I'm On Your Side

1 | The Universe Has, Once Again, Failed Me

"Stupid, I know."

"No. Nerve-wracking."

"Oh," Mason looks like he hasn't thought of that word when it comes to graded discussions and tests which, come to think of it, I don't think he has.

"Yeah," I say, filling in the gap. "Anyways, I like writing, badminton... and math."

"Writing and badminton―nice. Wait, you like math?"

His eyes widen like it's some sort of a sin to like math and I chuckle. "What? So you can like history, but I can't like math?"

"No, no," he immediately disputes.

"Relax. I was joking―I don't like math."

"Oh, okay," he settles back in his chair, "but just for the record, I do like history. Like, it's not a joke or anything."

"Yeah, I know," I reply, "unfortunately."

"Hey! I heard that," he says, playfully.

I roll my eyes. "That was the point."

His laughter dies down and with a solemn voice he says, "So writing, huh?"

"What's with the 'huh'?" I ask and he smiles.

"Nothing. I just wanna know what you write about."

"I write about," I try to think of the most generic thing to describe what I write about, but nothing comes to mind. Unfortunately or fortunately, April calls time.

"Okay, guys, your ice breakers are over. I hope you all had time to converse with each other and helped you interact with your partners," her eyes narrow on Mason. "Anyways, I want you all to form a circle again with the chairs so that I can move on with the next segment of our session today." All at once, people start moving their chars which causes the scraping sound that I hate. God, when will this class end?! Not that I don't mind because I got paired up with Mason, but I also despise it because I could be writing or watching "Black-ish" instead of being here. "Okay," April says just as I fit my chair in between a brunette girl and a black-haired boy. "As you know, I just told you guys to introduce each other by expressing your interests. The reason why I did that, however, is to introduce our first assignment for this week: taking your partner through your daily activities," she pauses for a minute, gazing around the room. The fuck? I already felt uncomfortable talking to Mason (I didn't show it, but in the inside, my brain was exploding), I don't need to suffer anymore!

I open my mouth about to ask if this is optional when the brunette next to me says, "Um, I have a question."

"Yes," April looks at her eagerly, "you can ask it."

"Um, I was just wondering if we have to take our partner through all your daily activities or just one," she stops for a breath before continuing, "and then I was also wondering if we have to take our partner through our daily activities until next week or just one day out of the week."

April nods her head, beaming with joy. "Yes, yes. I'm glad you asked that! And to answer your questions, you just need to take your partner through one of your daily activities for just one day out of the week." She turns to the whole class suddenly. "And that goes for all of your activities in the next few weeks―you just need to take one day out of the week to spend time with your partner." I look at her in shock. I just thought this was going to be a one-time thing, but for a whole ten weeks? Like, I like Mason, but I don't think my heart can take spending ten days with him.

"What if we don't have a daily activity to take our partner through?" I find myself asking.

April wrinkles her eyebrows and I blush furiously. That was not supposed to come out. "I'm sure you do many things in a day. Just pick one."