6.1.1x

When universities become large enough, they seem to create a town of their own. The people in Orion South University believe this to be so. There are a good thirty thousand of them on campus at any time during the day, with even more still in their dorms or apartments getting over hangovers or doing last minute homework assignments. When the population size is considered, it may not be such a surprise that it takes a while for the police to find out when someone went missing.
Four disappearances had occurred since the school year had begun in September, an alarming number even for a school of over forty thousand. The similarities between the students was dim at best; they all went to OSU, true, but their grades ranged from freshman to third year, and none of their majors were the same. Two of the four of them took the same Math 150 class, moreover they all took a Math of some kind. Three of them took some kind of science class, all located in the science building, but since the building was the largest on campus at seven stories (excepting the library), that didn't really narrow down the facts any farther.
The disappearances had only slightly changed the overall nature of the student body. In general, it was assumed that the people who had disappeared had probably been drunk at the time, or done some sort of idiocy that would lead to a disappearance. While there were less people out alone after night fall, the feel of campus life was still fairly much the same. The overall feeling of 'it can never happen to me' was still very much alive on the campus.
Now the beginning of December, the last day of classes before the much anticipated Christmas break was fast in session, with a fair number of people already out and either packing up to leave or holing away in their dorms for the snow storm which was supposed to swiftly follow.
Jaylen was in the middle of a Biochem 436 lecture, which had in fact long ago stopped having any kind of educational preface and devolved into a discussion of what people were doing for break.
"You don't have a yearly Rudolph marathon," Anita called across the classroom at Elias, unwrapping a stick of gum from her backpack and sticking it between her mouth in between words. "A yearly marathon is something that you do every year! This is the first time you've ever had one!" Anita was leaning far back in her seat, her Biochem Lab book opened on her lap to a random page as she drew pictures of octopi in the margins.
 "Well so what?" Elias called back, "It is too yearly! It's just that this is the first year!" There was a murmur of consent from Elias's close friend Kyle, who was always next to him, or texting him, during class. Anita shot back an artful "fuck that," and laughed, taking a pile of purple markers out of her bag to embellish the tentacles strewn across her page.
Jaylen, watching the dispute from the back of the room, gave an upward nod to Elias, "It start at eight again this year?"
"There is no 'again'!" Anita shouted, smacking a bubble that she had started blowing back into her cheek.
Elias ignored her, "Yep! My dorm, eight o' clock! Be there or be... your mom!"
Alice, sitting next to Jaylen, shook her head solemnly, "That was horrible, Elias. At least normally your 'your mom' jokes make sense..." she picked up her pen to go back to her notes on the Civil War over homework that she hadn't done, then turned to Jaylen, "Are you going, then?"
Jaylen nodded, "I figure I might as well," he said, "I already told my roommates not to expect me in the room tonight, figured I'd stay here and finish up that lab report that I didn't turn in last week, then head over to New China for dinner. Meet me there?"
Alice tilted her head and glanced sideways at him, "You'll only pay for my dinner if it costs five dollars or less, wont you?" she shook her head, but replied, "Yeah, seven's when I get off of work. I'll head over after that." She stuck up her chin at him for a moment before going back to her work though, "at some point you'll have to treat me to some real food, you know."
"Hell no," Jaylen protested, a defiant look on his face, "Treat a stray to dinner and she'll never leave. Treat a stray to five dollars of Chinese and she'll show you her Biochem notes for a month." she rolled her eyes at him and he laughed, "Fine. I'll get you something this weekend. Saturday's the day before Christmas Eve, we can head over to Uptown and go see what restaurants are willing to serve a couple of minors like us. That sound good?"
"Very much so," she replied. "I may even bring you back a cookie or two from work tonight." She ended the conversation by burying her head in her textbook, but not before Jaylen made a note that it should be a doughnut, not a cookie.
Jaylen and Alice had met their freshman year when they realized that they had the same major and could basically have the same schedule all four years if they swung their schedule right. It was a friendship built out of study habits, as they would normally meet up and study for their classes three or four times a week - and more when midterms and finals drew near. Buying dinner became a sort of victory dinner that Jaylen treated Alice to whenever they finished a final that they had studied hard for. Jaylen treated Alice, always treated Alice, because she was only at OSU because she was lucky enough to swing a full ride and didn't have the money for anything outside of her meal plan. It might have also been because he liked Alice, and wanted to give her the impression that he was, well, a good guy. He was planning to ask her out on Saturday, eating a real dinner of more than New China. That may seem a little backwards, asking her out on what would basically be a date to anyone else, but they had come so used to the agreement that it was only natural now. Besides, it would be harder to refuse that way, right?