Back at the apartment, the other four friends were studying at Asher’s house. Diego was reading on the couch while Isaac was in tutor mode at the table. Rei and Asher simply sat there trying to take in as much information as they could.

“Rei, if your question is about taking a break then no, it’s not time yet.”

“Ah, okay.” Rei slowly put her hand down and returned to making corrections to her homework.

“Ash either put the pager away or I’ll throw it out the window.”

“I can’t, Karen will come over if I don’t. Just give me two minutes. It’s just a quick phone call.”

“What happened to Nancy with the beautiful personality?” Diego asked, taking a break from his book.

“She found someone else.”

“So much for a beautiful personality,” Rei mumbled and Isaac, who heard her comment, gave her a high five.

“Isa, I don’t get it,” Rei threw down her pen in frustration. Why did she need advanced functions when she was planning on studying English?

“I’ll takeover, take a break Isa,” Diego got off of the couch and headed over to Rei. “In return, you tell me the symbolism in this book.”

“Deal.”

Diego helped Rei would with her math and explained in a way that was much better than how Isaac was explaining it. He skipped the history lesson on why it worked and instead showed her the different ways the question could be asked.

On the other hand, Asher and Isaac were wrestling on the floor as part of the latest installment of their soap opera – their method of releasing stress.

“And another way, are you even listening?” Diego asked. He looked up to see, Rei focusing on the two wrestlers and taking notes on the side.

“Wait, I need this for my novel.” She had two characters based off of her best friends and needed more information to develop them. So far she had the basic idea of a woman loving conman who always got conned by women and a chef who were eternal rivals.

“I’m here. You’re lives are better,” Delancy said as she closed the window.

“Have fun with Eric?” Rei asked.

“How do you know about that?”

“They talk,” Rei said before she pulled of her best imitation of her friends, “our little girl has grown up. She doesn’t like us anymore. Not even introducing her new friend to us.”

“Losers.” Delancy threw a shoe at Asher and the other at Isaac and it hit them both right on the nose. However, the pillow aimed at Diego was easily caught. “I need some friends outside of you guys you know.”

“You do have friends,” Diego said. “You’re friends with everyone. I haven’t seen you make it down the hall once without someone talking to you.”

After she took the pillow out of Diego’s hand and hit him on the back with it, Delancy changed the subject. “Isa, Mond is wondering if you’re really sure that you don’t need her to help you with your exam prep. She promises that she’ll focus on you and keep the pager away. Ooh, did you bake cookies?”

“Well, I better go. Del, you’re in charge of Ash. Good luck.” Isaac got off of the ground. He grabbed a few cookies from the kitchen and headed out the window.

Once she was satisfied with the amount sugar she had, Delancy dragged Asher off of the ground and threw a basketball at him. She began to teach him while making as much basketball references as she could.

“What are you writing now?”

“Del’s inspiring a character too you know.”

“What about me?” Diego asked.

“We’ll see. I don’t think I want to include a monkey in a story about pirates.” Rei teased.

“I can always teach you the wrong things.”

“And you can fail English then.”

“Por qué harías esto conmigo, señorita? Why would you do this to me?” Diego translated himself.

“You started it. Speaking Spanish won’t get you out of it,” Rei said, not batting an eye to the way he rolled his r’s.

Upstairs, Isaac found him feeling uncomfortable. He still remembered the way he left last time and hoped that she didn’t see through his ruse. However, she didn’t. Rosemond simply thought Isaac had a stroke of luck.

“Did Delancy give you the answers beforehand?” Rosemond read over the perfect paper from the previous session.

“No,” Isaac said before he came up with a brilliant plan, “I’ll make a deal with you then.”

“What deal?”

“If I can get perfect on every exam then you’ll grant me one wish.” Isaac rested his head in his palms and looked at Rosemond expectantly.

“And if you don’t? If I win?”

“Your choice but you won’t win.”

“We’ll see about that. If I win, I want you to stop with the cheeky comments. They’re cute but Gale isn’t a fan of them.”

“Why does our bet have to involve Gale?”

“Because he’s my boyfriend.”

“So?”

“So, do we have a deal or not?” Rosemond stuck out her hand for a handshake.

Feeling more annoying and determined, Isaac took her hand and said, “Deal.”

And so we studied. Staying inside on the beautiful winter days instead of playing in the fresh snow. We studied not for our future and not for knowledge. Instead, we studied to pass, for a number. A simple number which would determine our future. Sometimes it reached a point where it wasn’t even studying, it was pure memorization. Instead of understanding what we were learning, we tried to remember as much as we could. All the different ways the question could be asked, all the different formulas. Because that was what school was, we were graded on our ability to quickly retain and memorize content then to judge our self-worth based on a number.