the face that launched a thousand texts
i accidentally wrote a fic set in @kendrasaunders and @icedvulpix lot college au?? i read a bunch of that au last night and felt inspired. (if you’re reading this, i hope you don’t mind.)
here’s a fic with my attempt at college au helen of troy.
this is my first time publishing a fic on this website, so this is terrifying. please enjoy under the cut.
Sara glances up from her dance history textbook to look at Ray. She follows his gaze to see a very pretty girl sitting alone across the quad. “How should I know,” she replies flatly.
“She’s so. Pretty?” Ray says, not letting it go. “She looks kind of like… Kendra?”
Sara feels a lump forming in her throat. “I don’t see it,” she grumbles. Sara had been trying not to think about Kendra. Even though she was only studying abroad, it felt to Sara like she was on another planet, lost forever. The girl Ray seemed infatuated with sure was pretty, but she was no Kendra Saunders.
Ray shakes his head in response. “Not exactly like Kendra. But if you look closely, it’s in her eyes.”
Sara frowns. “It’s in her eyes? How can you possibly see anything in her eyes?” she says, only slightly annoyed. “She’s like 200 feet away.” No response. Sara looks up again to see Ray still staring. Rolling her eyes, she says, “If you think she’s that pretty, go say hi.”
“Go say hi to who?” asks Zari’s voice behind them, causing both Sara and Ray to flinch. Seeing her friends’ reactions, she smirks. “Sorry guys. Who are we talking about?”
Sara gestures towards the girl. “That hot girl across the quad. Palmer won’t stop staring.”
“Oh Helen?” Zari replies, with familiarity. Recognizing the looks on her friends’ faces, “That’s Helen Troy. She’s in my intro to comp sci class. She’s really nice.”
“Wait. You know her?” Ray asks, one part excited, one part terrified.
Zari looks at him and smiles awkwardly. “Yeah. We’re kind of friends?” She turns to shout to Helen across the quad. “Hey Helen! Come over here!”
Helen looks over, sees Zari, flashes a smile, and stands to come over to them. Ray makes a noise that can only be described as a yelp, reaches to grab his bag, and falls off the bench onto the ground.
Zari looks at Ray, turns to Sara, and says, “What is his problem.”
Sara grins mischievously and singsongs, “Palmer’s got a c-r-u-s-h.”
“Oh,” says Zari. Her eyes widen and she smiles, again saying, “Oh.” Sara looks at Zari with a question in her eyes, but it’s too late because standing in front of the three of them is Helen Troy.
“Hello Zari. How are you today?” she says. Her voice is smooth and light, with a hint of an accent none of them can quite trace. Now that she sees Helen up close, Sara can almost see what Ray was talking about. There was something about Helen that reminded her of her former roommate.
“I’m fine,” Zari replies, bringing Sara out of her reverie. “I’m fine. I just got out of my chem lab and I was about to grab some lunch when I saw these two losers sitting out here.” She gestures to her losers.
“Oh,” Helen purrs. She looks down at Ray and Sara as if she is just now seeing them. “Are these your friends?”
Ray mumbles from the ground something that sounds like “Yeah. Friendship.” and Sara stands to greet Helen. “I’m Sara and the guy sitting on the ground is Ray. He forgets how to speak coherently sometimes. It’s fine.”
Helen furrows her brow. “Oh, that’s… interesting?” She lays a hand on Sara’s shoulder and says, “I love this sweatshirt you’re wearing.”
Sara beams. “Thanks, I stole it from an ex.”
Ray, finally managing to stand up, says eagerly, “Helen, that bag looks heavy. Do you want me to hold it for you?”
Helen smiles in his direction, “No, thank you.”
Sara grins and says to Helen, “So you’re in Zari’s computers class? Are you a computer science major?”
Turning back to Sara, Helen replies, “No, I’m undeclared. During my younger years, I didn’t have much control over my life, so I’ve never really been sure about what I’d want to be when I grew up. So when I went to college, I decided I’d explore different things before I chose a major.”
“That sounds fascinating,” Sara says with a smile. She looks at Ray, and back at Helen. “Would you want to discuss that more over a cup of coffee?”
Helen’s eyes brighten and she grins. “Yes, I would love to!” She turns to Zari and says, “You were getting lunch, you said?”
Zari nods and replies, “Yeah, maybe we can go together?”
“Sounds perfect,” Sara says with a smile. She turns to Ray. “Don’t you have physics in 15?”
“Uhh I-” is all Ray manages to come up with as a reply before Sara jumps in with, “Well, I guess it’ll just be the three of us.” And with that, the three ladies turn to walk away. “Seeya, Palmer,” Sara calls over her shoulder with a wink.
Ray watches the three of them walk away from him. He looks down and sees that Sara left her textbook sitting on the bench. “Wait, you have your dance history class in 15 minutes?” he says to her, not meant to be a question, but they’re out of earshot. Ray picks up Sara’s book and crams it in his backpack. He sighs, “You’re welcome.”
Ray feels his phone buzz in his front pocket. He pulls it out to check his messages.
TEXT FROM: THE BEST MUSLIM HACKTIVIST YOU KNOW
Helen’s a huge lesbian btw
so yeah that’s it. if you liked this (or even if you didn’t like this) go to read rachel and ari’s college au. you’ll probably like theirs more.
