The University of Kelvin offers the Hardest Program Known To Man, so naturally Sarah Christensen enrolled. The 17-year-old idealist was prepared to prove herself in a male-dominated faculty. She was not prepared for late-night treasure hunts, tennis...
The next two weeks loomed dark and ominous ahead. The worst thing was that the midterm exams – three hours long each! – were scheduled in the evenings, so we were still expected to attend all of our lectures, labs and tutorials throughout the day.
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My words to Scott about getting through midterms fine were beginning to sound hollow. He had done them once before. I should have believed him when he said we wouldn't make it out alive.
I was sitting at my desk scribbling out all of the questions I still needed to ask Dr. Aggarwal before Tuesday when my phone rang. The word "home" danced across my screen as my happy little ring-tune sang out.
"Hi," I said, still writing down my last thought.
"Happy Birthday!" Mom, Dad, and Frank were all on the line, and they sang me the song in its entirety while I grinned.
"Thanks guys!"
I hadn't forgotten, per say, but the fact that I was born today, eighteen years ago, paled in comparison to the fact that I still had eight chapters to review for the chemistry midterm on Monday, and that I couldn't for the life of me understand the most recent topics we'd learned in Dr. Aggarwal's class.
"Don't get too crazy tonight!" Frank teased. "What are you doing?"
"Um. Studying," I replied.
"Sarah!"
"I have three midterms next week! I already celebrated with you guys last weekend!"
"But you have friends, right?" Mom asked. "Did you even tell them it was your birthday? Did anyone wish you a happy birthday?"
"Yeah, but they're all stressed too. It's fine, I think we're going to do something tomorrow night, maybe..."
After my quiz tomorrow. And somewhere in the middle of studying for Chem and Solids/Liquids/Gases, I thought doubtfully.
"Or maybe next weekend..."
But I had two more midterms the following week, and everyone else would be studying too...
Perhaps I wouldn't be up for a party after all, even though it had been fun to talk about with Kyle. I sighed.
"Well, don't work too hard, kiddo," Dad said. "You don't want to burn yourself out."
"Yeah." Too late.
The popular sentiment among my classmates, "I'll sleep when I'm dead," was starting to infiltrate my consciousness.
After a few more minutes of chatting, I hung up and turned back to my notes.
I wanted this. I would not fail my first exams.
*****
I felt pretty good about my quiz, Friday morning. Friday afternoon, I visited Dr. Aggarwal and left her office feeling much better about Solids, Liquids and Gases.
