The Dog Sitter

06 Equilibrate

"Fuck."

I look down at my sketch book and begin to give up. None of my ideas for the art project are very good, and when I ask the prof for advice, she says "just paint what you feel", as if that means anything. Also, I've been feeling pretty tired this week. How does one paint sleepiness?

Today is Thursday. I was able to study Tuesday and do well on my Calculus test. I still don't know what to think about assisting my calc prof. It would be a great opportunity, but I don't know if I have time for it. I'm leaning towards taking it.

Since the nightmare Monday night, I've been avoiding Talum. I don't know how to deal with whatever has been happening between us. This has partly been good though, because I've gotten ahead in my classes. Xerah and Keitaro think I'm a genius in our physics class, which is pretty ironic. Hours of studying would make anyone a "genius" to normal standards.

Packing up my stuff, I begin to head to Physics. My ankle has had a few days to heal, and since walking no longer causes unbearable pain, I've ditched the crutches for a slight limp.

I have an hour between Chemistry III, which I share with Xerah, and Physics. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have an hour between classes, which I use to study. Usually I would go over what I learned in Organic Chemistry, but I've been obsessing over the new art project. Since I can't figure out what to do after hours of sketching, I'll probably just ignore it until I can't anymore.

Reaching the Physics classroom twenty minutes before class, I walk in to the empty room and find Xerah already here. His nose is glued to his laptop, which probably has a textbook pulled up. Keitaro also takes Physics with us, but usually shows up at the last minute.

"Hey." I approach his table and sit down next to him.

"Oh, hey, Coby."

Xerah turns to me and we start talking about Organic Chemistry. Xerah is studying to become a Chiropractor, so he takes his studies seriously, like me. Unlike me, however, Xerah has a social life, so I usually don't meet him outside of class, because I like to avoid his other friends.

Physics goes by in a blur. Because of my excessive studying this week and background in calculus, physics is usually easy for me.

Walking outside to sit on a bench and wait for Talum, I watch the sky. The clouds are close to black in the west, which contrasts greatly with the partially cloudy sky in the east. The wind is blowing persistently, rustling the remaining leaves on the campus trees. The sound is similar to what would occur if the ocean consisted of leaves. The sound is strong, yet still calm. I won't be surprised if North Texas is expecting severe weather, because even in the fall Texas has bipolar weather patterns.

As I hear the leaves blow and thunder rumble in the distance, I pull out my phone to google the weather forecast. Distracted, I don't notice when Talum pulls up in his black car in the street, which should be in front of my eyes. When I finally look up, Talum has parked and is exiting the car, causing me to practically bolt to the car in embarrassment.

We close our doors at the same time, and Talum begins the long drive home. I'm just thankful that we don't have to deal with rush hour traffic, since my class got out around two.

"Are we expecting severe thunderstorms?" I ask Talum. I shouldn't expect him to know the forecast, since I didn't, but it's worth a try.

"We're under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00."

Seven hours of a severe storm watch means that I should expect a huge storm coming our way, strong winds, possibly a tornado, and probably some hail. It's a good thing my car fits in Talum's garage.