It took Dakota a few moments - moments he was spending getting his things needed for class - to realize someone was saying his name. He looked over his left shoulder, then his right...and saw his twin brother, looking perplexed and motioning him over. Flustered, Dakota gathered his stuff and squeezed out of his row, moving to sit next to Drake.
"You looked right at me then sat in front, dumbass!" Drake hissed as Dakota sat down. "I thought you were going to be late."
"I was pr--" Dakota started to say, then he decided not to mention it to Drake yet. "I got lost. And I did not look at you, I didn't see you!"
"You looked RIGHT at me. It was like you didn't recognize me. Weirdo."
"How was your meeting?" Dakota asked.
"Fine," Drake shrugged. "There's four of us in there from the class. I think they said it's the only club where there's more than one person. I have to go to this stupid karaoke thing tonight and then we plan their end of term event, but I don't think it's going to be too bad."
"OooOOOOooooh, karaoke," Dakota teased. "I'm glad you'll keep yourself busy while I'm with the Muslims. What're you going to sing?"
"I'm not gonna sing if I have anything to say about it," Drake said with a roll of his eyes. It was the last thing he got out before class started and they had to be quiet. The lecture was standard beginning-of-the-semester stuff; not terribly interesting but also with no work attached. Dakota zoned out, and he only had to look at Drake once to know that Drake wasn't really listening either. Whatever, they weren't getting any homework yet so it didn't matter.
"What the hell..." Dakota heard Drake whisper near the end of class. Drake reached toward Dakota's face, but Dakota swatted his brother's hand away, thinking Drake was trying to razz him. Drake sat back in his chair but kept staring at Dakota after that. Once class ended, he was immediately back in Dakota's face.
"Get off me, man!" Dakota said, pushing at his brother as Drake hooked a finger into Dakota's t-shirt collar.
"What is this?" Drake said, and he pulled on the t-shirt.
Dakota howled in pain. "Owww! What the hell are you--get OFF me!" He pushed Drake again, attracting attention from several students walking out. But given that the boys were obviously twins, no one intervened.
"Have you been shaving your chest this whole time and I didn't know it?"
"Shaving my...? No, what are you even talking about," Dakota snarled, stuffing his things back in his bag. "You're being weird."
"I'm not being weird! You're the one looking like you're wearing a sweater under there!"
Dakota sat up and looked at Drake. "What?" His brother just jabbed his finger into Dakota's chest, and Dakota followed the digit to see a shadow under his t-shirt. Heart thumping, he reached for his collar, and even before he touched it, he was gripping tufts of black hair sticking out of the top. "Wh-what is..." He pulled down on his t-shirt, and out poured a curtain of black chest hair, so dense and dark that it hid the pale skin underneath. With a squeak of horror, Dakota dipped his chin down into his t-shirt, and realized his entire chest was covered with black hair so thick it was like fur. "I...I...I..." he kept repeating, dumbstruck. "I gotta go shave. I gotta go shave!!"
"Dude-"
But Dakota already had his backpack and was rushing out the door, frantically checking his other limbs and patting his face. No hair anywhere else, at least none that wasn't blond and almost impossible to see anyway. He threw himself onto the bus heading back to the dorms and sat in the back, positioning his backpack over his chest and slouching so that the black curls bursting up out of the top of his t-shirt couldn't be seen. It probably attracted more attention to sit like a hunchback, but Dakota was too busy scratching at his wooly chest hair to think about it. It was so itchy inside his t-shirt. He had to shave it off before the meeting tonight. He ignored the buzzing of his phone, which he knew was Drake texting him. He didn't know what to say to his brother yet.
Dakota jogged up into his dorm and threw his bag on his bed, being sure to lock the door first so that Drake didn't walk in on him. He peeled off his shirt and looked down at the black pelt. Drake was right, it really did look like a sweater. Even when he pushed his hands through it he couldn't see the skin underneath. "This is so fucked up..." Dakota breathed, going straight to his bathroom kit to find razors.