A Story Left Untold

VIII

𝓣𝓾𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 

𝓤niversity was in full motion for Nova, and it hadn't taken her long to make her first friend in her class. Josephine, a young, American woman who understood the struggles Nova experienced, being that far away from home. Missing your loved ones, having to fit into a new daily routine.

When Nova came home, the day she met Josephine, she had talked for about an hour about how happy she was to have met her and how she was so glad to have a friend outside of Max and me.

"It is not like I don't appreciate the two of you, but it is just, you know, healthy to have other friends as well."

Max and I had acted like her words hurt us, like they made us feel like we were not good enough for her. It was the moment Max started calling her princess. In return, she started calling him a peasant.

All that excitement disappeared slowly when we were all sitting at the dinner table, all doing our own thing. For about an hour, Nova had been flipping between pages, going between her textbooks and her syllabus, sighing occasionally.

"If you don't stop frowning, you will get lines before you are twenty-five." Max threw a balled-up piece of paper in Nova's direction, but she only glared at him. She was biting the back of her pen and tapping her fingers on her free hand on the table in a rapid rhythm.

"What is up, Nova?" I didn't like her being like this, so down and annoyed. I didn't like that I had to see her like that even less.

"It is just hard. This morning, in class, I thought it finally clicked, but as I am looking at it again right now, I have no clue of what I am supposed to make out of this." She pushed her book across the table into my hands.

I knew I wasn't going to make anything out of it, but maybe that would make her feel better. After all, I drove a more complicated engine around than the one displayed in her book. At least, that was what I was assuming. I looked at her book, trying to even make even the slightest bit out of what had been written down on the subject.

"I don't even know what it is."

Nova chuckled. "It is actually the engine of a race car."

Perhaps I was wrong to assume. I looked again, before sheepishly chuckling. There was no way I knew the difference between engines and could have picked up that this was, in fact, a racing engine. You could give me dozens of pictures of engines and I would get it wrong every time. "I knew that."

"I am sure you did." There was a twinkle in her eyes again, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "I moved abroad for this and now I can't even do what I came here for because my brain is failing me big time."

I looked at Max. I didn't know what to do to make her feel better.

"Can't you ask Josephine?" Max turned to Nova with a hopeful smile.

I prayed Josephine could. Nova and she had been studying together from time to time. She could actually help her understand. Max and I were solely there for emotional support, though on standby at all times, night and day.

"She is out for today, so no. That is what makes this even worse."

"I am sure there is something. Perhaps e-mail a teacher?"

"If I want to get it done before the next class, then no. And I want to get it done by then because next time, we are going to deepen our knowledge. To do that, I need to understand this or I will fall behind and fail this class." She shook her head in disappointment in herself, took her book and left the room.