The Crowtney Community College library was not very big. It was a room filled with long wooden tables with sofas in the middle. The bookshelves were lined up against the back of the room. It was old and creaky, covered in carpet to conceal the sounds of footsteps against the hardwood.

Chim arrived at the library with anger still boiling inside her. Maxine--Max, whatever her name was, had caused her revision sheet to quite literally burn. Now she needed to make a completely new one, and she was already running behind on her all-nighter study plan for her exam tomorrow morning.

Chim took a deep breath as she settled down at a large table. There was no need to get all worked up over it. She had come here intending to revise overnight and even though Max might have gotten in her way earlier on, Chim would not let it distract her from the matter at hand.

Not shortly after Chim had begun revising, the library door opened, and Max walked in. She watched in surprise as Max walked over to one of the sofas a little up ahead from where Chim was sitting and collapsed onto it. Chim found herself wondering why Max wouldn't just go home. Surely that was more comfortable than sleeping in the library.

Chim diverted her attention from the sleeping girl and went back to studying some flashcards; she was covertly thankful that she was no longer the only one in the library. It freaked her out a little whenever she used the college's 24-hour library service overnight, seeing as, most times, she was the only one in the library.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Chim was able to finish all that she needed to do with time to spare. She even slept for a few hours herself and woke up to the sound of the Librarian on duty that morning walking into the library.

By the time it was fifteen minutes before her exam was to start, Chim had packed up all her belongings and headed to the biology classroom. Chim had completely forgotten the girl who had collapsed on the sofa the night before and headed out of the library, leaving Max snoring behind her.

The sun was out today. This was a rather rare occurrence in a town like Crowtney and Chim found this to be a good omen. Hopefully, her biology test was going to be a breeze. She really needed to make an A in the exam, as it was crucial that she maintained her high GPA in order to transfer to the University of Miami, her top choice.

Chim arrived at the classroom where her exam was to be held, still lost in thought, and was instantly surprised when she came face-to-face with an empty classroom. She stood waiting outside the classroom for a while. The lights were off, and the door was locked. Chim would have expected that her professor at the very least would be in the class by now.

Chim only grew more and more impatient when the time drew closer to the exam start time, and yet, nobody had shown up.

"Hey!" Chim yelled out as she recognized a guy from her biology class walking down the hallway, "do you know where everybody is?"

The guy stopped in front of Chim, tilting his head to the side slightly. "What do you mean?"

"The rest of the biology class... we're meant to have an exam today, but nobody else has shown up." Chim hooked her fingers through her bag straps as she talked. She was getting anxious just thinking about it.

"Oh." The guy said, looking a little confused, "the biology classes are usually held in the science building."

Confusion was now apparent on Chim's face. What was he talking about? This was the science building. After all, she had her biology class here just yesterday.

"The science building is the building on the left of this one." The guy said, seeing the look of confusion on Chim's face, "huge grey building, you shouldn't miss it."

Chim was even more confused now but mumbled a quick "thank you" and started walking in the direction that the boy had pointed her in when she noticed he was walking in the opposite direction from her.

"Hey!" Chim called after him, causing him to stop in his tracks and look back at her, "aren't you coming?"

"Why would I? I don't take biology," the guy said, laughing nervously as he continued walking away from her.

He looked a bit nonplussed as he walked away from Chim, who could have sworn that he was in the same biology class as her.

Rather than pondering too much on it, Chim just assumed she was mistaken as she walked briskly to get to class on time.

There had probably been a change of location for the biology exam. It sometimes happened. But it was very unlike Chim to miss such important information and she mentally scolded herself as she made her way to the big grey building, which she knew for a fact was the Performing Arts building. Chim had no clue why the guy from earlier had called it the Science Building.

Chim finally located the biology classroom. She snuck into the already full class and took a seat at the back. Luckily for her, it didn't seem like they had handed the tests out. Her professor wasn't even in the room yet. Chim let out a sigh of relief as she looked over at her flashcards for a final time.

"Okay." A man suddenly said from the front of the class as he clapped his hands together, "let's begin with the lesson."

This must have been the fourth time just this morning alone that Chim was confused. Who was this man that now stood teaching in front of the class in place of her usual biology Professor? And what about the test today?

Chim's mind worked fast in connecting stray dots together. This was most likely a substitute Professor filling in for her actual Professor, hence, the test would probably be postponed to the next class instead. Chim relaxed a little in her seat but was a little disgruntled, knowing that she had pulled an overnight study session for nothing.

Thinking of the overnight study session, Chim suddenly thought back to Max. She wondered if she was still asleep in the library. She wondered why she had even been asleep in the library in the first place. Chim shook thoughts of Max out of her mind. She probably won't see much of her again. After all, they ‌rarely crossed paths.

Instead, Chim tuned in on the lesson going on. The topic that the substitute professor was teaching had already been taught, so Chim let her mind wander away from the lesson once again.

This time, she thought about how she was going to come out to her parents this weekend. It was Thursday already. The day was drawing closer and Chim felt the anxiety eating up at her from within. She just hoped that everything would go smoothly, that everything would go according to plan.

After the class ended, Chim headed out of the classroom and brought out her phone, texting her group chat with Nicole and Adya to meet her in the cafeteria in five minutes for an early lunch.

This was their usual routine. Nicole and Adya also got out of class around this time, and they usually settled down for a meal to catch up before carrying on with the remaining activities for the day. Chim stared in dismay at her cell phone, which had the 'no connection' sign flashing on the top right-hand corner. Why was her phone acting up suddenly?

Chim's mind was occupied as she made her way over to the Cafeteria. Most likely, Nicole and Adya would still show up, regardless. After all, this had been their usual Thursday routine for the past year.

The first thing Chim noticed upon entering the cafeteria was that it was arranged differently. The walls had even been painted a different color, a light green as opposed to its usual sky-blue color. Chim stared at it for a while, wondering when the school had suddenly made this change. She had not come to the cafeteria in a few days and couldn't tell how long it had been like this.

"Hey, what's up?" A boy asked when she walked up to the counter to order her food.

He had dirty blond hair and a bright smile. Chim had seen him around campus, but had never actually spoken to him before.

"Hi," Chim replied smiling back at him courteously, "could I please have a chicken caesar salad and an orange juice-box."

The guy laughed, seemingly finding what she said to be funny. "Guess you're no longer a vegetarian, then."

Chim raised her brow at him. "I was never a vegetarian."

The guy just laughed in reply and shook his head as he handed her the salad and punched numbers into the computer before him. "That would be ten dollars."

Wow, had prices gotten cheaper?

Chim fished out her wallet from her book bag and produced a ten-dollar note, which she handed to the boy in front of her. The boy gazed from Chim to the note before he burst out laughing once again, whilst Chim stared at him in confusion.

"What is this? Nomopoly money?" He asked as he held the money up in front of him, inspecting the money.

"No, it's not Monopoly money." Chim said slowly, thinking she had previously misheard his pronunciation of the word, "that is ‌obviously real money."

Chim watched as he burst out into laughter once again. She stood there completely dumbfounded, trying to understand what ‌he found so amusing.

"You never fail to make me laugh, Nazo." The boy said as he wiped stray tears from his eyes, "don't worry, I'd just put this one on the house."

"Excuse me?" Chim replied, wondering if she had heard him correctly.

"I'll pay for your food." The boy responded, "now shoo, you're holding up the line with your silly jokes."

Chim turned around and realized that quite a significant number of people were in line behind her. She quickly got out of the way as the next person walked up to make their order.

She felt thoroughly confused as she thought back to her interaction with the strange boy. There was a familiarity in the way he spoke to her, which was strange seeing as this was literally their first time interacting. And what was that name he called her? Or had she just imagined it?

I probably just need some rest, Chim thought to herself as she put a forkful of salad in her mouth. She hoped Nicole and Adya would show up soon so she could tell them about how weird her day had been.