Set It Up, Cupcake

Victor was not the most popular guy in college, but he was well known. He was on his second year at Lone Pine University. The students who were mostly into sports, either playing or watching them, might know his name from playing in the volleyball team. Studious students know his face because he likes sleeping in rooms he wasn't supposed to be in.

Can you blame him though? The rooms with fewer students were quiet enough to let him take a nap. Usually, he was lucky that some professors would tell him to leave and be done with it, other times, yet rarely, he would have to talk his way out of the situation.

Victor stretched, fixing his dark blue hoodie, and brushed off his dark jeans. He leaned out of the small staff room in the library to make sure no one was around and went over to the librarian on staff.

"Thanks again, Mariah, for the hook-up." He smiled

The girl's brown hair fell mostly behind her, stopping just above her waist, the other parts fell naturally over her shoulders. She brushed a loose strand behind her ear and looked up, pushing her glasses up her nose, "No problem, V. But get more sleep, will you? I could lose my job here. That won't look good on my resume."

"I know, I know. It's just I've been practicing real hard and I keep losing track of time."

"You should do your homework before you practice. I know volleyball means a lot to you, but you won't be allowed to play if you aren't doing well in school." She stated, giving him a nice smile.

Victor rolled his eyes, brushing his dark brown bangs back, "Right, but then I won't have time to practice. I'll lose my spot on the team which is way worse!"

Mariah snickered, "You? Losing your spot? Like that would ever happen. Stop selling yourself short, you're a great player."

The boy shakes his head, looking at his phone, "Well, I got my math class to get to. See you at the cafeteria at the same time?"

"I might be late. The girl who takes my shift has been coming late recently."

"Well, I'll wait. I will have an hour until practice if class gets out on time." Victor smiles, giving his friend a wave. "See ya."

"Don't sleep in class! I won't tutor you!" She called as she waved back.

Victor chuckled, fixing his backpack before he went down the stairs and leaving the building. His math class was in the building right across the street from the library, it being one of the tallest buildings on campus since it held almost all the math and science classes. If he was feeling tired he usually took the elevator, but he noticed the queue was longer than usual so he went up the four flights of stairs.

He didn't mind the exercise though as it helped his leg muscles for volleyball. Victor got to the floor and went straight to the water fountain to drink some water and to catch his breath. The hall had some murmurs of students passing, either going to or from class. Victor saw the glances towards him as he passed other students, catching a few sports majors for a quick 'hello' before continuing to his class.

He made it to class, sitting down in the second row, waiting for the boring class to start. It wasn't like Victor hated math, it was more like he had a disliking towards it. The class was needed, so he had to take it, but he didn't really understand when he was going to use all these formulas in the future. The professor stepped in with a nice off-white long sleeve shirt and skirt that had a floral pattern on and started taking attendance. She then started to talk about the new formula they started learning about last class and Victor focused on not falling asleep. The class surprisingly went faster than expected, and students were already packing up.

"Read the first part of the chapter for class. I want numbers one to twenty done. It doesn't have to be right, I just want to see if you're understanding the process. We'll get more focused on this formula next class. Any questions?" Professor Klein asked. There were no responses, so she ended the class a few minutes early.

Victor started to pack up, only to hear someone call out to him. "Hey, Victor!" He turned to a shorter male with thick dark blue-rimmed glasses and messy black hair. He had a black jacket on that was zippered halfway, showing off his deep red shirt under it and dark blue, almost black, jeans with his red sneakers.

"Hey there Samuel." Victor smirked, "What's up?"

The shorter of the two huffed, rolling his eyes, "I told you to call me Sam. Anyways, I was heading to the cafeteria but I don't want to eat alone. I was wondering if I could join you and Mariah, again?" He looked down. He was half Latino and half Caucasian. He also was labeled as a nerd to the students who were in his classes before and the word carried over to this class, which resulted in him not having many friends.

Victor never understood why it meant so much to be popular in university, or any school for that matter. After you graduate, you will probably never see these students ever again. "Sure, Samuel." He stressed the name which the shorter pushed him for.

"God, you're so annoying." He shakes his head to then fix his hair shortly after. The two walked in silence like usual as they never had much to say. The two joined Mariah, who was surprisingly early and went inside the cafeteria.

They grabbed a tray of food, sitting in their normal booth. Samuel wasn't originally a part of their group but the boy slowly became a regular so they just welcomed him with open arms. Victor had a theory that Sam might have a crush on Mariah but he never asked the boy as he didn't want him to become uncomfortable.

"So, I'm guessing you'll be practicing today?" Samuel questioned.

"Even though the coach is sick, some of the players wanted to practice. The school allowed us to as long as we clean up."

"You practice really hard, Victor. Don't overdo it." Mariah stated.

"I won't; trust me. We make sure to stretch before and after practice so we aren't going to get hurt unless by accident." Victor finished his food and went to take his tray to the cleaning area. In the cleaning area, a taller boy with black hair was maintaining it instead.

"Hey, why did we get different cleaning people? What happened to our cleaning lady?"

"Oh, haven't you heard? The one cleaning lady who we had apparently got breast cancer." Mariah explained. "I heard that the culinary students stepped in to help the staff. It also helps them with hours for future experience." Mariah leaned in with a raised eyebrow. "Why, is this one cute?"

"I don't know. Didn't look." Victor shrugged.

She quickly took her empty tray to the cleaning area and Samuel quickly joined her. Victor waited, wondering if he was feeling up for eating a dessert. He quickly disregarded the idea of the unhealthy snack and watched as the two came back. Mariah had a small pout on her face while Samuel looked like he was trying to not laugh.

Mariah sat down with a sigh, "He wasn't bad looking but he was rude. I said hello to him but he didn't respond."

"Maybe he didn't hear you? It is loud back there." Samuel responded as he sat down with a plate of pumpkin pie.

"You must really like pumpkin pie, Samuel." Victor stated as Samuel seemed to always eat pumpkin pie when it was offered as a desert.

The boy shrugged, "Reminds me of my mom's cooking; can't help it." He took a bite with a happy smile.

"How are your parents, by the way?" Victor wondered.

"Eh, they're alright. They seem better after they started therapy and counseling."

It was a known fact to them that Samuel's parents had a lot of fights when he was younger. Once Samuel got into college, he asked his parents to seek help as he didn't want to come back to them being divorced.

"Well, I guess that's better than nothing?" Mariah tried to make the conversation better, which Samuel nodded with a small smile.

Victor checked his phone, noticing the time, and stood up, "Hey, sorry, I need to go to the gym to help them set up. I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"Sure, have fun. Make some more friends so I can find a date." Mariah smiled.

The two boys rolled their eyes at her, but Victor waved before leaving the two alone. To make the long walk across campus to the gym more interesting, he pulled out his mp3 player. He found it easier to store music in and take it wherever he needed it.

He was looking down seeing what song to start on, choosing a k-pop song as he went towards the gym.

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A/N: So, here's an updated version of chapter 1. It's still being edited, but I think it's a bit better. I need to try and focus on a way to bring out Victor's personality a bit more. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with this. Sorry for disappearing, school started and I got busy. Thanks for all the reads, I'm glad people like this so far. I'll try to edit the other chapters in time, I just ask that you're patient. Thank you for your understanding! ^_^