Friday Spring Quarter 2016 Week 9

"Fuck, it's gonna be dead week soon," Kristoph realized as he played a card game on his tablet.

"Bro, why did you have to remind me? Damn, I have summer classes a couple of weeks after finals too. I regret so much of this school year," Jacque responded with a heavy sigh.

"Sucks for you. C'mon, just be like me and waste your summer playing games," Kristoph suggested.

"You still have work though," Zhuyu pointed out.

"So what? I'll still have a lot more time than this guy," Kristoph retorted.

"He's right. I'll procrastinate and end up finishing homework at midnight while he games and has fun," Jacque said.

"I'm telling you to just drop all those classes and play games with me," Kristoph persuaded.

"Bro, I wish, but those classes are only offered during summer quarter," Jacque explained, drawing a light line with his pencil.

"You're missing out. Long, play online games with me. Yo have no excuses," Kristoph goaded the zero vector user.

"I'll think about it. There are other things I have to do," Zhuyu said, glancing at me and Shan.

Shan nodded as he typed on his laptop. Oh, he was actually working on something, looked official too. A resume or maybe a letter of recommendation from one of the professors he worked with at the lab? Kisai wasn't present at the table today, probably playing basketball at the sports facility off the main campus.

"Who's ready for finals?" Zhuyu shut off his laptop and pulled out a notebook.

"Fuck no. That shit is a week away and I still haven't studied," Kristoph admitted.

"Did Prof Rem say anything about a final?" Jacque poked his sketchbook page.

"It's just an essay but we do have an exam next week. Let's study this weekend," Zhuyu suggested, waving one of our assigned books for our class.

That was news to me. I dug through my backpack, searching for the class syllabus. Oh, Zhuyu was right about the essay. Five pages minimum, with the topic our personal choice, and it required three of the book assigned this quarter. Not too hard at all.

"Damn, I kind of wish we had an actual final. I already have two essays due for other classes. Oh well, time to see how much bullshit I can write and still get a decent grade," Jacque decided.

"Professor Rem is a pretty easy grader. You'll be fine as long as you stay on topic. Hit me up if you get stuck," Zhuyu offered.

"I'll probably need your help, bro. I don't even remember him talking about this in class," Jacque said, scrolling through his phone.

Wait a minute, what had we even talked about during the last few classes? I pulled out my notebook and saw my last notes were from a week ago. Did I skip class and just forget?

"Something wrong?" Zhuyu looked up from his book.

"Uh, what did we do in class recently?" I dreaded hearing his response.

"Well, we didn't have class on Wednesday since Professor Rem was out of town. On Monday, we discussed this book. But he went on tangent for an hour so no one actually wrote anything down since it's not going to be on the exam next week," Zhuyu revealed.

"How did you even remember all that?" Jacque almost dropped his phone in amazement.

"You were asleep the entire class," Zhuyu responded with a slight chuckle.

"Oh yeah. Jin wasn't even in class that day. Did he have something to do?" Jacque unscrewed the top of his water bottle.

"Yeah, he went to check out a talk on something he was interested in," Zhuyu replied.

"He didn't miss much then. Did you lose already, Kristoph?" Jacque glanced at his tablet screen.

"This always happens to me. Oh well, I already met the goal for today. I hate that deck so much!" Kristoph complained as he tapped the screen multiple times.

Kisai, wearing basketball shorts and a green T-shirt, arrived twenty minutes later. He held his baseball cap in his right hand, flapping it around. Kristoph already left for class and Shan went to his lab, leaving only Jacque and Zhuyu.

"Yo, Kristoph already leave?" Kisai questioned.

"Yeah. You finish working out?" Zhuyu wrote down numbers from his calculator.

"Yep, saw Meng there. Played some basketball with him. I won of course," Kisai revealed.

Jacque was in the process of drawing a still life. Despite his constant complaints about the poor quality of his own art, it appeared fine to me. Kisai pulled out a lunchbox from his backpack and placed it in front of Zhuyu.

"So, uh, you wanna microwave this for me?" Kisai grinned at Zhuyu.

"Do it yourself," Zhuyu refused.

"Just... go and do it. Come on, it's right there," Kisai tried convincing his friend.

"Are you serious, Jin?" Zhuyu responded with a deadpan stare.

"Just go," Kisai repeated, still grinning at him.

Zhuyu and Kisai continued this for about thirty seconds, neither one backing down. Eventually Kisai gave up and microwaved it himself. The hell was up with those two? Their interactions with each other really confused me sometimes.

"Yuki, got an update for you. Michael contacted me and said they have a way in. I have work in the morning but I'll be free around three or four. You have anything to do?" Kisai revealed, opening up his lunch box.

I saw spaghetti noodles and chunks of chicken. Zhuyu continued performing calculations in his notebook, not paying attention to our conversation. Tomorrow, huh, I should be free. Hopefully, I could actually with Felicity this Sunday if nothing went wrong.

"I should be free," I replied.

"Nice. Kuan said he's good to go too. Long?" Kisai glanced over at the math major.

"Maybe, depends on Feng," Zhuyu answered, erasing a line of work.

"Forget I said anything. Spend time with Feng," Kisai urged.

"Don't make it sound like it's a good thing. Call me before you leave and I'll let you know," Zhuyu decided.

"Hey, did Darryl ever respond to you? Bastard hasn't said anything to me," Kisai asked.

"Nope. I don't even have signal in here," Zhuyu answered.

"Damn, tried everything already. Wonder if he's really busy with school. Haven't seen that guy in a few months outside of what we're doing for Tess," Kisai pondered.

Kisai and Zhuyu talked about a few things after that, none of which really concerned me. I finished up my chemistry homework and headed home. My first year of college was almost at an end. I never thought it would involve so many twists and turn along the way.

Saturday Spring Quarter 2016 Week 9

"Hey, it's been awhile," Ichaival greeted me in the Crossroads.

"Ichaival, good to see you again too. Looks like Kisai managed to reach you then," I responded, sitting down on one of the lounge chairs.

"Yeah. I actually just got my phone fixed yesterday so that's why I wasn't responding. Kind of cool that we're going into a fortress, excited about it," Ichaival admitted.

No one else arrived yet. Kisai was still coming back from work so we were early. Kuan came five minutes later, yawning every few seconds.

"Hey Kuan, is Zhuyu coming?" I asked.

"Don't know. He didn't text or call me," Kuan replied.

While waiting, I browsed through brochures on the coffee table and educated myself on the Crossroads. This place was amazing, serving as a connection hub for all the different dimensions. Kisai, wearing his usual checkered hoodie and black jeans, finally arrived twenty minutes later.

"Everyone here?" Kisai perused the room.

"What about Long?" Kuan asked.

"Had something to do with Feng. I'm sure he'll be happier with her than us, you know," Kisai responded.

"I don't know about that but okay," Kuan disagreed.

As we prepared to leave, two unexpected people showed up to join us. Tess and Lilith directed Champ and Lionel to assist us.

"We should have let you know sooner, Kisai. Sorry 'bout that," Lionel apologized.

"Just don't slow us down," Kisai joked.

Lionel was definitely more subdued now compared to when I first met him. I would take this version of him since he was easier to deal with. Kisai explained the situation to both of them and then we were off.