All right, Matt. You're all set. Parents aren't around to baby you, you're going to have to suck it up and be a man. Swift as a coursing river. Raging fires, typhoons, all that jazz. Matt straightened from the bed, where a slew of clothes and personal belongings lay in a ragged heap. He'd get it later. Maybe. Yes, definitely, as long as he was listening to the right music when he did. His back twinged momentarily: shouldn't have leaned over for so long.
So what if he'd been a little bit late? It was still the first day, he was fine. His parents had thrown a fit about him driving to the school alone, but he didn't want to have them cooing and making things awkward. They could visit, after he'd had a chance to make a good first impression. Besides, they were both busy anyway. Maybe he'd call up his big brother, Dan. That might be fun. But, again, after he was all settled in.
They'd told him he might not be in this room for a while: TSU, as he had heard the place called, tended to weed out the weak quick. So, with any luck, he wouldn't be alone in his dorm for the entire year. Making a dorm friend would be nice. His prized possessions were on the desk, where they belonged. Phone charger, laptop, handheld gaming. The holy trinity, all covered. For now, he reasoned, he could be as messy as he liked, as long as it was his own, special breed of messy. The kind where everything was exactly in the right place.
Next up was to figure out his social life. The PA system had called everyone down to sign up for clubs, so Matt figured he'd run the gauntlet, and see what there was to see. Of course, he could, in theory, join any club he wanted and do fantastic in it, but he always had preferred to use his own talents and mind to learn and create. An unspoken rule of the imaginary LeechCode was to "always leech as a last resort".
As he made his way across campus, he caught sight of a girl struggling with a ridiculously large box. She was quite the looker, too, and he was going to pass right by her. As he did, he called out. "Need some help?" It felt a little awkward, but he'd promised Dan that he'd be more outgoing at college.
The girl smiled at him, nodding with some embarrassment. "Yeah, that'd be nice." She slowly set the box on the ground.
Matt smiled as well, and reached down to lift it. It was exhaustively heavy, and Matt wondered how she'd been able to lift it for even a second. As he struggled to lift it, he saw, in the corner of his eye, the girl eying him with disbelief. With another grunt, and another defeated effort, he sighed. Sorry, LeechCode, but this is an emergency. He breathed deep, and sucked the girl's strength into himself. Perhaps alone, neither of them could budge the box, but maybe together...
Jackpot. Matt heaved the box into the air with ease. "Had to warm up, get the blood pumpin' and such," he explained to the girl, in what seemed like an incredibly awkward voice. But Matt had mastered the art of being awkward, funny, and charming at the same time. At least, that's what he hoped.
At the door to the girl's room, Matt finally set the box down, exhaling sharply from the exertion. "There you are."
She grinned at him. "Thank's, kid. My boyfriend's coming to say hi, so I wanted the place to look nice. You get me?"
And, just like that, all of Matt's whirling thoughts crashed down. Boyfriend, of course. Who was he kidding, they'd only just met. None of it showed, though, and he nodded. "One hundred percent. I'll let you get busy with the decorating, since I've got somewhere to be. See you around." Unlikely. It was a big school.
The 'Club' set up was normal enough. A bunch of tables around the edge of the room, all trying to get more people to come to their group so they could get more funding.
"Interested in being a pro gamer?" "Do you like to draw or paint?" "What do you think about robots?" Everyone was trying to get him to come to
their table.
Eventually, he found his way to the sports booth. "You do any martial arts-y...things?" He asked. "Or...maybe Parkour?" Hardcore parkour. Something he always meant to try, but never really had the time or insanity for. The guy at the booth nodded, so Matt shrugged, and murmured "Sign me up." He handed over his ID card. Everything else he could just steal from other people if he ever felt like it. Or not, if he was following the Code. Maybe he'd join more later if the muse struck him.
A new image caught his attention. A tiny girl and a giant one, talking. Maybe he'd just sidle in and say hello, like his mom always told him not to do. Forget that, though, he was an
adult. He had to interact with people, make new friends, build up allies. So, he did the normal thing and stared at the little girl for a few seconds, then at the tall one, then back to the small one. Someone was sleeping in the corner, he'd seen them when he walked in. Sleeping people always worked the best for him, because he could pretty much leech anything from them. In this case, it was vision. Bam, zoomed in on the little kid. Oh, not a little kid! Crisis averted. With his doubly-enhanced vision, Matt could see her student ID.
After a long time of doing nothing, he walked over. "Hello" was all he said, until he frantically realized he needed to say more. "Uh, hi. I'm Matt. Mmmmm...so what are you two interested in?" It was the most mortifying entrance of his entire year.
