Monsoon Season

part 1: marguerite

"Good morning, Edemno! You're listening to the 5 o' clock news on 67.8 Karma AM. Today's headlines start with a bizarre traffic accident involving a rhinoceros statue and a man on cocai-"

Kasai grunted as he smacked the alarm clock, angrily turning over in his bed and staring out the window at the still-dark metropolis.
He knew he shouldn't be resenting the fact that it was five in the morning since he, after all, had signed up for 6:30 Calculus, but it still was too early in his opinion. He hadn't anticipated just how much willpower it would take to get ready for classes so early. He turned his head from side to side, popping all the kinks out of his neck, and sat up while doing the same to his back. A particularly loud crack gave him cause to groan and hold his left hip for a second, but it gave him no further reason to be sitting in bed. With new energy from the recent activity and slight tears in his eyes from yawning so loudly, he scooted to the edge of the bed and got up, shaking off the dizzy feeling he received in return as he stumbled over to the closet. Though his clothes were strewn haphazardly on the floor, he did have a bit of a system: clothes beneath the clothes on top were nasty and needed to be washed as soon as possible, and clothes above them were not yet a biohazard and could be feasibly worn another day.
He chose a shirt from the top with no actual design, just a plain blue tee, and some simple jeans.
Then he slipped on his shoes and tiredly shuffled toward his stuff.
He'd been too tired to charge his laptop that night, so it sat open still, purveying his collection of report data. He sighed as he saw the battery percentage (11) and picked the thing up, sliding it into his bag along with its charger. With a frown, he remembered the insignificant amount of progress he'd made on that stupid biology report and quickly reminded himself to start making progress schedules like the others in his class. It seemed to help them get more organized, didn't it? And besides, he had nothing to lose, really, aside from his college credits.
He had no desire to lose those.

He scowled slightly as he ruffled quickly through his hair, battling it with a comb angrily. This damn unruly--
But worst of all certainly had to be his beard. Oh, how he hated his god-damned beard, but he had no time to shave, so it kept growing.
At the moment, it made him look like a mangy cat, but he didn't even care. Nobody hit on him anyways, so who was he to make a scene about his facial hair?
"At least I'm not metrosexual," he said to himself, nodding in solidarity and moving to the kitchen. Quickly he swallowed some orange juice from the carton and grabbed a piece of pizza, putting the carton back in the fridge and slamming the white door as he got to the entryway.
He looked down at his watch. 5:18. He sighed and rolled his eyes, grabbing his apartment keys from the tray at the entryway and slamming his own door shut. Down the stairs he ran to pass a little bit of time, and as he reached the large parking garage, he walked toward his beater truck and pat it happily, unlocking the driver's seat and climbing up into it. "Good morning, Yvonne," he said softly, patting the dashboard and checking his watch again.
5:42. He rolled his eyes as he noticed it.
Of course, he was always in such a rush that he was early.
Starting the truck anyways, though, he decided that it didn't really matter how early he was, since the more he got done at school, the better he'd feel about being behind in his other classes.

The drive to Armya state was always calming for Kasai, especially in the morning, when all of the plant life was beginning to come back to its summertime prominence, thanks in part to the copious amounts of dew adhered to their leaves.
He sped past them at 35 mph, but his gaze still slid over them affectionately as he drove to Armya State University. He'd always had to have his visor down during these early morning drives, not so much during the winter, but certainly when it got warm. Armya was a bit of an arid state, so when it came to be spring, the plants (and also Kasai) enjoyed the gentleness of the weather.
All these thoughts were rolling about in his mind as he approached the ASU sign, thumbs tapping the steering wheel in a rhythmic tone.
As he came upon the primary gate, he rolled down his window to see his old friend, the college guard.
"Student ID, please?" He said and nodded as the other provided his identification obediently.
"How are the kids, Mike?" Kasai asked and yawned a little.
"Fine, Ollie just had her first birthday."
Kass smiled. "I'll have to remember to get her a beanie baby," he replied, and Mike chuckled. "She collects those things now."
"Don't blame her," he said and gently shifted his truck back into gear as the gate began to open.
"Won't. Have a nice day, Kass."
Kasai nodded and smiled at him. "Yourself too, Mike!" He said and got out his bookbag, making sure he had everything he needed before parking in the corner of the lot.
Typically he had enough room to back up there, and besides, he always liked the nice walk to the Maths and Sciences building.
He enjoyed science, at least. Biology and Environmental Science were always his favorite, coupled with his second favorites, advanced physics and maths. Those classes were his favorites, and he'd made damn sure that he'd get to do them all at the same time, the last semester. He'd carefully picked out his schedule, since his first year had been a disorganized shit-show, and he was wising up now to the ways of college.
Even so, though, he was spacing out and hardly paying attention to his surroundings, like he had in his first year, and so the second a shimmer of brown caught his eye through the window, he focused on it, watching as a young, brown-haired male came through one of the east doors. Immediately Kasai felt nervous; the boy was attractive as hell.
He had wide green eyes the color of tamarack pines in the spring, and a soft, light face that Kasai could only describe as a fairy's face. The features were soft and almost muted, from the gentle eyebrows that curved around those fabulous green eyes, only accentuating the dark eyelashes, to the gentle, well-curved lips, perhaps a gentle pink color like.. like... He didn't even know. It was just... He stopped walking in his intense amazement, gawking at this beautiful piece of art, until the male stopped.
"--"