Assassin's Creed: Phoenix

V. her (part I)

It wouldn't cross Jennifer Hope's mind that she would be having coffee with some circus magician she just met that evening, but life had a way of surprising her in the most peculiar ways.

It all started just like every other day - the  heavy weight of her unfinished thesis kicked in before she opened her eyes to the darkness, leaving an unpleasant pain in her chest. How much time left today? Thirty five days.

She reached to the cupboard right next to her bed, hands quickly grabbing her phone to check the time - 04:44. Almost three hours for her morning alarm to ring, now that was a first.

  She kept staring at the clock blankly with her squinted eyes, trying to avoid the stressful thoughts yet failing miserably - they were there, as they had always been. An imaginary vision of a bald man appeared right away in the back of her mind - the bored, judging looks of Professor Hills, watching her from afar, probably thinking nothing she does is ever good enough. His cracking voice shaping the words of disappointment, which Jennifer would die than hear - we can't tolarate this kind of failure in the  department obviously... Unfortunately we'll have to cancel your scholarship.

  The thought of failing to graduate her master's degree felt like a punch in the stomach as she got out of her bed without a second thought. She was not going to let that happen. Her hands quickly reached the night lamp next to her bed and switched it on, the dim yellow light illuminated the room.

  She quietly walked to the bathroom, hoping not to wake her dad up sleeping in the room right next to hers. The cold water made her shiver as she rinsed her face - somehow she found herself hoping to wash all her stress away with it.

  Her eyes caught her reflection in the mirror as she turned off the cold water with her wet and cold hands. Dry lips, bags under her eyes that showed how tired she was, hair growing longer and messier each day because she had no time to get a haircut. She quickly realized her brown eyes had a weary expression inside of them, depressed, even. What are you doing with yourself, she thought, small drops of water still running down from her face, resembling of teardrops. Life used to be so much easier.

And it was the truth - things had been easier for her back then - when she was in her undergraduate years. All she had to do was to study everything that interested her each day, appear willing and able to grow academicly and there it was, high grades, pleased parents, even more polite  academicians that acted like decent human beings around her. It had been such a comfortable aquarium for her for the past three years, one that protected her from the heavy weight of the real life outside. Well. That aquarium had broken shards and water was spilling all over the place now.
 

  It would had been easier to wait, much easier. She still had no idea why she rushed and stressed everything to get her master's degree right after graduating early. There would have been too many things to do - perhaps a long vacation in the Mediterranean with her mother, who had been living there for years after divorcing from her dad - instead of being in the mess she called a master's degree right now.
  

  She quickly shook her head and blinked a couple of times trying to pull her mind together, and quietly left the bathroom. There's no time for this. You can't afford to waste your time drifting in your thoughts. She rushed back to her room and turned on the computer on her messy table, pushing aside all the colorful pens and books with underlined sentences.

  Her computer started running right away from the website she last checked, she must had forgotten to turn it off after falling asleep on the couch. It all came back to her when she saw the title again -  SUB SUPERFICIE TERRAE (Occulta Ordines et Sectas). She couldn't help but roll her eyes when she read the rest of the words right next to the book she was searching for - OUT OF STOCK.