Marcellus scrambled through the apartment gathering his things scattered every which way. Somewhere in the kitchen Melvin, his roommate, was concocting his latest sugary monstrosity. 

"Mel, have you seen my phone?" He tried retracing his steps and came up empty.

"Not since you were playing with Donna." Mel replied after turning off the blender.

"We weren't playing," Marcellus bit back."Donnashello is working really hard to learn to skateboard."

"Right. Anyways, did you check under Rover's bed?"

In the nine months they had lived together both had learned to embrace the other's quirks, to the point where they didn't even acknowledge when something was remotely unreasonable. When Marcellus first moved in, however, there had been a learning curve for all the inhabitants of the apartment: four reptiles, two humans and a dog. It helped that both humans were animal lovers to their core and that Rover saw all animals as friend-shaped, even if he had to warm up to men that were not part of Mars' immediate family.

"It's not going to be un—" Marcellus cut himself off after finding the missing phone exactly under Rover's bed. "You put it there, didn't you?"

"Yes, Mars, I'm actively trying to make you late for your meeting." Mel teased as he entered the living room with a protein shake, if one could even call it that, in one hand, and Lucius, his ball python, in the other. "Which you are going to be if you don't leave now."

"Shoot! Can you still pick up Rover at the dog spa?" He asked while toeing into his shoes, and when Mel confirmed it, opened the door to leave. "Okay, wish me luck!"

"Good luck dude!" Mel called after him as the door closed.

Mars jogged down the steps and out of the building. On days like this, he was reminded of how lucky he was to live a twenty minute walk away from campus and to have a roommate that not only accepted having Rover move in too but actually cared for him too. By the time Mars made it to the academic services building, he'd barely broken a sweat regardless of the two layers of warm clothes he wore to combat the frigid winter air, years of athletic conditioning made the short trek feel like nothing at all. He looked at his watch, confirming he was indeed five minutes late for his meeting and the next thing he saw were cascading blonde curls flying every which direction as he ran into someone.

"I'm so sorry, miss!" He blubbered catching her in the nick of time, the same couldn't be said for the stack of papers she dropped. Mars immediately bent down to gather them after making sure she was steady on her feet and, when he looked up once more to give them to her, he felt his heart literally skip a beat.

She was all sun-kissed-skin and strong thighs clad in fishnets, the skirt she wore accentuated her figure, golden locks framed a delicate face and adorable freckles lied under eyes made of pure amber. She was ethereal.

"It's okay." She said, taking her papers back and making space for him to get up and go on his way, turning away already.

Mars was about to call out to her when Uriel, his academic advisor, spoke next to him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Marcellus, my previous appointment ran a bit long."

"That's okay, I just uhh… I just got here." He was still distracted by what had just happened.

"You know Vivian?" Uriel said with a smile, nodding to where the gorgeous blonde had gone and motioning for Mars to get into the office.

Vivian. Mars committed the name to memory, it sounded as sweet as her voice.

"No, I've never seen her before." Mars replied and sat in front of Uriel's desk, his advisor chuckled and opened Mars's file in his computer.

"I'm sure you'll see Vivian around," Uriel sat, "now, about your course load, I know last semester we talked about you officially declaring kinesiology as your major. I just want to make sure that is still the plan?"

"Yes. I know it's going to be hard but—" Mars started the speech he rehearsed but Uriel cut him off.

"You don't need to justify yourself to me Mars," Uriel assured him, "you're playing for two collegiate teams, I know you are no stranger to hard work. But I'd be remiss not to confirm if you still want to go through with it, and to warn you that many of the professors in the Biological Sciences department are rather strict about their attendance policies."

"I understand, some of my teammates already gave me some recommendations and I drew up a mock-up schedule." Mars pulled out his phone, opened the appropriate file and showed it to Uriel.

"Alright, let's see what's available." Uriel mused as he started clicking away in his computer glancing at Mars's phone from time to time, after a few moments he frowned. "Okay, remember how I said some professors are sticklers to the rules? Well, Dr. Skull just retired, which means your functional anatomy course was taken up by the new department head, Dr. Suri. She'll for sure put you through the grinder if you miss any class even if it's an approved absence by your coaches." Uriel leaned back, tapping his thumb against his chin. "Are you sure you don't want to take a lighter course load this semester? With the basketball team making it to championships, congratulations by the way, you'll be traveling a lot if you keep advancing, right?"

"Thank you," Mars answered, fidgeting with a hangnail, "but my scholarship requires me to graduate on time, and I can't do that taking things easy. And I'd really rather not take on a loan." He added when Uriel was about to interject. "I know it's probably going to suck while I get used to the pace of things, but I know I can do it."

"You're killing me kid," Uriel sighed, "but alright, let's approve this madness."

A couple of clicks later the printer behind the academic advisor came to life and Mars's spring semester schedule was placed in his hands.

"Before you go," Uriel stopped him at the door, "I recommend you meet up with Dr. Suri before classes start next week and talk things out with her. She takes on a few students under her wing every year and has a roster of highly capable peer tutors she can recommend you should you need them." Uriel opened the door for him before adding. "That being said, let's make a follow-up appointment in a month. Add-drop will be over but I'm sure we'll be able to figure out how to accommodate you if necessary."

Mars thanked him and walked out of the building, fighting the wind on his way to the grocery store, mind going a mile a minute jumping between how he was going to win over his new department head and Vivian. Call him a sap but if anybody asked him, Mars would admit he believed in "love at first sight" without hesitation.

He made good time to the store, filled his backpack with the essentials he needed to restock and started on his way home. The trip would've been more effective if he'd taken his truck, but the old engine had a hard time starting in the winter so he avoided driving unless he had the time to deal with it. When he finally made it home he was half-frozen and desperate for a hot shower, but Rover had other plans as he jumped all over Mars.

"Easy buddy!" Mars laughed, pulling his fluffy dacshund away from his face. "You were only gone half a day!"

"Might as well have been a month with how attached you two are." Melvin laughed from his blanket fort on the sofa, the latest season of his favorite reality show playing on the television before he paused it. "How did it go?"

"I think I'm in love." Mars sighed, Rover finally letting him drop his things and Mars took off his outerwear before plopping down right next to Mel.

"Damn bro, I knew you could play for my team, but your advisor?" Mel teased, "That's kind of problematic even for me."

"Ha-ha." Mars rolled his eyes. "I met this girl, Vivian, she might be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"And did you get her number or any way to find her again?" Mel asked Mars groaned, covering his face.

"I ran into her when she was coming out of Uriel's office, almost knocked her on her butt." Mars said, Mel burst out laughing.

"Okay, unhinged infatuation aside." Mel wiped away his tears. "What did Uriel say about your schedule?"

"He approved it, but I have to have Dr. Suri this semester." Mars summarized.

"Well, it was nice knowing you, guess I have to find a new roommate." Mel sighed dramatically.

"You are literally the worst." Mars shoved him.

"Hey! Keep shoving me and see if I'll tutor you once she inevitably kicks your ass." Mel laughed.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Mars groaned.

"There, there." Mel patted Mars's shoulder through the blankets. "Lets watch people burning their lives to the ground so you can feel better about yours."

"I still don't understand how your brain doesn't melt watching this stuff." Mars sank deeper into the sofa so his shoulder lined up with Mel's head, who took the tacit invitation. "What even is the premise of this one?"

"The contestants talk to each other through a wall, the idea is that they fall in love without knowing what the other person looks or sounds like. They're not even supposed to know the other person's gender until they choose to get engaged and see each other for the first time."

"That sounds messy."

"Sunday morning at a frat house levels of mess." Mel agreed.

As they kept watching Mars became outraged by the fact that the entire cast seemed to be conventionally attractive, which Mel explained away saying that they had to be otherwise the reveals would be disastrous. They finished the batch of episodes and discussed them as they meal prepped for the next couple of days, having such a packed schedule meant Mars didn't have time to cook everyday, and though Mel had learned to cook the bare essentials to survive having someone to share the kitchen with made the task less daunting and all the more fun for the both of them.

In between arguing over the dubious merits of each forming couple and turning a blind eye to Mel sneaking tiny morsels of grilled chicken to Rover, Mars felt himself relaxing. He had a goal in front of him, a scholarship to maintain and the best roommate anybody could ask for supporting him. Even if this semester sucked and all he wanted to do at the end of each day was belly flop on his bed, he was going to be just fine.