The university's halls were dimly lit in the dying afternoon sun. Archie's ankle brace made its usual clip-creak sound with every step, and it echoed across the empty hallways. There were doors with name plaques dotting the corridor, and Archie's eyes skittered across them as he walked.

"Just the front desk. That's all I need, for god's sake. Why does this have to be so hard?!" Archie muttered angrily. He was only doing this because Atlanta told him to.

The front office finally emerged in front of Archie, a glass-fronted cubicle with leather lounges seated in front of it. Archie felt uncomfortable already. The arts faculty was not a place Archie considered himself to belong in. It made his skin crawl.

"Can I help you?" The clerk asked. She was young, blonde, and clearly about to go home. Archie had procrastinated this task all day in the private hope that when he arrived, the desk would be unattended. Instead, he'd made this poor woman's life that little bit harder by turning up at closing time. Good one, Archie.

"Uh, yeah, actually. I'm looking to enrol."

"Have you tried online?" She asked, still preoccupied by packing her papers.

"Yeah, uh, my online ID was too outdated, so I apparently need to enrol and apply in person…"

The girl sighed to herself. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's my fault, you should just give up on me now and leave… Archie wanted to say. But he knew Atlanta would be disappointed in him if he came home again and had to admit he'd failed to enrol. You know this is what you want, Atlanta had told him firmly. I know it, from the way you talk. It's what you want to do, okay? And you'd be amazing at it.


Archie had made all sorts of excuses to Atlanta when she was trying to convince him to enrol in the course.

They won't accept me since I flunked out of exercise science, he'd argued.

Then try community college, Atlanta had offered back.

That's only for drop kicks, Archie had claimed.

Yeah right, didn't your mother attend one? She's the coolest person I've met. Atlanta countered. Archie had given her that point.

But it'll be full of people who did way better than me in high school.

Trust me, this is your talent, Atlanta had promised him. High school grades won't mean anything once they see you write.

You're just being nice. Archie had argued back again. At this point, Atlanta had thrown her arms in the air, giving in.

Fine, don't enrol. Go back to working at that sports store for the rest of your life. But I think you're denying yourself the chance to pursue what you truly love because you're afraid. Scared. She'd snapped. Archie had melted a little inside at that.

What if I am scared? Archie had muttered.

Scared of what? Failing?

Archie hadn't answered that one. He didn't need to. Atlanta had smiled at him sadly before she spoke.

Arch, come on. How many times have you seen me fail?

I dunno.

She'd rolled her eyes. A lot, Archie. A fucking lot. You've seen how often I get rejected, how many times I've been overlooked or just messed up at opportunities. The thing is, you're gonna have to fail at a few things before you get where you wanna go. There's nothing shameful about failing at stuff. She'd paused, then, and approached him.

If failure meant you weren't worthy, surely I'd have no worth left at all by now, right?

Somehow, she'd hit the spot for Archie. He shook his head.

You're worth everything, and more. Atlanta had smiled victoriously at that.

Then go. Tomorrow. You've only got three days till semester deadline.


The clerk was seated back down at the desk.

"Course?"

"Uh… maybe just bachelor of arts, major in creative writing?"

He winced as he said it. The clerk smiled at him.

"Only guy in the class."

Archie's cheeks went red. The clerk kept typing, failing to notice.

"First degree?"

"Uh, no, second…"

"What was your first?"

"Ex-exercise science. I didn't finish it though."

"Due to family or extraneous circumstances?"

"N-not exactly…"

The clerk paused, and smiled.

"We'll say extenuating circumstances."

Archie was grateful. That sounded a lot better than "flunked out because I hated it".

"You're in." The clerk answered. "Your details were already in the system."

"That was quick…" Archie stuttered. Privately, he had been hoping something would go wrong, and perhaps he would still get out of it.

"Yep, it's that easy here. Especially since most of your online application has actually already gone through."

"So…"

"You start Monday, first class at 11am."

Archie couldn't help it: something like joy bubbled up in his chest, and he couldn't help the brief smile that flickered out as he spoke.

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

As always, he still owed Atlanta everything.