***
"Hey, watch out!"
Coley turns at the sudden noise in time to catch a Frisbee to the face.
Her glasses and phone fly off in the opposite direction of her body as she careens into the grass. She lands with a heavy thud in the middle of the quad and finds herself wishing the weight of her overfilled bag really would pull her into the ground.
Before she can even think to get up, a red-faced boy comes running up to her, extending a helpful hand. Coley can relate, though his complexion is due to the intense game of Ultimate Frisbee she has wandered into, and hers to utter mortification.
A petite brunette girl appears at Coley's other side as she is heaved upward, bag and all. She scoops up the disk and Coley's glasses. She hands them back to Coley and sprints to where the rest of the group has paused their game.
The boy lingers, to Coley's dismay.
When her glasses are firmly on her face again, his blurry shape rearranges into that of a tall, sturdy frame. His eyes are furrowed as he checks her over.
"Are you alright?" Most of his dark hair has fallen out of his ponytail and now frames his face. If Coley wasn't so embarrassed, she would probably take a longer look.
"Oh, what? I mean, yes, yes, I'm fine!" Coley messes with the straps of her backpack as she scans the grass at her feet.
"Wait, where's my phone? I definitely had it--"
She cuts herself off as he hands it to her, the article pulled up on her screen proudly proclaiming "The Evolution of Yaoi Fiction in 2010s Fandoms" in bold lettering.
"Interesting read?" He says, monotone.
No, seriously. If Coley could disappear into the ground, that would be amazing.
Unfortunately, the universe doesn't seem to be on Coley's side for most things.
"It's for... my capstone," Coley says weakly.
His expression doesn't change, which Coley isn't sure if she's grateful for.
"I'm a Fandom History major," she rushes to explain. "So it's all, you know, research. Social media, fandoms, Tropes, all of it really."
"You're studying Tropes?"
"Well, that's a part of it, yeah." Coley holds in a sigh of relief as his violet eyes light up.
"That's cool. I'm just an Aviation major. What's your Trope?"
Aaaaand the embarrassment is back.
"Oh, uh," Coley glances around the quad for an escape. "You know, walking face-first into projectiles. One of the boring ones."
He smiles a little at that and wow, okay.
"Yeah, I'm Enemies to Lovers," he says, and Coley can enviously hear the capitalization in his words. He vaguely indicates a lanky boy in an oversized jacket some distance away, who is impatiently calling his name. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
"No, that's cool!" She reassures, words nervously picking up speed again. She pretends to spot the time on her phone as she exits out of the cursed article, hating to cut the perfectly nice conversation short. It's just getting to be too much, is all.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm late for class!"
He quickly steps back, letting her pass to safety on the sidewalk. "Yeah, no problem. Safe travels."
Coley nods and whips up her hand to shoot him a fingergun, which she immediately regrets. "Haha, yeah, I'll try my best!"
She speedwalks across the rest of the lawn and pauses on the walkway a moment, breathing out.
Before abruptly realizing she is, in fact, late to lecture.
Coley groans and runs in earnest toward the campus library, several minutes away and clock now counting down in her head.
"No Coley, you can never get the fun tropes," she pants to herself as she rushes past university students laughing and talking. "That would be too easy!"
The university clock proclaims the hour, its low chime reverberating off the old stone buildings.
It's 10 a.m., and Coley's first day back at Trope University is off to a spectacular start.
***
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Coley Does Cindy: Because Coley Asked For It
Fanfic• Summary • At Trope University, every student is looking to find their Trope. Many find love at the college coffee shop or gym. Enemies turn to lovers and mutual pining is resolved between class periods. For nerdy and shy Coley, things are a diffe...
