Problems

|| Chapter 11 ||

The smell of pumpkin spice lattes and Thanksgiving was in the air.

And following it was the scent of anxiety with a little dash of terror. (What a Mood)

Midterms were right around the corner, and students at the college were cramming 24/7, turning the library, coffee shop, and dorms into an explosion of textbooks and notecards.

Alex had figured that he would be the only one who would actually be caring about the tests, other than the Schuylers, but his friends had surprised him once again.

And so it turned out that the group of seven were in the library, books, pens, and study guides scattered everywhere. Alex had his hair in a messy bun, and chunks of it were falling out into his face, which he kept absentmindedly brushing away as he scribbled on notecards. John had corralled his hair back into an explosive ponytail, and it seemed that the more stressed he was, the bigger it got. Laf was staring at his essay dazedly, muttering to himself as he sipped his fourth coffee that day. Hercules-well, Herc had given up and was now drooling onto his Chemistry book as he snored.

The sisters were all in different stages: Eliza was hurridedly trying to remember all the bones in the human body, Angelica was close to sobbing over her Law book, and Peggy was considering trying to sacrifice animal crackers to the Gods so that she could pass her Greek exam. (True Story, but for another time)

"Alex, what did you get for #37 on the study guide?" John nudged Alex, who was muttering to himself in...Spanish? John had no clue, the only language he spoke was English.

Alex stared at him blankly for second before his brain switched over back to English, and he snatched up a packet that had been hiding underneath his Political Sciences textbook. He shoved the paper at John, then went back to scratching tiny sentences onto an already-crowded piece of notebook paper.

"What-what are you doing?" John asked, looking at the paper with a puzzled expression on his face. "Professor Adams said that we could use any notes on our exam that you could fit on a piece of paper. And now here I am, finding out that I learned absolutely nothing over the whole term." Alex looked like he was about to either pass out from the stress or burst out crying- or both.

"Well," John sighed, "If it helps, I'm pretty sure I'm going to fail all of my classes and end up working at McDonalds for the rest of my life."

There was a sympathized mumbled agreement over the three tables that they all shared, and John was wasn't sure whether to be relieved or scared to know that he wasn't the only one who thought that.

"I...can't," Laf wheezed, and shut his book before collasping back into his chair. "Yep, my brain's fried," Eliza agreed, and she, too, shut her book before slumping back. Angelica continued to stare at her notes until Eliza gently pried them out of her hands. Peggy laid on the floor, her hair spread into a halo around her head, tears glimmering in her eyes. "Dad's gonna kick me out," she sobbed, and covered her face with her hands.

"Hey," John said, and knelt next to her. "I'm sure he won't make you leave."

"Yes, he will!" Peggy was hysterical. "He already hates that I'm here for art," she spat the word as though it were despicable, "This'll just prove his point that I can't make it in the real world."

"Well, you can just stay with me. My dad's going to kick me out anyways for my law grade." John shrugged. "I'm already moving a little money from his bank account to mine so that I can get what I can before he cuts me off."

There was a collective grumble from the students. It was clear that everyone hated John's dad and thought that he was an asshole.

"I don't know how I'm going to survive these for another four years," Peggy sighed.