Waking up Monday morning at the very edge of the time he had allotted himself for sleep, the boy got up. It was dark because the blinds were drawn and even more so because it was cloudy outside. He didn’t want to move, but he did because he had to. Class starts half an hour from when he usually wakes up. He got dressed in a shirt he had already worn once or twice before and a pair of lightly wrinkled shorts. He tried to ignore the ever-growing collection of laundry that waited, stewing in the closet. I need to do laundry this week, he thought to himself. He continued with preparations: brushing his teeth, combing his hair as best he could, packing up his bags, and visiting the bathroom on his way out to class.
It was writing class. The second iteration of the school year. The teacher, he thought, was nice and sincere. She gave the students a lot of time to do their work and a lot of resources to do it as best they could. She did often tell some very strange stories and today was no exception. She told an odd but inspiring story about a dwarf and a catheter, but that’s a story for another time. It was a story he did not care to recall. No homework was assigned that day and the students were released from class early.
Walking up the sidewalk to his next class, the boy considered the weather. It had recently rained, probably overnight, and the sidewalk was still slightly damp in places. The weather was pleasant. Not too cold, and not too hot for his taste. He prefers the cloudy weather to direct sunlight. His mood was like the weather, not dark, but not bright either. Not cold, but not hot. This was because he was on his way to the first exam of the quarter for a math class that he generally enjoyed, but was still difficult nonetheless. He was walking with one of his friends who was much more worried than he. This was the normal occurrence, and he revels in the suffering of this friend because this friend is one of the smartest people that he knows. This makes the whole deal ironic and was helpful in distracting him from the imminent suffering that was to come in the next fifty minutes.
The test was not as difficult as he had expected, and he felt rather confident about many his answers until after the test when he started talking to some of the other students. It was this that caused him to realize that he had copied a number incorrectly on the last question meaning his final answer was wrong. He hoped that the question would be graded mostly on work and not result, but he could not know for sure until it had been graded. He felt better when he learned that one of his classmates had not even the slightest clue how to do the last question. She was a tall-looking, intelligent, and studious friend of his that often wore her long brown hair down and had large dark glasses that rested purposefully on her beautified face. She was a nice girl, and was a good help to him in this class. It was somewhat of a surprise to him to learn that she didn’t know how to do the last question of the test whereas he did. He offered to help via text after they had parted to their own classes afterward and got no response. Oh well, he thought, the test is over and she probably won’t need to know it again.
The next class was back in the building where the first was, so the boy walked back along the same water-logged sidewalks. The class was interesting, but he was distracted the whole time. He just scribbled down notes or surfed the internet the whole time. Checking his stock portfolios or texting his girlfriend. He missed her, but he was excited because he was going to see her this weekend. Thoughts and memories of her folded over the lecture about the influence of magazines on society. Time was up and he was on his way again. He was walking with some of friends to lunch and noticed that it was becoming a beautiful day. The sun had come out and the clouds were blowing aside. They walked, talking about how Porter Robinson’s Shelter was stuck in one of his friend’s head, and then his also consequently. One of his friends went off to her noon shift at the gas station and the other two walked with him off to the cafeteria.
There at the cafeteria, he attempted to resume his resolution to be vegan on weekdays. He had obviously gained weight over the course of the first two quarters and was trying to lose as much of it as he could with the time he had before the summer. On the way into the cafeteria, he was greeted by one of his friends coming out of the bathroom. She had straightened her hair and he really liked what she’d done with it. It looked good, but he didn’t say anything to her mother than a standard cheerful greeting. He continued to lunch, ate a slice of pizza without cheese and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and left the cafeteria with the two friends he came with. They went and sat in the shade under a large maple tree near the administration building and listened to some music until the boy had to leave to his next class.
The next class was a personal finance class and was back in the first building, so he walked down the sidewalk which had now been dried out by the sun. He entered the classroom and remembered that there was an assignment due in the class that he had not yet completed. He hurriedly unpacked his laptop and continued working on the assignment. He finished it just a few minutes after class started and submitted it. He felt like he probably wasn’t going to get the best grade on that assignment and resolved to remember better next time. The professor was going over how some of the students had screwed up on the last homework assignment and had misunderstood some things; he was clarifying. The boy was one that was guilty of this screw up and he knew it. He still got a B on the assignment and was content with that. The class continued the usual lecture. This time, it was about having good credit and how to establish good credit. The boy considered this good information and generally paid good attention in this class.
He walked outside after class and it was oddly cloudy once again. There was still blue sky in the distance but it was gray above. He wondered how much he still had to do. There was a written math assignment that needed to be completed before tomorrow. He decided that that would be his first order of business once he returned to the room. He thought about a girl, nothing other than that he wanted to see her. She was a good friend of his and being that they were so busy, they often didn’t have time to spend together. Maybe sometime today, he thought.
Back on task with the homework, he began to bring out the assignment when he remembered that one of his friends had the textbook he needed and they were in class for another hour. He decided to work on some different homework instead. He had a meeting with the school-assigned mentor that in an hour. She helped him out with all several types of things, from questions about school related things to personal life issues. She did it all, and the boy thought well of her.
The boy thought about all the work he had to do, and he knew that he had even more work than what he knew about. That was just always the case. For now, he decided to not do any of it. He had completed part of an assignment that wasn’t due for another week. He felt good about that. He just needed to make sure that he remembered to complete it before it was due this time.
The boy walked over to one of the buildings where he was to meet his mentor. When he got there, she wasn't there so he sat down in the usual place and waited for her to show up. Once she showed up, they talked about the usual stuff: school, friends, family, plans, etc. All was well, then he went on his way to resume his work back in the dorm. Once back in the dorm, he got a few math problems done and then it was time for the team meeting to work on an assignment for a different class. All three of his team members came to his room. He was the leader of the team, but during this meeting, he was rather behind and distracted by all the other things he had to do, and was not as focused on leading as he should've been. Thankfully, the team secretary was on top of it and he got things moving smoothly. In the end, we finished the assignment early. All the team members went their way and the boy was left to resume his math homework, which he finally completed.
He left the dorm to go turn in the assignment to the professor who was in his office in the math department. One of his friends tagged along just for fun. On the way, they talked about math and the test. Once he got to the office, he handed the professor his assignment, asked him a few questions about the test, and left to return to the room.
When he was in the room, he got a few things organized and went to go see what people were doing in another room across the hall. He sat in the room and chatted with some of his friends for a little while, and then when things started to break up, he headed with his roommate to dinner. He talked to his roommate about some of his day and about some of the supplies they needed to get for the room.
After he had gotten his dinner to go, he made his way, with food in hand, back to the dorm. In his room, he organized some documents while he ate. He thought about the girl again. She kept returning to his mind. He wondered, Am I annoying her with how often I text her? She doesn’t seem to respond very often. What do I even really want? He had a lot of questions about this but he decided that they were things to think about with her. Things to talk with her about, that way, he wouldn’t get carried away. He was sure he had other things to do, but he just didn’t know what they were. He noticed his roommate noisily eating an orange while reading a book for some class. He thought about his girlfriend. She had invited him to go backpacking with her and her friends in a couple of weeks but he had planned to run a half-marathon that same day. He wasn’t sure which he was going to choose to do, but right now he was leaning toward running.
The boy always had something on his mind. It was never empty, though he could often make it seem that way. His thoughts would float around but they would always land on the girl. He wasn’t sure why. She was his best friend, but that didn’t explain this. Why do I feel like I need to be with her all the time? What is it that draws me to her? The truth was, she was the best friend that he had ever had. That certainly contributed to the desire, but it wasn’t all of it. At least he didn’t think so. He really didn’t know. It was no romantic desire, he was quite confident. To him, she was not so much physically attractive as she was in other ways. She was not an unattractive girl either. There were times when she was beautiful to him and there were times where she was not, but regardless of physical attraction, there was a very strong emotional attachment. How this formed and how strong it is, he did not know.
He decided to spend some of his time playing some games on his computer and then talking to his girlfriend on the phone. He called her first but she didn’t answer. A few minutes later she called back. They talked for a while about school and how everything was going and about her cats. Everything was good and he was happy. After the call, he wrote some in his journal. It had been a month since the last entry. He wrote about the day and the things that were on his mind. It only filled one small page.
It had become dark and colder outside so the boy decided to close the window that was normally left open. He sat back down at his desk and thought about things he could do with his time. He knew that he really should do the laundry but he really didn’t want to. He finally decided that he’d do it anyway. He went down to the laundry room with his heaping pile of unwashed clothing and attempted to find an empty washer. The first one he found turned out to be out of order so he had to remove all his clothes that were slightly damp now, and some were covered in soap. He moved them to an open and functioning washer and started it running. He returned upstairs for a while to do some reading to pass the 47 minutes required to wash his clothes. He jumped up on his bed where he usually read but got distracted by his phone until one of his friends entered his room and interrupted him. His friend was working on a speech he had to give later in the week and was asking the boy for information. He and his friends talked and laughed for a good while until the time reminded him that his wash was done.
He went back down again to go transfer his wash from the washer to the drier. He met two of his other friends in the laundry room also doing their laundry. They said hi and he said hi, and he continued moving his laundry over to an open drier. His friends left, he started the drier running, and returned to his room. His friend was still there working on his speech. After a while of the same activities as before, the boy’s roommate entered the room and proposed an idea. He suggested that they all go to the store and get some Easter candy as it would be cheaper now since it was the day after Easter. So, they went, his roommate driving. They arrived at the store and his friend and his roommate went off to find candy. The boy went a different direction because he was running out of soap and needed to get some more. He went to the soap isle and found what he needed, then went back to find where the other two were. He found the others around the snack isle. He decided to buy some soda because he liked it and hardly ever drank it. He grabbed what he wanted and waited for the others to finish shopping. He and the others went to the checkout line, checked out, and drove back to the dorm. Once back at the dorm, the boy decided that it was time to go to bed, so he got undressed, promptly forgot to brush his teeth, and climbed up into bed. Then he began his normal bedtime routine—surfing the internet on his phone until his roommate was done doing whatever it was he had to do, usually homework. Finally, his roommate was finished, turned out the lights, and the boy fell asleep.
