I had definitely been here before. A porch overlooking a cafeteria, stairs leading down to a quad and snow.
More than enough snow. It was still sticking to my coat - the wet stuff that is great for making snowballs with - but I wasn't thinking about snowballs or even robotics, something I had been playing with for roughly the whole day. I thought about the walk down the street that I had to make. How many times had I walked it before? At least once for every school day since first grade - the days that I walked it twice making up for the rare days that I didn't. Some days I walked it alone, others I walked with people. In number, the days I had walked alone greatly outnumbered the days I walked with people but in thought, those I spent with people meant more.

Today's walk would be more lonely than it had been in recent days.