Zoey got up, packed her things to take to the house, grabbed her books, and headed out the door to grab a quick bite of breakfast. When she arrived at the dining hall, it was quiet and almost empty. Many students had finished and already gone home for the break, and others were head down in a book studying for the last-minute cram session.
Zoey grabbed a bowl of fresh or as fresh as it can be in a college dining hall, and a cup of coffee, and headed out to the Avery Building to take her exam. As she walked into the room, she noticed Bryan in the corner, hand wrapped, head looking down, working on his exam. Zoey grabbed her exam and sat down to focus. It was hard to focus, worrying about Bryan and his hand, why he was shutting her out, what had occurred that he went from friendly to a stranger almost overnight.
Just then, the teacher assistant (TA) walked into the room, and Zoey realized she was not focusing on the exam. She told herself "Exam now, rest of this mess later." Zoey worked the entire two hours on the exam, not realizing she was one of the last students left in the room. She submitted the exam to the TA and then left the room. She felt relief, and calmness as her final exams was now done. She started to head out to her car as she had already loaded her car from her suite for the holiday break. As she was walking to the car, she saw Jay, Jennifer, Melody, Carol, Tom, Zack, Jonesy all hanging out in the courtyard. She continued to walk by them until Melody hollered over "Hey Z, how did your exam go?" Zoey paused, "It went ok. Thanks. Are you done, or do I remember you still have one more to go?"
Melody responded "Yes, unfortunately, I have one more later. Hey, when my exam is over, all of us are going to head of the Blue Tiger for some dinner and hanging out, before my shift. Do you want to come to join us?"
Zoey noticed Jay lean around past Jennifer as if he were curious about her answer. Zoey please for the invite, but not really feeling that much noise responded "Thanks for the invite. I think I am going to get on the road so I can get home, unpack, do some laundry, and take a nap. Cramming for exams has been very exhausting. You guys have fun for me. Good luck with your remaining exams and have a wonderful holiday break. See you all back in January."
Melody smiled and said "Thanks. Hey Z! If you change your mind, you can always stop in and hang out. I'm not going home for break, and actually, I am renting a place off-campus next semester so I should be around a little more when I am not at work."
Zoey paused, "ok that sounds cool. I will see what I can get done and let you know. You have my number if you need anything as you are moving and getting situated."
Zoey realized that no one knew that she too was moving off-campus, nor that she had sold Gram's house as she had asked and moved into one of the new condos close to the campus as it was not as big but still had all the things, she would need for just being one person. She had not told anyone nor made a point to be obvious about loading her car with the few things she had in her suite room. She had already dropped off her room key as she no longer needed it. She found that as it was nice to hang out and make friends, she could make friends no matter where she was and she spent more time at the new place in the last few weeks, studying in the quiet, or sleeping in a softer bed than she did in her actual room on campus.
