Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy is ordinary to put it simple. Of course, he had interests and dreams, but it never led to anything more. He plays video games, and he's somewhat decent, some would even say he is good, but it’s not like he could make a living out of it. That’s why he’s going to college. He applied to a couple of colleges all located by the west coast. He got into three out of seven, he then picked the one the farthest from Los Angeles as possible, Tommy wanted housing to be as cheap as possible.

He would be staying at campus the first year, he had promised his parents that, also by the time he was a sophomore he would be eighteen, that would make the whole thing easier.

He was excited about starting school again, he was going to make a lot of new friends and hopefully get to party a lot. He didn’t really care about the whole work thing, many people made it through college with a decent grade while going out every weekend.

Tommy is just realistic, he won’t do very well in school anyway, so why spent the best teenage years busting his ass off for some A+ grade that only his parents cared about.

If anything, he’s being responsible by putting his mental health before his grade. Yes, Tommy is sure that him living alone is going to go just fine.

Tommy haven’t met his roommate yet, they have chatted online, just talking about the practical things at first. They are roughly the same age, Tommy likes that, also they like the same games, that’s really the jackpot.

His name is Tubbo and in the last four days that they now have known each other Tubbo have sent exactly onehunded and eighty-five messages. Most of them random nonsense, but Tommy loved it, he hated silence and he dreaded a quiet roommate. Tubbo didn’t seem like the quiet type. In a couple of hours Tommy would fly out to California and then he could meet Tubbo.

Tommy couldn’t remember the last time he was this excided. For anything, really.

Tommy was all packed up, for once he was ahead of time and not running late. He still had to pack his carry-on, but that would only take a minute. The rest of his things had left on a truck yesterday, they should arrive shortly before himself, so that’ll be great.

The plan is to go with the flow. Buy everything he needs when he gets there.

Tommy doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, out of college. Makes the whole thing scary. He’s not afraid of the whole thing, more worried that he won’t be good enough or smart enough, or maybe he won’t make friends, maybe everyone will think he’s wired.

But it’s not like Tommy is a baby about it, he’s not more scared that anyone else! Everyone starting college at seventeen would be scared, Tommy’s feelings are completely normal. He’s going to a new city, to start a new life without his parents, it’s normal to be frightened.

Wait, no.

Tommy isn’t frightened of anything, he’s a grown up now and he just got to man up. Yeah, he’ll just man up and everything will be fine.

The flight to California is only two and a half hour long. Tommy is well prepared, he got three cans of soda and a fire playlist.

On the plane Tommy sits next to a guy his age. They look at each other a couple of times, but none of them say anything. The kid is tall, like freakishly tall. He seems cramped in the middle seat. At first, he seems okay, but after only fifteen minutes he’s tossing and turning, clearly trying not to disturb Tommy or the lady sitting by the window. The guy has half his hair-colored white, the other half a natural brown, what an odd choice, Tommy thinks. Then the guy accidently knocks his knee into the front seat, earning a grunt from the person in front.

Tommy sighs and taps that guys shoulder “We can switch if you want to?”

The guy gives a smile and nods. Tommy gets up and gather his things, the guy does the same. Tommy has to take a step out in the hallway next, allowing the other kid to step out. They switch and Tommy is soon after comfortable once again in his new seat.

Tommy is not that short, he’s at average height. He isn’t the tallest of his friends, but he’s taller than some boys and most girls, so it’s not really in insecurity for Tommy. He knows that being taller would make his life a little harder, just look at the kid next to him. He can stretch his legs out now, and that’s only thanks to Tommy’s good heart.

The guys seem nervous, he’s not sitting still, either playing with his hands or his shirt. Constantly checking his phone. Not that Tommy really wants to ask into anything, he just took notice. Tommy’s not really the guy to get involved in other people’s business, sure he can be nosy, but not strangers on an airplane. That’s where he draws the line.

Tommy puts his music back in and lightly sleeps the rest of the flight.

At seven pm the plane lands in California and a little under an hour later Tommy is standing, with his suitcase and carry-on bag, in front of the train station. It’s dark now and as Tommy gets to the platform of the train station, he spots the guy from the plane. Tommy gives him a smile before standing to the side waiting for his train. The station he’s on is a little packed, but that’s expected when it’s right next to an airport. Tommy closes his jacket, keeping the night air out. It’s not cold but closing your jacket at night is pure habit. The station is open anyway, the only protection from the light wind is a roof on top held buy thick pillars.

The train arrives and Tommy gets on. He’ll have to switch trains once, but other than that it’s only a fourth minute train ride.

After tommy finds a seat, he spots the guy again. He can see his half white hair poking up over the seat.

Maybe Tommy should color his hair too. Isn’t that a normal thing to do when you’re at college? Pricing your nose and coloring your hair with cheap hair-dye? This was Tommy’s change to be wild, to live life and be a teenager for real.

A buzz from Tommy’s pocket pulls him out if his thoughts, he takes out his phone and looks down and sees both his moms contact and Tubbos. He texts his mom that he’s safe and on the train.

Mum: You forgot your pillow.

Tommy: Oh, I’ll just buy a new one. I left the airport ten minutes ago.

Tommy: I’ll text you when I’m at the dorm.

Tubbo just sent a blurry, zoomed-in picture of a pigeon.

Tommy: ???

Tubbo: There’s a bird outside our dorm room window!

Tommy: Oh okay, I’m on my way there rn.

Tommy: btw have my things arrived?

Tubbo: It came earlier, yeah! Can’t wait to meet you later!

Tommy: Can’t wait to meet you either!

Tommy haven’t known Tubbo for long, but he knows him well enough that his wired and random text doesn’t surprise him. After that Tommy receives ten blurry pictures of random things, his favourite is a mirror selfie Tubbo took in their shared bathroom.

The lady over the speakers starts talking about where the train is going and what the next stop is. Not long after, Tommys station gets yelled out and he quickly get up, looks back to make sure he got all his things and then exit the train.

As he steps out onto the platform, the guy from the plane does too. He looks over at Tommy and gives a little smile. Tommy shivers, he's aware the things like that can happen, but the guy he sat next to on the plane going to the same station as he is, is still pretty rare. Tommy is painfully aware of how the stranger takes the exact same stairs up as him. How he exit on the left side, just as tommy does.

It continues like that for the next five minutes, every turn Tommy takes, the guy takes. Tommy looks down at his phone that’s showing the rout to campus. He’ll have to go straight for 200 feet and then take a left turn and he should be there, but Tommy doesn’t want the guy to know where he lives. Tommy looks around, there aren’t anyone around, but they are still in a pretty open and public area. He’s not afraid of this guy.

Tommy can clearly hear his footsteps behind him. Then he makes a decision in his head and without warning he stops. The guys almost falling over him.

“Are you following me?!” Tommy turns and asks

“No” the guy says, “Are you following me?”

“No, how would that work, I’m walking in front of you.”

The guy awkwardly rubs his neck “I don’t know, I’m going this way too…”

Suddenly Tommy feels a little intimidated by the guy. Not that he’s afraid, but they are alone out here in the middle of the night.

“You have been “going the same way” as me since the airport!”

The guy quietly mutters

“I’m going this way too”

Again.

The two boys stare at each other for a few moments, before Tommy starts laughing.

“Are you seriously going this way to?”

The guy nods.

“I’m going to my campus” he points down the road.

“So am I”

“That’s wired”

Tommy is set on making as many friends as soon as possible, and if this guy wasn’t some creep following him, but a fellow student, the only logical thing to do was become his friend.

“I’m Tommy”

“Ranboo”

None of them reach out a hand, but to be fair both have bags and other things to carry. Tommy gestures forward and they walk side by side the rest of the way, making small talk.

Tommy learns that Ranboo also is a freshman, going to live in the dorms. He wouldn’t have put Ranboo as a freshman, he’s very tall, with broad shoulders, which kinda makes Tommy feel short.

The dorm has no reception, so to get your key and room number the school sent a emails with personal codes that open a little metal box in the lobby. Every student has their own, and as far as Tommy understood most students just lock their key in the box instead of carrying it around. Also allowing friends to let themselves in if you give them the code. Tommy hopes it’s possible to change the code throughout the year, just in case he gives it to someone he regrets.

Both him and Ranboo gets out their phones to find the email. Tommy has to scroll through spam email after spam email. He should really stop giving, every website that asks, his email.

Tommy pulls out the key set. Two keys and a green keychain with the number 23.

“guess I’m in room 23” he comments.

“I’m in 17” Ranboo laughs.

“I’m not getting rid of you, am I?”

Ranboo shakes his head and closes his box again.

Tommy knocks on the door and waits for Tubbo to answer. He swings the door open with a shining smile, basically screeching from happiness.

“Hi Tubbo”

Tommy looks at the boy, he recognises his face, he’s shorter that he imagined.

“Tommy, hello!”

The boys click right away. Talking about everything with ease. They talk about classes, Tommys flight over here. They spare some time to move in and get organized. Tommy really wanted to play, but he hasn’t gotten any of his electronics set up yet. The evening ticks away and as it gets dark someone knocks on the door. Tommy gets up and Tubbo follows behind him.

Ranboo’s standing outside smiling.

“Hey Tommy”

Tubbo chirms in asking if that’s “that guy”, they laugh a little before Ranboo counties talking. Explaining how his roommate is going to a party tonight and if they wanted to come.

“Isn't it a little bit early to start throwing parties. The year hasn’t even begun?” Tommy asks.

“Well” Ranboo says “Most students here have known each other all last year and some the year before, we’re the new ones, you know”

“Oh yeah, forgot I wasn’t the main character for a moment there”

“also, this would make the third party of the school year” Tubbo adds.

“You two are the dumb dumbs that made the decision to show up two days before the semester starts. A lot of people have been here for a week or two already.”

“I get it, I get it” Tommy says gripping his jacket and phone “we’re coming”

The party is held in a local frat house tied to the school. The party is packed. Tommy straightens up as they walk in. They is going to be epic.

Half an hour later Tommy has lost everyone he knows. Ranboo’s roommate had some alcohol that they shared on the way here and the frat offered a few beers as soon as they walked in, but it’s more than Tommy normally would drink. He’s already starting to feel a little light. It may also be because he’s a little nervous. He’s a completely new place with a lot of people he doesn’t know and away from his parents for real for the first times. He may or may not have some butterflies right around now.

Tommy walks into the living room and flobs down on the couch.

Tommy throws his head back to fast and it starts spinning lightly. He thinks he hears Tubbos laugh somewhere in the distance but shuts his eyes instead of trying to spot him. The music switches to something faster. Tommy can feel the alcohol and he loves it. Of course, he has had a couple of beers in the past with some old school friends, but this is different. This is a frat house party. He’s at the cool party. He hasn’t talked to any of the guys living here, but he has spotted a few, they are easy to spot, they are loud and all over everyone. They also hand out drinks, they tell you to take whatever you want from the drinks table, but if you have at least two braincells you know that isn’t true. It’s either got to be a senior or someone living here that gives it to you. They do like having some control over where everything goes.

Tommy has spotted how the drinks system works. When people arrive someone greats them and gives them something to drink, pretty freshman girls get something stronger, obvious. Then most of the guys and a few girls grabs one or two glasses and makes their way to the smaller groups standing around giving it to mostly pretty girls. Tommy can understand why they would want them more drunk, but the fact that they most likely will pressure the girls doesn’t sit right with him. He has heard enough horror stories of girls, getting hurt, at parties like this. It isn’t cool, but he’s not really in the mood to talk about his ethics.

The longer he sits still on the couch the more his head is spinning, or not spinning, that’s not how he would describe it. His head is getting foggy and the music sounds further and further away.

He tries getting up, but every lazy part of his body tells him to sit back down and enjoy it. Then something on the couch dips down and two bodies on either side of him leans in and starts talking. The boy on his right is a little dark, his hair is even darker, and his eyes seam sweet and deep. He’s wearing a white t-shirt and shorts; he probably lives here. Sure, we’re in California, but it’s still a little much to wear shorts. The other guy is wearing a blue hoodie and white sunglasses. Tommy looks around making sure they are indoor, he suddenly got unsure. The two guys lean into Tommy and starts talking to him and Tommy does his best to answer them without falling over his own words. It’s hard.

They ask about his name and age, where he lives and what his major is. It’s a quit pleasant conversation, at least that’s what Tommy would say, but his judgment may be a little clouded. Suddenly the guy with the with t-shirt snaps his fingers in front of Tommys face, making him, with a very delayed reaction, flinch. Tommy gives a little hey, but none of them seem to notice, the guy just nods towards the other and the guy in the hoodie get up and leaves.

The guy that stayed leans close to Tommy and ask.

“You don’t know who I am, right Tommy?”

Tommy shakes his head

“You never told me your name”

“Good”

The other guy returns with three cups in his hands, he gives one to his friend before giving to Tommy, who happily takes it. When he gives him the cup, he says.

“We have to check on something, wait here for us, okay?” Tommy nods and the guys leave in the crowd.

Tommy looks down into the cup, it’s orange and he can smell the alcohol coming from it, but he’s not that drunk, right, he can drink a little more.

Tommy puts the cup to his mouth, but just as he feels the drink on his lips the cup is pulled from him. Tommy makes an unpleased sound and looks around. The cup disappeared over his head and he turns around. He can barely keep himself steady.

“Hey, that’s mine!” He tries.

A tall guy is standing with his cup. He’s wearing a black turtleneck sweater and black pants. His hair is pulled back in a long ponytail. He’s towering over Tommy, firmly holding the cup out of his reach.

“Don’t be a dick” Tommy complains, reaching up. The guy just steps back lifting the cup more.

Tommy tries putting his other hand on the back of the couch, but he misses and bumps his chest into it instead. Grunting in pain and really annoyed and looks up and firmly says.

“Give it back.”

The guy looks Tommy stone-cold in the eyes and pours the drink out on the floor. Tommy yells in protest, getting up from the couch.

Who does he think he is? What a fucking asshole, he’s lucky Tommy is drunk right now.

The guy drops the cup on the floor, turns on his heels and heads for the kitchen. Tommy follows, pushing people away, he’s furious. Who does he think he is?

Tommy turns the same corner as the guy, but what he expected to be the kitchen, turned about to be a long hallway. Tommy could have sworn that the kitchen was right here. He was out here earlier. Tommy looks back into the Livingroom.

This was the living room a moment ago. The couch was standing there in the middle of the room. Now there was a beer pong table. Wait, is this the room Tommy came from? He turns around a couple times.

Everything is getting blurry. He could have sworn this was the freaking kitchen. Tommy grunts in frustration. Rubbing his eyes.

“Are you okay” Ranboo asks.

Tommy only feels a hand on his shoulder. He tries look up from the floor, but his eyes move on their own. First the runs up the person in front of him then he sees the ceiling. Oh, now he knows what’s going on. He’s falling backwards…

Chapter Text

Is this what death feels like…

“I can guarantee you are not dead”

“huh" Tommy bolts up, quickly regretting his decision, having to hold his pounding head.

“I can guarantee you are not dead” he repeats

“ugh, did I say that out loud?”

“Yeah, and you suck at drinking”

“Tubbo, you’re soo loud”

He complains.

Tubbo nod “Yeah, did you know you have been talking random nonsense for half an hour now. It was quite freaky. Are you feeling okay?”

Tommy rolls his eyes and pulls the covers back over himself.

“Give me a minute please”

Tommy feels sick in every way. No matter what he thinks of doing it just makes him feel sicker and more uncomfortable. His stomach hurts, but he can’t figure out if he’s hungry or not. He’s thirsty, but he can’t think of anything he would want to drink. He smells, he’s sure of that, but he just wants to go back to sleep. Stay under the covers forever.

“What time is it Tubbo?”

“It’s four pm”

Tommy groans and turns in his bed. He slept the whole day away and tomorrow is Monday and the first day of classes, not what Tommy needs to think about on top of his headache. He’s hot under the covers and he can feel the air getting heavier, he’ll have to face the world soon if he doesn’t want to pass out from oxygen loss.

Tommy pops his head out from the blanket and looks around. The room is bright, he can’t even look in the direction of the window yet.

Tubbo is sitting on his bed across from Tommy. He seems fine. He’s wearing sweats and a t-shirt. His hair damped and a little messy. His bed is raised from the ground, housing storage room underneath. He has three big boxes under it, that are covered by his bedding hanging down over it. Next to his bed, in front of the window are the two desks. Tubbo has already decorated his desk and walls. To be fair he has been here a couple days longer than Tommy and yes, Tommy did get his bigger bags packed out last night before the party, but all the finishing touched are still missing. Not that Tommy has brought a lot of things with him, he’s not that sentimental with things and so on.

Oh no… The party last night…

Just to make something clear, Tommy could normally drink way more without trouble. He was probably just affected by the jetlag he got… from flying across the stats. Tommy is not weak, normally he would remember the whole night, without doubt. He remembered most of the night anyway.

Sure, he had no idea how he got home, or who he talked to, but that’s normal, nothing to worry about.

Tommy looks around for his phone but can’t seem to find it. How annoying, he really hope he hasn’t left it at the party. Tommy drags himself out of bed and walks over to the door, fumbling around for his jacket.

He finds his phone in the inner-pocket of his jacket. He stands still, leaning against the door, looking at his notifications from the night before. Nothing important really.

After putting his phone away to charge, he goes to the bathroom. Tommy takes a quick shower, pushing the nausea back down. Their shared bathroom is small, but perfectly functional for two people. Tommy’s just glad that they don’t have to share communal showers.

After his shower he throws himself back in bed. Tommy knows that he should eat something but that would either be a little snack or going out to find something and then have to interact with other people. He'll just wait till dinner.

Tommy and Tubbo decided on sharing a pizza. That’s the easiest with delivery and all.

Mid-bite Tommy remembers that tomorrow is Monday and with the realisation his whole mood is ruined even more. Of course, he was excited for classes to start and meeting all his professors, but as he said earlier - he won’t do very well in school anyway, so why spent the best teenage years busting his ass off for some A+ grade that only his parents cared about

The thought of the homework that where to come and all the notes he would have to take almost took out all the fun. Tommy is really trying to be realistic here. Why lie to himself.

In school he would always figure out a way to raise his grade last minute, if that was during extremely well on a test or handing in late work and then have it count a little less. He was going to be fine. He wasn’t worried at all.

Tommy spend the rest of the night on his computer, getting to bed way too late for his own good. But that was a problem for future Tommy.

The next morning was a complete disaster to say the least. Tommy missed his alarm, or turned it off in his sleep, and Tubbo? Well, he was afraid of overstepping any boundaries by waking Tommy up. As Tubbo said, when he woke Tommy up ten minutes before he had to leave the dorm, maybe Tommy’s first class was a late class.

Spoiler – it wasn’t a late class. In fact, it was the exact same class as Tubbo. A class he would currently be very late to.

So now Tommy was rushing to get out the door, skipping everything he could. He grabbed a backpack, shoving his computer and wallet into it before heading out.

08:37 am. Shit. He thought.

The class started twenty-two minutes ago, and he still had to walk to his lecture hall, he would be at least half an hour late. What a sucky way to start the whole college experience.

Minutes later Tommy makes it to his class. As he walks in a few students sitting in the back turns and looks at him, but not many. He looks down the front and makes eye-contact whit the professor. He just gestures to the seats with his head, just like that. Didn’t even stop his sentence. The professor is wearing a gray sweater, with a long trench coat over. His hair is shoulder length, a dark blond. He looks cool, Tommy thinks.

He sits down in an empty seat and pulls out his phone.

Tommy: I made it, sort of, where are you?

Tommy watches as Tubbo types.

Tubbo: A little bit more down.

Tubbo: I see you

Tommy looks down and spots Tubbo looking back over his shoulder, giving him a little wave.

Tubbo: sorry I didn’t wake you :( I feel bad.

Tommy: It’s fine, I was that one who overslept.

Tommy: what is he talking about?

Tubbo: An essay.

Tommy: That is due when?

Tubbo: In a week from now, he wants to know what we already know

Tubbo: Before he’ll start influencing our writing styles.

Tommy: An essay? Already

Tubbo: yeah. But it’ll be okay, we can pick our own topic

Tubbo: Just need to tie back to the modern age of technology or some.

Tommy groans and lets he head fall to the desk. It’s way to fucking early for this. After Tommy’s little melt down, he starts listening to the professor, but not really understanding anything. After ten minutes the teacher lets them leave early, encouraging them to take this free time to get a head start on the assignment. That didn’t work out well for Tommy. He wrote a heading and then closed his computer, scrolling through his phone the rest of the time.

The week flew by. Tommy had lots of classes, some alone, some with Tubbo, one with Ranboo and two with both of them, everything was great. None of the other professors had assigned any kind of homework. They wanted to take it easy the first week and go over the plan for the course, stuff like that and quickly Tommy had forgotten all about the essay.

He was hanging out with his new friends, even making more, Fundy and Niki. Fundy is Ranboo’s roommate, he’s really nice. Niki, a senior that Tubbo somehow became friends with out of nowhere, running into her in a store somewhere. But fair, if you can make friends that way.

Tommy can’t do that.

He tried once, when he was young, went up to a guy in a video store, that was standing with a game Tommy knew and liked, but he just looked at Tommy wired and walked away. Since then, no more making friends with strangers.

Today was going great this far. It is Friday and Tommy is so ready for the weekend to start. They have big plans, this evening the football team is hosting the first FS party. Which is basically a fuck school party, it’s not that important yet, but at the end of the school year everyone will bring some old papers or notes and there will be a giant bonfire where they’ll burn everything. Sound fun, but right now it’s like a normal party really.

So, Tommy and Tubbo went with their newly made friends and Tommy, he had a blast. This time he didn’t get as drunk, he was acutely hanging out with everyone this time. They played games and Tommy laughed more that evening that he has in a loooonng time.

He loved it.

At around 1 am a guy started talking to Tommy, and normally that would scare the shit out of him, que the guy from the video store, but the alcohol and the atmosphere of the party just gave him the right amount of confidence.

The guy was amazing. He kept singing and dancing around the room. Turns out he also knows Niki and even though they’re both seniors, Tommy started to feel like he had pulled a little friend group together. Tommy left his phone with the guy for a couple of minutes, and he ended out with a new contact named Wilbur soot.

Then Saturday came around and him and Tubbo went shopping. Tommy needs a few essentials that he had put off buying until now.

It’s hard to explain, but Tommy was so happy, really deeply happy. Nothing could bring his mood down.

Then they went out to eat. They went with Ranboo and Fundy and then two other rooms from down that hall. It was so much fun and even though Tommy had been riding a high this weekend, and even though it’ll probably crash and burn on Monday, nothing’s going to stop his stride.

Tommy is so fucking stupid, to think that he’ll crash and burn Monday? Try Sunday, because around midday he remembered he had an essay due tonight at 10 pm. Of course, Tubbo and every other friend he had in that class already finished it during the week. Now this sucked. Not only did Tommy have a five-page essay to write, but all his friend where out having funny. No seriously. Tubbo wasn’t even home…

First Tommy sits in front of his computer starring at his heading. Not writing a word. He picked Is virtual learning more efficient than traditional methods? He doesn’t really know why; he just found the topic interesting to discuss and it seemed like something he could talk about for five pages without getting bored. He could list pros and cons and so on.

Tommy tries writing the essay the whole night, nothing goes down on the paper. He now has an hour left before the deadline and he’s mentally banging his head on the table. Then he caved, chugging a red-bull and writing the whole thing in thirty-seven minuets. He did a quick proofread and the sent it on its merry way.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Not long after Tommy got a message

Wilbur Soot: Hello Tommy. It’s me from the party, Wilbur. I’m pretty sure I put my number in your phone. Just wondering if you wanted to go get coffee tomorrow after classes with me and some of the other guys? When is your last class?

Tommy: Yeah, I would like that. My last class is at 3 pm, does that work?

Wilbur Soot: That works.

Monday rolled around and Tommy had three lectures that day, luckily the first one started a little later that usually. First, he had math, then a follow up on math but more focused and then he had English again with the ambitious professor that Tommy already hates a little bit because of the assignment.

He talked a lot, pulled some of his “favorite” assignments up, parsing them and then making class-discussion on the topics. He did not mention Tommy’s, to no surprise.

After two hours he stared to round the discussion up, slowly talking about the plan for next class. Tommy was on the edge of his seat, excided for his plans with Wilbur.

Then the most terrifying thing happened.

The professor asked who Tommy Innit was.

Tommy had to slowly raise his hand, with a follow up, that’s me.

“Okay, can you please come down here, the rest of you can go now, I’ll see you all on Thursday”

Tommy had to swallow a big lump and then walk down the stars to the front that was emptying out more and more by the second.

When Tommy made it down to the desk the professor was smiling fondly.

“Hi Tommy, my name is Phil, I don’t believe we talked. I haven’t had the chance to talk to many of the new students yet.”

Tommy nods “Hello, it’s nice to meet you”

Phil nods and takes a paper up from his bag and hands it to Tommy. He looks down and recognizes his name and heading. Next to his name is a big, read F.

“oh…”

“Here’s the thing Tommy” He leans up against the desk while talking.

“I don’t understand any of your points, nothing makes sense” He gestures down to the paper “Where did you even find your sources, you’re quoting things, but not crediting them anywhere. It’s filed with spelling mistakes and grammatic errors… It’s not good enough, Tommy”

Phil flips a page and looks up again.

“Be honest with me, is this the best you can do?”

Tommy scathes his neck.

“No, I can do better”

“Are you sure Tommy, I want to help, but this is really bad, I’m not talking a extra proofreading or two. It’ll take more than that.”

“Idk” he mumbles.

“Okay, listen Tommy, I can’t help you much, buuut..” Phil grapes his phone and writes something from it down on a piece of paper “I have an older student that owes me a favor. You’ll have to contact him yourself and take responsibility for it. Maybe meet with him once a week and get his help, okay”

Phil holds out the piece of paper.

“Okay” Tommy says as he takes the paper.