Before Sundown

1. Study Habits [Mataya]

[1] Study Habits

Mataya

unedited

Wrapping up the final semester of my senior year is proving to be more difficult than I had originally anticipated.

Hours after school has ended, my friends and I are huddled around a table at my family's cafe. Papers are scattered across the table alongside books, highlighters and ball-point pens. There isn't much time left in the year, and trying to pull up my grades is going about as well as one might expect. The early lessons slipped from my brain as quickly as they settled, and now I'm quickly trying to recount the relevant information I need to proceed.

Biting down on the end of my pen, my brow furrows at the work in front of me. My lips are curled down in a small frown. Three tries at the same stupid enthalpy question and yet still I don't understand where I'm going wrong. I've never struggled with school before, and tests always came naturally easy to me. So, now that my grades are starting to slip, you can imagine the panic I'm feeling. Have biology, chemistry, and english in the same semester was a curse from the gods, but at least I have Hospitality and Tourism to break up the torture.

Lydia glances at me, dark eyes flitting down to my page. "Need help?"

I nod bashfully, turning the page slightly towards her. "I don't know where I'm going wrong. My change is so different from the answer at the back."

Lydia hums, scanning my work. After a few seconds of examining it, she circles the middle equation of the three with her red-inked ballpoint pen. "This equation is flipped because you have to get hydrogen sulfide on the other side. If you flip an equation, the enthalpy changes from negative to positive. So it'd be positive seventy-three instead of negative three hundred and ninety-nine."

I groan and set my forehead against the table. Such a simple mistake that would cost me quite a few marks during the unit test. I am never going to get this. "I don't know why it's not clicking."

Lydia smiles softly. "You'll get it, M. It just takes practise."

I sigh. Time is running out. The test is at the end of next week and if I don't get this, I'm colossally screwed. Cracking my knuckles, I stretch my arms briefly. I've loved science my entire life, but lately, it's been feeling more like a chore than something I love. "Chem is giving me a serious headache. Break time?"

Lydia checks her phone. "It's almost 9. Let's call it a night for studying. I think we've earned a little down time. Is that okay with you, Mal?"

Mallory's blue eyes flit up from the paper and her lips curl into a small smile. She nods. "Yeah, I'm okay with that."

After packing our stuff and cleaning up the array of cups that were once filled with coffee and hot chocolates, we make our way upstairs into the house and out of the cafe. I've loved living above my godmother's cafe for the last five years. There's just something so comforting about the environment, the smell of coffee beans and fresh pastries.

"Madrina?" I call as I push open the door to the house. "Silvia?"

There's no response, so I assume she's still out of the house. I turn to my two friends and shrug. She was gracious enough to give us the house to ourselves for the evening and even close up the cafe early. "I guess it's just us for the evening. Movie?"

They agree, and we turn on something. Our focus isn't really on the movie, though. We're more focused on getting in some good gossip before the night is over and they have to go home. We aren't really the type to talk bad about others, aside from maybe some racist classmates, but we love to chit-chat about upcoming events and our classmates' relationships.