The five minute bell went off. We had been in the counselor’s office for a few minutes. I asked for a pass to stay during my free period.

“Sure you guys are always welcome! It gets lonely in here,” the counselor frowned playfully as she wrote me a pass.

“Hey Irene. Are you going to come in?” Eric asked.

“Ummm. Yeah might as well. I have to figure out financial aid stuff. Mrs. A, can I get a pass too?”

“Sure! Financial aid is hard. It's good to figure this out now so you don't have to do it later,” Mrs. A pointed out. “You guys are sure are motivated!”

Irene and I chuckled. I just wanted to escape my 4th period and play on a laptop.

“Here's your pass, Wendy; I put Eric on there too… and here's yours Irene.”

We both said our thank you’s. Our group headed out to their respective classes. I waved at Irene when she walked up the stairs. V went to Stats by himself. Suelgi, Eric, and I headed towards our classes, all in the same direction. Dongguk came with us to drop off Suelgi. I decided to give them some time alone. Eric and I headed straight to our class and showed my free period teacher the pass.

Dongguk was still with Suelgi when we were walking back.

“EW couples,” Eric said jokingly.

“EW HET couples,” I laughed. Eric smirked, but I think he was uncomfortable. Eric hit Dongguk on the shoulder as we walked pass.

I felt my cheeks go bright red. Should I have said that to Eric? Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed that hard at my joke. I brushed it off and tried to hide it behind a confident walk and smile.

As we walked to A’s, I regretted what I said to Eric. Things between us have been, to say the least, confusing. I’ve known for a while that he liked me and there was a time where I thought I liked him. We had gone through the motions several times because well, he was my date to every dance since sophomore year. To top it off, we went everywhere together. We shared almost everything. Our families even knew each other well. But, I wasn't ready to commit.

I didn't want to start a relationship I wasn't confident in. But then again, isn't that how they all started?

The short walk to A’s reminded me I had better things to worry about. We sat in A’s room for a few minutes before Irene came. Like usual, I was working on my college essays. I had only one big one to finish; the other personal statements I had already written out. In truth, I copied and pasted a lot of content from others essays to finish up the last one. It seemed like all colleges wanted to know about family. So, I scarcely wrote new essays and simply edited them to each college.

This last one wasn't hard, but it was taking the most time. It had a somewhat difficult word count. Trust me. This is the worst part of college essays. I kept coming up way short. I was stuck. I didn't want to write anything new. I felt that everything I could say was there.

Music was blasting in my ears. I was hoping it would give me some inspiration. Come on. I need to get done with this today. I took out my headphones and rubbed my head. This has been a long week. But it's only Wednesday.

“Hey.” I looked up and Irene was walking in. I smiled, but my mind was still occupied. Eric waved.

Irene sat down to my left. She began to take out her stuff. She peeked over at my screen, “Oh are you still doing that essay.”

“Yeah. The word count has been… difficult.” I was about to say “kicking my ” but Mrs. A was sitting a few feet away.

Irene smiled. “I know how you feel. I went way under for my state essay. It took me an hour to fix it.”

“That sounds unlike you.”

“Well, you know. I have to slack off sometimes.”

I laughed. Eric took out his headphone to see what we were talking about. I waved to tell him it was nothing and he returned to his work.

“Did you guys have any questions,” Mrs. A asked.

I shook my head. “Not right now,” Irene responded, “Can I borrow a laptop?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

She grabbed a laptop and sat back down.

“Well. Good luck with the financial stuff.” I scrunched my nose to attempt to be funny. Irene only smiled but I could tell she thought I was being a dork.

I put my headphones back in and started again. What kinds of adversities have you had to overcome? How have you come overcome them?

The prompt was just taunting me. I couldn't get anything else out. Might as well rewrite this. I went down a few lines and started typing again.

I didn't realize that I had been typing for awhile. I finished it. It was a first draft, but I was able to go over a bit on the minimum word count. It gave me room to edit.

I stretched my arms above my head and stretched out my legs. That hit the spot. I looked at Irene. She was invested in something on her laptop. Probably the financial stuff. Her brows were furrowed; eyes glued to the screen with focus. Her backpack was still in her lap. She hugged it to her chest like it was a pillow. Her music was a little loud. I could vaguely hear it.

Wait why am I staring? I snapped out of it. That was embarrassing. Mrs. A was still looking at her computer and Eric was doing the same. I hope no one caught me.

Twenty minutes later the bell rang. I got up to leave, forgetting that either of them were in the room with me. Usually, I worked in A’s alone.

Music drowned out the hundreds of kids. I walked to my study hall class. I had Park so I had to walk all the way across campus. The middle schoolers and freshmen had lunch right now. This also meant that they were running around everywhere. The seventh graders treated the school like a playground.

I checked my phone for any texts. My mom let me know what to do about dinner. There were a bunch of reminders to finish my essays. I realized that I had two tests coming up too. God, when am I ever going to get the time to finish everything?

I skillfully maneuvered through the sea of children and made it to my study hall class. I sat down at my chair. I sat right next to the window that looked at the hallway. I watched as everyone was rushing to study hall or lunch. All but one of the Senior study halls were in this hallway so I saw people walk by.  

The one minute bell rang and I returned to my iPad. It was time to get some work done.