Universitatis, Chapter I

The bus ride was relatively calm and uneventful, save for the number of excited chatters from the twenty young adult monsters inside. The girls were talking or gossiping away, some giggling at each other and reading magazines, while the guys were either trying to flirt with some of the girls, chilling out, or discussing the latest match between Screechville Growlstones and Monstropolis Howlers.

Adrian tried to hide the snort that threatened to come out as his twin brother ended up his tale of how he successfully dated three girls without then noticing each other to a shark-like monster sitting beside him.

“Alright show off. Stop right there.” Adrian finally interrupted as the tale escalates into a new level in ridiculousness. “Don’t you mean you tried to flirt with my ex and Ricky’s girl while your date wasn’t looking?”

“Oi! I wasn’t flirting.” Hadrian shot back indignantly.

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

“Not my fault that I have such charms on girls.” Hadrian rolled his eyes, but he grinned nonetheless, leaning back on his seat with his arms on the back of his head. He then spotted a slender, one eyed girl with light magenta coloured skin and snake-like hair walking down the aisle. “Hi.” He flashed his award winning smile. “I’m Hadrian Dreysen.”

Adrian gave him a good smack upside the head when the monster blushed and giggled. “Stop that.”

“What? I’m just saying hello.” Hadrian protested.

“For you, that’s flirting.” Adrian shot back in a deadpan.

The grey skinned monster sitting beside Hadrian coughed to hide his laugh while the snake haired monster giggled and blushed, "Sorry, but you're not my type." she said before continuing to walk down the aisle to find a seat.

Hadrian flushed slightly before punching Adrian’s arm with an annoyed expression. “Fat load of good you are.”

“She said she's not interested in you so why bother?" Adrian raised his eyebrows.

“You Brithorns sure have weird way of speech.” The monster shook his head, amused by the twin's banter.

“As well as you blokes in this country.” Adrian pointed out. “Anyway,” he turned to the monster. “You’re going to Fear Tech, right? Look out for my brother here. He tends to get into trouble when I'm not around.”

“Don’t worry. Will do.” The monster nodded in amusement while Hadrian pretended to groan.

Adrian leaned back on his seat, looking out to the window as the bus passed by Monstropolis suburbs. The 18 year-old monster stared at the trees as he thought on various things. For starters, he thought on the fact that they are the oddest pair of twins ever. Even they have near-identical look; both were over six-feet tall badger-like monsters, with dark blue fur and grey underbelly, sharp clawed arms and feet, and the same pale green eyes, every monster could easily tell the twins apart if they stood together. Adrian Ignight was taller and his blue fur was a shade darker than his twin brother's, which looked black in certain lightnings. He’s also a few inches taller than the younger Ignight twin. Hadrian’s fur on the other hand were far more subtle in colour, had a more muscular built and his fur was smoother than Adrian’s mop of fur. Adrian was more of the down-to-earth type, always known to keep his cool and always thought things through while Hadrian was a bit temperamental, the don’t-look-just-jump type, a bit of a prankster, and a major flirt. And if you looked at the two, you wouldn’t expect Adrian to majoring in Scaring at Monsters University while Hadrian took Advanced Engineering in Fear Tech

Adrian was jolted out of his thoughts as he felt the bus squeaked to a stop. Adrian turned his head towards the window once more. A grin broke out on his face.

"Monsters University! Next stop Fear Tech!" All of the monsters winced, especially the ones sitting right behind the six eyed bus driver. His voice could wake the whole Monstropolis.

About a quarter of the occupants stood from their seats and began collecting their things as the door hissed open. Adrian looked at his twin and noticed that the gleeful glint in Hadrian’s eyes dulled considerably. Adrian bit his lips slightly before he reached out and patted his brother's shoulder.

"Hey, uh..." He hesitated, unsure what to say. "Well, we'll keep contact, okay?" He managed. It’s the first time in years that they had parted. It was a funny feeling for Adrian, knowing that he won’t be seeing his twin brother for a whole semester. Well, after all, they had made their decisions. Adrian will be attending Monsters University while his twin brother will go to the far-away Fear Tech.

Okay, that was a bit dramatic.

Hadrian gave a half-hearted smile.  “Yeah, I'll call you when I arrive at Fear Tech."

"Anyone else?" The bus driver hollered as the last M.U. students walked out of the bus.

"I’ll call after I had settled everything down." Hadrian replied, his sadness momentarily forgotten. "Now go on. Or have you decided to transfer to FT with me?"

With a grin and chuckle, Adrian quickly left the bus, narrowly getting his suitcase squished by the metal door. The teen watched as the grey colored bus sped by with Hadrian waving at him from his seat. Then, as quickly as it came, the bus was just a speck off the horizon.

The monster sighed.

Well, there goes Hadrian.

Adrian directed his gaze from the road to his surroundings, monsters of all shapes, sizes, and colors crowded all over the huge front gate. Adrian couldn't help but let his jaw drop slightly at the sight. The huge marble and wrought iron gate was a masterpiece itself. With two imposing winged monster statues standing on two vine wrapped pillars on the sides of the gate, the words Monsters University was placed proudly on an arch right between the statues.

"Right." Adrian blinked out from his momentary trance and took a step into the campus grounds. "First thing first." He said to himself.

Weaving through the crowd, Adrian gazed around, trying to absorb everything at once. To say that Monsters University is big would be an understatement. With an endless stretch of woods, huge parks, a large crystal clear river and buildings with amazing architectural works, the place is plain awesome. Now, he just has to find the Registration Hall. That could be a problem in the place this big. Adrian craned his neck around, trying to find a hint of the whereabouts of the Registration Hall. Several two to three storied buildings stood around the cobblestone path, but none of them held any signs of being the building he was looking for.

“Okay, this could be a problem.” Adrian muttered to himself.

“Hey there freshmen!”

Adrian blinked. A cheerful looking monster came towards him, holding a clipboard and a pen. He was clad in a bright yellow T-shirt with Smile Squad printed in blue and an MU cap with holes on the sides so his antenna-like eyes could pop out easily.

“Welcome to Monsters University!” he said, shaking Adrian’s hands. “I’m Jay the R.A. Can I get your name on this fine day?”

“Ignight, Adrian.” He said as Jay checked his name list.

“Okay, Adrian Ignight. International Student. Ooh, you’re from Great Brithorn. I’ve always wanted to visit that place.” Jay grinned. “Well, the Registration Hall is straight through the Quad, red building to the right. Have a great first day!”

The Registration Hall was a U shaped two storied building made from red bricks and white porches. A line had formed right in front of the doors of the building. A booth had been erected up front with another monster with a yellow Smile Squad T-shirt attending to the freshmen.

“Hey, I’m Kay! Welcome to M.U! Here’s your orientation packet. You can drop your belongings here and get your photo taken with Trey!” said the female monster, giving a set of books and knick-knacks to the students.

“Hi, I’m Trey!” the slug like monster inside the building said when Adrian went into the photo room.  He looked at Adrian’s rather tall frame. “Just stand right there and you’ll be on your way.” Trey smiled, moving the three legged chair away from the photo booth before walking towards the camera as Adrian stood right between the fog-cloud background and camera.

“Er…one second.” he said suddenly after adjusting the camera a few times. He took a rather low stool from the side of the room. “I think you’ll need to sit on this. You’re much taller than I thought. Okay, just like that.” he nodded, rushing back to the camera. “Alright, now just sit tight and say ‘Hooray!’” The camera flashed. Adrian blinked several times to get the lights out of his rather sensitive eyes.

“Now go on over Ray over there to take your new Student ID card.” Trey said, gesturing to the monster sitting on the counter behind the photo booth, who was busy with printing and giving out the IDs to the queue of students.

Ray was a red furred monster with tube-like body, stubby clawed limbs and three eyes. He seemed a little nervous too Adrian noted. The monster didn’t have the same air of confidence as the rest of the Smile Squad team.

“Hi. My name’s Ray. Here’s your Student ID card.” The monster said, giving the blue and white card to Adrian. It’s still warm from the printing machine as Adrian took it, taking note that his head-shot tilted to the left slightly. Other than that, his name, faculty ID, and major was right.

“You can use your ID as a pass in the Library and purchasing food in the cafeteria. So don’t lose your ID card. Have a nice day!” Ray said with a rather forced smile. He also seemed to be reciting from a guide book. Poor bloke must’ve been repeating the same thing since morning.

“Alright. Thanks.” Adrian nodded as he exited the Registration Hall.

Adrian’s eye twitched slightly when another bright smiled Smile Squad monster gathered the group of freshmen. It was a thin, green skinned squid-like monster with striking blue hair and antenna eyes.

“Okay, my name’s Fay and we’ll begin our orientation tour on this pleasant day!” she said, somehow retaining her bright smile as she spoke. “If anyone will follow me, our tour will start right this way!”

That settles it. He’ll never sign up with the Smile Squad even if his life depended on it. Every single monster on the yellow T-shirted squad had their names and sentences ended with ‘ay’s. Either they modified their nicknames or the club only accepted members with names that ended up with ‘ay’s. With a sigh, the blue furred monster walked with the group and listened as Fay started to explain the history of Monsters University with a flourish.

Disclaimer: I do not own Monsters University. Monsters University belongs to Disney/Pixar.