Oct.16 | 7:30am | 60 days before the deadline
It was a quiet morning, unlike the past ones. The rain had stopped several hours ago, the smell of petrichor was all over the city. It was the perfect day for the start of a romance anime. The only thing that the city lacked was the cherry trees. But it has other trees, it has parks, and it has everything a good suburban tomb need.
The streets were crowded, as expected for a Tuesday in mid-October. Students of all levels were trying to get to their classes and so was this boy, with his laces untied, his jacket not even in place, and his hair as if a bird were living inside. College freshman. He stayed all night reading the book needed for his literature class. "3.51: drunk and in love" a dissertation in love and its various manifestations.
He entered his class and went to his seat, his teacher Mr. Way (a.k.a. Mark) began explaining the final project of the semester. A dissertation on the dissertation, the "easy" part, it's a pair work. And Mark being the cool teacher™ made the pairs himself as to, "help every student", everyone knows it was bullshit, but hey at least there is not going to be loners in the first final project. While the teacher called out the pairs for the "awesome project" most of the students zoned out expecting their partner to come to them at the end of the class.
Nest hair was brought back to reality after hearing his name and "paired with 'Sophie Brun'" the exchange student maybe? His head was getting filled with non-pleasant situations, work for 2 months with a girl he was not even aware that she existed and that probably it was the same for her, he was already upset. "At least I know I can pull a B out of this" he tried to convince himself it was a good scenario, and in these daydreams and fatalistic what-ifs, the class ended.
Nest hair tried to escape the inevitable social interaction with Sophie, as much as he wanted to know who in all heavens was Sophie Brun, he absolutely despised the idea of being forced to the obvious "Are you Sophie?" "Oh, we need to do the project, we cannot go into my house" "You would not like that tomb". He was shaking in a way, trying to see a way out and he almost escaped, but someone tapped his shoulder, 2 small taps, and a sweet clean voice with a certain accent asked him —Are you Jack? Jack Smith?
—The one and only. —when he turned around, he had to restart his brain, the sweet voice owner had the face of an angel. He was able to hide in a way his awe (I have to tell you; I don't know how the fuck he did that). —So, you are Sophie? Right?
—Oui monsieur.
—Why the French tho?
—Why the English?
—It's my mother tongue.
—A language that I learned, so it would be awesome if you just vibe with my French, please.
—Sorry madam, but I lost the ability to vibe since the great war. —he tried to contain laughter while saying that, the reality was not as shit as his what-ifs.
—That's a shame, I wanted to vibe with you.
—We could vibe after classes, for project purposes obviously. There's a coffee shop nearby.
—Sounds nice, À tout à l'heure !
She left after saying those words, words he did not understand, who understands French after all, but according to many online translators, she told him, "see you later" and then left. He had nothing to do with his time so to kill some time, he went to the "School fields" that were just an excuse to have something that made the school attractive to the eye. The brightness in those fields made him take out his sunglasses because you know: white people's eyes are trash. They are like "oh no there's light outside, we shall not see".
Looking like a blind beggar with nice clothes (say thanks to the sunglasses) he took out a white notebook. There were 3 words in the cover "My Wish List". He was not the guy that is "I want a WISH LIST" it was some bullshit assignment that he had to do. And no one in his generation knew why. "Due to something in past years" was the official answer. So, he did what every guy with nothing to do does. Scribble around in a notebook, maybe draw some dicks out of boredom. The important stuff as any man of culture should know. And that's how he killed time, waiting for Sophie to finish whatever classes she had.