Four letter word

35. The exams (part 1)

"A what?" Dana asked with disgust in her voice.

"A study group" her course mates repeated with hopeful expressions. This made Dana even more irritated.

"You want me to take time out of my schedule to help tutor you and your friends? Are you serious?" She said with furrowed brows.

The other two girls standing there frowned worriedly. This wasn't going according to their plan, "but you wouldn't be tutoring us. It's a study group. We could all study together" one of the girls piped up again. Dana raised an eyebrow.

"No, thanks. I prefer to study on my own" Dana shrugged and started to turn away.

"Please! Dana, we need this" the other one said desperately.

"Ah-hah! I knew it. You want me to help you study. Well, sorry, it's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna risk my own grade for anyone else's" she said and crossed her arms.

"But, please..."

"I said no. Do you want me to spell it put for you? It's not that hard to understand" she spoke in her strict authoritative voice. One of the girls was already crying and quickly walked away. The other followed. Dana sighed and shook her head.

"Wow... you really do have a talent for making people cry" someone spoke behind Dana. She recognized that shy tone.

"AJ, didn't expect to see you out in the halls so late" she said, crossing her arms. Dana noticed AJ was wearing her pajamas and had a big hoodie on. It was pretty warm in the building. What did she need a hoodie for? She was also awkwardly fidgeting with the ends of the hoodie and oddly standing.

"Yeah... I was in the library to study and then I had to answer a phone call" she explained. Dana frowned, okay, something was wrong. She wasn't the best at noticing other people's distress or feelings in general, but because of her tiny tiny crush on AJ, she had gotten better at observing her behavior, in a less creepy sounding way. And also AJ usually looked awkward and uncomfortable... something was different now.

"What's wrong?" Dana asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's stupid" she shrugged and looked away.

"It's not stupid if it's bothering you" Dana tried her best to speak in a soft tone, but the words still came out a bit strict, "tell me" god, why was it so hard to come off nice? AJ looked up at her with her big eyes. She was clearly deciding weather to tell her or not.

A minute later she decided to open up.

"I had this therapist for a while now and she just called me to say that she's taking a break from work... a few months, maybe even a year. It's stupid, I know I can just get a new therapist, but I'm really not good with change and also it took me a while to open up to her and now I have to do the whole thing again..." AJ stopped to take a few breaths.

Yes, normally Dana would agree that that was a stupid thing to worry about. But... this was clearly bothering AJ so it was a problem. And Dana was good at fixing problems.

"Did your therapist recommend someone?" Dana asked.

"Yeah, she did..."

"Will you call her?"

"Well... " AJ started and then sighed, rubbing her forehead, "I think I'm gonna ask my mom to call her instead"

"That's okay" Dana shrugged, she set off towards the dorm and AJ followed next to her, "you'll have online meetings, right? Maybe that can help you feel like there's less change happening. You'll still be in your room comfortably" it was not easy for Dana to think of solutions for a problem like this. After all she never had a similar problem. Of course she didn't like change either, who did? But she wasn't afraid of it. She tried to fight change sometimes, to keep things the old way, and sometimes even react angrily to new situations, but she never felt fear because of it. She didn't know what AJ was going through right now and that was hard.