Kumquat #9
Rating: PG/PG-13 (for some language)
Flavors: Kumquat #9 (give me a break)
Extras/Toppings: --
Word count: 1,306
Project: Tachycardia
Notes: Alive and graduated from university myself. A little sad/happy/scared at the same time to be done with school. Still sticking with the Kumquat. In honor of the terrible things that are exams, this one's on Cody studying for his first uni midterm. Turned out a lot longer than I originally thought.
At that moment of exactly 6:27PM-he had checked his watch-Cody reached an epiphany: the scientists and doctors were all wrong. It was physically possible for his head to burst open from the overload of words that he had read within the past few days! His proof: the splitting headache that made him curse the already-dimmed artificial lighting of the library; even though this part of the study space was silent, he swore he could hear the words screaming, throwing their own little party within his skull-blaring music, keg stand and all!
To think, this was only the first of many midterms (and finals) to come. The weeks had gone by quickly when filled with fun and just-thank god finally!-relaxation. It was so good to be away from everything that was “home”. In fact, it was so good that, most of the time, his books had gone and buried themselves in the corner of his dorm room on the bookshelf, upright beside the one family picture he had brought.
His roommate was the type of student that was both studious and overly paranoid about grades. So, when the boy had warned Cody that midterms were coming and that the reviews on the professor teaching Classics said he was a ridiculously hard-borderline impossible-professor, Cody had given the comment little regard. After all, worriers were always going to be worriers.
Now, this was something that Cody stuck to wholeheartedly, believed in firmly. He was not a super slacker. He was a decent student: always came to class, always did the assignments. He read all the epics that had been assigned, in full without skipping a single word. He had written all the essays well and turned each in on the due date without fail. So, it made sense to not worry. And, normally, this is how it would go. He would just review for a few days, a quick skim through the book or some online summary of who Zeus banged this time and spawned as a result. But, when Cody read through the email his teacher had sent out earlier that week, he realized that he was not at all prepared for this level of detail. The sample test questions he’d been given required a full RE-read-through and memorization of all the stories.
Of the five big texts that the class had read, he had finished rereading three of them. Three days left until the Devil would hand out the midterm and tell them to do their best, and then retire to the front of the room to go off and have a good chuckle as he watched the students fail miserably. But, Cody was determined to do well. And, this is how he found himself, on a lovely and warm fall night, inside of the silent purgatory that was a school library, ruining his 20/20 vision with small, squinting-required black text.
Looking away from the jumble of letters on the page, he pushed his chair back so he could slump onto the table. For a minute, he laid there with his eyes closed, forehead against the cool wood. Ignoring the books between them, he watched Allie struggle to finish reading the first book. A frown was etched onto her face. Her pen scratched dark green-once, she had gone into a whole lecture on how green was a color of hope and how colors (other than black) helped humans remember better-letters into her notebook.
Like Cody, Allie was also a student at the university. It wasn’t a big surprise to him. She’d told him back during decisions that she was thinking of moving away. Need the freedom, she had said. Based on what he knew of her mediocre grades, he had figured out where she’d most likely end up being accepted to within the state. Since his only real requirement on universities was being far, far away from home, her choice school sounded fine; he applied there. He hadn’t told her about it until the last time they met each other in their hometown when she had been ready to give a tearful goodbye. Allie was excited (and a bit angry), to say the least.
Like Cody, Allie was taking Classics with Professor Satan. However, unlike Cody, Allie was not a very good student. High school had proof of that. She did…alright. Nothing bad, nothing great. A large part of her scores could be chalked up to her avid fascination with procrastination. So, while she hadn’t meant to read absolutely nothing (other than the quick skim through online summaries and the related quote-search through the actual text to write the essays), it had still happened. Allie found herself walking the very real, very scary and very probable path of failing the midterm. In her eyes, if Cody was worried enough to go back and RE-read the books, then she was in real danger.
God, did she wanna pass! But, jeez, the words, the lines, the pages! They all just kept running on and on and on! Her eyes burned, and she felt that not even the ever-hopeful green ink could embed the information into her brain.
Looking back on the past weeks, she wondered where she went wrong exactly. She hadn’t partied that hard. Sure, she had taken advantage of the freedom a bit and gone to a few of the frat parties, disregarded Cody’s advice to start reading during first week with her track record of “Slowest Reader Ever”, and spent tons of time either bothering Cody or shopping with her new girl friends. Oh. Okay. Yeah. She could sorta see some prelude to it all. But still, it shouldn’t have been this bad!
Allie gave a soft whine before dropping her head against The Odyssey.
With his cheek still against the table, Cody whispered, “Okay?”
She exhaled sharply, before giving her own harsh whisper back. “No! I’m still on the first one!”
“Told you to start earlier…”
“I know!” She banged her head against the table. Defeated, “I know.”
“Same. Should’ve listened to the roommate.” Cody shut his eyes. “I still need to finish The Iliad.”
“Fuck The Iliad,” she spat out.
He didn’t reply.
The shuffling of papers at another desk and the soft footsteps of other students reverberated through the library.
Sitting back upright in her chair, Allie looked around the room before settling her gaze on the window. It was still somewhat light outside. “Hey,” she whispered to Cody.
“Mm?”
“Your eyes hurt?”
“No shit,” he muttered back. He could feel the burning sting of dryness and overwork even with the lids closed.
Smiling slightly, she began to pack up quickly.
With great effort (and a lot of pain), Cody opened his eyes to stare at his friend and comrade in the war on midterms. “What are you doing?”
“I’m thinking that it’s late. Your eyes hurt. My eyes hurt. I’m hungry. I’m sure you’re hungry.” Allie zipped up her backpack. “So, I’m thinking it’s time for a break. A coffee and pastry sounds great right about now.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “What do you think?”
He stared at her blankly for a moment, processing her words slowly with the help of an exhausted mind. He blinked once. “You better not make me summarize everything for you when you don’t read everything in time for the test.” Cody got up and began shoving his books into the bag.
Allie gave a muffled giggle. “Sure, sure. Promise!” She knew she’d end up needing his help in the end though. And, he’d end up helping her as much as he could. Three days was nowhere near enough time to finish it all and do great. If she was looking for great scores, she would need every moment available to finish one read-through. But, the coffee called!
Flavors: Kumquat #9 (give me a break)
Extras/Toppings: --
Word count: 1,306
Project: Tachycardia
Notes: Alive and graduated from university myself. A little sad/happy/scared at the same time to be done with school. Still sticking with the Kumquat. In honor of the terrible things that are exams, this one's on Cody studying for his first uni midterm. Turned out a lot longer than I originally thought.
At that moment of exactly 6:27PM-he had checked his watch-Cody reached an epiphany: the scientists and doctors were all wrong. It was physically possible for his head to burst open from the overload of words that he had read within the past few days! His proof: the splitting headache that made him curse the already-dimmed artificial lighting of the library; even though this part of the study space was silent, he swore he could hear the words screaming, throwing their own little party within his skull-blaring music, keg stand and all!
To think, this was only the first of many midterms (and finals) to come. The weeks had gone by quickly when filled with fun and just-thank god finally!-relaxation. It was so good to be away from everything that was “home”. In fact, it was so good that, most of the time, his books had gone and buried themselves in the corner of his dorm room on the bookshelf, upright beside the one family picture he had brought.
His roommate was the type of student that was both studious and overly paranoid about grades. So, when the boy had warned Cody that midterms were coming and that the reviews on the professor teaching Classics said he was a ridiculously hard-borderline impossible-professor, Cody had given the comment little regard. After all, worriers were always going to be worriers.
Now, this was something that Cody stuck to wholeheartedly, believed in firmly. He was not a super slacker. He was a decent student: always came to class, always did the assignments. He read all the epics that had been assigned, in full without skipping a single word. He had written all the essays well and turned each in on the due date without fail. So, it made sense to not worry. And, normally, this is how it would go. He would just review for a few days, a quick skim through the book or some online summary of who Zeus banged this time and spawned as a result. But, when Cody read through the email his teacher had sent out earlier that week, he realized that he was not at all prepared for this level of detail. The sample test questions he’d been given required a full RE-read-through and memorization of all the stories.
Of the five big texts that the class had read, he had finished rereading three of them. Three days left until the Devil would hand out the midterm and tell them to do their best, and then retire to the front of the room to go off and have a good chuckle as he watched the students fail miserably. But, Cody was determined to do well. And, this is how he found himself, on a lovely and warm fall night, inside of the silent purgatory that was a school library, ruining his 20/20 vision with small, squinting-required black text.
Looking away from the jumble of letters on the page, he pushed his chair back so he could slump onto the table. For a minute, he laid there with his eyes closed, forehead against the cool wood. Ignoring the books between them, he watched Allie struggle to finish reading the first book. A frown was etched onto her face. Her pen scratched dark green-once, she had gone into a whole lecture on how green was a color of hope and how colors (other than black) helped humans remember better-letters into her notebook.
Like Cody, Allie was also a student at the university. It wasn’t a big surprise to him. She’d told him back during decisions that she was thinking of moving away. Need the freedom, she had said. Based on what he knew of her mediocre grades, he had figured out where she’d most likely end up being accepted to within the state. Since his only real requirement on universities was being far, far away from home, her choice school sounded fine; he applied there. He hadn’t told her about it until the last time they met each other in their hometown when she had been ready to give a tearful goodbye. Allie was excited (and a bit angry), to say the least.
Like Cody, Allie was taking Classics with Professor Satan. However, unlike Cody, Allie was not a very good student. High school had proof of that. She did…alright. Nothing bad, nothing great. A large part of her scores could be chalked up to her avid fascination with procrastination. So, while she hadn’t meant to read absolutely nothing (other than the quick skim through online summaries and the related quote-search through the actual text to write the essays), it had still happened. Allie found herself walking the very real, very scary and very probable path of failing the midterm. In her eyes, if Cody was worried enough to go back and RE-read the books, then she was in real danger.
God, did she wanna pass! But, jeez, the words, the lines, the pages! They all just kept running on and on and on! Her eyes burned, and she felt that not even the ever-hopeful green ink could embed the information into her brain.
Looking back on the past weeks, she wondered where she went wrong exactly. She hadn’t partied that hard. Sure, she had taken advantage of the freedom a bit and gone to a few of the frat parties, disregarded Cody’s advice to start reading during first week with her track record of “Slowest Reader Ever”, and spent tons of time either bothering Cody or shopping with her new girl friends. Oh. Okay. Yeah. She could sorta see some prelude to it all. But still, it shouldn’t have been this bad!
Allie gave a soft whine before dropping her head against The Odyssey.
With his cheek still against the table, Cody whispered, “Okay?”
She exhaled sharply, before giving her own harsh whisper back. “No! I’m still on the first one!”
“Told you to start earlier…”
“I know!” She banged her head against the table. Defeated, “I know.”
“Same. Should’ve listened to the roommate.” Cody shut his eyes. “I still need to finish The Iliad.”
“Fuck The Iliad,” she spat out.
He didn’t reply.
The shuffling of papers at another desk and the soft footsteps of other students reverberated through the library.
Sitting back upright in her chair, Allie looked around the room before settling her gaze on the window. It was still somewhat light outside. “Hey,” she whispered to Cody.
“Mm?”
“Your eyes hurt?”
“No shit,” he muttered back. He could feel the burning sting of dryness and overwork even with the lids closed.
Smiling slightly, she began to pack up quickly.
With great effort (and a lot of pain), Cody opened his eyes to stare at his friend and comrade in the war on midterms. “What are you doing?”
“I’m thinking that it’s late. Your eyes hurt. My eyes hurt. I’m hungry. I’m sure you’re hungry.” Allie zipped up her backpack. “So, I’m thinking it’s time for a break. A coffee and pastry sounds great right about now.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “What do you think?”
He stared at her blankly for a moment, processing her words slowly with the help of an exhausted mind. He blinked once. “You better not make me summarize everything for you when you don’t read everything in time for the test.” Cody got up and began shoving his books into the bag.
Allie gave a muffled giggle. “Sure, sure. Promise!” She knew she’d end up needing his help in the end though. And, he’d end up helping her as much as he could. Three days was nowhere near enough time to finish it all and do great. If she was looking for great scores, she would need every moment available to finish one read-through. But, the coffee called!