Bonjour!

Remy pulled up to the campus where there was a sea of freshman wondering around. Most of them were holding maps of the campus and were adorned with various memorabilia promoting the school colors green and gold. Unloading the car with his suitcase and Bo, Remy made his way to the long line of Freshman waiting to find their dorm rooms. Finally reaching the front of the line, he gave them his name. “LeBeau, you’re in room 5F Block D” the young brunette man replied without looking up from his clipboard. Picking up a map, Remy navigated himself through the crowds of people to his room. His Bo got him a few quizzical stares and a some fearful ones. Entering his room, he looked around at the bare walls and the empty closet. I guess this is home now he thought, unzipping the suitcase on his bed.

As the day drew on and Remy had finally finished unpacking, he decided to explore a little. Walking down the hallway, he noticed a majority of students saying goodbye to tearful parents and siblings. There was a pang in Remy’s chest as he moved faster out the building as to get away from the reminder that he was on his own again. He made his way to the front of the The Volgenau School of Engineering campus. “You enrolled on this campus?” a random voice called out. Remy turned to find out where the voice originated from. He turned to see a tall blonde in his early twenties looking back at him in black framed glasses. “Yeah, i’m in the Applied computer science and information security accelerated program.” A smile spread on the young man’s face. “A techie! Welcome! So we have a few events coming up you might be interested in.” Handing Remy a calendar with various activities on them, “we have a cybersecurity innovation forum tomorrow you might like, and next week we have coding seminars. The rooms and the times are located below the event and you’ll see posters around campus. Hope to see you around!”. The young man smiled before walking back to his booth where three other students stood looking to promote the events on campus.

Remy maneuvered between the herd of students all walking in different directions, trying to find potential clubs worth joining. One particular booth was blasting music and was decked out in everything green and gold, from balloons to tablecloths to flags. “HEY!! you wanna join Kappa Sigma??” Remy stared, wide eyed at the fairly large, muscular man. He was wearing a green and gold GMU cap backwards and embroidered jacket with the greek symbols on it. “Bro! You have to rush with us! We are the beer pong champions!”. “No thanks guys, but congrats!” Remy said walking away quickly. He detested frat boys. Moving on, he came across a booth with a banner labeled “What’s Good To Eat?”. Now we’re talkin’! Remy thought, his stomach beginning to rumble.

“Hey there” the young korean girl said as she handed Remy a pamphlet. “We have some really great food here on campus including Subway, Taco Bell and our own dining hall. We have vegetarian, vegan and Halal choices if you’d like those too. My favorite place though is the 24 hour Starbucks!”.

Remy’s face broke out into a wide smile “I am definitely in the right place!”. He scanned the pamphlet and headed to the nearest vendor which happened to be Einstein Bros Bagels. He ordered his bacon and spinach florentine bagel and munched on his way to the labs inside the institute.

Remy stood outside the big glass building in awe. There was a line of students waiting to enter, each with an ID. A few of the students he saw were struggling to swipe their ID, each time resulting in a red light and an LED reading ‘swipe again’. Scanning the area for the location distributing the ID’s, he found a long table with 7 different lines. Each line was labelled with a range of letters. “Please join the line that represents the first letter of your last name!” was heard over the megaphone as the Jamaican woman in braids yelled in her accent. He joined the line and overheard the two students in front of him talking. “I’m so glad we got into GMU, they have one of the best clubs for mutant acceptance. I think they’re really making progress here.” The thought that being a mutant in a public University hadn’t dawned on Remy until now. He was relieved to hear that tolerance seemed to be better here and that it seemed other mutants were around campus.

Receiving his ID and entering the institute, Remy looked around and the halls, trying to find his future classrooms. He was looking through a glass wall into a room that had students with headphones on, typing in various code languages. The rate at which some of the students were coding was unbelievable. Entranced by the lines of code almost instantly appearing on the screen, Remy was completely unaware of anyone standing next to him.

“They make it look so easy don’t they?” a young girl’s voice said. He turned to face the brunette. She was holding some coding textbooks and a class schedule.

“Yeah. It’s like they’re machines or something” he chuckled.

”You in this class?” The girl asked flipping her hair and giggling.

“Yeah, I start on Monday. I’m doing the accelerated Master’s degree in Applied Computer Science and Information Security and Assurance” Remy replied, not taking his eyes off the room of coders.

”Me too! I got my books ahead of time because I knew the library would be out by time class starts.” She giggled again. “It kinda sucks being one of the few girls in this major..” her voice trailed off.

”Good idea” Remy replied, finally looking at the girl after he felt her gaze burning a hole through him. “Yeah not a lot of girls are interested in programming I guess.”

Extending her free hand out, “i’m Jessica by the way.”

Shaking her hand, “I’m Remy. Guess I’ll see you in class Jessica.” He walked over to the next room where they kept the servers.

”Looking forward to it” Jessica replied under her breath, watching Remy walk away.

[Knocking at the door]

Remy: Come in

Priya: [opens the door and sticks her head in] LeBeau, my office now please.

Remy: Yes ma’am [follows her to her office down the hall]

Priya: [takes a seat at her desk and pulls up a file on her computer] I’ve been going over your progress after your mini hiatus. You’ve improved greatly. You managed to find the source of the faulty information and give us enough intel to put the guy away for a long time. You’re really trying and I see that, and don’t think your colleagues haven’t noticed either. [Sips her coffee] and would it kill you to talk to them once in awhile? They’re not as scary as they seem [chuckles]. [Clearing her throat and removing the smirk on her face] I think you might be ready for that promotion if you’re up for it. I’ll still be monitoring you closely, but you’ll be calling the shots. You think you can handle it?

Remy: [blinks] yes..yes ma’am. I promise I won’t let you down...and i’ll try more with the team.

Priya: It’s not a punishment Remy. You are confident in every aspect of your work, but when it comes to the team, you withdraw [furrows her brow]. I understand your past and that you’re used to doing things on your own up until now, but if you want to lead this team, you have to let them in. They have to trust you and vice versa. Now i’m not saying pour your heart out to them like you’re on goddamn Dr. Phil, just let them in a little [forms a faint smile but quickly erases it].

Remy: [Remains straight faced as he listens intently to every word] Yes ma’am. I appreciate the opportunity. I’ll do my best to do the Bureau proud ma’am