SEPTEMBER 2003

Before I knew it, school was starting up again. I was nervous for university. I didn’t know what to expect for a workload, or how hard the classes would be. Thankfully, a couple days prior to my first day, Mum promised she would go easier on me and not give me so much extra work to do around the house. I guess she wanted me to pass my classes, not fail them because I didn’t have time to do my schoolwork. However, she made it clear that if she saw I was slacking off too much, she would be giving me extra work to do. I later found out Mum only made that promise because Daisy was constantly on her back about it. Daisy didn’t want me stressing out and somehow managed to convince Mum to make the deal.

My first day of university was hectic. It was also Daisy’s first day of her junior year, so we were both nervous. Luckily, I had my first class later in the morning, so I was able to be there for Daisy. I had to keep reassuring her the junior year wasn’t that bad. Once she was off to school, I had to head out as well. My first class was a writing class. I figured that wouldn’t be so bad. I liked to write. I knew we wouldn’t be writing about fun topics too often, but that was to be expected.

On my way to class, I saw some familiar faces from high school. I debated saying hi to some of them, but decided against doing that. Most people at high school didn’t really see me as somebody to be around. I wasn’t really a cool kid. I got to class, took a seat and waited for the professor to start the class.

Every class went about the same. They gave us a syllabus for the semester, introduced the material, and gave us some homework. By the end of the day, I already had 2 essays to write by the next week. At least it gave me something to do at home. I only had classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so I figured I would spend the days off getting the majority of my work done.

I got home around the same time Daisy got home. I was just getting out of my car when I saw Daisy hop off the bus. She saw me and ran over as fast as she could.

“How was university??” She asked curiously.

“Was ok.” I replied. “Already got some homework to do. How about you? Junior year as scary as you thought it would be?”

“Nah. It’s not too bad.” Daisy said. “And damn, really? Homework already? Wow!”

“At least I can keep busy.” I laughed. “Then Mum can’t bug me too much.”

“Fair.”

We headed inside to see Mum waiting for us (by us I mean Daisy) to see how school went. She was super hyped to hear how Daisy’s first day went, but didn’t ask too much about mine. Shocker. I simply headed to my room and got a headstart on my work. I worked on my stuff right up until dinner. On weekdays we usually had dinner quite late because Mum liked to wait for Dad to get home. Mum didn’t have to work as long and was normally home shortly after 4pm, but Dad usually got home more towards 7-8pm. During dinner, Dad seemed to be interested in how my day went. I was a bit surprised, but was happy to tell them about my day. Mum didn’t look too pleased about that, but she didn’t say anything. Knowing her, she probably tuned me out.

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University got more and more difficult as time went on. A couple weeks in, and I was struggling to keep up with the workload. I had to rush a lot of my projects and essays just so I could get it in on time. Not to mention that I was so focused on getting work done that I barely had any time to study. Midterms came along, and because of my lack of studying, I barely passed most of them. Shortly after, I got my essays and projects back only to see I had barely passed those as well. The only class I was doing somewhat ok in was writing class. The bad grades made me start working harder and longer on the new projects I was getting. I was pulling all nighters left and right, and was starting to learn to survive off caffeine. The only problem with that is that I’m sensitive to caffeine, especially coffee. It puts my energy levels through the roof. But I guess that was working to my advantage. Yea I couldn’t sit still after drinking it, but it kept me awake longer to keep up with my work. I just had to make sure Mum didn’t know I was drinking it. She knew how I reacted to the stuff and she would flip out at me if she knew I was drinking multiple cups of it in a day.

Dad caught onto my inner coffee addict coming out. I usually grabbed a cup of it every morning when he was up. He knew Mum wouldn’t approve of it, so he said he would keep quiet. I was thankful for that because I had no idea how in the world I would’ve survived without my coffee.

During a night where I planned to pull another all-nighter, Dad came into my room and slid a mug onto my desk.

“Here.” He said as he took my empty mug that had contained coffee. “How late are you staying up tonight?”

“Oh, uh thanks.” I smiled tiredly. “And probably all night… I got a lot of work to do.”

Dad sighed. “Didn’t you stay up all night the other day?”

“Uh, maybe?”

“Try and get some rest. Don’t stay up past midnight.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Alright. Night.”

“Night.”

Dad left the room, shutting the door behind him. I sighed, took a sip of my coffee and got back into my work. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was midnight. I still had a lot to do, so I knew I would be up all night.

I was working away when I suddenly heard my door open. It scared the shit out of me and I almost fell out of my chair. I looked behind me to see Dad. The minimum lighting from my desk lamp made him look pretty scary.

“Kevin.” He said. “Go to bed.”

“Just a bit longer-”

“No. You need to rest.”

I sighed. “Alright I’m going.”

I packed up my stuff and headed to bed. I wanted to get back up once Dad left, but he stayed up until I fell asleep.

Dad did small things like that here and there, but for the most part I kept doing what I was doing right up until the final exams. Despite doing this though, my grades were still not too great. I was averaging at around 75 with the occasional 80, and a lot of fails here and there. Thankfully, Mum was keeping her nose out of my grades. If she saw how bad I was doing she would flip her shit. She was leaving me to my own because I was so busy, and I didn’t need to change that.