Balls

2

Ballqis never really loved nor hated maths. She never had problems with numbers so maths always felt like a place where she could relax. Except today her Calculus 211 deskmate was being ridiculous simply because they had just been asked to join another lecturer's sesion. Their lecturer had just been seconded to another department so everyone had been asked to join Mr Evans' sessions of Calculus 211 for the rest of the semester.

"I heard they call Mr Evans as Mr Evil. All the seniors warned me about him. That's why I signed up for Mr Ora's class instead. I heard Mr Evil asks students who could not answer his questions right to leave his class via the window!" said Agamemnon in full gossip mode.

The half Greek-half American boy Agamemnon was the first person to talk to Ballqis during orientation. When they found out that they were both biotech undergrads, they paired up to choose similar classes and ended up with exactly same schedules. They also have the same advisor Mrs Jogh and even signed up for the bio-engineered tilapia study gig.

"I heard bad things about Mr Ora from the seniors at my hall but he turned out to be ok. Maybe Mr Evans would not be that bad either," Ballqis tried to calm Agamemnon.

"Good or bad, it's not like we have a choice. We can't qualify for Calculus 311 if we don't complete 211 this semester," he sighed like an opera singer on a stage.

Together with 13 others, Ballqis and Agamemnon made it to Mr Evans' class that same afternoon. The new, consolidated session with Mr Evans' existing students was held at a bigger lecture hall in order to accommodate all 32 students. Mr Ora bid them a hasty good bye and left them after a nod of thanks thrown towards Mr Evans.

As the former Mr Ora students stood on one side of the hall to introduce themselves, Balqis found herself trying hard not to fidget. From the corner of her eye, Ballqis spotted Iqball. He seemed taller than she remembered from school days. His hair was also longer. Dressed in white top with flannel shirt and blue jeans, he seemed to have mastered the 'cool' student look.

And he was looking straight at her!

She pretended to be engrossed in Agamemnon's musings about how big the class was and how scary Mr Evans' welcoming note sounded.

"Now I would like students from Mr Ora's class to please spread out and sit amongst my students. We do a lot of things in groups here so I don't want you all to become clique-ish," Mr Evans instructed as he beckoned Ballqis' classmates to quickly do his bidding.

Ballqis departed from Agamemnon's side and headed between two girls who were already seated.

"You, boho girl, your name again please?" Mr Evans suddenly called out to her.

She stopped in her tracks.

"Ballqis, sir."

"Do you have anything against people born with Y genes? If not, please take that seat near the gentleman with the highly curious pink flannel shirt over there," Mr Evans pointed out the very seat next to Iqball.

"Sir, I assure you it is off-red," Iqball quipped.

"Looks pink to me," Mr Evans retorted with a snicker.

Ballqis took the seat. She quickly dug into her tote bag and got the 211 textbook out. Then she pretended to be looking for her pencil case as well as notebook. After that she fiddled with her tablet.

Iqball got her message loud and clear: her body language said, don't talk to me.

***

 It turned out that Iqball had become the teacher's pet in Calculus 211 class but Ballqis' consistently sharp calculations had made her Mr Evans' favourite student to call.