Of Love, Lies, and Dreamers

Grand marble arches covering the freshly cleaned walkways. Small wooded areas, with freshly cut grass and neat benches. Smartly dressed students with a cosmopolitan air about themselves. These are some of the descriptions of the area around a high ranking university. Well, at least that’s what you’d expect from the premier university of the country. The reality, however, more…. Well, hobos were on the street panhandling, unpleasant odors drifted through the air in odd patches, and the buildings while not necessarily crossing the line of dilapidated, certainly weaved across it like a frat boy during homecoming week.
When Mark finally came to the building where his entrance exam would be held, the depreciated expectations (brought about by the rest of the area), made what might have seemed a dull building (previous to a tour of the rest of the campus), seem wonderful by comparison. The guide book he had received said there were four floors and a basement. The building itself was of moderately large size for holding class rooms, probably about six lecture halls on each floor, or so. The four story building really couldn’t be said to loom over the street, considering that within easy viewing distance were sky scrapers that should put a meager four floors to shame. Still, in spite of its comparatively small size there was something about it. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Nothing was terribly off with the design or any other outward feature, and yet, he could just tell there was something, well something wrong. It had an oppressive aura to it for some reason.
Just as he was about to tell his brother about the…wrongness… he discovered its source. The area surrounding the building was devoid of people. Not to say, of course that people weren’t walking past it on the side walk, but no one stayed still, with any sort of proximity, near the building. No students highlighting texts on the stairs. No panhandlers. No one chatting on a cell. In fact, everyone who approached the area seemed to be in a rush to get past it. As if they wanted to get away from the area. The building lacked the human characteristic of the rest of the city campus. Sure, Mark thought that much of that characteristic was pretty cruddy and the school would be better off without smelly hobos, but to see such a striking contrast, and only surrounding the one building he had to go into, was disconcerting.
This wouldn’t have been a problem, he thought, if we had taken the entrance exam with everyone else. There aunt, however, had insisted that they remain at home for a full week following the passing of their parents. That meant they missed the normal period for their schools entrance exam. He wasn’t callous to the sadness of his mom and dad dying in a car crash, he merely didn’t want to be stuck with his crazy aunt and brother in her little apartment for seven days with nothing to do but feel sorry for himself. Instead of trying to move on with his life as his parents would have wanted his aunt made it so their deaths were all the worse.
As a result he found himself waiting around for the summer months worrying about the entrance exam instead of having it done and behind him. To be fair, from what he read online the entrance exam was more of a formality than anything. Once you were provisionally accepted into the school they rarely, if ever, didn’t let you in. What was important was that the exam also served as a placement exam. The results would be calculated as a part of student’s class ranking, for class allocation, and most importantly for scholarship allocation. Since his parents were dead now he and his brother really needed to get financial assistance to cover tuition. While they still had money from the life insurance, it would never support both of them through four years of college.
So here he was at the creepy, no one will come close to it building, getting ready to take the only make up exam offered by his school. Of course the exam would be placed as inconveniently as possible. Of course it would be the week before class started so it was right after he would need to move into the dorm. Of course, of course of course. Sigh. If his brother could hear his thoughts he’d tell him he was whining again. And why not? Didn’t he have a right to whine? It was stupid to delay the exam so much. Well, at least they had given him his dorm assignment and they got to move in the night before the test.
The room had been… well, it could have been worse. It was much smaller than what he expected. Even smaller than his aunts apartment, and he had spent weeks complaining about that. He was still annoyed. All of the single rooms were taken by upperclassman so he was being forced to share a bedroom with his brother and a living room/kitchen with four other guys. He would never have any privacy at all. Throw in that there were only two bathrooms (for 6 guys!) and the whole affair seemed a recipe for disaster.
Not only wouldn’t he be able to jack off in his own room, but with so few bathrooms he would have someone bothering him if he took too long in the shower. It just meant he would have to date an upperclassman hotty soon. One who wouldn’t mind doing the nasty in his own dorm instead of Mark’s, Because he wasn’t gonna be taking anyone to that sardine can they called a room. He’d heard of people who did it even when there roommate was there, but just the thought left it limp. Especially considering his roommate was his brother. He could just see it. He’d be in bed grunting and thrusting away and his brother would start making snide comments. “Hey Mark, is that all?” “You should go faster.” “You’re partner doesn’t look like they he’s enjoying it.” Arghhhhhhh!!! No thank you!
With that horrible thought bouncing around his head, Mark focused back on getting through the exam. Mark increased his speed to catch his brother who he’d managed to trail behind while lost in unpleasant thoughts. As he walked behind his brother he thought to himself for the umpteen millionth time, I wish I had a body like that. Where Mark was skinny and wiry Dan was all muscle. Dan even had the height to pull off the muscles without looking bulky. Not to say Mark was short, 5’ 9” was not short, just average, but Dan was 6’ 2” and whenever they stood next to each other Mark always looked short in comparison. As a consolation, Mark did know he was pretty good looking. His brown, shoulder length hair framed a face with striking blue eyes that left others drooling. Yet while he acted the part of the manly aggressive seme (as far as he was concerned), it was Dan who really looked the part.
As they walked into the building they were greeted by an attendant sitting behind the front desk who directed them to a room on the third floor. He and his brother quickly rushed into one of the elevators before its doors closed when they noticed it empty of all the occupants. Not to say that they couldn’t use the stairs, but if the elevator was already there why waste it? As they waited on the short ride up the taller brother confront the shorter about the test.
“Don’t stress yourself out about this. You know you are going to do fine and even if we don’t get any money we’ll figure something out. “Aunty dearest” may be annoying but she’ll help us out. And we can get jobs on campus if we need to. Oh, if you need anything in the test feel free to ask the people, they’re taking our money after all so they’ll help” - Mark interrupted Dan’s lecture with an annoyed
“Yeah, yeah I know. I can handle myself. Worry about your own damn self. You’re not mom.” Even as he said it, though, he regretted the comment. Dan was having more difficulty dealing with losing their parents after all. Even as he cursed his slip the shorter brother saw Dan’s eyes darken and immediately withdrawing back into the silence which had characterized their relationship the past few weeks. Trying to fix his screw up Mark quickly apologized.
“Ahhhh, sorry man. I know you don’t mean any harm. It’s just, I can handle myself. We’re in college now, and on our own. We have to take care of ourselves. I can’t be relying on you for every little thing, now can I? Besides, I, for one, can handle any test. You may have Hercules’ build, but I am the one with Athena’s favor. Haven’t come across a test I couldn’t best yet.”
“I know, sorry to be moody.” Dan replied as the elevator came to a stop on the third floor. “Let’s do this thing. I’ve got a feeling that this is our first step to a great future.”
They stepped up to the woman at a table in front of the room they were headed to. The woman took down their names and handed them packets which they were told not to open until prompted by a proctor. Seating, she said, was decided on a first come first serve basis, but otherwise they were free to sit in any open spot. With that she waved them into the door behind her table.
Dan opened the door, striding through and as he followed his brother, Mark was struck by the size of the test hall. From the outside he had thought it could house, maybe 60 people. When they stepped through the door, however, he found he was grossly mistaken. The room must have covered the entire 3rd floor of the building! What’s more, the room was packed! At least 500 people were in the desks that filled the room. How could this many people have missed the first exam? Seeing that there were only two seats left they quickly claimed them, wondering why they were the last ones here. Mark new they had arrived half an hour before the start time. Shouldn’t there be someone not here yet? Had he got the time wrong?
Even as he started that train of thought a loud crash drew his attention. Turning to see who would slam the door with such force, he saw a huge man walking to the front of the room. His booming voice echoed throughout the room. “Seeing as everyone is here I don’t see any reason not to start the test early. Each of you received a packet. In it you will find your entrance examination. I suggest you do your best on this test. Some of you might be under the impressions that this will be an easy test, or that you are already guaranteed admission at this point. You are sadly mistaken.” Marks stomach jumped into his throat at this comment. “In fact half of you will probably fail this test.”
At this the room was filled with angry mutterings. One particularly loud voice exclaimed “this is ridiculous. What will we do if we aren’t accepted? It’s already late August. What school will accept us this late in the year. We were given acceptance letters.” The boy was standing next to his seat by the end of his speech, waving his hands in the air in a red faced fit of rage. Mark agreed with him, but wasn’t about to yell at the ogre who had made the announcement. Still, he and Dan couldn’t just sit around waiting until next year to get into another school. Mark would go insane!
The big man looked directly at the boy. His glare would have cowed a lion. “Your opinion is duly noted Mr. Sheppard,” the proctor growled. “Yes, I know who you are. I know all of my prospective students. You were at the top of your high school class, student government president, and if I am not mistaken, the captain of the football team. All very impressive. I wonder what we can do about this problem? I know! In consideration of the extreme time issues you could face if you fail I will release you early from this examination so you can look into the problem.”
The room was completely silent as the boy stuttered his response. “What do you mean release me early?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. I’m failing you ahead of time so you can look into applying to other schools. Considering how worried you are that you won’t have the time to find another school if you fail this test, I would think you should be ecstatic. You now have the time it would have taken to complete this test added to your search time. Thank you for coming. Have a nice day. Goodbye.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Sheppard quickly replied. “I, uh, I think I’ll just take the test, sorry for causing trouble, just ignore me.”
Even as the young man recanted his previous complaints, however, two men in dark suits appeared on either side of his desk. Seemingly having appeared from nowhere the men grabbed the boy by his arms and began dragging him from the room with hushed “The opinions of the proctor are final”. The audience saw him pulled through the door. Not a single sound was made. Even the normal shuffle of clothing on skin seemed dimmed after the harsh treatment they had witnessed. In contrast, the proctor seemed entirely unperturbed, merely continuing with his speech.
“Does anyone else have a problem? Well then, it seems you are all ready for my exam. Shall we begin?”