Those Three Little Words

Hana

The next couple weeks were absolutely hectic. It seemed that college really was beginning now, for it seemed that everyone enrolled in the university was swamped with homework. The cafeteria was no longer the cheerful, carefree location of the university, for people even brought work with them to eat. There were even rumors that the students acting in the upcoming play, Pride and Prejudice used their theater time to actually study for tests. There were no invites to go out to a local restaurant and Mathias' party schedule which hung on his door had been turned around, with red bold words written on the back,

"Seriously behind on the info,

Don't worry, soon we'll limbo!"

My days began to become very boring; most days I attended classes, and when finished, would mostly do my homework. On the days that I didn't have classes, I was busy either completing homework or sleeping, since I had become so sleep deprived. Not just my dorm, but the entire dorm hallway became deathly silent after class hours had ended. However, once in a while, a loud scream could be heard somewhere in the dorms, which signified that someone was overwhelmed with homework.

To my curiosity, Toris seemed to disappear after his classes. He always would come back to the room around 8 or 9 PM, and would work into the early hours of the morning. Once or twice I asked him where he was, or what he was doing, but he always gave a light laugh and would say, "Oh, it's nothing! Don't worry about it." My curiosity still remained, but I didn't want to force him to tell me.

The woodshop class basically became our study hall. I used that time to complete my physics work, and to study for any upcoming tests, as did Emil and Lukas. Mathias, on the other hand, worked non-stop on his wood creation, only pausing for breaks to answer a question or two from his humongous history book.

"Remember, we have a big history quiz tomorrow," Lukas would say once in a while. "You really could use a break and study, Mat."

"I can study later. Right now, I have the tools, the time, and the vision of my masterpiece," Mathias would respond every time. "And I know you're trying to make me study so that I don't work on my snowman."

Berwald spent his woodshop class much like Mathias; however, instead of hopping back and forth between the two activities, he would spend the entire class doing only one. Some days he spent entirely on homework, and on others, he would continually cut pieces of wood then sand them.

However, every single day of the class, before he began working, he would ask me, "G't 'n 'dea y't?"

When I sheepishly shook my head no, he would nod, head back to his desk, then start his work. I once asked for an idea from him, and he responded, "If ya m'ke s'methin' j'st c'use ya need ta, it has n' m'aning to ya. Th'nk of s'methin sp'cial th't is 'mportant."

Well. That statement certainly made me look at woodshop differently. For some reason, I began to think of woodshop as not a class, but somewhat as a haven. Yes, there were some kooky people who were enrolled in it, but for some strange reason, I believed that we all...belonged there. We all had our differences, but none of that mattered. I restrained myself from saying anything about my thoughts on our friendships, for I didn't want to make it awkward for anyone.

It was during the middle of October that something broke me out of the hectic madness that I had been trapped in for the past couple weeks. It had been a lazy autumn day, with a constant breeze that swirled the falling leaves around your feet wherever you walked. The days had begun steadily to decline in temperature, and more and more jackets were making appearances on the students on the campus.

I had gotten out of my physics class a bit earlier than usual, and had walked into woodshop, expecting it to be empty. However, I was wrong.

Standing at a work desk with his back turned back to me was none other than Berwald. From where I stood, I could tell that he was working on something very delicate, although I couldn't exactly see because of his tall stature. Intrigued, I walked into the classroom. "Hello Berwald!"