be no fun?’ Nori pouted in my head.
“Oh did you get enough to eat Yun?” I looked over at my left shoulder where he was sitting.
He nodded. “It was really good! You have good taste in food. Thank you for the meal!”
“Good I’m glad you liked it. The school food is actually a lot better then I thought it was going to be.” I added.
“Oh I know, After hearing stories about how the food is bad on campus because the people cooking just don’t really care. But I think it’s a bit different here.” Elena looked down at her phone and read something off it. “Sounds like Alexa is there too.”
“Awesome. So should we split up when we get there to find our roommates and then try to connect back up?” I offered up a plan of attack. Maybe it would work. Since the fair just started there shouldn’t be that many people there yet. At least I hope there won’t be too many people. I’m not a huge fan of really, really, big crowds. It’s probably why I’ve never gone to a convention.
“That sounds like a good plan!” She nodded as we made it to the doors of the gym.
They were side open allowing the breeze to come into the gym. Hopefully to attempt to keep it at least a little cool. “S-so I’ll see you soon then?” I asked as we walked in.
She nodded, sounds good.” Then we split off to find our roommates.
There were so many different clubs here. When I talked to the nerf club, they said it’s actually fairly easy to make a club as long as you have five members to start it off. Not that I would ever start a club myself but it was some nice information to know, incase I change my mind later on in my years here. There was a swimming club, soccer club, baseball and softball club, rugby club, it was nuts how much there was here. There was even a creative writers club. Though I’m hesitant about joining any clubs really. When the president explained the club to me it just sounded like it was more so just a boring writing club and it wasn’t where you could bring in your works and read it to everyone to get their opinion on it.
‘Geez this is never ending it seems.’ Nori commented. ‘Can we just find Austin and get together with the girls already please?’
“Okay, okay I’m going.” I answered and then looked up to find Austin.
After weaving through more incoming people I finally found my black haired roommate at one of the tables. “Austin.” I said getting up to him.
“Hey, I’m glad you made it here. I didn’t know if we would find each other.” He laughed. He was around six feet I wanna say I don’t know I haven’t asked.
I laughed a little not very amused by the comment. “S-so what clubs are you interested in?” I asked him curious to see what he signed up for.
“I signed up for the the baseball club, archery club, boffer club, and the anime club. Oh I saw that they had a writing club did you sign up for that?” He asked.
I shook my head, “I don’t really want to be a part of a club.”
“Why not?” He tipped his head a bit to the left looking down at me.
“I just don’t feel up to being a part of a club.” I answered softly.
‘Is it because of me?’ Nori questioned a bit disappointed.
“No, no, it’s nothing really, I’ve just never been a I want to hang around huge groups of people after I had my accident.” I answered looking down at the ground.
“Noel what’s wrong, you look upset.” Austin mentioned and I looked back up at him with a smile that no one could tell was fake. It was something that I had to work on while I was in gymnastics.
“It’s nothing.” I laughed a little again. “Oh Elena was meeting up with Alexa, d-did you want to meet up with them and we can continue looking around?” I offered trying to change the topic.
“Sure we can do that.” He nodded and moved to the left getting out of some people’s way as we started our track to find the girls.
*♢*♦*♢*♦*♢*
♦Nori♦
Noel was really quiet, and didn’t seem like one to really open up about things. I was surprised that Austin didn’t question him any further. But when I think about it they haven’t really been able to hang out I think to get to know each other. Noel and I were stuck together so even if it took a while we were going to get to know each other no matter what.
“Why do you keep quiet about things?” I asked putting my arms behind my head and leaning back.
‘It’s habit from growing up.’ He answered as I watched him move though the crowd.
“Did your parents fight or something?” I was confused.
‘No, well sometimes, but that’s common in a relationship. It was when my sisters would fight I would just keep quiet if they were ignoring me when I would try to be the person to break it up. It was always my older Kara and Serenity that fought the majority of the time. The other would get upset if I took the other’s side and same went for when Natalee would fight with one of them. They would always say “It’s because you’re her twin is why your taking her side” if I would say that Natalee was being the logical one in the argument. It was rough growing up with three sisters.’ He responded stumbling a few times here and there as people would push him to get to a table.
“Damn…I thought when I got in fights with Ken’ichi that it was unfair that Naomi would take his side, but having three sisters to deal with that really sucks.” I responded.
‘And try dealing with them when all their menstrual cycles synchronize and same with being on a team with mainly girls. It sucks just so you know if your sister doesn’t get them.’ He mentioned.
They caught up with the girls. “You found us.” Elena smiled happily.
“W-we did.” Noel said with a slight nod.
“So what did you girls sign up for?” Austin asked getting right to the point.
They started discussing what they may be participating in. Turns out even if you sign up for it, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to actually participate in it. Though being in clubs would help with whatever a resume is.
“What about Noel?” Elena asked him.
“Oh me…I…” Austin cut him off before he could answer.
“He signed up for the boffer club and the anime club with me.” Austin wrapped an arm around Noel’s neck and pinned Noel’s head against his chest.
“Austin I didn’t sign up for anything.” Noel said flustered.
“Of course you did. I signed you up for them with myself. I figured you wouldn’t sign up for anything yourself so I did it for you.” Austin snickered.
“I-I can sign myself up for something.” He huffed easily getting his head out of Austin’s grip.
“Really now?” Austin laughed and crossed his arms raising an eyebrow at him. “Then I’d like to see you do it.”
Noel stiffened up a little. ‘You don’t have to do it Noel, just tell him that you like to do parkour and there is no club for it.’
“I-I like to do parkour and th-there’s never been a club for it s-since it deals with climbing buildings and the faculty doesn’t like that kind if thing.” He said quickly.
“I feel like that’s just an excuse to get out of signing up for a club.” Austin sighed frowning back at us.
“I-it’s not though.” Noel Defended himself.
“Whatever man.” Austin waved Noel off like he didn’t matter.
“Do you want me to give him a piece of my mind? Even with him being a roommate he shouldn’t be like that. You can do what you want, he shouldn’t have signed you up for clubs with out asking you first.” I was frustrated I wanted to yell at the kid.
‘No, it’s okay…’ He didn’t sound alright in his response though. He sounded defeated. Someone who was in a competitive sport for so long…he’s just lost his drive it seems.
“No Noel it’s not okay. You being upset is not okay. Stand up to him. Stand up to him or I will. I’m not going to let you be defeated like this. You did years in a very competitive sport and you’re just letting yourself go down this easily? What happened to you?” I asked him.
‘I-I…I…’He couldn’t think of anything to say to me.
“Hey Noel are you okay?” Elena asked putting a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m fine.” He answered I could feel him forcing a smile on his face.
I sighed and crossed my arms. “I think I’m going to go outside. I don’t really want to be in here any more.” Noel said to Elena and headed to the door.
“Noel…” I said. “Don’t let him get to you. If he’s going to be a dick let him. You don’t need his approval to do anything. You know that you have a friend with me and with Elena. You may not be able to hide a lot of things from me, but please don’t do it to Elena. She seems like she cares. And I can tell you like her.”
‘It’s because I have a crush on her is why I don’t want to upset her with anything.’ He told me as he weaved through the crowed to finally get outside.
“So you think just walking away like you did is a good solution? How do you think you made her feel walking away like that? I’m sure she feels pretty upset with herself because she feels like she can’t help.” He didn’t answer me back so I continued, “She’s the only one that’s in the same situation that you know from the group that went through the bonding last night. Don’t throw it away.”
‘I’m sorry…’ He finally said. ‘I don’t want to be a part of any club. At least not right now.’
“I know that, so why not tell Austin that.” I mentioned.
“Hey Noel, come back.” Austin’s voice hit our ears.
Noel turned to see his roommate come out of the crowd and to us. “What’s up?” Noel asked.
“Are you alright?” Austin questioned.
“Noel, come on let’s at least try it and switch consciousness.” I offered.
‘But what if it doesn’t work and we just end up switching all together. People will know about you and freak out.’ He said worry in his voice.
“Na, we got this. We’ll never know unless we try.” I mentioned.
“Hey Noel, you listen to me?” Austin said and nudged Noel’s shoulder.
‘Alright fine you win…we can try it…’ He answered and he let me bring myself to the forefront of his mind.
“No things are not okay.” I answered for Noel, but I had Noel’s voice. It actually worked. We did it! How long we could hold it though was another question. I pushed his hand off my shoulder. “I didn’t want to be apart of any clubs and then you just go and sign me up for clubs with out even asking if I’m okay with it.”
“Come on lighten up.” Austin laughed half heartedly.
“Doing this kind of shit isn’t a way to get on my good side Austin. I didn’t want to be a part of any clubs right now because I want to know how I can manage my work load before thinking about joining anything.” I responded.
“Look I’m sorry.” He said simply not really even caring.
I sighed, “Ya know what, I don’t care. If your going to have this kind of attitude I’m done.” I held up Noel’s arms in defeat. “I thought you were going to be a really cool roommate, but obviously you’re only thinking of yourself and not what others think.”
‘I’m sorry you have to do this and that I’m not confident enough to do it myself.’ Noel apologized. He was really upset about it.
“Don’t be upset, you needed help and that’s what I’m here for.” I answered. Though I could feel both of us getting tired the more I stayed at the forefront. Hopefully I could get this resolved soon. I don’t know the consequences of us staying like this for a long period of time. Especially with this being our first time.
“Master Noel…” Yun said lightly touching Noel’s cheek to not leave an indent. Yun could tell that we were both upset but Austin and it was difficult for me to let him see that. I always tried to keep my composure around him, but with him being my best friend that didn’t really ever work.
