Lynda in a sundress and Emilia in jeans and a hoodie were walking along the main road to class. It was the first Friday, the end of the first week. It was noon so plenty of students were walking around for their next class. They were in fact between a loud group of sorority sisters in front and some gamers behind. But Lynda continued to say, “so now I’ve got three assignments all due tonight and a pop quiz on Monday that I know nothing to study for!”
“He told you there’s a pop quiz? Doesn’t that take the pop out of it?”
“Yeah but he told us it could be on anything! For a composition class!”
“Aw oh well. It’s not a lot of points, right?”
“He didn’t say! But it’s so petty, I don’t wanna lose a point anyways. I’ll have him Hague’d!”
“What?”
“Hague’d I say!”
“Repeating it really helped,” Emilia said shaking her head.
“Do you not have bullshit professors?”
“Well actually, the class I’m going to now, nobody seems to like him. Lol, it’s kind of sad.”
“Aw why don’t they like him?”
“I just think he’s one of those professors that like didn’t take a speech class so they aren’t captivating in a lecture. And I like physics too so that sucks. He always makes me fall asleep.”
Lynda frowned. “So that’s it? You got nothing for me, E?”
“Sorry. That’s why I think they’re overreacting. He’s just a boring dude.”
“Uh huh, what’s his name?”
“Ummmmm Schleswig? I don’t know some bs.”
“Emileeeeee, I swear to God- wait PROFESSOR SCHLESWIG!?! He has like the lowest rating on ratemyteacher.com. Bro doesn’t he give you an assignment everyday?”
“Yeah-“
“Like this is fucking middle school!?” Emilia shrugged. “That’d be so annoying but at least you get plenty of chances to earn points. For me, I want plenty of days to be doing nothing. Just relaxing, maybe getting fucked. Five days and I haven’t gotten fucked yet. I don’t want to worry about some petty ass 10 point homework.”
“Well discussion posts doesn’t really count as regular homework, right?”
Emilia heard the sound of a bell ring just once. She turned to her side. There was a grave for Lynda. On the gravestone it read, “Died of Exhaustion, April 8 2001 to August 2019”. Emilia blocked her face as the gamers investigated the grave. They quickly left and she wondered if she should too. Then Lynda’s hand raised out of the ground. They continued walking…
“Can’t believe you killed me E. I thought you were my ride or die.”
“I didn’t mean to. The everyday assignments are just discussion posts.”
“There you go again. You’re just kidding me right?”
“No.”
“So full on forced discussions where you gotta write 3 to 5 sentences and respond to 2 students about some boring ass topic?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll put this teacher on my blacklist.”
“Cool cool.”
So they stopped by the math building first where Lynda had her class. Emilia continued to the science building alone. Upon entering, she saw other classmates making their way. In the science building, every classroom was a bit larger than regular to fit labs. It was also open air, there wasn’t a ceiling between the floors, just balconies. Everything was metal or concrete.
Emilee made the horrifying climb to the third floor. Why is this the only building without an elevator?? Emilia, the weak lass, breathed heavily once she reached the top. She slowly made her way to the classroom door of which everyone was crowding outside. Yeah he’s late again so everyone’s gonna gossip about him again. Emilia leaned against the wall and dozed off.
Ah well, the rest of her peers were indeed gossiping. “There he goes again…that’s the first minute he’s late. 14 minutes left.”
“GOD and he’s gonna hold us up after class is over.”
“Cause he talks too slow. Doesn’t matter if he got here on time.”
“That should be a crime.”
“Freddy, you do last night’s discussion?”
“No it got locked before the party ended bro.”
“Dumbass, it gets locked at 6 am.”
“I think I’ll go to the bathroom now. Don’t let him think I’m late.”
“Marcia you ready for the test today?”
They all simultaneously shouted, “THERE’S A TEST!” which caused Emilia to open her eyes wide. She looked around to the culprit of such news. Her brows frowned just as hard everyone else upon finding the girl.
There was Elizabeth in a casual outfit. She nervously repeated, “Uh uh-“
Marcia pulled her by the neck, “no, fucking explain yourself!”
“Ahh, Melissa told me. She had his class earlier this morning.”
“Ew! Melissa!?”
“She’s my friend!”
“I don’t give a shit, you’re my friend,” Marcia argued.
Vito, a short kid in a long coat–which enveloped his whole body–stepped in between the girls. He talked in a low voice but held a strong accent. “So youse telling me we got a test dis morning. A quiz. An exam. An assessment!” Elizabeth nodded after each synonym. “What the fucks on it?”
“Well Melissa said it’s just a ten question thing and it’s only double the points of a discussion post.”
“We didn’t get to learn anything yet,” some kid said.
“Or study!”
Elizabeth continued albeit blushing, “it’s kind of just like a see-where-you-at-quiz. I don’t think it’s gonna be that bad.” She turned to Marcia, “kind of why I didn’t tell you til now.”
“But you’re smarter than me!”
Elizabeth was going to respond but then Robby said, “ayo, does Melissa remember the questions? We can just look them up right now.”
“I’ll ask her really quick.” Marcia put her hand on the screen of Elizabeth’s phone. Elizabeth stared softly into Marcia’s eyes. Marcia’s angry face faded.
“Oi let’s get a move on. He might show up late but he’s gonna show up and I don’t wanna look like a bumbling baBOON on the trial,” Vito said.
Marcia rolled her eyes. “Fine, I knew you were fake anyways.” She walked away. Elizabeth looked like she was about to cry. She blinked the tears away and started texting.
The fuck happened between them, Emilia thought. Marcia walked away from the crowd which closed in on Elizabeth. She leaned against the wall with a pouty face and went to texting on her phone. Maybe they are in a weird couple fight. Maybe she’s just a dumb bitch. I don’t know Emilia, why don’t you fucking ask her.
Oh well, let’s just skip ahead. I don’t necessarily care for Marcia today. So at the 14 minute mark, Prof Schleswig appeared. He unlocked the door allowing the kids to flood on. They weren’t confident yet as they continued to Google the answers to questions Melissa half remembered. Schleswig began his long drawn speech of which I do not have the patience to write. It meanders from why he was late to responding to the discussion posts to finally these test but each subject received a required 3 distractions. CJ, a tall muscle head in a black tank and shorts, was sitting at the front of class. He took out his book and opened it to a random page. He had the book stand on the desk and this would be where he hid his phone to ‘study’ while Schleswig spoke. The other students copied the same form. But Emilia never got the questions, she just logged on to Discord to chat with her Internet friends. And for Marcia, she just kept scrolling on Instagram. They sat next to each other.
“So this test is just to figure out what you know and don’t know. You’ll just be graded for participation.” Everyone threw their books across the room. Elizabeth whispered to everyone, “she never told me that.”
Schleswig continued, not a bit affected, “but it’s still possible to fail. You should know this stuff from your high school physics class.” Most had not heard this part at all. They checked out due to confidence. Now I don’t have to know anything at all, they thought. Emilia and Marcia looked up from their phones and decided to just throw their books across the room as well. Why did I do that, they both asked themselves.
So Schleswig passed out the papers and the kids got to testing. Aw it was so easy for some of them and yet difficult for others who took Physics more than a year ago. Emilia was lucky she retained some information as some questions tripped her. For Marcia, the test wasn’t necessarily difficult but she couldn’t remember the answers to the specificity that the questions asked for. Emilia thought, well everyone was already cheating on this so maybe I can look at her paper. Marcia thought the same thing. They turned their eyes and met. Both of them were shocked and looked in the opposite direction. Emilia covered her face and groaned into her hands meanwhile Marcia shrugged and looked back. Wait, she’s not further than me on this test! And the questions she has answered have different answers then mine! Marcia lowered her head in shame. Sensing that she wasn’t looking, Emilia peaked at her paper and found the same problem. We just suck, huh. Well, maybe her friend will do better.
Emilia looked on the other side where Elizabeth was writing her test. Emilia found the test easier now, but something felt weird. Marcia kept looking over at her. But I don’t think directly at me. Every time now that Marcia looked, she tapped her foot on the floor and twirled her pencil. Emilia tried her best to not make eye contact when she checked, but it’s so creepy, it’s like she’s watching over me! Does she like me? She’s pretty but I don’t swing that way. Emilia then rushed through the quiz. She walked up to hand it on Schleswig’s desk. He thanked her and she awkwardly nodded. Then she walked back to her table to gather her things as she was allowed to leave upon completion of the quiz. Marcia took another glance at Elizabeth but lingered this time. She was looking past me the whole time! That’s why she adjusted herself sometimes! Emilia slowly walk away as Marcia nearly stared at Elizabeth. Elizabeth finally noticed and smiled at her. She smiled back and quickly looked down. Emilee inhaled and turned around to quicken her pace. Her thoughts raced, bro no way! She likes her or something. Maybe Melissa is like interrupting that. Aw they’d be so cute together! Maybe I can figure out more but I finished way before them. Till next class I guess.
Marcia thought, Finally that stupid girl move out of the way. Now I can stare at h e r for the rest of the test. But jeez, she failed like half the test.
tdwriter 