The parking lot of the campus is always full. No matter how early or late I arrive, the spots nearest to the main building are always full, so I don't even attempt looking anymore and drive to the opposite end.

After parking and checking my watch, I grab my things and begin speed walking toward the business area behind the main building. I'm not late; but, when you have a super enthusiastic professor for your eight AM class, you'll end up fighting other students for the seats farthest from the front.

The warm air tickles my nose as it ruffles the green leaves overhead. The feeling of the sun's embrace causes me to yawn and my eyes to swell. I wish I didn't have class so early but there were no other classes open for my term other than this time. My program is strict. First come, first serve when it comes to signing up for classes and there is no way in hell I'd wait any longer to graduate.

Reaching the business area, I shuffle pass the same group of people as I do every Wednesday morning and give them the same smile and wave as always. They politely return the routine gesture and continue on with their conversation.

I swing open the large, blue double doors and walk to the second door on the right. The once brown door is now webbed in rainbow yarn with photos dangling from each color. Turning the knob, I catch a glimpse of a photo of my professor standing on top of Mt. Everest and wonder: "Why is Mr. Finnegan even wasting his energy on something so boring? He could continue being an adventurer and live his life to the fullest! Why stop and teach business to a bunch of burnt-out students who are most likely not even going to listen to him?"

I step into the room to see the chairs organized into three semi-circles, each circle smaller than the last. The back two circles are full. Only leaving seats in the front.

I sigh and walk with my head down in shame to the front row. As I continue on, I notice a bag taking up a seat in the second circle next to someone with their black hoodie covering their lowered head as they snore. I roll my eyes, lift the bag, and throw myself into the seat, placing the bag onto their lap. 

They shoot up and quickly look around. Their eyes land on me and smile, removing the hood from their bubble-gum hair.

"About time you show up!" Their voice perks.

I chuckle and open my bag. "Good morning, Ivy."

"Where were you last night? You weren't at the party." She watches as my eyebrows raise at her in question and raises a hand in an attempt to stop my train of thoughts. "I'm not surprised that you weren't there but I still wanna know what you were up to."

I nod as my tongue clicks and I remove a small box from my bag. "Ah, well, I was adding next week's material to my study cards while also studying the old material," I explain as I open the box, showing my stack of note cards I've collected since the beginning of the semester. 

"You're always so on top of things! Think I could borrow those this weekend?"

"You want to copy them now? Midterms are in two weeks and these notecards go back about nine weeks!"

"I'll be able to make it, trust me. I always make it," she confidently says, pulling the rest of her long, wavy, pink hair that fades to a bright red out of the sweater.

I run my thumb across the side of the large stack and sigh. "Fine. You can take them on Friday, let me add the new stuff to it. Then, you can have it for a week at max. Deal?" I raise my hand for her to shake but quickly retract it when I notice her fidgeting with her nose rings. 

She lets go of the two gold rings that hang from one side of her nose and sniffs loudly. "Deal! I won't mess them up either. Cross my heart and hope to die." She swipes her heart with her fingers.

~ ~ ~

"Before we go, I want to give you guys a sneak peak of your upcoming project! Your other classes have agreed to center their curriculum around this, so there isn't much to worry about there. Since this is your final year before graduating the business program, we've decided to make your internship useful and actually have you guys work alongside them!" Mr. Finnegan exclaims to the still awakening class. 

He rushes to his computer on the podium and turns on the projector, showing a powerpoint titled 'The Graduating Project'. The room shifts as someone from the front row raises their hand.

"What do you mean 'work alongside'? I thought that's what we've been doing," they ask in annoyance.

"That brings me to my first slide." He aggressively presses the keyboard and the slide changes to bullet points with a picture of someone presenting charts. "For the past five years, you guys have worked for small businesses as nothing more than an employee to them and handed in idea plans to the school. This final year, you will tell them those ideas and any other that arises until you graduate. All internships registered have already been notified. They're just as excited as you all!" 

The same student raises their hand again. "I'm still not understanding. How does that equal us 'working alongside them'? We'll still be employees no matter our ideas."

Mr. Finnegan turns away and presses the next slide, showing two people sitting at a table with files scattered across.

"Those weekly plans you all have been submitting for the past couple of years have only been based on your observations of the business. Now, you'll actually be permitted to work with their numbers, deals, and documents. All around, you'll be their partner!"

The student raises their hand again, but before they could speak, Mr. Finnegan sighs loudly. 

"Chalres, you're really taking the fun out of this whole thing when you keep interrupting to ask a question that's on the next slide," he complains as he presses the next slide.

The slide is a bright red with two dates written in bold font across it.

"These two dates are your start and end dates. As soon as midterms end, the project begins. Your graduation is when this all ends. Should you not show any progress and fail, you won't be able to walk across that stage in your cap and gown. Any questions can easily be answered online in the module that should be open now. Class dismissed." He waves off the class that begins to run toward the door.

Ivy and I begin to leave after I put all my books away. As we walk toward the common area, where the students of every program hang out at, we slow our pace when we hear someone call Ivy's name.

"What!" She screams as we continue on.

"Wait up, geez!" A breathy voice yells back.

When they finally catch up to us, I watch as their short, brown curls bounce into place. Their green eyes glance over me as their pink lips curve into a smirk. I nervously smile back.

"What do you want, Charles?" Ivy snaps.

He nudges her shoulder with his own and chuckles. "Chill out, I was getting there. There's a party tonight downtown. You in?"

"Maybe I'll make an appearance. Whose is it?" 

"Mine and Declan."

"Definitely not going." She pulls out her phone and begins typing.

"Oh c'mon! Don't be like that!" He whines. "I want everyone to come and I know they won't come if you don't."

"Ah, so you asked me first. Smart. Fifty bucks and I'll possibly mention that I'm heading that way, but you'll have to spread the word about the party."

"I'll make it eighty and you'll mention the party yourself."

"Two hundred and I'll tell everyone about it plus I'll actually go."

He scoffs and digs in his pocket. Pulling out his wallet, ruffles through the bills, and pulls out a stack of them. Before he hands them to her, he freezes and stares at me.

"I'll give another one hundred if she goes too." He winks.

"She's not a part of this. She doesn't do parties."

"Exactly why she needs to be there. Barely anyone knows her because she's never at one. If she shows up, people will be even more interested than just you going!"

Ivy looks over to me and smiles lightly. I raise my shoulders and shake my head.

"Maybe another time," she tells him.

"You sure?" He asks me.

I look away from him and run my fingers through the ends of my hair.

"Alright, just you then Ivy. Better be worth the money like I heard." He huffs and passes her the money that she quickly stuffs into her hoodie.

Once we approach the glass building, Ivy rushes in front and swings open the door. The sounds of chatter pour out to the quiet sidewalk.

"What! No way, Charles!" Ivy screams and turns to us with a shocking look. The loud sounds come to a halt. "You're hosting a party downtown? With Declan? Of course, I'll go!" She raises her hand to him and he slaps it with his own.

The room bursts into whispers.

She laughs and winks at him. "Nice doing business," she quietly says.

As we head to the usually empty table all the way in the back, Charles clears his throat.

"So, um, hi. My name is Charles, as you already heard. We've been in the same class for the past five, going on six years. I know because I've seen you in all my classes, I'm not some weird stalker," he mumbles. "What's your name?"

I confusingly look around as I pull a seat from the table. His eyes are trained on me. I look to Ivy and she nods.

"Andi," I whisper. 

He leans down, bringing his ear near my lips. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Andi," I repeat a tad louder.

"That's a nice name. Great to finally meet you, Andi." He smiles and reaches a hand toward me.

I take his large hand and shake it. "Nice to meet you."