I Hate This

 Ace awoke to his roommate Santos screaming.

“Not again! No!”

Ace was sadly used to hearing the screams of his roommate. The dorms aren’t the greatest place to be, but they are free when your dad is a professor at the academy.

He stumbled out of bed, and down the bunk bed ladder towards the living room, where he and his roommates liked to relax.

  It wasn’t a fancy dormitory. The main living room was a shared space with many other students, soldiers, and trainees for the Defense Program. The living room and kitchen were in the center of seven different rooms, each with two roommates per room. Inside each of the rooms was another shared bathroom.

The shared living room and the kitchen were in an octagonal shape, and the last hallway led out into the rest of the building.

  Ace knew this is what happened when you lived with several other people, but was tired of having to put up with it every day. He wanted to be independent of his father, but living with other people was starting to lose its allure.

  “I can’t take this shit anymore”, shuddered Santos. His head was bent over the kitchen table, with his hands on top of it. He ran his fingers through his own black, curly hair in an attempt to calm himself.

He groaned in exasperation, sitting at the table in only boxers, much to the chagrin of others in the shared space.

“Yeah, and neither can I,” barked Gabriel. “Why must I be subjected to your screams? I already have to listen to your stupid phone calls."Gabriel's brown eyes followed Santos every time he saw him. He didn't like his tattoos, he didn't like his unkempt hair, not even the way he spoke. He didn't trust him.

  Gabriel was already fully dressed, brown hair neatly done, and looked like he was about to go to work at an office instead of go to class. He smelled like soap and his clothes were ironed and pressed.

He always told himself cleanliness is next to godliness.

Santos shot Gabriel a dirty look.

“You don’t understand. No one understands."

He sighed and walked back into the room that he and Gabriel shared. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

“Drama queen."

Gabriel continued to work on his cereal. Fenton was making breakfast, blocking out his roommates. He was used to the daily arguments.

  Fenton was playing a dangerous game, frying eggs while shirtless, wearing his red pajama pants and old green flip flops. It was a struggle to cook because he kept having to move his shaggy bangs out of his face.

  Ace's red hair was still unbrushed and messy. He stood in front of the fridge, his blue eyes scanning through the mess of various labelled foods to find what he was looking for. Like Santos and Fenton he hadn't bothered to get changed yet, and was wearing a simple white shirt and blue shorts.

Gabriel was one of the very few of anyone on campus that took anything seriously, and it showed.

  Ace got himself some orange juice and sat at the table. “I don’t know what you see in the guy," said Ace. “He’s nuts."

“I could say the same about your girlfriend," said Fenton. “She looks like she could tear your head off.'

“Aw c’mon man, you’re always like this”, Ace groaned. “It's too early for this."

Fenton sat down at the table and started working on his eggs.

"I'm just saying she has no aura. Like a dead person. It's wierd," Fenton grumbled.

Ace scoffed. “I just think you’re jealous."

Fenton looked very confused. “She's not my type.”

“No, no, that’s not it," said Ace. “I’m just saying you’re jealous ‘cuz I’ve been spending more time with her."

  Fenton looked a bit miffed. It was true, he just didn’t want to admit it. Gabriel listened in on his roommate's drama. He loved listening, but he hated being caught in the crossfire. He learned it was best to stay quiet.

  Fenton’s best friend got a girlfriend. He didn’t want Ace, but he did miss the time they spent together. “I do stuff without you”, whispered Fenton. He looked hurt. “But I get it, you need your space." Fenton left the dorm; his food half eaten.

“Don’t worry about it Ace,” said Gabriel. “You know them, always dramatic."

  Ace looked disgusted. He returned to his room and started to get dressed.

A strange feeling came over him as he was getting dressed. He felt like he had forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what it was. It was a wierd feeling, to know that you forgot, but couldn't remember what you forgot!

So he told himself, if it was really important, I'll remember it eventually.

Ace looked around his messy room. It was quite obvious which bed was Ace’s and which was Fenton’s. Ace’s bed was never made, and it had various things pushed up against the wall. On the top bunk, Fenton’s bed was immaculate.

Fenton had no problem getting ready while Ace never bothered to prepare, as he knew he could teleport to wherever he wanted in a second.

The only thing that stood in his way of getting to a place on time was that he couldn’t find half of the things he needed.

Ace spent longer than necessary trying to find clean clothes out of his closet. At one point he decided to just wear a jacket on top of his white shirt and save time.

He brushed his hair in the same position every day: to hide his strange looking ears. He didn’t want unneeded attention. Ace already got enough as it was from his accent, and, what he believed to be his small height.

The longest time Ace spent in the morning was on his hair. Nevermind the fact that he decided that he could just take a shower after his first class, or that he didn’t even put on deodorant. He wanted to fit in as much as possible, to look like everyone else.

He however, couldn’t will himself to be taller.

After spending longer than necessary to cover something that people had most likely already seen, he took another ten minutes to find all his books. Holding his backpack, he closed his eyes, and emptied his mind.

When he opened them again he was standing right in front of his first class of the day: Modern History and Colonization.

Ace, like all other trainees in the Defense Program, took an entire year after they graduated highschool to finish their final year. Ace didn’t mind, in fact he was excited. He however, did not like that he had to meetthe basic education requirements.

With a heavy sigh he entered a class that he failed last year, late yet again.