University Days: Season One

Late Night Studying

Emily

I avoided pulling all-nighters throughout my entire high school career. Somehow, there were always enough hours in the day back then, and enough energy to utilize every waking hour to my fullest capacity.

I could wake up, get pretty in 30 minutes, leave to get iced lattes and hang with my friends for the remaining 30 minutes until classes started, do most of my homework at school, then drive off with my friends at one of the malls or somewhere for a few hours after. I'd get home, eat, do whatever homework I had left, hang with my sister, go through my entire night routine and still get to bed at a reasonable time every night.

I needed my beauty sleep. College didn't respect my lifestyle unfortunately.

Instead, I found my exhausted and strained eyes wafting over the blur of words midway through the first chapter of the unit Sarah and I were being tested on. It was an hour past midnight. I was not built to be awake this long, and my body was feeling the effects.

This stupid test wasn't supposed to be this complicated, I thought studying for it was going to be a breeze. I truly didn't expect that we'd be beginning our studying so late, but of course, these other assignments were all piling up together. Now, if we hadn't been given so many assignments to complete in the same afternoon, I may have gotten to stick to my pleasant and necessary sleep schedule.

My rear end was hurting from sitting on this wooden chair for so long, but at least I knew I wouldn't accidentally doze off.

When there was a sudden paper crumble noise, I'd assumed Sarah had turned the page or something, but the snore that followed indicated that she was no longer with me. Half her face met the study guide sitting on her pillow.

For the record, I told her studying on the bed for an all-nighter was stupid. She didn't care.

"Sarah!" I clapped, startling her awake.

Sarah threw me a nasty glare for that. She looked as if she were fighting sleep, and falling in and out of consciousness. "I'm studying, Em. Stop talking..."

I rolled my eyes at her sleepy, stubborn attitude. "Yeah, this isn't working out. I need coffee, you need coffee, we're going to the 24 Hour Coffee Shop now." I decided, standing as I began to gather my notes and supplies to bring.

I glanced back over at my sister, exhausted and miserable. I wished I could've left her alone to sleep, but I knew the girl would panic more if she didn't get this studying time in before the test.

The last thing my sister needed was test anxiety with that butthead of a math teacher, who would probably call her out on it in front of the class again, and make her burst into tears of embarrassment.

"I don't like you. What human being is this determined for an A?" Sarah muttered, not a fan of my amazingly brilliant coffee shop idea.

"Love you too. And you're welcome, now you won't fail your test. You'll thank me tomorrow-- well technically today," I considered, shoving her sleepy, irritable butt out of the room as I slung my book bag over my other shoulder.

Once we got to the 24-Hour Coffee Shop, I sent my grumpy sleep-deprived twin sister to get a table while I ordered our iced coffees.

Of course, I had to buy the cute reusable cups for us both, choosing our favorite colors and interchanging the straws for each color. This boring studying could definitely be a bit less horrendous with the new addition of cute coffee cups of our favorite colors!

Sarah mumbled out some noise resembling a thanks as she took her drink, barely conscious enough to handle her paper.

"DONE!" Some nerd from the next table over declared, startling the both of us up and awake.

"Dude, we're never waiting this late to study again," the guy beside him grumbled, his energy similar to our own.

I aimed to throw a glare over at the nerd who yelled, but realized he was actually kinda cute. The mole on his jawline, the soft green eyes... I could've sworn I recognized him somehow. He combed back the wavy red strands falling over his face as he collected his papers and textbook.

Wasn't he in some of my classes?

"Some people don't know what coffee shop volume is," Sarah muttered, snapping me out of my wandering thoughts.

The nerdy guy looked at us, giving me an awkward apologetic half-smile shrug combination.

I smiled back at him. "I think they're just excited to be done. Like us in a few hours?"

Sarah rolled her eyes, smacking the study guide on my face. "No time for finding boyfriends!! Study time!"

I felt my face flush, and of course it looked like he and his friend heard that.

His friend was cracking up, elbowing the guy as his face was obviously red too. Quickly, he ran out with his friend following as he teased.

"Sarah..." I groaned.

"Study!! Time!!" She reminded me, pointing down at the textbook as she sorta laughed too.

I rolled my eyes and went on to study with her.