Midterm

Warm amber light fell in through slatted shades, stretching across the desk, over note books scribbled in with detailed notes and distracted doodles. Loose papers cluttered around the knotted wooden surface, crystalline shards scattered about, their cut facets refracting out small dots of chromatic light onto the table.
Head slumped down on a thick textbook, drool seeping onto a diagram of a complex chemical reaction, a girl snoozed idly.
A sudden blaring alarm wretched out from her phone into the cool air. Groggy eyes sliding open, she swatted at it, knocking it out of reach before lifting her head up to properly look at it. 8:30am. Smashing snooze she fell back asleep.

Shuffling and clatters echoed in through the closed door; a knock, a bang - ambient clutter of noise. The girl opened her eyes again, more ready to be awake. Her phone screen lit up, a few texts, an email about a late assignment, the clock reading 9:45. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath as she pushed her hair out of her eyes and started sliding the clutter around on her desk to prepare for the day.
Picking up her phone, she ignored the myriad piling notifications and opened the contact list. She scrolled through past numerous names before her finger hesitated over Alex’s name. Scrunching her lips, her eyes moved back over the clock. 9:46. She clicked to call.
“Hey, Alex, It’s Prismia. From class,” she said.
“Oh hi, Prismia. What’s up?” the voice on the other end of the telephone asked.
“I’m sorry but I have a midterm and overslept so I was wondering if you could drive me to campus? I’m really sorry.”
“Oh,” the voice said softly.
“I’m sorry. I-I-it was rude of me to assume. Thanks tho.”
“No. It’s okay. Yeah. Just text me your address and I can pick you up.”
“Okay. Thanks so much.”
She exhaled and slumped back over her desk, arms knocking the clutter about.

“Hey,” he greeted as the door opened and Prismia slid her backpack down.
She sat quickly into the seat, sighed, and projected a smile approximating gratitude.
“Thanks, man; midterm season is just hitting harder than usual,” she said chuckling a little.
“Yeah, it’s no problem. I got class at noon anyway so I would have to go to campus eventually; probably just get some breakfast at the dining hall.”
The car pulled out from the driveway and moved down the road a little too fast.
“How’ve you been?” she asked, turning a little, eyes bouncing off his face to the rows of houses slipping by outside cast in yellowy sunlight.
“I’m alright. Have to take a summer class now because I got a D in Material Processing.”
“That’s not good,” she offered, “do you get to go to graduation?”
“Yeah. They’ll let me walk, but I won’t get my real degree until like September.”


---


“Well, it’s hard to explain really. I guess, well, literally it’s condescension of the ambient Heri field. There’s eddy currents naturally, but you can induce cycles and with enough, there’s a negative gradient which causes clustering.” She explained, looking off to the window, pencil swirling around in her jittering hand.
“That… that doesn’t really help, sorry,” he responded, offering a faint smile, continuing, “what do you do with it?”
Prismia looked back at him, her head tipped and brow scrunched.
“Like, once you get your ‘hericyclic clusters?’” he tried elaborating.
“oh,” she looked past him at the door, eyes widening as she opened her mouth, “I guess; well, I didn’t really think that far ahead,” she finished with a slight chuckle.
“Oh,” he stated.
“Abuelita never told me that.”