How Strange is it to be Anything at all

Chapter 4

(3rd Person)

The test was hard. At least for Samuel, it was. The problems had been asked in weird ways and some questions he felt completely hopeless on. After half an hour, he had finished both the writing and multiple choice sections. He was a fast test taker. Samuel's logic was that if he knew it he knew it, and if he didn't he didn't. He put his pencil away, got up, and walked over to his professor's desk, where he handed her his test and a scantron. As he was walking out, Samuel gave a swift glance in Kenna's direction. She was near the end of her essay question, so he decided that he would wait outside for her to finish. A few minutes passed by and Kenna walked out of the classroom smiling.

"Definitely aced that," She said. "How did you feel about it?"

"I thought it was hard," Samuel said with a frown. Maybe she would think he wasn't smart enough to be taking the class. It was a senior-level class after all.

"You totally did well, we studied for hours. The problem about escape conditioning kind of got me though, I can never remember how it's different from positive reinforcement."

"Escape conditioning is just negative reinforcement, so basically giving a child a toy to stop crying, or going on social media on your phone. You are just reinforcing those negative behaviors. Positive reinforcement is giving that child a toy because they already stopped crying, so basically a reward that reinforces that target behavior of stopping the tantrum. Did that make any sense, maybe I worded it poorly."

"Oh," Kenna said drawing out the sounds, "I always forget that escape conditioning and negative reinforcement are the same. Totally got that one wrong then." She laughed. "I still did good on the rest of it though." They started walking to the exit of the building when the door opened again.

"Hey wait up. How was the test? I thought it was easy riding. The studying really paid off." Peter said, catching up to Kenna and Samuel. Kenna started talking to Peter about the test, but Samuel stayed quiet.

"Anyways, I really got to go to my next class, it starts in five minutes and it's a seven-minute walk to that part of campus," Kenna said rushing away. Samuel's palms started to sweat and he began to feel anxious.

"So what'cha headed to," Peter asked, grinning at him.

"I have work for the next four hours," Samuel responded frowning. Peter also frowned at this. "Yeah. I mean it's not the worst and I need the money so," Samuel trailed on.

"No, no I totally get it," Peter said smiling again. "Where do you work, I'll what with you. I'm not doing anything until practice."

"Oh, uhm, I work in career services on campus," Samuel said, feeling a little warm in the face. He was anxious now because he didn't want Peter to pick up on it. But Peter nodded, and smiled, and after they started walking, Samuel thought he was safe. They walked and talked, well, Peter did most of the talking. Peter also noticed that Samuel didn't talk much at all, whether it was just him, or if Kenna was around too. He wanted to see if he could get Samuel to speak more, so he changed the topic from Rugby to cooking.

"Besides the food that you made us for dinner you cooked for us, what else do you like to make," Peter asked Samuel, turning his head to see him. Samuel looked upwards in thought. What food did he like to make, a question so simple, but which was eating away at him? Samuel hummed.

"I'm not really sure. I just cook the things I like to eat I guess." Samuel said this quietly. "I like fish, so I would say that I like to cook fishy things and vegetables. I also," but he stopped talking. He thought he might bore Peter if he kept talking about cooking. It was something he could talk to people for hours about. About the way he cooked, and how it drew from a French influence. But he didn't go on, and it upset him to not let himself talk about cooking, and he started to look down at his feet as they walked.