The Best Days

Chapter 12 Part 2

           

I think the next day was a Saturday and me and the girls were at the late night dining hall eating breakfast at what had to have been two in the morning. Just normal stuff, you know.

We'd been studying for our respective final exams all day long, no breaks. Trapped inside that god forsaken library. I forgot what the sun looked like, what it was to smell fresh air.  To make it worse people had finally decided to get their act together and Club Library was on swole. It was hell trying to find a spot to work. Finals started on Monday and they seemed to be the only thing anyone could think about.

It was my first semester of college and the finish line to winter break was so close I could almost taste the sleep I would be getting. All I knew was that I had to finish strong because of my scholarship. As did Erika who was on scholarship as well. Kendra was stressing hard because she was barely pulling C's in some of her classes so finals were make or break for her. Then on the other hand we had Haley 'Kid Genius' Park who seemed to only be at the library to hang with us. That one had finals in the bag.

The rest of us, we'd been going hard in the books, neglecting nutrition until Erika declared that she would perish if she didn't get some sustenance asapedly. Thus, we ended up at Solaris. But what was originally supposed to be an hour break was turning more into a 2 hour session much to my chagrin. I sniffed my hoodie. Great I smelled like omelet.

I looked over and saw that Kendra was eyeing me strangely from across the table.

"What?" She wasn't quite looking me in my eyes. Oh, boy.

"Let me grease your scalp."

Huh?

I self-consciously touched my unwashed hair. "Does my scalp look dry?"

She looked me over objectively. "A little." She pouted a bit and continued quickly to keep me quiet. "But it's more because I'm trying to avoid having to study."

Ah, my poor friend. I reached out and patted her on the head, "Maybe after finals."

"Then it will be too late." She shoveled at the leftover eggs on her plate, letting out a long sigh.

Haley threw her arm around Kendra's shoulders and tried to shake some life back into her, "Do not worry, dear friend. You probably studied enough to last you, like, the rest of your college days."

She picked her head up a bit. "You think so?"

"Well, maybe you could review a bit more for pre-calc just in case, honeybunch" Erika chirped, enthusiastically flipping through her own pile of flashcards.

"Yeah...pre-calc..." Kendra muttered slouching down again.

Erika's eyes scanned each card thoroughly as she clucked her tongue. "Mmhmm, you went out so many weekends this semester I was wondering when you would ever pick up a book."

I shot a look at Erika, she didn't need to say anything more. Poor Kendra probably already knew it herself without her rubbing it in.

She shrugged and ran a hand through her hair, "I'm just saying."

Haley gave our small friend another firm shake. "You'll do fine."

She said it with such conviction that maybe Kendra started to believe it.

Suddenly remembering and low key wanting to change the subject I chose then to spring my proposal on the girls. "Sooo," I clasped my hands together and looked around the table at each of my lovely friends, "who here wants to volunteer with under privileged minorities at KidzCorner?!"