I hadn't mentioned it before, but Alex wasn't just your average League of Legends player.
The guy was a Challenger, ranking among the top 300 players on the cutthroat North American servers. Carrying me to Diamond was like a Sunday stroll through Central Park for him.
Over the past two years, he'd been raking in the dough as a League of Legends tutor, while I felt like I'd been wasting away my precious time.
Sure, I dabbled in Python and JavaScript during my free moments, but every project I kicked off ended up as just another abandoned half-baked garbage.
"Hey! What's with the long face?" Alex quipped as we waited in line at the grocery store.
"Nothing much, just pondering those upcoming exams and how we've been letting our time slide. Today, I gotta hit the books. No games," I replied, my determination set.
"Speak for yourself, buddy. I'm on the road to becoming a pro League of Legends player. Got tryouts lined up and everything. And didn't you start digging into Django? You had plans for that blog, remember?"
Right... I wanted to whip up a blog about my everyday life. Now that I think about it, what a lousy idea that was. Who'd wanna read about the dull and repetitive life of a humanities major? Anyway, the bigger picture was mastering Django.
Tech companies have been going all out for that Python framework lately.
As Alex and I strolled into our department, there sat Lucas, our other roommate in front of his drawing pad. He was a couple years older than us and he had this novelist thing going on, but I wasn't much into checking out his writings.
It was just the way his face twisted up when he put words on paper that always left me feeling a bit off.
"Don't make me beg you, Max. Let's play one round. Just let me change," Alex pleaded.
"No, Alex, seriously, I'm swamped. I can watch you play if you're that insistent," he was one of those guys who thrived on praise, and that's why he wanted me to join him.
Without wasting a second, I pulled out my 'PreCalculus' book and flipped it open to the section I'd been working on.
"OMG! Are you actually reading a book, Max? What kind of book could possibly pique your interest? Hmm?" Lucas couldn't resist but came to life the moment I cracked that book open. That guy was a real piece of work. He sat there hunched over with his feet on the chair.
"It's just a math book. I've got to prep for the SATs, so why don't you mind your own business?" I shot back.
"Interesting," he shot me a crazy look and turned back to his sketchpad.
'Damn... Give me a break guys'
I finally dove headfirst into the book. Despite what I presumed was an apparent sudden boost in IQ, there were still some sections that I found far from a walk in the park.
Those conic sections and the trickier geometry questions had me scratching my head for a good while, but eventually, the light bulb flickered to life, and I grasped it all.
Surprisingly, I realized I hadn't spent as much time as I'd initially thought. Alex had just kicked off his match. It was as if when I zoned in, time decided to take a leisurely stroll, giving me the chance to soak up more knowledge.
While I continued to learn. Nose-deep in my 'PreCalculus' book, Alex just couldn't help but spill the beans about his latest League of Legends showdown.
He leaned back in his chair and started, "Yo, you won't believe the craziness that went down in this game."
I looked up from my book, curiosity piqued. "What happened, man?"
"So, we were kinda gettin' our butts kicked early on, and then our mid-laner bailed 'cause of some laggy crap. Things were lookin' bleak, you know? But me, I don't throw in the towel that easy," he said with a cocky grin.
I nodded, fully aware of Alex's never-say-die attitude when it came to gaming.
"We had this epic showdown near the Dragon pit," he went on, "I was rockin' Yasuo, and I pulled off this crazy combo. I knocked their whole crew in the air with my ult, and our jungler swooped in for a clutch Dragon steal. It was off the charts!"
"Damn, dude," I responded, genuinely impressed.
"But hold up, there's more," Alex smirked. "Our support, Annie, dropped a massive Tibbers stun right after that Dragon heist, and we wiped 'em out. We charged down mid-lane, wrecked two towers, and locked in the Baron buff. After that, it was game over. We flipped it over and took the W."
I couldn't help but crack a smile at his excitement. "Sounds like you pulled off a killer comeback."
Alex chuckled, "You know it, Max. That's the beauty of League of Legends. Never underestimate the power of teamwork and a killer turnaround plan."
After recounting his epic League of Legends tale, Alex couldn't resist one last attempt. He turned to me and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to hop in for a game, Max?"
I shook my head decisively and replied, "Nah, man, I'm gonna stick with this studying for now. Thanks, though."
Alex sighed and said, "Alright, suit yourself, Max. I'm gonna run out for another bottle of cola anyway, 'cause I'm all outta that stuff."
"That carbon will kill ya one day" I said, but he shrugged his shoulders and left.
'Anyways..' I was just delving into the final section of the book with those real brain-busters, you know? The kind that no regular student would ever touch. Heck, even on SAT they wouldn't dare throw questions like these at you.
'Consider the sequence of real numbers An defined by the recurrence relation: A1=2, An+1=sqrt(2+sqrt(An)). Determine whether this sequence converges or diverges. If it converges, find its limit.'
It was quite a challenging problem, I threw a solid 30 minutes at it, trying to crack it. Finding the limit proved to be really tricky, but after some serious brainwork, I managed to derive two potential solutions.
However, it wasn't until I closely observed the behavior of the sequence that I dead-ass knew I could confidently eliminate one of the possibilities.
Ultimately, I arrived at a single, real-number solution. This outcome not only signified a successful resolution but it straight-up meant that the series was converging, no doubt.
I ended up studying until 9 p.m. without grabbing a bite to eat. All I had left were some sausages anyway, but I reluctantly wolfed them down with some leftover bread from Lucas. I hoped he wouldn't flip out.
"Motorola!"
At that moment, my phone decided to chime in. I hate that noise; I don't know who came up with that shit.
I checked my phone. It was Amelia.
'Hey, I didn't realize you're my age. So you're also going to be taking the SAT? I thought you were prepping for a Math Olympiad or something!'
'Yo, Actually... my course is humanities, but yeah, I'll be writing SAT'
'Humanities? Haha. Are you serious?'
'Yeah, my grades were total crap when it came to picking a specialty, so I got stuck in the humanities lane.'
'Hmm... What do you say we go to the library tomorrow and study together? I finish at 2 p.m.'
'Sure thing, but we gotta keep it on the down-low. The librarian gave me a hard time today.'
'Haha, lol. See you tomorrow, then.'
'KK, catch you later.'
At that moment, Alex caught me grinning, and he asked, "Who are you chatting with? Is that Amelia?"
"Nope."
"Right... By the way, Olivia was throwing you some looks when you weren't paying attention today."
'What the fuck?'
I attempted to brush off that remark and wound up revising some precalculus topics before switching into my black pajamas and slipping into bed.
It turned out to be the most restful sleep of my entire life.
In my dreams, I found myself gazing at a brilliant blue comet streaking across the night sky, casting a breathtaking display of vivid colors upon the clouds.