Nightlife ✓

14 | raincheck

"Hey, Joelle," I greeted her as she fell into step with me. "How are you doing?"

Joelle was a girl in my Biophysics tutorial. We had a few mutual acquaintances, but we'd never really spoken to each other since we sat with different groups of people during the tutorial.

"Honestly, not too good," she admitted.

With her dark undereye circles and blanched skin, Joelle looked a bit of a nervous mess.

"I knew this deadline was coming up, but I got carried away focusing on my other assignments. I pulled an all-nighter trying to get the answers down, but only managed to get two of them. It probably was counterproductive to stay up so late."

Grant had made it clear to everyone that he wanted to review our work on the latest assignment before we submitted it. That meant coming to today's tutorial with a completed first draft of the lab report, which Joelle seemed to be lacking.

"But how are you going?"

"I have a first draft, at least. Do you want to walk super slow to class, and I can tell you my answers on the way?"

Joelle's eyes widened with surprise, bringing a spark of life back to her fatigued, dull irises. "Would you really? That would be amazing!"

I smiled, shrugging my shoulder nonchalantly. "No problem, love."

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"—and for the last question, I got thirteen-hundred kilojoules. That's only two significant figures, but I can show you my exact working out if Grant's not already there."

Joelle smiled at me, her fingers noting down my answers in her phone. "You're a lifesaver, Krista! Thanks so much."

As we rounded the threshold to the classroom, I saw that Grant was indeed already there. He was generally kind and understanding, but he wouldn't tolerate blatant copying right under his nose. I shot Joelle an apologetic smile as we parted ways. She understood, too, and made her way to her usual table with a worried frown.

Quen gave me a tired smile as I sat down next to him.

I asked, "How's your assignment going?"

Quen perused the papers held in his hand, his lips pursed in concentration. He eventually concluded, "I've got the bones of it written down. Most of the meat, too, if Grant accepts my messy working."

I pulled out my own workbook from my tote book, flicking through to where I had scribbled all around the data tables and drawn up my preliminary graphs. "I'm about at the same point. It's nice that he called for those who are ready to see him first."

I watched as Grant sat down at his desk, and the first of the students went to discuss their work. He wouldn't let anyone leave until they had been seen, but did let people work on their assignment right up until they had to show him. That meant those who were already prepared could leave class early while more time was afforded to those who needed it.

"Yeah. We are relatively well off, I think, because we're at least done. I spoke to three other people about the assignment and they're totally fucked," Quen told me.

"I did the same," I replied, thinking back to the conversation I'd had with Joelle not ten minutes ago. "Hearing that some people are behind you is such a comfort, sadistic as it might be."

"Or hearing that they haven't started yet," he chuckled.

"That is true," I agreed. I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear and asked, "Should we go one after the other, then? We could get our feedback early and then maybe go for that lunch you promised me?"