A Human Among Giants

Ch. 1

I quickly made my way to the honors dorm I'd be living in for at least this year, and took the elevator up to room 808, aka, my new home. I was excited to meet my roommate Dustin, especially now that I've learned Dustin is also in the marching band! This meant we could go to and from practice together and even hang out and sit together. The thing about being a freshman in the band is you aren't automatically put on the field to perform. You are basically an understudy for the band the first semester of your freshman year. Sometimes though, if an upperclassmen has to miss a performance, or they haven't practiced the music well enough to perform, freshmen get moved up to perform. I was really hoping I'd get a chance to perform in the band this fall, even if just once! I just couldn't imagine having to wait until spring... and well, marching band isn't quite the same when you're not performing for football season in the fall.

My new roommate Dustin has the cool all american boy vibes, and I'd probably be into him if he didn't have a girlfriend. A few hours after getting settled, Dustin and I met up with his girlfriend Marissa, who is apparently also in the marching band! Yes! My marching band squad was forming!!!!

Tonight was the first big night of welcome week at Titanus University. I couldn't wait to experience college parties with crazy memories and stories to come. Tonight, Dustin, Marissa, and I were going to be attending a party at the Pi Kappa Phi frat house. While Pi Kappa Phi was known as an all-inclusive nerd fraternity, It at least had a house on fraternity road, which was a section of campus where all fraternities with houses stayed. Not that this could actually happen, but I'd secretly been hoping that I'd be walking past one of these other frats, and some handsome guy would sweep me off my feet for my first college hookup. Oh god.... What's really weird, is I just pictured the guy who tripped over me when I'd envisioned that. No way was I trying to run into mr. quarterback ever again.

Ring.

Oyy, my phone rang and it was my dads. I knew they'd be calling me every few hours this first week, but truthfully I wasn't annoyed they were calling to check on me. I was really annoyed at the fact that the sound of their voices made me want to cry, even though I'd only just moved here today. I've never been good at goodbyes, and well, I've never lived anywhere that I can remember without my dads. It's going to be weird not seeing them everyday.

"Everything's okay little buddy?" Dad asked, with his deep rumbling voice.

"Yesss, for the thousandth time. It's going great. I told you my roommate is in marching band too! We're even going to a party together tonight,"

"Party?! Do you mean a frat party?" Pop asked. Lol. Sometimes my 5 ft tall dad was more overprotective than my giant dad.

"Yes, but don't worry, it's at the nerd frat house haha. I didn't magically become cool just yet,"

"You are cool Ash! And if anyone tells you you're not cool, you just let me know, and I'll come talk to them," Dad said. Great. Dad's trying to one-up Pop on the protective front. Yeah, the last thing I, or anyone else needs is for my giant dad to come scare the shit out of everyone. This was my first time attending a school where people didn't automatically know I was his son. And of course I'm not ashamed at all. I'm proud to have both my dads, but I will admit, it's interesting how people interact with me differently when they don't know who my dad is.

I was about to hang up when my pop took the phone off speaker to add one more bit of advice. "Asher... If you pass an Alpha Gamma Phi fraternity, try and steer clear of those types of guys... they've been known to do a lot of hazing this time of year, and you might hear some things about Dad... just, steer clear of them, alright?"

Of course the nerd frat house was directly across the street from this Alpha Gamma Phi frat Pop had warned me about. Once I got a glimpse of the house I had to laugh. I would never end up at a party like that. The music was so loud that we could feel the vibrations all the way across the street, drowning out the electronic music this nerd frat was trying to make happen. In reality, neither party really seemed like my scene. I think in reality, I'd rather be playing video games or having a jam session than sitting around with cheap alcohol, trying to be cool.