Before Ella knew it, it was Monday night.

"Happy Monday," Adam said, as Ella approached the desk. He looked tired if the bags underlying his eyes had anything to say about it.

She laughed. "You may not be happy about it, but it's my day off tomorrow so I'm pretty happy."

Ella had been a lot more cheery since she started going to the dining hall. And when she said, a lot she meant, a hell of a lot better.

Katie accompanied her most of the time, they worked out a time between their hectic schedules to at least sit-down and eat once. Whether it be for lunch, dinner or heaven forbid breakfast if Ella had the energy to grab food after her overnight shift.

Katie liked to sit near the back of the lunchroom, right near the side entrance. This way she could see who was coming in and out of the building.

"I like to check out the local wildlife on campus," Katie said one night when Ella asked her why she liked to sit at the same spot every time. "It keeps me entertained."

By local wildlife, she meant the general student body on campus. Apparently, the athletes were so cooped up in one area, they only knew each other and only ever saw each other. So when her roommate got the chance, she liked to see what the rest of the school was up to.

"That's so weird," Ella had said in response. "I can't imagine only ever seeing the same people over and over again."

"You think that's weird?" Katie replied, "That guy over there is wearing a tail."

Ella glanced over and yes, there was a guy wearing a long, furry tail. She shrugged. "I kind of like his tail."

Her roommate glared at her. "I think god may have put me in your life to stop you from wearing a tail as well."

She huffed out a laugh.

But even if Katie was busy with prior engagements, Ella still went to the dining hall. Most of the time she sat alone, but sometimes a few classmates would join her. Like Wallace from Persuasion Studies, who didn't mind eating in silence as long as he had someone to sit with, or Emma from Communication Literature who liked to talk about her boyfriend every other sentence.

Ella blinked. Maybe she really was making friends here, despite her trying hard not to.

"Alright," Adam said, slinging his purse (Satchel, as he liked to call it) around his shoulder. "I'll catch you later, Ella."

Ella waved him goodbye and clocked in for the day. There were a few books that Adam left for her to scan back in but it didn't look like she had too much on her plate today. Which was perfect.

Lysander was meeting her at the library to work on the first part of their project. She felt bad, having her meet him so late but he insisted it wasn't a problem and that usually stayed up till about two in the morning anyway.

"Why do you think I take afternoon classes," he said when Ella tried to insist they meet earlier to accommodate his schedule. "I don't mind at all. How does eleven sound?"

Ultimately, she agreed.

She glanced at the clock. It was a quarter till eleven. She quickly began scanning in the books, hopefully having them all finished by the time he arrived. She imagined Lysander to be a punctual person if his early arrival to class was anything to go of off. He always arrived to class before class was even in session, sometimes as early as twenty minutes before.

"I'm on campus most of the day," he said, when she asked him one day, having arrived at the class a bit early herself. "Plus it's nice to have my classroom to myself for a bit."

As the last book was scanned and returned to its shelf, the library's entrance door opened, and in walked Lysander. He had a warm smile on his face as he approached Ella.

"Right on time," he said, confirming Ella's impression of his punctuality. "Shall we get started?"

Ella nodded and gathered her things. They found a quiet corner in the library where they could work on their project, but Ella could also keep watch of the desk as well. It was late, and not many students were hanging around in the library, and the ones that were didn't seem to need any help at the moment.

"So," He said, once they got settled onto the plush couch. "I think the literature review is due this week, so all we need to do is find a few articles to back up our pitch."

"Define a few."

"Like fifteen," Lysander, said laughing. "So maybe more than a few."

Ella groaned, shaking her head. This was the part of academic projects she disliked the most—scouring scholarly articles for relevant information. While she enjoyed her own research, she found reading through dense scholarly texts to be a tedious chore.

"I can check the online library source if you want to look around the printed articles here in the library," Lysander said pulling out his laptop and leaving little room for Ella to protest.

The basement of the library was a quiet and dimly lit space, with only a few students making use of it. A couple of dusty tables and chairs were scattered around, and an old soda vending machine stood against the wall, a relic from a different era.

Ella browsed through the shelves, her fingers tracing the spines of the thick academic journals and articles. The musty scent of old paper filled the air, a stark contrast to the digital world she was more accustomed to.

She began to pull a stack of articles, knowing she would need to sift through them for the relevant information later. Most of the articles were published more than ten years ago, but hopefully, there would still be relevant information to help them with their research.

As she continued pursuing the area, she had a hard time finding other articles. She frowned, a feeling of anxiety creeping on her. Hopefully, Lysander wouldn't get upset and blame her for choosing an idea that didn't have much literature on the topic.

She glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight and she probably needed to head back upstairs to see if anyone had stopped by the desk seeking her help. As she made her way upstairs, a voice called out to her.

"Woah, not even going to say hi, Tucker?"

She let out a startled yelp, and almost dropped the stacks of articles she had neatly gathered in her arms. She whipped around to see Connor–freaking–Holmes sitting at one of the tables by himself.

She blinked in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Connor, with his usual easygoing manner, gestured to the notebook and open laptop in front of him. "Studying?"

Ella was momentarily speechless. Why was Connor Holmes sitting in a dusty basement studying?

"Don't you usually have a practice around this time?" Ella said, after another beat of silence.

"At midnight?"

Oh. Well yeah, that didn't make any sense.

"What I mean is," she gathered her words. "What are you doing here on a Monday night?"

He smiled, and his eyes crinkled in a way that Ella usually found endearing—Wait, what?

"I'm always here Monday nights, I have a habit of procrastinating on my homework right before game day so I usually study here to try and get my work done." He leaned back and stretched his arms above his head, causing his shirt to ride up slightly. She looked away.

"Why don't you study in your dorm?"

He wrinkled his nose. "Too many distractions."

"How come I never see you?" Ella felt like she was grilling him for information, but she was genuinely curious. She had been working the overnight shift for almost four weeks now, how did she not see him?

"I usually leave around 2 AM," He said, his smile not dropping by an inch. "You usually have your nose buried in a book or typing away on your laptop around that time. I never wanted to bother you."

Oh, that made sense.

"But now that you know I'm here, it would be weird not to say hello to you, so I'll try to drop by the desk every now and then." He ended his sentence with a slight laugh as if he was telling her a funny story or a joke.

"Okay," she found herself saying.

He blinked. "Okay?"

"Okay," she confirmed.

He grinned. "Well, okay then."

"I feel like we're saying 'Okay' way too many times."

His grin widened in response.

"I have to go," she said, walking backward toward the staircase. "I have to finish up this assignment before tomorrow morning"

He glanced at the clock. "Technically, it's almost tomorrow morning."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant."

"Will I be seeing you at the party tomorrow?"

She shrugged. "If you win, then maybe."

"Oh, trust me, we'll win."

She huffed out a laugh and walked up the stairs, his teasing grin lingering on her mind.