Several weeks had passed since we started university, and the routine no longer felt as overwhelming as it did at first. What was surprising was how comfortable I felt with Sack. Our relationship had become... curious. We were spending more and more time together, and without realizing it, the small gestures of affection between us had become natural. A casual hug, a light touch on the arm while talking, a playful nudge when we argued about something trivial. Everything flowed without the need for explanations.
Olivia, of course, never missed an opportunity to make comments about it.
"Hey, have you guys noticed that you now look like a couple?" she said one day while we were studying in the library.
Sack looked up from his iPad with his usual expression of indifference.
"We're not a couple," I replied casually, without taking my eyes off my laptop screen.
"Sure, sure," Olivia responded with a mischievous smile. "Tell me, do couples also hug for no reason and look at each other like they're the protagonists of a romantic drama?"
"Don't get any weird ideas," Sack said calmly, unfazed.
I just shook my head and changed the subject, but the truth was, Olivia wasn't entirely wrong. Though I didn't want to admit it, I couldn't ignore the obvious either.
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Time flew by, and soon we found ourselves caught in the whirlwind of midterm exams. Sack and I had managed to organize our study schedules fairly well, but Olivia… well, Olivia was another story."I don't understand anything, I'm going to die," she complained, dropping her head onto the table in the study room. "If the stress doesn't kill me, I'll kill myself after seeing my grades."
"Unnecessary drama," Sack commented, flipping through his iPad.
"It's not drama if it's real," Olivia shot back, lifting her head just enough to look at us. "I don't know how they expect me to memorize all this! It's like the chemistry professor speaks in an alien language!"
Sack sighed and handed her his tablet with a summary.
"Here. This will help you with the basics of chemical equilibrium."
Olivia took the tablet skeptically and stared at it as if it were an ancient papyrus.
"So, yeah, but… what's this Kc and Kp stuff?" she asked, frowning.
"Kc is the equilibrium constant based on molar concentrations, and Kp is the constant in terms of partial pressure of gases," I explained patiently.
"Uh-huh," Olivia nodded slowly. "So… when do I use one, and when do I use the other?"
Sack rested his elbows on the table and looked at her with some exasperation.
"If you're dealing with solutions in the liquid phase, you use Kc. If you're working with gases, you use Kp. And if they give you one but ask for the other, there's a conversion formula: Kp = Kc(RT)^Δn."
Olivia blinked.
"Great. Now tell me that in human language."
"Basically, if the number of moles of gas changes in the reaction, the Kp constant adjusts using the ideal gas law equation," I added.
"Uh-huh…" Olivia paused. "I didn't understand any of that. But it sounds important!"
Sack and I exchanged a glance.
"Maybe we should try practical examples," I suggested.
We spent the next hour explaining things to Olivia with drawings on the tablet, exercises, and plenty of pauses for her to complain. Olivia wasn't a bad student, but her learning style was very different from ours. She needed things to make sense in a context that mattered to her. So, we ended up creating ridiculous examples.
"Imagine you're in a cooking competition," I said. "You have a dish with reactions in equilibrium, and each ingredient represents a reactant or product. If you add more spices, you change the equilibrium and have to adjust the recipe to keep it tasting good. That's Le Châtelier's principle."
Olivia looked at us in amazement.
"That I understand! Cooking makes sense!"
Sack snorted.
"Of course. Olivia only understands science if we relate it to food."
"My brain has priorities," Olivia replied proudly.
We continued reviewing other topics: in biology, the Krebs cycle and the importance of cellular respiration; in psychology, the effects of stress on memory and concentration; and in calculus, derivatives and their applications.
"I hate derivatives," Olivia lamented. "Why does anyone care about the slope of a curve? I just want to live in peace."
"Because derivatives explain how things change over time," I said. "For example, the speed of a car or the growth rate of bacteria."
"Or the speed at which you're losing patience with Olivia," Sack added.
I couldn't help but laugh, and Olivia threw a pen at us in protest.
Finally, when we finished for the night, Olivia collapsed onto the table with a dramatic sigh.
"If I survive these exams, I'm treating you guys to pizza. With extra cheese. I promise."
Sack nodded.
"Then I hope you study hard. I don't want to miss out on that pizza."
I smiled as I watched them, feeling a strange sense of home in that moment. Amid all the exam stress, what mattered most was that we were facing it together.
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The night before the general biology exam with Dr. Harris, Sack and I stayed up reviewing at a café. To an outsider, it might have looked like a date, especially with how affectionate we occasionally became. Olivia wasn't with us; she had decided to enjoy her "last decent meal" before the exam war.On the day of the exam, I focused on the paper in front of me. "What is the main function of the mitochondrial complex in cellular respiration?" Easy. Generate ATP through the electron transport chain.I moved on to the next question. "If the Krebs cycle produces NADH and FADH2, how are they related to oxidative phosphorylation?" They carry electrons to the transport chain, I thought.Another one. "What is the effect of stress on the consolidation of long-term memory?" Excess cortisol can negatively impact memory formation.
I glanced up for a moment. Sack was writing calmly, his expression serene as if this were just a formality. Then I looked at Olivia, who was biting the end of her pen with a furrowed brow, clearly struggling with each question. I let out a quiet sigh and refocused. No doubt, she was trying her best.