"Victor, wake up!"

Victor groaned, opening his eyes to see his roommate at his bed.

"Whaaat?"

"Get up, you have class in thirty minutes."

"Huh?!" Victor shot up, looking at his phone. "Shit." He threw his covers off and ran over to his dresser to grab whatever was there.

"I'll be in trouble if I'm late again. Craaap."

"Here, take a pop tart while you go." Derrick handed him a packet that Victor took before grabbing his bag and darted out of the room.

With such a rush, he didn't look where he was going, knocking into someone as he left the dorms.

"Ow." He grimaced, getting up. "Sorry, are you okay?" He asked, looking to see it was the boy who was cleaning dishes yesterday. He didn't respond, only get up and brush his clothes off.

"I asked if you were okay." Victor stated. The boy looked to him with his light brown eyes and nodded before walking off. "Rude." He muttered, checking his phone. "Shit! I have ten minutes."

Victor ran across campus, cursing his bad luck as he made it five minutes late.

The professor didn't say much as she continued her lecture so Victor went to his normal seat and started taking notes. Once class was over, he started to leave.

"Victor, can I speak with you?"

Victor sighed, turning to his professor. "Yes, Miss Armstadt?"

"I don't think I have to tell you why I want to talk. This is your fifth time late to class. As you know on your syllabus I dock two percentage points for each tardiness. That's ten percent." Miss Armstadt stated. "But, I have an alternative. I'm sure you heard the school cafeteria lady is home fighting cancer. They need help and they are allowing students who aren't in the culinary field to help. Let's say if you work there for five days we can call it even?"

"Do I have to?" Victor groaned.

"You should consider yourself lucky that I'm allowing you to do this. I know your grades aren't the best in my class. It's up to you. Take the ten percent or show me that you worked for your days. Either way it's fine with me. I have no problem failing you." Miss Armstadt gave him a paper before walking off.

"Damn, can this day get any worse?" Victor asked himself, looking down at the volunteer application. With another sigh, he goes to his next class. He went to the cafeteria after that class was done.

"What's got you so upset?" Moriah asked, sitting down across him with Samuel sitting next to her.

"Miss Armstadt is basically forcing me to help out at the cafeteria in exchange for some percentage points back."

"You were late again?" Samuel asked in disbelief.

"I wouldn't have been if I didn't run into that guy who was doing the dishes. I tried to see if he was okay but all he did was nod."

"Well, at least she's giving you that option. Most teachers would fail you by now." Moriah stated.

"Yeah, I have to hand it in and write down hours. Whoever is working staff has to sign off my hours so it's legit." Victor stated, finishing the form.

"How are you going to do it though? You are busy usually with volleyball and school?" Cameron asked.

"I'll probably work weekends." Victor sighed, taking his tray to the drop off and coming back. "I'm going to give this to the coordination lady. Take care."

"You as well, V. Don't overwork yourself."

Victor took his earbuds out and started listening to music while he walked to the administration office. After handing in the form and signing up for each Saturday, he left for the gym.

"Hey, V. Coach is back today." He heard, looking to Cameron.

"I'm glad to hear he is feeling better." Victor stated as he changed and went out to help set up for a long practice.

His legs ached as he made way to his dorm. Cameron stayed back as he was going to another teammate's dorm.

Victor finally made it back to his dorm as he fell onto the mattress with his last sigh of the dreadful day. He can't believe tomorrow was Friday. That meant only one day until his first day at the cafeteria.

"I'm guessing you had a long day?" Derrick asked after coming out of the bathroom.

"Don't even get me started. I would've made it if I didn't bump into that guy."

"Huh? Who?" Derrick sat down on his bed.

"A tall, black-haired guy. He was helping out in the cafeteria and-"

"Did he say anything?" Derrick interrupted.

"No, he didn't seem to talk."

"Ah, then you must be talking about Trevor. He's in my Ethics class. Word in my class is he doesn't even talk to the teachers. He seems strange."

"Wait, he doesn't speak at all?" Victor asked.

"No, I don't think anyone heard his voice. People say he's a mute."

"Well, that makes more sense. I'll have to tell Moriah. She tried to talk to him but he didn't respond."

Derrick shrugged, "I wouldn't worry too much. It's not like he seems to care as he never told anyone why he doesn't talk."