✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 537: Back into the Swing of Things

"Now, I don't assume any of you will listen," Doctor Elminster harumphed cynically, "but I would hope you have read chapters seven and twelve from S&R before next week's tutorial session. If you have some understanding, your tutors should be able to help you understand how Lenkov's Method works in a practical analysis, but if you have not done the reading you will not understand what they are teaching you. But I wish you all the best, and I will remind you one last time that your reports on the use of modality-defining language are due a week on Friday. This is not like high school where a deadline can be negotiated. If your work is not submitted to the Gemini system on time, your mark for the module will not exceed fifty percent. Do not leave it to the last minute."

The students in the class nodded, but several of them were already packing away their books. Penny Albright was making a note of the deadlines in her bullet journal, which was by now mostly filled with lists of deadlines, the dates at which various projects had been due, and the many changes to her schedule over the last seven weeks. To start with, her studies had been one page among many in the organisation of her life, but by now the amount of information had grown incredibly, and it was seriously looking like she might run out of space in the book if she recorded everything this month. Still, she noted down the deadline again; a dozen reminders of the same date made it impossible she would forget it.

Across the aisle, she got a nervous smile from her friend Adi, who had also taken to keeping a diary organised with all manner of hand-drawn charts; but wasn't nearly so dedicated to recording every warning the lecturers gave them. Before Penny was finished, the hour bell had rung and other literature students had already started to flee the room. The lecturer had gone as well; he had more interesting things to do, and wouldn't stay around after he had told his students everything that was in the plan.

"Still writing the deadline down again every time he tells us?" Adi asked.

"Yeah. Think it might give me a kick in the subconscious or something. Make me realise that there really is a rush. You sure you'll get it done on time?"

"Only got the conclusion left. I've asked Dean to remind me if I don't get it done tomorrow, so I don't need to worry tonight."

"Not doing it tonight? You're normally jumping on things at the first opportunity."

"No, tonight's special." Adi hesitated a second, and then showed her phone, and the few lines of text on the screen.

"Thought you looked nervous. That a date?"

"Not really. Just keeping up with old friends, you know? Don't want to lose touch with the important people after school, you know?"

"But you blush a little when you think about it, and you're so nervy that you hand around instead of dashing off as soon as your bag is packed. You got it bad, so make sure you let him know."

"Umm.. yeah," Adi mumbled, not quite sure what she could say to that. It wasn't embarrassment, just that she didn't know where to start. But in some way she was sure her newest friend was right. She couldn't bear the thought of Toni not being in her life, and she had to hope that Toni felt the same. But they'd met up at the weekends four times now, and the right moment never quite presented itself. The time was never right to say what she was really feeling, or to steal the kiss she'd been hoping for. They just ended up passing time, talking about nothing important, and that was an entirely valid and enjoyable way to spend an evening. But Adi always found herself both excited and afraid that this evening might end with them closer than ever.

"You have fun, you hear me? And don't let yourself get nervous. You're too cautious, everyone would love you if you opened up a bit more. And if you got someone pining after you for so long, you probably got something worth fighting for."

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

Adi knew there was no reason to be so nervous. But somehow that just made the feelings more intense. Normally after her last lecture she would be heading back to her room, getting ready for whatever she had planned. Most days Chastaine and Britney took care of cooking, but Adi was starting to learn a little as well. She might be holed up in her nursery room, taking advantage of the bean bags to sprawl on while she wrote or studied. Some days she would stay in the outer part of her room, now that Chastaine had finally moved full-time back into his own accommodation, or she would take advantage of the soundproofing on the special room to practise with her guitar.

Tonight was different. The sooner she was back home, the sooner she would be heading out again to meet Toni. And already she found it hard to walk in the right direction, worrying that she would do something wrong later in the evening. It was worse than a first date, not knowing if this was to be a date or not. She wasn't even sure what the difference was. And by the time her nerves let up a little, it was already time to be heading to the coffee shop. So she ducked into the restroom at the entrance to the Zahl Building, checked that she looked okay in the mirror, and looked at herself until she couldn't see anything else wrong. Then she was on the way down to the coffee shop, where she was sure her possibly-girlfriend would already be waiting.