Room 307, Thursday Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

Lately, Topher's parents had been sending him a lot of emails about signing up for the SAT and coming up with a list of colleges to apply to. For the most part, Topher's response had been to delete said emails and eat chips. Unfortunately, today he ran out of chips and didn't want to go outside to get more. It was pretty unfortunate.

Rather than walk all the way to the common room in search of chips, he tried to come up with another task he needed to do, and sure enough, the only one he could think of was finally answering his parents' dumb emails. So this afternoon he could be found laying on the near his bed with his laptop open in front of him as he flipped through some book called The 377 Best Colleges his mom had sent him and drew pictures in the margins of the schools he thought looked lame. It was a really constructive use of time.

[[open door and post!]]

Comments

[justbeingbay]

Bay was over on her bed, sketchpad open on her knees as she roughed in a new graffiti design. She still hadn't painted anywhere on the island, but it was coming as soon as she had a really good idea.

... though the really good idea was not going to involve a fairy, or whatever the hell she was sketching. She scowled at her paper then looked over to her roommate. At the least, he'd be good for distraction.

"What are you reading, anyhow?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Some boring book full of colleges," Topher complained. "You know apparently you have to pick which ones to apply to?" It seemed like a very mean rule as far as he was concerned. Couldn't the colleges just ask him to go there without him having to do any work?

[justbeingbay]

"Um, yes?," Bay said, wondering if there was a trick somewhere. "Not that I've figured mine out, but whatever."

[dollpocalypse]

"I sort of thought it was a they-call-you situation," Topher explained. "And this book is huge. It's like ten times as thick as a laptop and contains one-trillionth as much information."

He was whining now, yes.

[justbeingbay]

"It does look sort of retro," Bay admitted. "Are random schools mailing you stuff? I'm doing a great job, um, looking at the envelopes."

[dollpocalypse]

"Hang on, do we have mailboxes here?" Oh dear. This was not going to go well for him. "Ugh," he sighed. "This is dumb. I know where I want to go and I'm gonna get in, so what's the point of making it into a whole thing?"

[justbeingbay]

Oh dear, indeed.

"In case maybe your first choice reads your transcript from here and starts laughing?" Bay suggested helpfully. "And yes. We have mailboxes."

[dollpocalypse]

"Admittedly, classes like 'Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse' and 'The Elements of Friendship' may raise some eyebrows at the MIT admissions office," Topher conceded, "but I'm crazy smart, so they're gonna let me in anyway."

Okay, not so much with the conceding.

"Which, bee-tee-dub, pro tip? Online classes that sound legit, and/or a forged transcript? Always the way to go."

Because he was clearly an authority on the college process, right?

[justbeingbay]

Bay quirked out a smile. "Yeah, my parents made me keep up calculus online," she said. "It was like a condition of switching schools. Because somehow I'm going to live a life where math is useful."

[dollpocalypse]

"Excuse you, math is totally useful," Topher objected. With an obnoxiously put-upon look of nostalgia, he tapped his chin and sighed, "Oh, calculus. I remember those days." Really, Topher? Ninth grade counted as 'those days?' "Man, you're making me want to do some derivatives now."

Topher was a crazy person and derivatives were evil.

"So what's your thing? History? English? Don't tell me you're into English, there's this crazy Onion girl who'll want to be your friend or something."

[justbeingbay]

"Great," Bay decided brightly. "You get to do my homework."

That was fair, right? If he wanted to do calculus anyhow?

"And I'm an artist," she added. "Mostly oils and graffiti art. Also ... Onion?"

She had a feeling she was going to regret asking.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, Onion or Tomato. Some kind of unloved vegetable," Topher supplied. "And... for real? I was not getting the hippie vibe from you. Huh."

And yes, Bay, he would love to do calculus homework. Who wouldn't? Besides sane people, of course.

"So... there are colleges for art stuff, yeah?"

[justbeingbay]

Bay made a face at that. "Not all artists are automatically hippies," she pointed out. "And yeah, totally. Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA, Chicago ... or maybe I'll make my dad happy and do something else in college."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, hey, UCLA was in this book," Topher shared, flipping a few pages back. "Apparently, they have..." He skimmed the information on the school, trailing one finger down the page before settling on, "Sports."

That was so helpful.

[justbeingbay]

"Sports," Bay echoed. "Yeah, that goes with the big state school thing. Along with beer bongs and girls with the names of their sorority across their butts."

So maybe she shouldn't go to UCLA.

"But -- California has to be fun, right?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Depends on what constitutes fun for you," Topher said thoughtfully. "Are you a fan of traffic and year-round air-conditioning?"

[justbeingbay]

"Those are things I can live without," Bay admitted. "What, are you from there or something?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Yup," Topher confirmed. "LA. I'd say it sucks, but to be fair I do spend a good majority of my time indoors."

He had a point.

"Where're you from?"

[justbeingbay]

"Mission Hills," Bay said. "It is right outside Kansas City. I am literally not in Kansas anymore."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher had to smirk at that. "How long have you been waiting to use that joke?"

[justbeingbay]

"Um, only since I got here," Bay admitted. "But come on, how often do you get to say it for real?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Never," Topher admitted. "That would mean I'd have to have spent any time in Kansas ever. Which, you know. Kind of pointless if you don't live there."