March Writing Prompts

March 1, 2023

Prompt: Write a 500-word long story titled Serotonin.

Serotonin

            Being a tutor under one of the most unorganized professors in the school had never been easy, which made it even more difficult for Amanda to ever prepare. Each person was a surprise as she was only assigned times, never names.

            "Hi!" she started, before sucking a quick breath in. The person who had walked through the door was the new exchange student that she'd seen in class. For the life of her, she couldn't remember her name, and seeing her face didn't make things any easier.

            Amanda had gushed about them to her best friend last week. "I'm so serious, Carina. I have never seen someone that... stunning." To which Carina laughed and replied, "You literally said that last week about our barista." There was no disputing that, so Amanda trudged on anyway.

            "Hello. Is this the study time for Chemistry?" The student asked, looking back and forth between her schedule and Amanda. Being born in Ukraine and only living here a few months, her accent was thicker than the syrup she'd spilled on herself that morning in the dining hall.

            Amanda choked down the nerves, "Yes! It's so nice to meet you...?"

            Setting her stuff down, the student responded, "Milena Kovalski," before beginning to go through her notes. Amanda watched as she flipped through looking for something to start them off. As she watched, she started taking in all of Milena now that they were much closer in proximity than usual. Her features were even more breathtaking than she'd believed before.

            Trying not to seem insane, Amanda shot her eyes down to Milena's notes just before she looked up at her. Pointing to a specific word, she asked, "This is the one."

            Amanda strained her neck out to see the word written at the top of her notes with a slew of exclamation marks next to it. "Serotonin?"

            The corner of Melina's mouth ticked up just slightly as her eyes crinkled, nodding back. "Yeah, serotonin. Professor Anderson said in class that it's the chemical that makes you feel good."

            Amanda's right eye crinkled a bit as her eyebrow came down, questioning the reason for this being the reason that Melina had shown up for tutoring. Originally, she had assumed it was to help with some language barriers, which maybe had been a bit too judgmental at first as she thought more about it.

            "That's right. Did we need to go over the different bonds?" she probed. The bonds were almost always the biggest issue in Anderson's class, but Melina shook her head in response.

            Closing her notebook, she smiled up at Amanda, "No. When he talked about that in class, I thought about the girl he said was the tutor for his class." A surge of warmth rushed into Amanda's cheeks as she continued listening, serotonin clearly brewing in her mind now as well. "So, I knew I would have to come ask her on a date so she could explain how it all works in more detail."