Starry Starry Night

Chapter 2: C

Great Job! 

The messy red ink sprawled on the top of his paper, paired with an equally messy star. Chester heard his classmates moan about their  exam scores, and to be fair the test wasn't easy. The professor didn't teach half the questions -- a running theme in the class. 

If Chester didn't spend his entire weekend working on the extra credit problems, then he'd probably be crying too.

"Alright class, I know it was difficult but we have to keep moving on."

While he put the papers away he sympathized with the collective groan that filled the room. He felt that in his soul, because he honestly hated this class. Or, well, he hated almost all of his classes. There was no such thing as enjoying aerodynamic engineering in his book. Not with all the math and science classes he needed to just qualify for the program.

Sure jets and planes were cool, but it wasn't like he'd be the one flying them. No. He'd be behind some desk crunching numbers on a calculator and rendering digital models. He'd be stuck in a stupid cubicle with twenty other engineers hunched over a computer like some sort of depressed office worker.

A buzz and he glanced down at his phone.

'Want boba?'

His sister sent him the text. It was from her usual spot across campus. The Instagramable cups were the only reason she even went there, or that's what he thought, since the drinks were as basic as basic can be. 

A photo of the menu popped up on to his screen.

Not even their Jasmin milk tea was good.

'Hurry up.'

Chester glanced at the menu again, because free boba is free boba.

'Rose milk tea w/mini pearls,' he texted quickly before looking up at his professor who was saying something that seemed important.

'Half sweet?' She responded quickly. 'Less ice?'

'Yes please.'

'Okay.'

"Who are you texting?" A whisper came from his left.

"Just my sister," Chester responded while putting away his phone. Knowing that Celia would give him the drink during their tutoring session at the library.

"Celia?" 

"Yeah," he muttered back to Drake.

A beat of silence as they wrote down whatever the professor wrote on the board. The scribbles were a mess to read. Borderline illegible, but they still wrote down the equations into their notebooks religiously. After all, no one has the time or money to repeat a class. 

Drake whispered, "are you guys hosting this weekend?"

Chester finished up the last symbol. "I think so."

"Is it open for everyone?"

"Probably," he reached for a highlighter. "But there'll be a fee for guys."

Drake huffed in his seat.

"I don't make the rules. Booze ain't cheap."

"Do you think you could sneak me in?"

Chester shot him a look.

"C'mon, just once?"

"You said that last time."

"That was last semester," Drake pleaded.

"I had to cover your ass in the end."

"And I'm eternally sorry."

The professor added a new set of symbols on to the board and Chester began to copy them to the best of his ability.

"Please?"

"No." Chester flipped to the next page of his notebook. "Besides, you don't have time to party. If you fail the next quiz you're benched."

Drake sighed.

"Or do you want to be like us plebeians and start paying for your tuition?"

"As if you can talk, you have a full ride."

"Not really."

"Okay, fine, cry me a river. You've got seventy percent of it covered."

"Yeah," Chester glanced at his friend. "I'm trying to get the last thirty percent covered by the end of the semester."

"Delta Phi?"

"Delta Phi."

A pause.

"Isn't that counter intuitive?"

"Sorta."

"I mean, you pay to be in Greek Life and then offer free labor."

"It's about the connections," he hummed. "And there's some rich ass alumni throwing scholarship money for Delta Phi members if they do enough volunteer hours."

"How many?"

"Sixty a month, but for every month in the semester."

"That's like," Drake did the mental math. "Two-hundred and forty hours."

Chester nodded, "but the first month is almost over and the checks are monthly."

"And this pays for the rest of your tuition?"

"Yeah. Basically."

"Damn."

"I know."

"You think they've got any single sisters?"

He actually had to pause and process Drake's question.

"Because I think I'm great brother-in-law material. Shit, I'm also great son-in-law material if they have any daughters."