Sydney King: Freshman Year { complete }

Little Red Dress

"Ms. King!" I said goodbye to a few classmates and turned to acknowledge my chemistry professor.

"Professor Pridgen, how are you?"

"I'm good, can you step into my office for a moment?" He requested. I nodded and followed him into his office.

"Leave the door open for me." He instructed as he sat behind his desk.

"I wanted to congratulate you on making it to the initial interview round for the program." He stated with a smile.

"Oh wow, I made it?" I questioned.

"Oh shit, excuse my French, have you not received your notification yet?" He asked.

"No, I haven't." I laughed.

"I'm sorry for that. I got the list and I just assumed since it's the end of January." He explained.

"It's okay, I think it sounds better coming from you then a letter anyways." I assured him.

"Aw thanks. Listen, the interview process is unnecessarily hard. There's on the spot problem solving, and some serious critical thinking questions. I'd like to schedule time with you to prepare; we only have a couple weeks." He informed me.

"Okay, um, can I send you my schedule later today? I'm honestly swamped with cheerleading, royal court and classes." I told him.

"Sure, you just let me know where this falls on your priorities list." I nodded and walked out.

            Morgan was in the living room when I got back. "Why the long face Syd?" She asked.

"I got an interview for that summer internship abroad. I have to prep for it with my professor and when I told him I just needed a little time to see where to fit it into my schedule he acted like I wasn't serious about it! He basically said I wasn't making it a priority. Like damn, I only have 24 hours and I would like to sleep for at least 4 of them." I complained. Morgan shook her head.

"Don't over extend yourself." She told me.

"I know, but I also want this internship. It's such an amazing opportunity." I sighed.

"So I guess this would be a bad time to ask you to help me put together an intro for my highlights video." Morgan chuckled.

"Yes, a very bad time. But I'm also down to help. You should hit up Savannah too." I smiled at her. I sent Professor Pridgen my schedule later that evening and he agreed to meet with me at 7am Tuesday through Friday until the interview, starting tomorrow.

            "Alright team, after meeting with the Student Athlete Advisory Council and SGA we have agreed to have a date auction. Each of you will participate. 50% of the proceeds will go to us and the other 50% will be split between the participating organizations. We're gonna use the money for new uniforms for competition." Coach announced after our morning workouts.

"So, look your absolute best. It's taking place next Friday night." While everyone stayed back to discuss the details I rushed to shower and change before my meeting with Professor Pridgen. I barely made it to his lab on time.

"Good Morning, Ms. King." He greeted as I entered. He dropped a 3 inch binder in front of me.

"This is every problem they've used in the last 5 years. You're going to master every one before the interview." He explained. My eyes widened as I flipped through the binder. We started working through the problems on the board. I was frustrated, because there was a good portion of material that I hadn't learned yet. But he kept assuring me I had the foundational knowledge to attack these problems.