Chapter 2 of Temoc's Totally Normal Campus Adventures: Pregnant?
The outage lasted three miserable hours.
Students got trapped in elevators across campus. Entire buildings lost AC while others locked people from the outside without warning. Police cars, fire trucks, and administrators crowded between the sidewalks.
By the end of it, everyone smelled like sweat and frustration.
Three hours. Canceled Classes. Only for them to resume at noon.
Temoc stared blankly at the email announcement while sitting in the back corner of their chemistry lecture.
Outage Resolved: Power Outage Impacting IT Services. OIT will continue to monitor IT services to ensure ongoing service stability.
That was it. No explanation. Just “it was resolved.”
That was two weeks ago. Now, everything seems back to normal.
The professor continued rambling about hybridization and molecular structures, but Temoc barely listened. Their attention drifted toward the gray clouds outside the lecture hall windows instead.
When is attendance going to show up already?
Every minute inside the classroom felt unnaturally stretched.
Temoc rested their head against their palm when a sharp wave of nausea twisted through their stomach.
Again.
Nearly every morning for the past week had started the same way. Appetite disappeared. Stomach turned violently. THen everything eventually passes like nothing happened at all.
A tap came onto the shoulder.
Temoc looked up to find Tobor pulling a chair and taking his laptop out of the bag. “Want… water?” A question mark popped up on the android’s face. With a sigh, Temoc grabbed the water bottle that was being offered and gulped it down.
“You… look… unwell…”
“Yeah, it’s called sitting in chemistry when I could literally be doing anything else,” the comet groaned, dramatically waving their hands.
Tobor didn’t respond.
He simply stared.
Completely motionless.
One minute passed.
Then another.
The longer Tobor looked at them, the more the silence stopped feeling awkward and started feeling wrong. “Yo, man, are you okay?” Temoc softly questioned.
Nothing. Another two minutes go by.
Iron gripped Temoc's wrist.
“The squirrels are watching.”
Tobor’s hand gripped harder and leaned forward.
“The Seed has been planted.”
Temoc’s stomach dropped.
Looking around to see if anyone else was listening to this crazy robot, Temoc threw off Tobor’s hand and began to pack up their things and leave to go home. Class was almost over.
They glanced over at Tobor, but Tobor was slowly putting his stuff away too. As if nothing happened.
What the actual fuck was that?
Tobor’s voice kept replaying in Temoc’s head during the entire walk back to the apartment.
The squirrels are watching.
The Seed has been planted.
They didn’t notice the group of students pointing at the squirrels in the trees. They didn’t notice Enarc following behind them.
One step into the apartment and Temoc noticed something was wrong. They didn’t close the door yet but it closed either way. Enarc pops out in front of them nonchalantly, “You look ugly.”
“You say that every time you see me.”
“Because every time I see you, you look ugly.”
“You know, others have said I looked cute.”
Enarc studied them more carefully this time. “Yeah, the people who think you’re cute are weird,” Enarc went to the kitchen to grab some towels, “anyways, what happened to you?”
Temoc didn’t want to get riled up again remembering so they just said, “Tobor.”
Enarc glanced back, wanting to laugh but covered their mouth.
The great Temoc getting manhandled by Tobor of all people?
Honestly humiliating.
And somehow people still treat Temoc like the center of the universe.
Plunging into the couch, they opened their bag and pointedly ignored Enarc and their envious stares. They began applying a cream to their sore wrist. It was a terrible day, and Temoc was mad but even more baffled by Tobor.
As Temoc reached to put the cream away, their backpack tipped sideways off the couch.
Something small slid onto the floor.
Enarc bent down first.
Silence.
“... At-Home Pregnancy Test?”