Adam ended up keeping his movie theater job and dropping the gas station one because it worked better with his class schedule and paid better since he had been there a bit longer and had gotten a twenty-five-cent raise. He took classes in the morning, did his homework in the early afternoon, then went to work at night.
He wasn't home much as a result but when he was, he was sure to play games with his siblings both for their sake and his. He needed at least a little fun in his life.
College was a lot busier than high school. He was exhausted but had to keep going. This was only his first semester. It would surely get worse from here, especially once he got into the harder classes in his major.
Adam had decided to go with statistics because his research indicated that those jobs paid well with only a bachelor's degree. He was in for an awful lot of math in his future and wasn't particularly looking forward to it but it was his best option.
His classes now were hard enough. The worst was definitely anthropology. He had a bad feeling on the first day based on the way the professor went over the syllabus and that feeling was proved right only two weeks in. He had the sort of voice that put people to sleep but that wasn't the worst part. He was full of himself—he had written all of the textbooks used in the class—and could make even the most interesting things seem dull.
Adam couldn't stop himself from audibly groaning when he heard what their next assignment was and the person sitting behind him laughed. "My sister did say that the worst classes are with the professors who write the textbooks. I'm starting to agree with her."
His heart skipped a beat. No way…
He turned his head at the familiar voice and saw Erica smiling at him. He hadn't even known she was at UF! How did she end up in one of his classes?! She must have sat behind him all this time and left before he did for him not to have spotted her. He would recognize her anywhere.
"I'll have to remember that," Adam said, trying to ignore the way his heart was racing.
"Me too. I'm regretting taking this class already," she confided.
"So am I. I really don't have time for all of this reading and it's so boring that I hardly process a thing so I have to reread parts."
"You too? I thought I was the only one with that problem!"
Someone sitting nearby shushed them and, blushing furiously, Adam turned back to face forward. He didn't want to get in trouble but paying attention to the rest of the class was a lost cause now that he knew Erica was here and had actually talked to him.
She didn't try to engage with him again until the bell rang but did so by waiting for him as he packed up his things. "What's your name? I'm Erica Simmons."
"Adam Mitchell," he said in a daze as he shook her offered hand.
It was warm and soft and her nails were painted a shade of pink that Jenna would never be caught dead in. She hated when their mom made her wear anything girly.
"Do you want to work on the assignment together?" she asked. "I figure it'll be easier not to miss things if there are two of us trying to process the dumb reading. Two heads are better than one, right?"
Adam couldn't believe that Erica wanted to do anything with him. He never would have seen this coming!
"Sure," he stammered out.
She beamed at him. "Great! Do you have another class after this?"
"No, I don't."
Anthropology was his last class of the day. He had a few hours to do homework and get something to eat before going to work.
"I don't have anything until two so do you want to go eat and work on this now?"
Adam nodded mutely, still trying to process this, and followed her to the food court. He had packed himself a sandwich but she had to go buy something and he needed to recalibrate while waiting for her to come back.
This had to be some sort of bizarre fluke but he couldn't make an idiot of himself in front of her! No more than he already had anyway. Having her only talk to him because he couldn't hold back a groan was totally embarrassing but he supposed it was better than the alternative of not having her talk to him at all.
How long would it have taken for him to notice they were in the same class if she hadn't? He couldn't help but wonder.
Erica rejoined him with a chicken sandwich that she consumed cheerfully before asking him basic student small talk questions such as where he was from and what his major was. He could do this. She was just a girl. Just a very beautiful girl who had consumed more of his thoughts than any other over the past several years.
"I'm from here, actually. And I'm majoring in statistics."
"Like, here here or Florida here?"
"…here here."
"No way! Me too! Which high school did you go to?" Erica asked eagerly.
"Gainesville High."
"Hey, so did I! What year did you graduate?"
"…this year."
Adam felt like an idiot. This conversation was going in a dangerous direction. If she asked if he knew her, was he going to be able to lie convincingly?
"For real? We're from the same graduating class? That's too crazy! I guess there were a lot of students but still. What are the odds that we'd never meet there only to meet here? I wonder if we know any of the same people. Do you know…"
Erica ended up listing a bunch of people he hadn't interacted with but knew vaguely who they were because they were in the popular crowd and had to fumble his way through by saying he knew of them but didn't know them personally. She didn't know any of his former friends either when she asked who he hung out with.
Of course she didn't. They were from completely different parts of the high school hierarchy.
That uncomfortable conversation only lasted until they made it to the library to work on that assignment. Then she was all business.
Even though Adam's focus was worse than usual because his hopeless crush was sitting right there in front of him and actually knew his name, he managed to get the assignment done a lot faster than he would have otherwise because they divided and conquered.
"I didn't know it was possible to get an Anthropology assignment done so fast," he remarked when they finished.
Erica laughed. "Me neither. Want to do this again? To make both of our lives easier."
Did he? Would his heart really be able to take it? He wasn't sure but found himself nodding along anyway, powerless to resist.
"Great! For now, do you mind if I work on my math homework though?"
"Not at all," Adam said.
He had other homework to work on as well. So despite his focus issues having her sit across from him, he got to work on something for another class and kept at it until she had to get to her next class. She smiled brightly at him and waved as she walked away. "See you, Adam!"
"See you," he called back, still hardly believing today had actually happened.
Unfortunately, his focus didn't improve much once she was gone because he was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he had eaten lunch and done homework with Erica Simmons. It was more than his middle or high school self could have ever dreamed.
Adam did get things done though because he had to. Compartmentalization was how he had survived after losing his dad. He didn't let thoughts of Erica prevent him from finishing the assignments that absolutely had to be done today.
It cut things a bit close so he had to eat his dinner in the car on the way to work though. He had more time for his mind to wander on his shift since his primary duty there was cleaning theaters after movies ended and that was a fairly mindless task. He couldn't help but wonder what made Erica choose to go to UF of all places and why she wanted to do homework with him. With how friendly she was, how had she not found someone else to do it with before now?
He had so many questions but only time would reveal whether or not he would get any answers. It was best he didn't dwell on it too much. He was just a classmate to her but it was still more than he was before when they were classmates and she didn't remember who he was.