Humans, beings that call themselves the smartest species, have found it particularly important to build a robot that can do a backflip, but not a robot that can pack up your stuff. Apparently doing a backflip is much more vital and useful than the capability of packing up. Smartness is literally dripping from this singular decision of prioritizing matters.

Finally plopping down on my bed with a sigh, I set my checklist next to me and look at the now-empty wall across from me. Once it had been filled with a collection of papers containing circuits and equations that were too unique or important to be left in the books. I take in the rest of the room, all the empty shelves, and four close-to-bursting suitcases.

Four years, 1400 days of my life, have been spent in this room and now it's finally over, I'm going back home. With a sigh, I get up from my bed, pick up my checklist again and start to pace the room as I go through everything for the thousandth time.

I just hope I haven't missed out on anything, and everything would go according to my plan. I'm sure if I stay in this dorm room any longer, I'll lose my mind. So, I carefully place the list on my now empty study desk and walk out.

Starting down the stairs, I go as quietly as my squeaking shoes allow me to. I can't help but think that in two days, actually less than forty-eight hours, I'll be leaving here. Hopefully I'll never see this place ever again.

I mean, I always knew it would come to an end, but I didn't expect to feel so paradoxical towards it. There is relief that I managed to survive it and now I'm graduating, but at the same time I feel empty, like now what I'm supposed to do. Even though I already have plans for the future, I still feel lost and hollow. It wasn't the best four years, of course, but it was definitely way better than those four horrid years of high school.

Exiting the building, I go to my bicycle, unlock it, and get on it. It's the only effective way to soothe my nerves. What could possibly go wrong on a graduation day? Especially when I've planned out everything and rechecked it more than I can possibly care to count.

And I don't remember coming across a Stanford graduation ceremony going horribly wrong.

As I pick up speed, I can't help but close my eyes and enjoy the feel of the soft breeze through my hair. It ruffles my sandy brown hair and I know it's getting tangled up, but my curly-frizzy locks are always tangled up no matter what. So, it won't be fair to cut myself from such little pleasure.

"I knew I'd see you here."

I open my eyes and glance back, seeing Amelia smiling brightly at me. In the past four years, we have shared some classes but not enough to become close. Not to mention, she always sat in the last row seats and I in front of the class. The words we mostly shared were her asking for help to complete her assignments, and the rest was her being unnecessarily talkative to ensure that I'll help her with the upcoming assignments too.

Her jet black hair is pulled into a tight ponytail that accentuates her made up face. The yellow shirt she wears makes her look cool, considering her dark skin tone. I smile at her as I slow down so we are next to each other.

"Girl, you look wild," she comments with a giggle. Our laughs intermingle once I join in.

"I know," I reply.

It's probably true. I bet I look like a person who has battled with the wind and has gone horribly wrong. But there isn't much I can do about it. My hair barely reaches my jawline and I can hardly tie it back. With all the sleepless nights, I'm sure I have huge and ugly dark circles around my eyes. Never being fond of smearing makeup over my skin, I guess everyone who comes in contact with me has to tolerate it.

"Speaking of wild, Adrien Clark is throwing the party of the year tomorrow, after graduation." Her eyes light up as she says his name.

"Oh," I say, being the only thing I can come up with as I push my glasses up my nose.

"You should come."

I look at her with surprise but she looks completely serious.

"Oh, no, I should not, and most importantly, will not come," I deny as I shake my head.

It takes me a few seconds to realize Amelia has halted. I let out a breath and abruptly stop, turning to look at her with one hand on the bike handle and the other on my hip. I wait for her to walk up to me with the bicycle between her legs.

"There is absolutely no valid reason for you to not come! C'mon it'll be fun." She looks at me smiling, her dark brown eyes shining with hope.

"Amelia, I'm not invited there, nor am I wanted."

"Who says that? Grow up! No one technically invites anyone; the news of the party goes around and if you're feeling like it, you attend it. You would have known this if you had cared to show up at least one party throughout these four years." She points her index finger at me, her eyes narrowed.

"Well, my B.E. couldn't have been finished by itself! I had to study. A lot," I point out and she rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, Eleanor Evans. The legendary Eleanor Evans, who was continuously the top student, A-grader. I think I've heard that more than a billion times! But as awesome as you might be in this whole studying and top student thing, you have lost a lot. I mean, what have you ever done other than study? Nothing."

I know she is right, but I chose to study and I'm happy with the result.

"True, I've never turned up at these parties, but quite frankly, I can't seem to spot the problem. I don't think anyone has ever lost anything because of not attending these weird get-togethers, or not getting rip-roaring drunk, or not getting high and stuff like that. I dislike Clark and I bet he hates me, it's completely out of mind to show up-" Amelia holds up her hand, making me pause mid-sentence.

"You know what Eleanor, you'll never know what you've missed out on. Maybe that's for the best. You don't know the depths of the things you are missing out on until you try it, even for once," Amelia states.

She could be right or she could be wrong, but right now that is the last thing I want to think about; I'm not going to spend the day before my graduation counting down all the things I haven't done.

That's why I shrug and we start to walk slowly, pulling the bicycles with ourselves. I focus on my surroundings. It's probably the last time I'll ever get to see them.

I wish I had brought my cell phone and headphones with me.

"So... what are you going to do now? I noticed you didn't apply for any jobs."

I sigh, half grateful that she broke the awkward silence, while on the other hand, the other half of me hates talking about my future plans with someone who hardly counts as a friend.

I can't be picky and an introvert at the same time. Plus, Amelia is the only girl who bothers to talk to me.

Inhaling sharply, I decide to answer her without looking at her. It helps with the nerves.

"I have a few online internships that are actually willing to pay me after two months working with them, and I don't even need to show up in the office which is great... I was planning to take a while off, away from all these studying stresses and start off next year at Harvard for my master's degree." By the time I'm done talking, my palms are a bit sweaty, and my heart semi-racing.

I replay my words in my head to make sure I haven't said anything wrong.

"Wow, that's shocking! You're taking a whole year off? I never expected you'd do something like that," she says, her eyes wide with surprise as she looks at me.

Of course, you didn't! Because you're not my friend, you hardly ever talked to me during all these four years, except the times you needed my help with something. But I cannot say that out loud, so instead, I plaster a fake smile. Throughout years of practice, it has become quite convincing, and hardly ever anyone notices- or cares- that it's not real. Frankly, I like it this way.

"So, what are you up to?" I ask, just to prevent the awkward silence from falling over us again.

"I've been offered a job," she smiles brightly, "and I'm moving in with my boyfriend." This time, her voice gets a bit pitchier than usual as her eyes glint a bit.

Love is overrated and so are romantic relationships. Funny thing is, no one in these love related situations can see that. 

"That's amazing!" I smile warmly at her, wondering if I'm supposed to say anything else.

"Good evening, girls." A deep masculine voice breaks my second doubts about my reply.

I don't need to look at the source to know who it belongs to.

"Hey, Adrien! So good to see you! Where were you?" Amelia squeals, her voice so high making me wonder how her boyfriend puts up with this frequency.

Looking up I force a smile at Adrien Clark just to be polite.

He's wearing his usual black Ray Ban sunglasses, an idiotically smug smile plastered over his face. A black Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt gives off a desperate bad boy aura which he fails miserably at holding.

Bad boys hardly ever get cheated on, but who am I to judge?

He glances at me for a second and then back at Amelia, smiling warmly at her.

"Busy with some paperwork, but thankfully it's over." He shifts his weight from his right to left leg and fixes his stare on me. "It's nice to see you too... scrawny with glasses." He smirks at me, knowing how much I hate that title.

He came up with it when we were in middle school. I was hoping I would get rid of him, along with these stupid names when I got to college, but I wasn't that lucky. Somehow, he managed to follow me to Stanford and get into the same major as me.

Forcing another half-smile, I say through gritted teeth, "Good to see you too, Clark."

"Aww, come on... you can't be that mad at me for stealing the attention from you. I know you love the spotlight and hate to hand it over to me, especially after four years of owning it, but hey, everyone deserves it." He fake pouts as Amelia starts giggling.

I can't understand why girls start giggling around him for basically no reason. I mean, he is not even that special! He always came second in all our classes! And there is something named as self-respect that should prevent such behaviors. I don't know, maybe I just can't perceive these sorts of things.

In my head, I roll my eyes but from the outside, I try to smile smugly at him. "Oh, you thought you were their first option for the speech? Now, that's sad... but looking at it practically, why would they choose the second over the first? Right! Because I refused them. If you haven't noticed, I'm not very fond of giving graduation speeches. Enjoy the spotlight, Clark, a token of my charity," I say, feeling proud of myself for being able to say something back, but my heartbeat has become loud enough that it can almost drown out any other sound.

Swallowing hardly his Adam's apple bobs up and down. I can tell he is full-force glaring at me from behind the dark glasses and I glare back. Eventually, he gives up and shakes his head.

"Don't you think we should let go of our old grudges? After all, we are graduating and probably won't see each other ever again. Let's grow above it and stop despising each other," Adrien casually says.

Calling more than eight years of being bullied by him our old grudges is a bit of an understatement, but I don't want to bring that up.

"I don't despise you, Clark, I just dislike your company, and would rather spend time with raccoons while trying to analyze gorilla brain waves," I say as calmly as I can muster.

For a second or so, he looks at me blankly and then bursts out into laughter, Amelia joining him a second later. I narrow my eyes on him and then look at Amelia with disbelief.

Why can I never retort smartly?

After wiping their tears and laughing themselves hoarse, they have the nerve to try to look apologetic. Clark clears his throat more than three times before he can regain his composure and talk.

"You are the nerdiest girl I've ever come across my entire life!" he speaks with a huge grin on his face. Rolling my eyes, I grip my bike's handle tighter.

I can feel the heat rushing to my cheeks as I try my best to distract myself with anything to not think about it. There's nothing I hate more than how I always end up saying such stupid stuff.

"Anyway," he starts, smiling warmly at me, dimples showing as he pushes his hand through his dark golden brown hair, "Will you come?"

I look at him confused, that's a stupid question. Why would I skip graduation? I arch one of my eyebrows.

Immediately, he notices and continues, "I'm throwing a party, you know, graduating, entering a new phase and stuff like that. I thought why not celebrate it, and I was hoping and looking forward to having you there too," he finishes, pushing both hands into his jean's pockets.

Oh, he meant the party. Now, I feel stupid.

Opening my mouth to decline, he raises his hand, stopping whatever word I was about to say.

"I'm not taking a no as an answer, Evans. You have no lame ass excuse to skip this party! Come on, nest head! It's the last party, everyone is going to be there, you have to come." This time, he sounds completely serious, and I can't help but wonder whether he is planning to do a prank on me, and that's the sole reason he wants me there.

"Yeah... no, thanks for the offer though." I shift uncomfortably as his gaze pierces through me, resisting the urge to wipe my palms on my jeans.

"You're coming! And to make sure you won't ditch, I'll pick you up myself, I know where you live. I'll be in front of your building at six, be ready! Because if you won't be ready, I'll literally drag you to my car. Deal?" He tilts his head to the right, his gaze fixed on me.

I'm really not a party person, and above that, I've never been to any party. I can already feel I'm not going to like it, but from the looks of it, I won't be able to convince him to skip this party.

"Fine, deal," I say, avoiding looking at him as I inhale sharply and continue, "but only on one condition." I force myself to look at him now and he is waiting for me to continue. I chew on my lip before saying, "You'll take me back to my room whenever I tell you to." Because I don't know where this party is being held and I'm not interested in getting lost on my way back home.

He flashes me a bright smile. "I already had that in mind."

And I still feel bad about this.

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((First chapter! I'm really excited about this story. Thank you for reading it ^.^ I hope you enjoyed it, if so, don't forget to vote and make my day! And tell me what you think about it. Thanks again.))