Pay Attention, Mr. Iero (Frerard)

16 - No Combo Birthdays

A week passed by and things were going fairly well. My grades were good considering I was almost halfway through the semester- a couple of B's and C's here and there, which was much better than what I received in high school. Not to mention, I even had an A in my art class with Professor Way. I still couldn't quite tell if that was because I was actually doing well in his class or he just felt sorry for me... or maybe he just loved me?

Whatever the case was with my grades, I was pretty happy about it. I'm sure my parents back home would be proud to hear I was doing well after forcing me to go to college. Maybe their money wasn't going to get wasted on me after all.

Waking up late one day, I rummaged through my small dorm room closet to get something decent to wear for the day. The weather was starting to get colder out, so walks to class were becoming slightly more enjoyable than the obnoxious end-of-summer heat.

With the weather getting more chilly, that also meant a special day of mine was coming up. It wouldn't be long now before I gained another year on me. I'm sure I wouldn't be throwing the biggest party on campus or anything, especially as a freshman, but I'm sure I'd find something fun to do.

I went to take a shower. I stood in there a while, imagining the possibilities. For once, I'd be away from my parents for my birthday, which meant no more forced Spiderman-themed parties at the bowling alley with all my relatives sitting around drinking Sprite and eating cold, cardboard pizza. Maybe I could try going out to a club to dance with Ray and some buddies. Or rent a hotel room off campus where we could all drink and have fun. I had been meaning to hang out more with some of my more casual classmates I had been talking to in my other classes anyway. This was the perfect opportunity.

By the time I was done imagining the scenarios in my head in the shower, I walked out to find Ray was back at the dorm flipping through one of his textbooks at his desk and writing down notes- you know, the stuff a devoted student, unlike me, would normally be doing.

"Oh, hey Frank," he turned around and waved, "Finally out of bed I see?"

I chuckled as I zipped up my hooded jacket, "Nice to see you too". We laughed a moment before he turned back to his studies, but I grabbed his attention again shortly after. "How has school been treating you lately?"

He groaned, yet smiled, "It's been stressful, but I think it's going okay! I'm just trying to keep up all my grades. I want to keep a 4.0 GPA as long as I can. It's a lot of work, but I'm trying really hard. Gotta make sure I make that Dean's list."

I mentally rolled my eyes at his extreme effort, but was supportive regardless, "Oh wow, that's awesome. Have you met anyone new to study with?"

"Yeah, I little bit. I've met some people here and there in my classes that I've been talking to. I hope we all end up being friends. It'd be nice to have a little circle around. You?"

"It's about the same for me. I haven't really had the chance to hang out with anyone new I've met though."

He smirked in response, "Seems to me you've been too busy hanging out with your teacher".

"What- no!" I started to try to defend myself, but soon realized he was right. I had been spending a lot of time with my teacher compared to people my age that could potentially be my friends. It probably wasn't the greatest way of going about things now that I thought about it...

I think Ray sensed my embarrassment, as he immediately apologized, "Hey, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. I was just joking around. I know how happy you guys are around each other."

I told him it was fine. I wasn't mad at him. I was more mad at myself for not socializing more. Hell, the only friends I had right now were my high school best friend, my teacher, and technically maybe my teacher's brother. I realized college was really going to start to suck if I didn't get out there more. I didn't want to be the loner kid coming home every Friday night just to head off to bed.