Author: Mi
Pairings: None yet
Rating: G
Warnings: AU. Not too much to say right now.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine. Everything else is.

Spotlight + Prologue

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning Duo got up at exactly 8:07 AM. He'd tried setting his alarm clock for 8:00, and once even 7:45, but it never worked. Either the alarm clock would fail to go off or he'd sleep through the alarm only to wake up at exactly 8:07.

He'd given up on waking up at any other time.

He walked the ten feet to the bathroom and took a shower that lasted approximately 15 minutes and 35 seconds.

He'd given up on the shower, too.

Then he toweled off, brushed his hair, braided it, and got dressed. By then it was usually about 8:31, give or take a minute; just enough time to pop a piece of bread into the toaster and down a glass of orange juice. As soon as the toaster dinged at 8:36 AM Duo walked out the door, grabbing his toast as he left.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning Duo walked the block and a half to the public bus stop and waited the four or five minutes for the 8:40. It never came on time, which meant that when Dup got off at the corner of Grove and Lennox he had to run to make it to the main building by 9:00.

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The reason that Duo tolerated this strain on his nerves every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning was because those were his ‘school days'. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays he took courses at the community college. On Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays he worked two jobs, as a clerk at the local public library and as a night watchman at the First National Bank. Sundays were supposed to be his day off but he found lately that his expenses were exceeding his income and he found himself spending more and more Sunday afternoons at the bank to make up the difference.

He wasn't living too lavishly, in a small studio with a bathroom and a kitchen. He ate at the cafeteria on school days and brought his own lunch to work every other day, usually a cheese sandwich or a salad because meat was expensive. He didn't smoke and he didn't spend money on things he didn't need. His last big purchase had been the laptop that he had bought at the beginning of last year for school. It was a sleek black thing, 2.25 inches thick with a 64mgb video card and a 30gig hard drive. The school had recommended that he buy one on the list of ‘recommended items' they'd given him when he'd enrolled there two Septembers ago and it'd proven itself a solid investment.

He didn't have a TV, which was fine because he spent most of his free time sleeping and when he did get the urge for mindless entertainment he could always rent a DVD and watch it on his laptop.

The class he was currently sitting though, ‘Calculus with Topics,' was one of his favorite classes this semester. Not because the math was particularly interesting, although he enjoyed that too, but rather because his professor was so animated and interesting. Prof. Kerigg was a tall wiry man with no more meat on his bones than what was necessary for survival. His cheeks were gaunt and his blonde hair was cut long and gelled into many tiny spikes that stood straight up in the air. He also had a goatee of at least two inches that tended to bob and sway as he lectured. He often started sentences before he had thought them completely through and consequently almost always ended up completing a different sentence than the one he'd started

Besides his youthful appearance and his rapid speech (at least 120 words per minute Duo was sure) Duo liked him because he related math to everyday life. Prof. Kerigg was full of anecdotes and frequently began his lessons with a story. Besides being his calculus teacher Prof. Kerigg had become a sort of mentor to Duo, advising him about his classes and life in general. Duo had a lunch appointment with him today and was looking forward to discussing his work and living conditions with him. At the moment however, he had to start taking notes.

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