And the day came... Everyone else fell like the pieces of a domino game... but they remained, like two big trees that are holding on to their roots for dear life during a hurricane. And they had no intention letting go.
"Good morning" said Maria, looking very much tired after only a couple of hours of sleep the previous night, "Mr. Eriksen has just given me the news that we have lost another soldier in the battle". And then her blank eyes turned to her course book to continue reading the chapter.
"For Merlin's sake, it was only a month ago when 15 of us started this course..." responded Nathan with no expressions of surprise on his face but a great deal of fury in his tone, "... and now look at the classroom: Only two frigging students left alone with a professor who should be turned in to the police due to his daily English-butchering rituals, and a very demanding authority who expects us to work 48 hours a day. Argh!"
It was crystal clear that Nathan had not had a good night's sleep either. He was usually a calm and rather reserved guy who usually sat at the back of the classroom. Over time, with each student's withdrawal from the course, as the number of students was getting fewer and fewer, he was forced by the professors to move more and more forward in the classroom, up to the point where he was sitting right at the front with Maria. On the contrary, Maria always preferred the front seats as she is a firm believer in the positive correlation between the proximity to the source of the information and the amount of data that 'gets in'.
For the first time, Maria saw something unusual yet interesting in this guy that had never occurred to her before. It was only after the furious explosion of his emotions, which had never been vocalised ever before, that Maria realised there is more to this guy than meets the eye.