12:58 pm. Two more minutes!
Alex flashed back and forth between the time at the corner of his screen and the constant refreshing of the university website.
“Dude, chill out. The results will come.” His friend, David said, which was highly ironic of him as he was also sitting at the computer next to him... and so were the thirty other students in the computer lab with them.
Everyone was there for the same reason. At exactly 1 pm today, the Faculty of Engineering would release their exam results. It became tradition for the now second year cohort to view their results together. Between all-nighters, sharing past exams, groups assignments and countless study sessions, there was a sense of kinship between the cohort. From students to friends to would-be colleagues, they would pass and fail and celebrate and rejoice together.
“Easy for you to say, you’ve already passed Thermodynamics.”
The thermodynamics finals were weighted at 40% of the total course score so theoretically one could pass the entire course before taking final exam. Provided, of course, they do excellent in their assignments, labs and tests. Thermodynamics was a notorious grade sinker but it was a mandatory course for mechanical engineering so Alex couldn’t just skip it. True to its reputation, a whopping 85% of students failed their first test and Alex was one of them. Only a genius could ace that test and continue to score high in the subsequent assessments. That’s exactly what David had incredulously achieved. Dubbed an engineering genius by his cohort and professors alike. What's even worse is that he actually enjoyed engineering.
“That’s because you’re learning to pass exams. If you learn to see the beauty of engineering, you’ll see how easy it comes.”
Alex turned slowly to his friend, aka The Genius, with an incredulously look. “You’re absolutely bonkers,” Alex remarked as he laughed and David joined him. One of them was definitely crazy, they just couldn’t tell which one was which.
Normal people (according to Alex) just want to do the bare minimum. As the saying goes: ‘P’s get degrees’
“It’s here!” Someone at the back row of the lab shouted. Alex turned to his screen, it was '1:00 pm' on the dot! With a racing heart and jittery hands, he clicked the refresh button. The website flashed white before updating with the following grades:
Engineering Design 2…………………………….…..67 C
Solid Mechanics 2…………………………………….....65 C
Electrical Circuit Fundamentals………....53 PS
Thermodynamics………………………………...……...50 PS
Alex blinked as he took in the information on the screen. Two credits… and two pass's! He passed everything, even thermodynamics! He did much better than he'd expected considering he only aimed to pass (considering credits were high achievements for him even though the courses were supposed to be grade boosters).
“I passed Thermodynamics!” Alex celebrated as he turned to David getting a glimpse of his screen.
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Alex rolled his eyes dramatically. Of course, his friend gets high distinctions (anything above 85) for all his courses. He didn’t know why his fried was even nervous in the first place, probably so it wouldn’t ruin his honour roll status.
Alex and David high fived, a wave of relief for the both of them. They can finally enjoy their break knowing that they can continue another year of engineering with their transcripts untarnished and no repeats. According to the mixed reactions in the lab, some weren’t fortunate as them. It takes the best of us, Alex would always say to his peers.
“You know what this means, right?” David asked him.
Alex nodded. He let a shaky breath out. It was time. He had made a promise to himself if he had passed Thermodynamics to give himself some motivation. That promise involved confessing to a certain pretty girl in their engineering department.
It started one morning lecture when students were settling in before class and in walks the prettiest girl Alex has ever seen. She came in for a few seconds to say hi to the students. It seemed everyone was already acquainted to her but him. She was the newly elected president of their university’s engineering club. He found out later that she would also be his Thermodynamics tutor and probably the only reason why he turned up to class and probably the only reason why he passed.
He made a bet to himself as a motivator that if he had passed Thermodynamics, he would ask out the most popular girl in his faculty, Ashley Pane out.
“How do I look?” asked Alex said as he stood up and inadvertently brought the attention of the entire lab. He straightened his blue button-up shirt that he had dug out from the bottom of his closet and brushed his un-swept hair using the reflection from a now switched off monitor. When he looked back, he was met with a chorus of thumbs out from the entire computer lab; a much needed approval considering he hadn’t dressed up for anything before and this was one of the most important moment of his life.
“Good luck!” David and bunch of other people chimed in as Alex rushed out waving them goodbye for the summer break.
As Alex walked out on the Engineering building, he took a momentarily paused to let out a deep breath. This is it. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!
It was a Tuesday afternoon, so he knew that Ashely will be having lunch at the Thai restaurant that she always goes to across the street after her president meetings. He just needed to walk out of campus and cross the street. A five-minute walk at the very least.
Alex found himself jittery and a little shaken – he spent most of the semester cramming in deadlines and more of it fawning over Ashley that he hadn’t thought out exactly what he was going to do or what he was going to say.
Nonetheless, he shook it off – he was beginning to look a little silly standing at the entrance of the building huffing and puffing. He would mull over what to say as he walked to the restaurant albeit very slowly – as slow as he possibly could.
When Alex finally reached the end of the road, he could see the bustling restaurant in sight. He could also see Ashley standing there in queue looking oh, so gorgeous. She was dressed in just a plain top and jeans but something about the way her brown hair and pretty green eyes shone in the daylight made Alex swoon. It also made him panic.
Things needed to be perfect. He wasn’t ready yet. He can’t just confess to her like this. He couldn’t just waltz over there empty handed. No, but he had just the perfect the solution for that: he needed flowers. Yes, that’s exactly what he needed! He’ll go and get flowers and then he can ask her out. There’s a flower shop back on campus. He’ll just quickly run back, buy some flower and then he’ll be ready.
With quiet resolve, Alex pivoted quickly on his heels and turned around swiftly in the opposite direction. In doing so he had bumped into someone behind him which he hadn’t seen because he was too caught up in his self-sabotaging thoughts.
He grabbed onto the stranger to stabilize his footing on instinct.
“Sorry-,” Alex spoke up to apologize but before he could do so, a strange circle of light appeared from beneath them. Before both of them could even react, it encompassed them with an intense blinding light and if Alex had known beforehand what this strange circle of light’s function was, he wouldn’t have stalled nearly as much.