Ballet Shoes: Next Gen

VI

I think I laughed way too much writing a certain part of this chapter. Y'all will see why. The new characters that appear/are mentioned in this chapter's pronouns are as follows: Signe (he/she) , Marnie (she/gem) , Ming-Yue (she/her) , Wynn (he/him)

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Third Person's P.O.V.

It was bad.

Only a week of classes had gone by and Kenny was extremely doubtful that he was going to have a good time completing his bachelor's degree. There's always going to be ups and downs throughout school but this was absolutely ridiculous. The amount of stress Kenny felt was unreal. From the immense workload typical to university level studies to his anxiety almost always being through the roof. He just couldn't catch a break. Maybe it's just because Kenny's not used to his new environment yet but he really shouldn't feel this overwhelmed. That is, if you don't take Livius into account.

Kenny took Emery's advice of not engaging with him, unless absolutely necessary of course since group assignments exist. However, it's very hard to do that when they share most of the same classes. For the past week, Livius has made sure to scoff at Kenny whenever he's within earshot and make some sort of snarky comment.

The brunette couldn't care less about the insults thrown his way. But did Livius really feel the need to do that every single class? Is he that seriously that petty? If so, Livius was going to get annoying really quick. Scratch that, he was already getting on Kenny's nerves. And dealing with annoying people is very draining. Especially on top of every other stress university life has offered Kenny thus far.

"Can you get that?" Henri asked, not looking up from the assignment he was working on, as a knock sounded on their room door.

Kenny groaned into his pillow in response. Not wanting to get up just yet. He was trying to rest a bit before tackling his academic writing assignment.

"Please?" Henri asked.

"Fine," Kenny replied, hoisting himself up on his bed.

"You're the best roomie ever!" Henri called out as Kenny made his way over to their door.

"Hey Kenny," Roux beamed once Kenny opened the door, "I was wondering- You look like shit."

"Gee thanks," Kenny said sarcastically.

"Sorry that just threw me off," Roux apologized.

"It's alright," Kenny assured them, "What do you need?"

"Well," Roux began, "Emery, Signe and I noticed that you've been stressing this past week and-"

"I'm fine," Kenny interrupted, "It's really not that big of a deal."

"I figured you'd say something like that," Roux continued, "So I'm just going to say this."

Roux placed their hand on Kenny's shoulder. They shook him a little so that he would look them in the eyes. They reassuringly squeezed Kenny's shoulder before speaking once more.

"We haven't know each other long but we're your friends. We'll help each other out as much as we can and right now, you look like you need help. No offense."

"None taken," Kenny said, "Is that all you came to my building for?"

"Nope, we're going to a frat party," Roux casually said, "Now get changed."

"What? But I-"

"A frat party?" Henri called out from within the dorm room, nearly knocking over his desk chair as he stood up, "Wait for me guys!"