WEEK 8

[lockdownmods]

[When you wake up, there's a text message in all of your inboxes, warning about how stressful exams week can be. The email comes replete with names of study sessions, tutoring hours, and free pizza on other parts of the campus. And it encourages you to check online for the exam schedule based on your class and section number.

There's also a note that there will be weekly stress puppy pop ups to help you relax? So that's nice and thoughtful! But ultimately, at Fayflower, they just want to make sure everyone has what they need to do well on their exams.

What a nice email.

But things have obviously deteriorated around you, with the wall looking visibly... damaged? If you get close, it's extremely easy to lose track of yourself... and you might come away with a few bruises you didn't know you got. Who knows. Maybe Terra?

Happy final week.]

LOCATIONS | PROFILES | HAN OFFICE HOURS | MEGUMI OFFICE HOURS

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

Comments

[reshoot]

I'll do everything that I can, Becca.

We'll figure this out together.

I'm so glad I could speak to you. I know I should be focusing on the mission but

Rebecca

Please just talk to me for a little bit, okay? Just...tell me things. About you. About anything.

[throwabookatit]

[ There's no hesitation. ]

How would you like to hear about the first birthday I had after my friend Isabella moved in next door?

[reshoot]

Please! Birthday stories are always interesting!

[hopefully no one is around to see Max practically hugging the computer monitor.]

[throwabookatit]

I was turning 25. Now, you're going to laugh about this, because EVERYONE does, but my birthday is April 1st. It annoyed me so much, when I was a little girl. Since I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, it made me even more wary to share in school, whenever it came around. Anytime someone did, they'd expect me to act the part of a fool. On top of that, my parents got busier and busier as I grew closer to university, so I became used to barely celebrating, when it rolled around.

THEN Isabella came into my life. She grew up in a huge family in the Philippines, and not in the best of financial circumstances. She worked herself ragged, to help support her family. I took to her after we finally started talking and maybe it was because I looked after her so much, or maybe it's just because she was a good person, but when my birthday came up in conversation after my friend Ashton (the one I focused on you remember) turned 24, Isabella flung into action.

"HOW could you not want to celebrate your birthday, Becca?" We argued about it for days and days. She was insistent! I swear, if all of you thought I was stubborn, you'd be amazed. Belle wouldn't let it go. Ash had his birthday at the end of the year, and it was February and we were STILL snipping about it. Our other friend Zachary had his birthday a few weeks before mine, and when Isabella didn't say anything, I was sure I'd won.

But, to my surprise, she was too crafty for me. You see, no matter how much I protested, I really did like the idea of having some kind of celebration. Even if it was small. I'd talked Ashton out of anything years before, once we'd both finished up university. He was too busy with his detective school to begin with, and it made a convenient excuse. But, I suppose after some talk, Isabella got him to realize just how much I really DID want a birthday party. Maybe it didn't take much. As dense as he is about romance, Ash really IS observant.

Between the two of them, they got Zach to distract me the whole day while Belle used the key I'd given her to set some silly, cheap decorations up in my flat. It was so awkward, Zachary and I never hung out much outside of our mutual friendship with Ashton, but the big guy tried so much. He made it seem like he needed my opinion on the city, for a portfolio he was putting together. He's the photographer, the one I would've wanted to introduce you to. Really, even though he's awful at lying, it worked well. Those photographs did end up on his website, so maybe there was some truth to it all.

By the time he took me back to our apartment complex, everything should've been set up. It almost was. Ashton, however, had been tapped to help cook.

All he was supposed to do was get some salad together, but SOMEHOW he almost burned down Belle's entire apartment! We showed up to a firetruck, and she was just screaming at him, practically wailing. "My back was turned for ONE MINUTE, ASHTON FREY!"

Seeing it all, all the trouble they'd gone to for me? It was amazing. Even though all three of them apologized--for trying to throw the surprise in the first place, for making a big thing of it, for deceiving me or whatnot--I wasn't mad. Not a single bit. Really, I almost cried right there.

After everything got settled down, we had a hastily thrown-together cake at a nearby cafe and they each gave me something.

I never protested Isabella's party plans again. Every year since, we've had a small get-together.