Plink. Plink. Plink. Behind the wall in Hal’s dorm room, water dripped. No matter how many times he tried to block it out–plugging his ears, playing white noise from his phone, summoning Cthulu, crying into his textbook–it persisted.
Why am I studying anymore? This is literally the final day of finals week. There’s literally no reason to be on campus. He could have left last week were it not for these dang tests. It didn’t matter anyway; his GPA was going to be a flaming dumpster fire no matter how well he did on today’s exam.
“Why are we still here?” he croaked, flipping the page of his book with tater tot-crusted fingers, “just to suffer? I can still feel the heat of the sun…taste the freedom of the wind upon my face…and yet, here I am, alone. Alone but for the silence of self-reflection and tater tots. After being up for 69 straight hours, I have finally snapped. This, all of this, is just manufactured to induce torment as punishment for mentioning my love of math on my application. Well, that love of math is no more. The only thing I know I can cling to is the presence of pain, the absoluteness of agony, tater tots–that’s three things, but I can’t count very high. Anyway, all I see when I glimpse into the future is pure torture designed to throw a wrench in my plans to ever feel an inkling of happiness for as long as I shall live.
“I’ve done problem after problem in this book, this dang book, and none of it has yet to make any sense. I might as well try to learn how to dance the Macarena for all the good this is doing me–this isn’t even that relevant to my major. I am only here by the sheer will of the university and the professor who schemes and plots and plots and schemes to bring about my downfall. Not even tater tots will tie me to this place, not when the bustling of freed students fleeing their cramped doors has kept me up all day after nights spent attempting to study for this blasted test, a test that will amount to nothing in the end. The only thing I gain from this is being one step closer to my next plate of tater tots, and then–even then–it amounts to nothing.”
Hal picked up his textbook and held it aloft, stroking its problem-ridden pages with a hatred that could dim a thousand suns. “Tonight,” he hissed, “you are going to Oh*o where you belong.”
We have survived finals week! Probably. Maybe. Well…it’s been fun, everyone! Not sure if this is my ultimate or penultimate post of the week, but either way, The Rise of the Band Geeks will be back!
