Thread Roulette: Last Minute

[Event !]

It’s always a scramble, isn’t it?

[Levi Xu]

This was all his fault, and he knew it. Last weekend, Levi had lied to Evan about having finished his lab report for Earth Science so they could go on a date instead. Then for the rest of the week, he'd been too busy with other homework and hanging out with Sam to think about it much.

And then he realized he was out of time and the report was due tomorrow.

Evan was working on homework of his own--and the freshman didn't want to give away that he'd lied about finishing the report--so he'd headed down to the library about an hour earlier. He couldn't concentrate in his room, where all of his stuff and his computer was. The library was nice and quiet and in other circumstances, it would have been the perfect sanctuary to knock out his report and head back to the dorm.

Instead, Levi's fingers were shaking the pencil in frustration because he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do next. His teacher had given him a sheet with step-by-step instructions showing how to do the wor, but it wasn't making sense. And if he did what he usually did when he didn't understand something, Evan would know he'd lied.

With a groan, Levi faceplanted into his textbook. He was going to be here forever.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was never very good at keeping up with his schoolwork, even before he had made the move to Hammel. There was always something more excited to do than sit at his desk and work on assignments. Who could blame him? One the plus side, AJ was also one of those individuals who hardly ever cracked a book and still managed to do well on tests. Maybe because his head was so empty of social rules and skills that it had plenty of space for random facts and figures. He might not look like he paid much attention during class, but somehow things managed to sink in enough for him to do well. Usually his high test scores evened out his low grades for missing or incomplete assignments.

That approached usually worked well enough for AJ in most of the year, but around the end of the year it seemed like every teacher assigned huge projects. English papers were the worst for AJ. Every time he sat down to tried to write, he always seemed to think of a million other, and more fun, things he could be doing. And it was hard to concentrate like that.

He’d tried everything short of getting someone to strap him to a chair with rope. He’d spend the past few evenings in the library, but so far he only had one paragraph to show for it.

He was sitting at a table with his papers spread around him, but couldn’t find the motivation to put words on them.

He actually smiled when a boy near him faceplanted his textbook, because it was a welcome distraction. Giving up on his work, he walked over to where the other boy was sitting and helped himself to a seat. “I don’t think osmosis works well with books,” he said as he sat down. He recognized the boy but couldn’t remember his name. “You’re in my class, right? Math? Or maybe history? I think you sit behind me and to the left a little.”