The morning sun streamed through the windows of the girls’ common room, casting a warm glow on the four girls — Aurelia, Selena, Thalia and Alithea, who were gathered there. They had just finished their breakfast and were now lounging around, sipping their coffee and discussing their plans for the day. Alithea, who had been quiet throughout the meal, was now engrossed in her diary, her brows furrowed in concentration as she read through the entries.
Aurelia, on the other hand, was lost in her thoughts. The formula she had devised to quantify her feelings for Lead was still bothering her. She had spent countless hours trying to assign values to the variables, but the results were always inconclusive. It was as if her heart was playing a cruel joke on her, refusing to reveal its secrets.
But she knew better than to sit and break her head about things that didn’t matter. All she knew was that she had an ongoing study on the boys, and nothing could stop her. If her heart decided to play a cruel joke on her, she might as well retaliate by ignoring it.
Seeing Aurelia’s troubled expression, Alithea closed her diary and turned to her. “Still thinking about that formula?” she asked, her voice filled with concern.
Aurelia nodded, her gaze fixed on the piece of paper where she had scribbled the formula. “I thought I could quantify my feelings, but it’s not as simple as I thought,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “So… I gave up on the formula.”
Alithea gave her a sympathetic smile. “Feelings are complex, Aurelia. They can’t be measured or quantified. They’re not meant to be understood, they’re meant to be felt. You read my diary. I wasn’t trying to quantify Ferris Oxide, and I genuinely seemed happy, minus the radon issues.”
“Yeah, but you had no idea about him, and neither did he.”
Just then, Gallus walked in, a look of excitement on his face. “Guys, you won’t believe what I found a few days back,” he announced, holding up a small, worn-out, spiral-bound notebook. “It’s Alithea’s lab notebook!”
Alithea’s eyes widened in surprise. She quickly took the notebook from Gallus and started flipping through the pages. The notebook was filled with detailed notes, diagrams, and calculations, all related to her experiments with radon.
“Wow, this is… amazing!”
Alithea’s eyes sparkled with a mixture of nostalgia and excitement as she scanned the pages. “These are my old experiments! I can’t believe you found this, Gallus,” she exclaimed, her voice filled with awe.
Gallus grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “I found it in the old lab. It was tucked away in a corner, covered in dust.”
Aurelia, momentarily forgetting her dilemma, leaned over to take a look at the notebook. The pages were filled with complex equations and diagrams, the handwriting neat and precise. “This is incredible, Alithea. Your work is truly groundbreaking.”
Alithea blushed at the compliment, a small smile playing on her lips. “Thank you, Aurelia. It was a different time back then. We were just starting to understand the full potential of our powers.”
The room fell into a comfortable silence as the girls immersed themselves in the notebook, each lost in their own thoughts. Selena, observing the two, stifled a laugh. “Your analyticalness… analyticity- whatever the word is, it’s actually amazing, Aurelia. Speaking of which, how’s the thing with the boys going?”
“It’s all right, I guess.” Aurelia shrugged. “We all actually didn’t do anything but text since… Thursday?”
“Hey, Aurelia,” Gallus groggily inquired, rubbing his eyes. “Did you and Nickolas secretly invent a new time zone last night? Because I’m pretty sure it’s called ‘2 AM and Still Talking About Date Ideas’!”
Thalia shook her head. “At this point I’m the only sane person here, actually focusing on my degree, and my future.”
“My analysis is going to help with my degree, thank you very much!” Aurelia snapped jokingly. “All Alithea’s stuff got her so much extra credit.” she said, displaying the book for everyone to see.
“What’s disaster of the day gonna be? Both of them inviting you to a date on the same day again?” Selena asked, remembering her conversation with Lead.
“Again, haven’t really talked with the guys lately. Thanks for helping me avert yesterday’s crisis,” she said, her gaze shifting to Selena and Gallus.
“No problem,” Gallus replied. “also, when I asked Nickolas when he was going to tell you about all these plans, he seemed hesitant. Anything happen?”
“Now that I think about it, Lead seemed sort of disoriented too. He kept scribbling something, and asking me rhymes for random words.” Thalia added. “Some which I remember were friend, forever, love, rival…”
“For rival, how about survival?” Aurelia chimed in. “Or… primal?”
“Sounds very… Stone Age-y…” Gallus remarked.
“I don’t think survival or primal would be very usable in a love song…” Selena replied. “Oh, yeah. Lead’s writing a love song. I wonder how that’ll go. He’s not very right-brained, if you ask me.”
“A left-brained person trying to comprehend stuff which the right-brained get naturally, huh? Reminds me of someone,” Alithea teased, glancing at a rather clueless Aurelia.
“Speaking as a left-brained person, I doubt right-brained people have it any easier when it comes to this territory.” Thalia explained. “This is too complicated for any of us.”
As the group continued their conversation, Aurelia’s phone buzzed, breaking the comfortable silence. She picked it up and saw a text from Lead. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the message.
“Hey Aurelia, would you like to go out for a date this evening?” the message read.
Aurelia looked up from her phone, a surprised expression on her face. “Guys, Lead just asked me out on a date,” she announced, her voice filled with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
The room erupted into a flurry of activity as the girls started offering advice and suggestions for the date. Amidst the chaos, Aurelia couldn’t help but smile. Gallus, the only one there with a Y chromosome, rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder if Selena was also bombarded with suggestions and thoughts every time they went out.
“Sure,” Aurelia typed, ignoring Selena and Alithea’s argument about whether or not Aurelia should take pepper spray with her on her date. “Why the hell not.”
“In that case…” Gallus replied, shaking Selena’s concentration out of her little argument. “Selena, you wanna go out too?”
“All right,” she shrugged. “There’s nothing to do in this old campus anyway.”
In the midst of it all, Thalia rolled her eyes and exchanged glances with Alithea, a silent nod to the fact that they didn’t care too much, but supported their friends anyway.
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As the evening sun began to set, the common room was much quieter. Only Alithea, Thalia, and Nickolas were left, each engrossed in their own activities. Alithea had returned to her diary, her pen moving swiftly across the pages as she documented the day’s events. Thalia was hunched over her textbooks, her brows furrowed in concentration as she studied for her upcoming exams. Nick, on the other hand, was sprawled on the couch, his eyes glued to the screen of his laptop.
The silence was broken by the sound of Nick’s laughter. “You guys should see this,” he said, turning his laptop so Alithea and Thalia could see the screen. It was a video of a cat trying to catch its own tail, its antics causing Nick to burst into laughter again.
Alithea and Thalia exchanged amused glances before turning their attention back to their respective tasks. The common room fell into a comfortable silence once again, the only sounds being the occasional turn of a page or the soft click of a pen.
As the hours passed, Alithea closed her diary and stretched, a satisfied smile on her face. “I think I’ve written enough for today,” she announced, setting her diary aside.
Thalia looked up from her textbooks, a tired smile on her face. “I wish I could say the same about my studying,” she replied, rubbing her eyes.
Nick closed his laptop and sat up, stretching his arms above his head. “Well, I’m done for the day too,” he said, yawning. “I wonder how Selena’s date’s going.”
Just as he said that, the door to the common room opened and Selena walked in, a bright smile on her face. “You won’t believe what happened,” she began, launching into a detailed account of her date with Gallus, who went inside shortly after. As Selena began to recount her date with Gallus, Nick listened with a smile, genuinely happy for his friend. Alithea and Thalia, too, were all ears, their earlier tasks momentarily forgotten.
Just as Selena was about to reveal what Gallus had said to her at the end of the date, the door opened again, and in walked Aurelia. She looked radiant, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Seeing her, Nick’s smile widened. “Goldie, you’re back! How was the library?” he asked, completely oblivious to the fact that she had been on a date.
Aurelia glanced at Alithea and Thalia, who gave her a subtle nod, signaling her to keep the truth about her date a secret. “The library was… interesting,” she replied, choosing her words carefully. “I found some really good resources for my studies.”
Nickolas nodded, seemingly satisfied with her response. “That’s great, Aurelia. I’m glad you’re making progress with your academics. By the way, have you seen Lead anywhere?”
“I don’t know,” Aurelia replied, although knowing very well that he had gone back to the café to retrieve her lost jacket.
As the night grew darker, the common room was filled with the soft hum of conversation and the occasional laughter. Nick, still oblivious to the romantic subplot unfolding around him, was engrossed in a discussion with Thalia about their upcoming exams. Alithea, on the other hand, had returned to her diary, documenting the day’s events with a thoughtful expression.
Suddenly, the tranquility of the room was shattered by the shrill ring of Aurelia’s phone. She picked it up and glanced at the caller ID. It was an unknown number. With a puzzled look, she answered the call.
“Hello?” she said, her voice echoing in the silent room. The others looked up from their activities, their attention drawn to the unexpected call. “Yes, that’s me. Who is this?”
Aurelia’s face turned pale as she listened to the voice on the other end. Her hand trembled slightly as she held the phone. “What? Are you sure?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
The room was filled with a tense silence as Aurelia ended the call. She stared at the phone in her hand, her mind racing.
“What happened, Aurelia?” Nickolas asked, his voice filled with concern as he stepped closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Aurelia looked up, releasing herself from his grip, her eyes filled with a mixture of shock and fear. “That was the police,” she said, her voice shaky. “Lead got into an accident. They said… they said it’s serious.”
The room fell into a stunned silence as the news sank in. The romantic subplot, the dates, the secrets - everything was suddenly thrown into the backseat as they faced the reality of the situation. Their peaceful world had been shattered, and they were left grappling with the uncertainty of what lay ahead.
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