dr_magic2303 ✦ h.rj | ✔

three

"So why don't you reply? To the posts." Renjun asked curiously, back to trolling the message boards for new Dr. Magic posts. You two were holed up in your second floor study room again. "You've been tracking Dr. Magic so closely, you're getting to these posts before they do, and you can help all these students, too. So why don't you just reply instead?"

Yours and Renjun's search for Dr. Magic had been going on for a month now, and he'd been proving himself useful. He'd finally convinced you to rule out Dr. Li as a suspect when he found a message board post made from a school computer while Dr. Li was away at a conference giving a presentation. Confirmed to be done at the exact same time. So you'd found another wrong person, but you still didn't feel any closer to the right person. The remaining people felt like they were going to turn out to be dead ends, and there was nobody good to rule in either.

Spring break was coming up in a few weeks, which meant that commencement preparations would be starting, which meant that the colleges would be announcing who would be chosen to carry their banners, which meant the actual students who were going to be chosen would be told at least a week or two ahead of time. Every time you thought about that you wanted to bite something. Maybe there was some ancestral link between sirens and werewolves. Another paper waiting to be written.

"They don't want me. They want Dr. Magic." You told Renjun, hating the irritable edge in your voice when you addressed him. You weren't upset with him, you were just anxious in general. He didn't deserve to have you take it out on him.

"Right. Sorry..."

"No, Renjun, I'm sorry," you sighed, taking the wood pencil out of your mouth that you had been gnawing on. "I just want to get this Dr. Magic stuff over with before midterms because you and I are both going to get super busy studying for midterms, and then no matter which one of us gets picked to carry the banner, that's going to suck up a lot of time preparing for commencement too. I shouldn't have snapped at you though, sorry."

He offered you a small smile. "It's okay, I get it. It's another deadline. But it's a group project, remember? We've got this, Y/N."

You nodded. "Yeah, I know. Just feeling the pressure. I'm going to get something from the vending machine. You coming?"

"No, I'll keep chugging along."

"Okay. You want anything?"

"Nah. Thanks, though."

"Alright," you nodded, standing up and rolling your neck out. "I'm going to stretch my legs while I'm up, so I'll be a few."

"I won't sound the alarm then." He gave you a two-fingered salute as you headed to the door.

You meandered around the second floor, taking your sweet time to get to the stairs. There was a vending machine on the second floor, but it had a limited selection. The good snacks were all in the vending machines on the first floor, by the collaboration zones. Your back cracked all on its own as you plodded down the steps, and you let quiet groans with each one, until you finally landed on the first floor. There was a noticeable hum to the first floor, which only increased as you neared the two-thirds of the floor that was taken up by the collaboration zones. The vending machines were on the boundary of the bookshelves and the open spaces filled with tables and TV monitors and so many students.

Stopping in front of the drinks machine first, you mused over the options for a moment. Picking out your preferred seaweed-infused iced tea—an option you only saw sirens and the really hardcore human health-nuts drink—you then sidestepped to the snacks. It took you just a second to select a pack of mini peanut butter sandwich cookies. Neither peanut butter nor peanuts themselves were in the regular diet of a siren, but Renjun sometimes had the cookies on him for one of his werewolf friends and you'd picked up a taste for them. You would've never considered even trying them before hanging out with Renjun. Being an MCS major, you didn't like to admit it, but your social circle wasn't very diverse species-wise. You had your siren pod, and you were very happy sticking with them, thank you. Renjun, meanwhile, seemed to be best friends or friendly acquaintances with everything except a wyvern. You knew plenty about other species, after all, you excelled in class. But practical experience, you were finding you seemed to be lacking in. Maybe you should start your own Renjun-esque bucket list. Something to consider after finding Dr. Magic.