Every morning begins with the rise of the Supersun from behind the distant city, giving light to the campus of the Superversal Academy of Tomorrow. With every morning of the weekday, the residents of the dorms awaken, ready to take their classes, and on mornings of the weekend, most were still asleep and would stay asleep until the sun would begin descending again.
However, that was not the case for Rohan, as every morning at 6:00 A.M, he woke up by the sound of his alarm, which Dexter gradually learned to tune out. Rohan would then change his clothes to more athletic clothing, which was more form fitting and didn't make him sweat as much.
He'd then leave his dorm room early, head downstairs, and take himself out of the building when there was hardly anyone else in the lobby. The lobby would be mostly vacant while he'd stroll from the elevator pads to the exit, ready to start his day right.
Once exiting the building, Rohan would stretch for a few moments, and then check his Connect screen, waiting patiently. It would never take over a minute however for someone else to exit the same building, that someone being Sriya, who would be usually wearing a sweater. Rohan would then turn off his Connect to greet Sriya, as the two would acquaint themselves with each other.
Once they were both ready then, they'd begin their run, racing deeper into the campus on their track. Side by side, they'd make their way to the college gym section that they had seen during their tour, which was open, and surprisingly well populated, as the two weren't the only to get a start early.
Inside the buildings, they would then work on different weight machines and help each other lift, or practice other exercises in a multitude of different rooms. They would practice running with locks around their legs weighing them down, practicing their swings on the combat machines, and after more practicing, they'd finish with a swim in the pool.
Eventually, they'd leave the gym, and the two would run side by side back to their dorm building, the time being usually 8:00 A.M by the time of return. They would both take the elevator up to the top floor, and say their goodbyes before going their separate ways back to their dorms.
Inside his dorm, Rohan would head into the bathroom, and turn on the shower before undressing and getting in. He always made sure to keep the temperature chilling cold, as it refreshed his skin, and helped him stay awake rather than drifting in the warmth. He'd stay in the shower for a few minutes before eventually getting out, dawning one of the bathrobes, and then starting his morning routine.
Once finished doing his hair and cleaning himself, he'd leave the bathroom, and by this point Dexter would've most likely woken up due to the sounds of Rohan shuffling around. He'd be clearly annoyed, but would deal with it regardless, and Rohan would apologize before activating the black wall between the two and then proceeding to change into his normal clothing.
He'd finally turn off the wall while getting comfortable in his jacket, and once he does, Dexter would go into the bathroom on his own to get ready for the day. As he does, Rohan would sit at his desk and open his Connect, going through his work for his different classes to make sure everything was finished. If there was something left that he could do in time, he'd do it, usually needing to work on programs with the holographic keyboard.
If he didn't have anything however, he'd simply start self educating himself on the incoming material, usually by researching for videos about the subjects he already knew would be taught.
He would do this until 9:00 AM, as while Dexter would usually go off for breakfast earlier, he didn't need to worry himself since he already would get it at the building for his first class, which remained constant since he had that class everyday.
Eventually, Rohan would close out of his Connect and go downstairs, and wait several minutes in the lobby until Shuraj would lead the rest of the group to meet with him. They'd all greet Rohan before leaving as a group to their first class.
Once they'd get inside the building, they'd go to the cafe to grab a light breakfast and royx, requiring the thirty minutes extra that they had to be there. Rohan normally got a croissant or something of that nature, while Shuraj would almost always get a donut or something else flavory that they could find.
Once they'd finished eating, they'd go up to attend their first class, which is always composed of uniform lectures dealt by the professor Mr. Fred, who'd yap at anyone who seemed to be conversing with other students. Rohan didn't seem to mind, as he spent the whole class taking notes and following through practices, his mind always on the class and never wavering. He found the class informative and thus interesting, a sentiment that wasn't so popular amongst other students, who instead found the class boring and tedious.
During partner assignments, Rohan usually worked with Ara, who was also very dedicated to the class, making them academic equals. The two always finished the classwork first, and usually proceeded to help the rest of the group catch up, being the pioneers in most of the projects, and hardly ever having to finish partner or group work after class.
Ara would assist his brother and Vrey while Rohan helps Shuraj and Sriya, with everyone by the end being on the same page, even though most were being carried by Rohan and Ara. However, there were times when others such as Ari and Shuraj were able to make breakthroughs others couldn't, and so in the end, everyone pulled some weight.
However, if they were unable to finish the work during the class, they would make up for it after class and after lunch, usually in the lounges of the dorm lobby, sitting in the square of sofas with their Connects all open on their work. Rohan and Ara would almost always be ahead however, and mostly helped everyone else while they helped them. Rohan and Shuraj found themselves working together usually out of class, as Sriya would usually just follow along while Shuraj had more curiosity in what exactly he was supposed to follow.
While working on one of their projects requiring a program that could sort users into a database based off of certain similarities in attributes, Shuraj was especially curious, speaking back and forth with Rohan as they figured out the program.
Shuraj asks, "Wait, why do I need this here though? It doesn't point it out in directions, it just says I need these three methods, why are you asking me to add these others?"
Rohan gives a light smirk, seeing that Shuraj, as most students, had read the directions to the program they were to write statically and as though they were reading a textbook, not giving any creative intuition. He knew it was a common trap, and while students could indeed complete the program without any extra methods, it would be incredibly difficult given the workload.
He shakes his head, and he calmly responds, "Well, the methods we're writing are to help us with the main three that we need to make. If we break down the functionality of the methods we need to write, we can make smaller and easier methods out of them, and then use them wisely to do what we need to ultimately do. It might sound like more work, but in the end, you'll be doing far less than if you hardcoded everything."
Shuraj puts his hand on his chin, confused, and he asks "Eh? But why wouldn't they just tell us to do that somewhere?"
Rohan smiles, and he answers, "Because, in a way, this is a test to see if students understand the creative flow of programming well enough to arrive at this conclusion naturally. It's trivial to professionals, and they want to see if they can prod those elements out of us. And if we fail, the professor will most likely go over that shortcoming in the class after it's due."
Shuraj shrugs his shoulders, understanding the logic to Rohan's statements. It was fascinating to see how intelligent he seemed to be for the class, and how natural it came to him, while he usually wouldn't have put in the effort.
He sighs, and complains "Well, I wouldn't have thought about it that way. You other computer science majors probably have studied their whole lives for this and are basically ready to graduate before coming here. I just chose this randomly because I heard it was cool and I didn't know what else to do."
Rohan blinks in surprise, as he didn't expect Shuraj to deviate from his confident demeanor instead for something more insecure and fragile. Rohan had known Shuraj didn't seem to work as hard for his classes, requiring more help than usual, and had suspected that Shuraj simply didn't care about school.
Perhaps it wasn't something so simple, and perhaps it was something deeper and serious.
Rohan gives a soft reassuring smile, and he tries to help, saying "Not in the slightest, most people that come here also have no idea what to do with their lives, they're just going with the flow. I myself only have a few years of extra experience, nothing I spent my whole life on exactly. And something like the creative process is something anyone can gain in not too much time, it's just an instinct you acquire, not like memorizing equations."
Rohan leans forward, and he puts his hand on Shuraj's shoulder, adding "I'll help you and I can promise that as long as you're dedicated, you'll be in the top tier of the class in months. Anyone can make it, they just need to try hard enough. And with the right help, it can be even easier."
Shuraj lifts his head to meet Rohan's eyes, and he takes a deep breath. He nods his head in response, and says with a more hopeful tone, "You're right, I just need to try harder. Thank you Roh, I'll make sure not to waste your time."
Rohan shakes his head, and he says, "You guys aren't wasting my time, this is far better than working alone."
Shuraj smiles softly from the kind words, and he nods.
Rohan takes his hand off his shoulder, and resumes, "Now, as you can see, this first method is asking you to create a sorting system, but in order to do that you need to be able to compare a variety of different components with each other, which may be easier to do in a separate method that we can call for simple questioning. So first, we should make this-."
As Rohan continues to talk, Sriya follows along with the code, keeping an eye on Shuraj, his expression more serious and even concerned, but he decides to stay quiet on the issue.
Rohan proceeds to assist both Sriya and Shuraj through the rest of the program, and by the end, they were able to finish the program a solid thirty minutes before their next class was to start.
Everyone gets up and turns off their Connect before heading up to the main lobby floor, and then exiting the building together. Rohan stands next to Shuraj, continuing to talk, as they had limited time due to the fact that their next classes were different from each other.
The group walks from the dorm building all the way to the computer science sector, as while they have to go to separate buildings, it is still relatively close, and so they can stay together for a good portion of the path. Of course, only Rohan would need to deviate anyways, as the others still had the same class, but even then they wanted to optimize staying all together.
As the group approaches the building Rohan was not to go into, which was built more like a stadium rather than the skyscraper of sorts he had to go to, he talks with Shuraj over plans for after their last class.
Shuraj recommends, "We should start finding people that we could maybe invite to some parties sometime. That could be fun, ya know? I'm sure it'll be even easier since there are certain classes we have separately, so we have more people to ask."
Rohan sighs, and he disapprovingly argues "Come on, we shouldn't do parties. They just manifest into huge predicaments, and steal valuable study time. I thought we talked about how we need to help you catch up to speed, how would we do that if we're bothering ourselves over parties."
Shuraj smirks, and he shrugs his shoulders, saying "Hey, I'm still going to work, of course. But like, do you really want to spend all four years here studying nonstop and working nonstop? That would become a nightmare so quickly, so we should have something fun to balance out the work, right?"
Rohan lets out a breath from his nose, and he asks, "But isn't it too early even then to think about that? We're still relatively young in the semester, so we should wait before figuring out a way to waste time. And even then, I'm opposed to the idea, parties are just not helpful in any way, we can always just work together."
Shuraj frowns, and he complains, "Come on Roh, don't be like that. You're smart but you're gonna burn out if you don't let yourself loose sometimes. Relax, I'll figure it out myself, you just do you. Cool?"
Rohan rolls his eyes to himself, and he answers tiredly and simply with "Cool."
The two then stop by the entrance door of the building, where they stop to say their goodbyes to Rohan. Rohan turns back to face everyone else, and he waves to them, slowly backtracking and giving them space to enter the building.
Vrey waves his hands back, and he says, "See you later!"
Rohan then walks off on his own and towards his own class, leaving the rest of the group to go to their own.
Sriya turns to Shuraj, and he sighs. He then asks him, "Hey, you good."
Shuraj turns to Sriya with slight confusion over the question, asking "What do you mean? Why wouldn't I?"
Sriya shakes his head, and he insists "You seem a bit off lately. We're in this together, right?"
Shuraj stares at Sriya for a few moments, and he then blinks with wide eyes, as though he just understood what was being asked. He nods his head, and answers "Yeah, we are."
He then turns to the rest of the group, and says, "Let's go," before walking into the building himself, and leading the rest of the group to their next class.