Moving On

Seven

SEVEN
S a n d r a

"And that's where the lot of us procrastinate during clearance week and not sleep," Art explains as she points to a nook-well, more of a miniature library, really-with desks filled with iMacs and bookshelves stacked with hardbound books that's enough to give a bookworm anxiety. Well, I'm a bookworm. And those books intimidate the fuck out of me. I make a mental note to myself never to touch them except if I'll ever need them. Besides, I have the iPad that they gave me.

"Why do they use tablets for books?" I ask no one in particular, I just wondered out loud.

Cara was the one to answer my question. "No one really knows," she laughs. "All I know is that they've been doing that the moment tablets were hot. I think that was around 2010?"

"Ah, yes, the 'Great Technologization', as most of them calls it. It just caused a great deal of havoc here in the university, if you ask me. Not really much help," Jessica detests.

That reminds me, I haven't asked about Jessica yet. "May I ask what year are you this academic year and what you're taking?" I inquire.

"Yeah, you may. But you can't," she says as if dismissively-as if I'm beneath her. "And I'm taking booze for tonight," she says as she takes out a cigarette from the black wallet-no, not wallet. It looks like a wallet but it's much bigger. Purse. Yeah, that's it. Who does this bitch think she is?

I guess my uncomfortableness and anger is showing because Art and Cara start cracking up, like they're choking on their own saliva. "Um, what?" I ask stupidly.

"Oh, Sandra. Jessica's just messing with you," Cara tries to contain her laughter. "She's just teasing."

"Yeah, you're so formal!" Art bursts out. I guess she's not trying to hide her amusement at me. "Acquaintance Night isn't a place to get so formal. You're in college now, loosen your corset," she laughs, but somewhat kindly.

"Sorry about that, sport," Jessica smiles. "You must have called me a bitch in your mind the moment I said that," she chuckles then shakes her head. Well, you're right, I think. "Anyway, to answer your question, I'm graduating this year and I'm taking up Directing & Filmmaking."

"Wow," was all I could say. Well, she has the most interesting major from the four people I've asked here so far. Which reminds me of something again: I haven't asked Cara's major too. All I know is that she's a year ahead of me.

"And you, Cara? You're taking up what?" I turn to her.

"It's embarrassing," Cara says-the same Cara who laughed at me earlier for being so formal at what's supposed to be Initiation Night for freshmen and for acting like a kid, is ashamed of saying what her major is. This shit is going to give me a migraine.

"It's okay," I urge her. I mean, I thought we're in college? Nothing's supposed to embarrass us anymore. Especially the course we're taking. We chose that, didn't we?

"Okay," she gives in. Initially, I took up Accountancy. But then it was too hard for me. I flunked my major subjects and some of my minors. I repeated a year and shifted to a new course. Now I'm taking up Secondary Education Major in Math. So all in all, I'm supposed to be a junior, like Art. But I didn't do too well, so here I am."

That is kind of embarrassing, I thought. I take back what I said earlier. She's committed, I'll give her that. I mean I thought nobody could stand Math after the algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and all those other shit about Math after high school. And then there's Cara.

"So you're on your way on becoming a professor?" Was all that I could say after all of the things that went through my mind.

"Something like that. But I think a professor's for college though, and I'm just taking Secondary Education. I'm teaching in high school after I graduate, if I find a job that fast. And maybe I'll take my post-grad studies simultaneously around that time so I could be qualified for teaching in college."