Rohan leads Dexter down to the end of the corridor and takes a turn into the curved hallway before continuing onward, with both of them walking hastily while trying to restrain themselves from breaking into sprints, for even as they are aware of their lateness, they want to act respectful. There is complete silence in the hallway, as there is no longer the sound of voices from the doors, leading to the conclusion that everyone had left their rooms to move on to the next stage of the first day orientation.
Rohan's Connect is projecting a hologram in front of him, actively showing him a three dimensional map that he had pulled up with his SAT app to lead him to the main hall where the students were to meet for their first dinner. The hologram initially only depicts the curved hallway that they are walking down in order, having zoomed in on where they are in order to simplify the directions, as in the hologram the three dimensional model representing Rohan follows the yellow path.
Rohan seems the most calm out of the two, as Dexter was panting and clearly freaking out internally, although deep inside Rohan was melting with every passing second. He is only better able to hide it, especially for when work is necessary, for he knows that freaking out would only delay the two further.
His morning was already a shaky start with his intense tiredness, and the followup of the elevator misstep didn't help change the mood. However, neither would be anywhere as strong as a crime to arrive late to his first dinner, as the fear of walking in during the speech fuels his legs.
He couldn't think of any ways to create worse impressions than to interrupt the president of the whole university with a late arrival, as the combination of possible official punishments and the sheer embarrassment could ruin the whole experience of his college life for the remainder of his time.
Dexter pants quietly as he follows Rohan's perfect strides, as he was clearly speed walking, which was surprisingly hard to keep up with. He gulps and looks up at Rohan, feeling guilty for wasting time admiring the room when they should've most likely not even have gone to their room.
Dexter sighs, and he asks through breaths, "They said it starts at five, right? Does that mean the speech starts at five, or they start allowing students in at five? Because if it's the second one then we should be fine."
Rohan tilts his head as he looks ahead of himself, contemplating, and then looks back down at his hologram to confirm that he was heading the right way, multitasking both the navigation and answering the question. He then shakes his head, and approaches the elevator door.
He stops in front of the elevator door, and perks his head up, waiting for it to notice his presence. He then observes as a yellow light suddenly illuminates from the wall right above the elevator door, blinking to indicate that the elevator is now being summoned to them.
He then takes a step back, and puts his hands behind his back, as though trying to force a formal stance to thus force a sense of confidence to calm his anxiety, however it was hardly effective.
He then turns to Dexter, who stops next to him, awaiting a response.
Rohan replies, "I feel like if it was the second, there would be more people here."
Dexter frowns and looks down, as Rohan's harsh logic overpowers any optimistic hope. He says in a dreadful voice, "True."
A few seconds of silence later, the yellow blinking light flashes green, and illuminates constantly rather than flashing for a few moments. The elevator door then dissolves open, revealing the elevator pad waiting for them. Both Rohan and Dexter step inside the empty elevator, and Rohan heads straight for the podium.
The podium was already active, with the holographic menu giving the large array of different floors and other miscellaneous buttons. Rohan presses on the holographic button for the ground floor, causing the button to illuminate with a green glow.
The elevator door materializes shut, and the elevator pad begins to descend down the shaft quickly, however it was clear that it would take time due to the fact that it was a full ride from the very top floor to the very bottom floor.
Rohan steps from the podium and stands by the edge of the pad for an easy exit, clearly trying to cut down on as much time as he could. His Connect continues to display the map in front of him, displaying his location being changed in real time, descending down the tall dorm building and following the yellow vertical path.
Dexter walks to Rohan's side, wanting to stay near so he wouldn't get lost. He looks at Rohan, and then looks ahead, waiting.
Minutes later, the pad visibly descends down into the lobby, as the glass shaft allows for visibility of the elevator pad and its users inside. The pad descends to the floor, and stops, allowing for exit as it gets below the opening of the shafts, where there is no obstruction for the passengers.
Rohan steps off of the pad, and looks around to see that there wasn't anyone in the lobby. He sighs with regret, seeing that once more he was given the sign that he was late. His eyes target the far exit door of the building, and he begins speed walking again, his map out in front of him as he wastes no time making hasty movements.
Dexter gets off the pad as well and follows behind, visibly struggling to keep pace with Rohan, however seeming to be managing slightly. He feels the strong anxious urgency from within Rohan, and knows it would be a horrendous idea to ask him to slow down.
However, it wasn't easy to keep up at all, and it was punishment for his mistake.
Rohan passes the beautiful garden without paying a thought before arriving at the exit door, and he finally exits the building along with Dexter, outside and ready to get to the hall.
Immediately after leaving the lobby, Rohan picks up speed, as his eyes begin surveying his area to judge an audience. However, as usual, there was nobody in the large dorm field that the towers stand on, as it felt like the college was a ghost town.
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he looks back down at the map. He then puts his hand over the map, and extends his arm out, causing the map to seem to distance from Rohan's body as the hologram projects farther out. The map also becomes two dimensional, giving a birds eye view of the campus and giving the path to the main hall.
The map now appears more traditional, with the buildings now being flat rectangles without much detail, and Rohan now being represented by a blue triangle rather than a detailed avatar. The triangle sits in a large space with the four square dorms at the corners, and the yellow path continues past the triangle, seeming to extend down the field and to its borders before continuing on past what the hologram first shows, as it's zoomed in on him.
He looks at the time for reference, which was displayed on the top edge of his Connect hologram, which the number is displayed by: '4:55 P.M.' Five minutes before the time they were supposed to arrive.
He then looks at the map, and down on the bottom left for the distance they would need to travel to reach their destination. A number is displayed at the corner of the screen, which reads "0.70 Miles," indicating that they have quite the distance to make.
Rohan turns to Dexter, and he nods his head, and commands "Come on, let's try getting there in time. Follow me."
Before Dexter could respond, Rohan turns back ahead of himself, and breaks into a sprint. Now knowing nobody was there to watch him, he judged his two options, and chose the option of risking formality over proper arrival was the most appropriate.
He quickly picks up acceleration as he races down the path of the dorm field, using the map to guide him as his arms fly back and forth.
Dexter's eyes widen, and he opens his mouth to yell with the request of waiting for him, however he stops himself before making a sound. He grunts to himself, and then breaks out into a sprint as well, knowing he had to try keeping up.
He pushes himself as hard as he can, knowing that by the end he would be fairly sweaty, as he is nowhere as athletic as his brother. Still, he pushes to keep up, slowly closing distance between them until he can get to a strong and consistent pace.
The two race down the dorm field, which is even harder since they were in one of the two outer dorm buildings, meaning they had to run the whole distance of the field to get into the inner portion of the campus.
Rohan stays ahead, and the two make their way through the whole field, heading straight past the dorm building on the far side yet next to their own. Past the farther dorm building is a gray sidewalk which runs horizontally to Rohan and Dexter, passing the field and taking its own direction. The sidewalk has a soft glow which is vaguely visible similar to the road that also runs parallel to it on its left side, as it seems the sidewalk is paired with a road. Neither the sidewalk's nor road's glows are much pronounced however, as the intense cyan glow of the supersun is even more intense due to the approaching sunset.
Rohan arrives at the far side of the field, and he steps on the sidewalk before immediately pivoting to his right, standing parallel to the sidewalk's path before bolting onwards. His speed doesn't slow however, as instead it seems he speeds up, trying to push himself to reach the end. He takes a glance at his holographic map ahead of him, making an analysis to further memorize his path to reduce need for more of the same analysis.
After a moment of staring, he looks back up and ahead of himself as he runs down the path, his eyes contracting as he analyzes his surroundings for reference.
Behind Rohan is Dexter, who pants heavily with both of his arms constantly swinging, struggling to keep up. He looks ahead at Rohan, then looks past to see that the two were boarding a path that seems to go a far distance without many buildings around, as it seems the campus near the dorms were rather bare, but rather contained more open space. In a way, the open space is more peaceful, however it also means something else.
The main hall had to be even farther from them.
Rohan continues his race down the path, not giving much attention to the vegetation beside him, as there appear to be more trees on the other side of the road beside the sidewalk. There are also more open fields beside the road, as only far in the distance were there more buildings, although they lack clarity due to the trees blocking them.
The two continue on the path, which seems straight for the most part, allowing them to not have to worry about excessive turns, or turns at all. With this, Rohan begins picking up even more speed, to which Dexter attempts to emulate, however it was clear he was hardly keeping up as it was.
Ahead of the path was an intersection with a road, which presumably led to the parking lot. Luckily there didn't seem to be any pods around, meaning there was no need for further caution.
Rohan looks ahead at the road, and as he is about to step on the road, he leaps forward, only taking one step on the road to spring himself off, as if trying to cut down on time with any little chance.
Dexter watches Rohan jump, but he opts instead to simply run on the road, as he wasn't sure if he could copy the more unique feats. However, he notices that Rohan was farther from him, and the difference had cost him space.
After passing the road, the two enter an extensive and rich forest that seems to envelop the next part of the path. Dark brown stems and branches protrude from the ground around the two as they're blanketed by a thick layer of vibrant green leaves above, which hides some of the intense cyan light.
Rohan runs on the new path, which is no longer the glowing gray sidewalk, but instead a faintly visible brown smooth path, meant to emulate dirt. The path does give off a faint brown glow however, which is more visible than the sidewalk outside due to the lack of natural light under the leaves. The path also seems to become thinner than the sidewalk, giving less space for Rohan to sprint, but he is still able to make due with what he has. He looks down at his map to see that he was closing in on the location, with there only now being "0.06 Miles" to go and he then turns to view the time on the screen, which reads '4:59 PM.'
His face becomes stern as he sees that they are still burning time, and he raises his head to continue. He lowers his body closer to the ground to pick up speed.
Dexter chases Rohan, and as he does, he decides to view his surroundings while being mindful of his speed. He notices more buildings past the thick forest, although they were in the distance, most likely far from the forest.
In only a few moments, Rohan finally gets to the end of the forest, finally managing to reach the end. He gets past the final few luscious trees, to which his view of the forest is replaced by a view of a short peach ramp, no longer meant to imitate dirt. As he nears the staircase, he hears a sudden influx of voices, thus prompting him to raise his head and view the area ahead in pleasant surprise mixed with confusion.
Upon raising his head, Rohan finds himself approaching a great plaza with the same peach floor, which is wide open opposite from the forest. The plaza doesn't have too much going on by itself, although there are several long brown benches by the edges of the plaza equipped with back support, which hover without legs. The brown leather seems to act as a comforter which sits above a silver frame, which is what levitates the bench. In all of the benches reside students, all sitting down and waiting patiently, either speaking to others or alone in their own world.
The rest of the plaza was filled with standing students, all of them bunched together. Their combined voices result in loud chatter audible from a distance, as Rohan felt he had possibly tuned other sounds to concentrate, which was why he couldn't hear them earlier.
Ahead of the plaza is a tall and long silver building with a shape similar to a church, however far more modernized, as the roofs were smooth and the overall shape was more rounded with softer material. There are also an array of windows along the building and in front, with warm yellow light emanating from within, generating a welcoming aura. The building was grand, clearly meant to hold a great count of students and more.
The students outside seem to be waiting, as they are closer to the entrance, as it seemed the doors were closed which kept them out.
Rohan abruptly stops right before the ramp, and he begins taking deep breaths as his eyes go straight to the map.
The map shows a straight path to the destination, which cuts through a large rectangular space representing the plaza into a building shaped similarly to that of the one in front, a building which has the name 'MAIN HALL' on the map over it.
Rohan smiles to himself, and he waves his hand over the hologram, allowing the hologram holding the map to close. He then lowers his hand to his side, and looks back at the sea of students, proud that he managed to arrive before it was too late, even by the minute.
The front door of the silver building suddenly dissolves without visible prompting, as if activated remotely. The students at the front notice the open door, and they begin entering the building without a thought, continuing to speak.
More students notice the change, and the hordes all approach the door, as it seemed they were now let in.
Rohan looks back down as a holographic screen projects from his Connect, allowing him to check the time, and just as he thought, it now reads '5:00 PM.'
He had made it just in time.
Suddenly, the sound of yelling approaches Rohan from behind, and he turns around to see Dexter sprinting straight for him. Rohan smiles softly to see his brother tagging along, and watches as Dexter slows down to a stop.
Dexter throws his body forwards, and he begins breathing heavily as he stares down at the floor, clearly exhausted. His breaths were loud as he put his right hand over his heart, as if to feel the beat.
Dexter manages to let out some words through heavy breaths, that being "Did we...make it…?"
Rohan nods his head, and he turns back to face the plaza, which was filled with students heading into the hall. He takes one breath, readying to continue, his body miraculously absent of sweat, although he decides to comb his hair with his hand in case it had been ruined, which it hadn't.
He then responds, "Stand up straight and look up, it'll help you catch your breath faster. Come on, they just started letting everyone in, let's join them."
Rohan then proceeds to walk down the ramp, now at a slower and more conventional pace, as he seems to seamlessly reintegrate himself with the students. He gets to the bottom of the ramp, and walks into the crowd, staying back to let himself stay visible for his brother while making sure to partially assimilate.
Dexter stands up straight and tilts his head up before taking a deep breath as instructed, and then looks back down at the crowd.
Dexter then proceeds to follow down the ramp and catch up with Rohan, slowing down to a walk as he arrives at the crowd. He turns to Rohan and smiles, as the two could now be calmer knowing they wouldn't be late and make fools of themselves.
However, Dexter looks down to see his whole body sweating profusely, as he didn't handle the run as well as his brother. He feels somewhat uncomfortable being in such a populated space as he feels sweat in his hair and forehead, and his clothes almost glued onto him due to the sweat.
His smile flattens as he finds himself still breathing heavily, causing some people to cast glances at him in confusion.
He notices some of the people looking at him, and he gives an awkward smile, causing them to look away. He looks back at Rohan, and sighs.
He then jokes halfheartedly, "Hopefully next time we can walk."
Rohan nods his head as he gets closer to the door, the crowd hardly outside anymore as the vast majority had already entered the building.
He replies with his own remark, "At least that should be a good warning for how it'll be like to wake up late."
The two enter the hall, with the voices continuing within, echoing more due to the enclosed space. The plaza empties, as anyone who would've entered at that moment would have arrived alone. Luckily, it seems there were no such people, as the two brothers had made it to the hall with the rest of the sea of students.