Chapter Text
College was so much better than Jude had imagined.
The prestigious Elfhame University was Jude's only academic goal as she suffered through high school, and when she got accepted on a full-ride, it had taken her a full month to fully accept it as reality. She made that happen with her own hard work and effort.
Her first semester had taken some getting used to in the beginning, especially when it came to being social, but she adjusted well enough. Her roommate, Liliver, had made it a point to befriend Jude within the first few weeks of school, and they'd been close ever since. Being friends with Liliver led to making more friends in Jude's first semester than her entire school life back home.
Van, Liliver’s childhood friend, also attended EU and, because the two were quite close from back home, it didn’t take long for Jude and Van to become friends. While he wasn’t as social as Liliver, he was just as likable and way more laidback, and Jude got along with him just as well because of it. His suitemate, Larkin, was much more introverted in the beginning of year – he spent most of his time playing video games in his room – but since Liliver and Jude ended up at Van’s so often, and Larkin was always home, he slowly got comfortable with them around and began hanging out with them. He was much quieter and level-headed than any of the others, but since Jude also enjoyed playing video games, she got along with him well.
Those three alone had made Jude's time at EU incredible.
Yes, she only had three friends. But it's more than she had ever had outside of her own family.
Growing up, her only friends were her sisters, though Vivi was only around so much. She had always been close with her twin, Taryn, but the older they got, the more their differences became apparent. Taryn ended up attending a small, private arts school near home and seemed very content. Jude, on the other hand, wanted to go somewhere farther away with strong academics and a big population where she could blend in. EU was her dream.
Now that she was back on campus for the first time in a month and a half, Jude couldn’t deny the excitement she felt for the semester. As she approached her dorm room, she could hear the chatter from inside, and the smile came to her face before she could process it.
She opened the door to her friend animatedly babbling to a listening Van and an already-bored Larkin. At the sound of the door opening, Liliver’s head whipped towards it with an award-winning smile.
“Jude! Come join us,” she cheered as she approached Jude quickly, wrapping her in a hug and grabbing a bag out of her hand.
“Oh, so you started without me?” Jude teased, chuckling as her roommate rolled her eyes in response.
“They got her a few minutes ago, you didn’t miss anything. Actually, I might as well start over,” Liliver grinned, plopping back on her bed.
Larkin groaned and pulled out his Switch.
“Oh, come on. Tell us about your break then,” she snapped.
“Nothing happened, just played games,” Larkin replied, already using his checked-out voice as his eyes stayed trained on the console.
“You can start over. He’s not listening regardless,” Van finally spoke from the chair at Lili’s desk, watching the scene unfold, completely amused. “Welcome back, Jude.”
“Thanks, Van,” Jude smiled. “Hi, Larkin,” she called as she kicked the boy lightly in the leg to alert him of her presence.
“Hey,” he grumbled back, looking up briefly to smile at Jude.
“I missed you guys,” Liliver beamed before they took turns catching each other up on their breaks.
The next day was already their first day of classes. Jude mostly took general education classes last semester, but today was her first day of taking a class in her actual major – political science.
When her alarm finally went off, she was practically jumping out of bed. Liliver wasn’t up yet, the girl loved to sleep in, so Jude got dressed and hurried out as quickly and quietly as she could.
By the time she arrived at her lecture hall, which luckily wasn’t too far from her dorm, the previous lecture was just getting out. All the seats were open, so she picked a spot near the aisle in the third row – close enough to be attentive and soak up as much information as possible, not as exposed as the first row. She liked being near the aisle so she could get in and out of class quickly, and she didn’t enjoy the feeling of shuffling over legs to get to a middle seat.
Lecture began normally with the professor going over the syllabus and what to expect from the class over the course of the semester. It didn’t sound anything crazy – occasional homework and readings, one big partner project to serve as a midterm, and a final. She could handle that.
The professor moved through the content quickly and even let the class out early. Jude hadn’t taken much out, so she gathered her things easily enough. As she climbed the stairs out of her lecture hall, however, her eyes caught on something. Something she prayed she was hallucinating.
Despite the black head of hair dropped to look at his phone, Jude recognized the boy sitting in the back row of the lecture hall instantly. Cardan fucking Greenbriar.
Fuck no.
Cardan had gone to the same high school as Jude back home and he and his friends were practically Jude and Taryn’s bullies. Cardan was the worst of the group and he crossed paths with Jude the most. They took many of the same APs and their schedules overlapped frequently each year, but they could not stand each other. They were the type to argue about a topic back and forth, raising their hands at the teacher and dissecting the other’s points instead of either of them taking the higher ground or giving up. They both had too much pride for that.
Before they openly feuded in high school, Jude spent many classes tolerating Cardan before she’d had enough. There were times she had answered questions and he would audibly groan at her answers. Sometimes he would roll his eyes. But she was right. Her answers were right. Why was he groaning? Jesus, it made her so mad.
After a while, he got bolder, and started fighting her on her answers. Half the time, they would be arguing back and forth to each other’s faces, dissecting each answer the other gave. The other half of the time, they would take turns raising their hands as if talking to the teacher, though they wouldn’t even bother being called on before speaking. Their arguments often had the potential go on endlessly as neither of them would give up easily, and they would only get cut off when the teacher had enough and moved on without the topic ever being settled.
Jude eventually started standing up for herself more as time went on. She would boast every time she got something right that Cardan got wrong. Every time she scored better on her tests than him. She never held back any thoughts that would rile the boy up.
In their last two years of high school, Jude and Cardan had every PE class together, and she quickly learned how much it pissed him off that she was stronger and faster than him. He wasn’t bad at anything they did by any means, but she was just better. She ran faster miles than him – and everyone else in her class – and made it a point to at least be good at any game the class played. Soccer days were her favorite because she would purposefully dribble around him knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep up, and she loved watching how frustrated he got. She wasn’t the absolutely best at every PE activity, but she made sure as hell to be better than Cardan, and that’s what mattered.
Taryn, however, hated how Jude fought back. All she wanted to do was lay low. She took every shove or insult with her head hung low, not caring if Jude stood up for her, just trying to avoid any extra attention being drawn to them. But that just wasn’t Jude.
So even though Cardan and his friends would torment them both, Cardan specialized in ruining Jude's day. He'd tripped her, pushed her books out of her hand as he passed her in the hallway, shoved her into lockers. It was typical, boring, textbook bully attempts. He made her blood boil, but she knew if she ever wanted to really fight him, that she could. That she would win. The only thing holding her back was expulsion, which would tarnish the perfect record she needed for EU.
His friends weren’t any better. The group of them were the closest things to “popular kids” the school had. They were all unfortunately gorgeous, dressed well, came from wealthy families, and were intimidating. To a certain extent, they could do whatever they wanted without getting in trouble because of who their parents were. It made Jude so aggravatingly angry. Other kids were too afraid to ever stand up to them, or even say no to them, because they would get violent and no consequence would ever find them.
His ex, Nicasia, was the biggest bitch she’d ever met, happy to shove and embarrass Jude whenever she could. Valerian was violent, he’d swung at Jude a few times but never landed anything – she was quicker and more observant than he was, and she read his movements like a fucking book. His friend Locke, however, was the worst of them, perhaps even worse than Cardan in some ways. He’d tried getting at Taryn and Jude at the same time, and it even worked for a bit before the twins realized. Jude was disgusted, yet Taryn couldn’t get over him. He manipulated her effectively enough, and she’d heard whispers throughout school of him wanting to get with twins. It made her sick. And she hated that she’d been embarrassed so publicly in such a vulnerable way.
Coming to EU and ridding herself of that horrible group was the best decision she’d ever made. She knew Cardan also attended EU, but the school was giant and she’d never run into him before, so she figured she never would. Until now.
She was sure Cardan was just as insufferable as before, as there’s only so much that could change in less than a year, so all she would have to do is steer clear of him. He likely wouldn’t even notice her in a lecture hall of a few hundred students where he could freely scroll on his phone and not pay attention.
He didn’t even belong here. Jude got in with her intelligence and hard work, Cardan got into EU because his family is rich and has connections. He didn’t care about being here, and it pissed her off.
Then, as if her angry thoughts summoned his attention, Cardan tucked his phone into his pocket and lifted his head, his gaze somehow finding hers immediately.
She should’ve looked away earlier, but the shock of the unfortunate coincidence caught Jude too off-guard.
Willing herself not to cause a scene around perfectly innocent strangers and start bickering, Jude held his gaze long enough to narrow her eyes at him in disapproval, refusing to just back away from his eye contact. This game she was happy to play with him. The dark eyes looking back at her held no readable emotion. He didn’t move, didn’t look away.
Once she had decided she had asserted her dominance, Jude blended into the crowd of passing classmates and sped home to avoid any unnecessary encounters, popping in her earbuds just in case.
Once Jude returned to her room, she dropped her backpack and sighed audibly as she plopped onto her bed.
“You good?” Liliver asked, barely looking up from her laptop as she typed away on her bed.
Jude contemplated that. Was she?
“I saw my rival from high school in class,” Jude groaned, pushing herself into a seated position.
“You had a rival in high school?” Liliver laughed, amused and slightly in disbelief.
“Yes, but not in a fun way. He was more like a bully actually.”
“Oh shit,” Liliver stopped typing and closed her laptop. “You want to talk about it?”
“No, it’s okay. Just caught me by surprise,” Jude answered honestly.
Liliver nodded. Silence floated in the air between them.
“Well, if you want to take your mind off of it, I got an invite to go to a frat party this Friday. You should come! I’m telling Van and Larkin too,” Liliver offered.
“Frat party? I don’t know if that’s my thing.”
“Oh, come on. You didn’t go at all last semester, and you’d be with the guys too. You wouldn’t have to do anything you don’t want to. But you should go at least once in your college life.”
“If you can convince Larkin to go, I’ll think about it,” Jude joked, not being able to imagine Larkin in a party setting at all.
“Challenge accepted,” Liliver smirked. “And hey, if you ever want to talk to me about anything, I’m here.” She smiled gently.
“Thank you, Lili.”