No Ordinary Exchange

callum is holding out for a himbo

1. Follow @ blairimani on Instagram! She's a Black bisexual Muslim who posts Learn O'Clock every week to discuss different topics; her insight of issues involving intersectional privilege/oppression (e.g. how intersectional feminism examines the ways that misogyny against Black women often overlaps heavily with racism, including from white women) is outstanding and I have learned so much from her. (She gets a lot of hateful DMs on Insta, unfortunately, so if y'all follow her make sure to give her some love in her comments and interact positively with her posts!)

2. Because I will be starting college soon, I want to share some facts with you about college dating violence. Did you know that 43% of dating college women report abusive dating behaviors? That nearly 1 in 3 college women report having been in an abusive dating relationship? That more than 50% of college women report knowing someone who has been in an abusive dating relationship? College campuses are notoriously known for not addressing and/or poorly addressing issues of dating violence/sexual assault/etc., and these numbers show it (in fact, these numbers barely scratch the surface). If you are a victim of dating abuse in the USA, you can contact the Love is Respect/National Teen Dating Abuse Hotline; call +1 (866) 331-9474 or TTY +1 (866) 331-8453. (Information condensed from @ soyouwanttotalkabout on Instagram.)

On the topic of me starting college soon: I plan to keep updating weekly, but there is a chance my updates will be pushed back to every Sunday instead of every Saturday. If something drastic changes with my update schedule, I will definitely let you guys know. Thank you for sticking with me so far! And I'm sorry about that mean cliffhanger I left you guys on last week ;) Maybe this update will make up for it? Something is revealed here that people had many theories on earlier. Anyways - I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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"You learned your speaking parts already?!"

Sonya's laughter had an edge of static to it as it filtered through his phone. "Yes. Memorization has always been a skill of mine."

Callum shook his head, impressed. "Wow. I sure wish it was one of mine." He was terrible at memorization. If he hadn't been allowed to have cue cards for their Renaissance History presentation, he could guarantee they'd all be doomed. But Professor Dupuy was the best, and they didn't even take off many points if someone was checking their cards often during their presentation.

Sonya laughed again. They were currently video-chatting to practice for their upcoming midterm, though Sonya had temporarily turned off her camera to adjust her hijab. "No, you really don't. You want to know what being good at memorization earned me?" A beat. "Five straight years of being the lead in elementary school plays. Sheer torture. I have so much residual trauma."

Callum snickered as he finished copying his cue line onto - well, onto the millionth flashcard was what it felt like, but in reality it was only the seventh. He was a notoriously slow study when it came to writing and memorization, though certainly not for a lack of trying. "Well, I'm sorry you had to endure such suffering."

"Mhm. So am I." She turned her camera back on, revealing that she'd fixed her signature pink hijab, the scarf no longer crooked. "Do you know how Rayla is doing with her parts of the presentation? I noticed she read the messages in the group chat but didn't answer."

Callum's grip on his pen tightened at the mention of Rayla, causing him to smear blue ink across the index card. He sighed and resigned himself to rewriting his cue line on a new one. "I think she's at football practice right now," he said. An honest answer, even if it was rather evasive. He also avoided Sonya's gaze, which was easier than usual, considering all he had to do was not look at his phone. "So she probably just hasn't had a chance to respond yet."