It's been several days since Aerolynn asked me to ask the waiter at Stuff Yer Face for his number. I managed to make time to go back to Stuff Yer Face and ask Auston for his personal phone number. Thankfully (in Aerolynn's case, anyway), Auston seemed quite happy to just give me his number, even after I had to explain to him that he wasn't my type and that I was dating someone else. No matter, whatever keeps Aerolynn from outing Quilene before she's ready...

Today is Thursday, January 31st. Thank God February is almost over. I can't wait for Valentine's Day to get here. I want to get April something really special, and it has to be something that's sentimental to us. Quilene's especially been looking forward to it, what with all the gifts she's already bought for Jonah. She wants to make him feel like the most special guy in the world. As for Aerolynn... I don't know what she's got planned for Valentine's Day with Auston, but I hope to God she's not planning to do anything cringy like pretending to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (not that there's anything wrong with that, but still).

I've got two classes to worry about today: Elementary Algebra starting at 1:10 in the afternoon and Gender and Human Rights starting at 2:15 in the afternoon. Everything's been going great in my classes so far, especially these two. I've been making sure to write down notes for each class and study them whenever I put aside the time to do so. Professor Waters has especially been impressed with me as of late, even going so far as to call me one of his best students (and I've got the grades to prove it). Professor Austin has been real cordial with me, too. She hasn't expressed this very much to me, but she seems to like my work ethic in the classroom just great. Oh, right, I've got to get to Elementary Algebra right now! I so don't want to be late.

I manage to make it to class in the nick of time and sit at my designated seat. It looks like some other students have already arrived and taken their seats, but Professor Waters hasn't shown up yet. Oh, good, I'm not late. Okay, I guess I have some time to kill. What can I do in the meantime? Oh, I know! I can text April and pretend I've already gotten her something so she can guess what it is and I can just get it for her. That'll work out. It takes about a few minutes for the plan to pan out, and it seems just in time too. Professor Waters has already shown up, and class can now begin. I put away my iPhone so as to focus solely on him.

"Good afternoon, class," Professor Waters begins to speak. "I hope you've all been hard at work studying because next week is our first algebra exam. Can I get an amen?"

No one says anything. All I can hear is a cough.

"Okay, moving on..." Professor Waters clears his throat. "Now first off, I would like to go over your assignments from Tuesday. If you've got them right now, please get them out so you can see if you were right or wrong."

We all do as we're told. I'm fairly confident that almost every answer I've given for the problems is correct, but it's nice to go over them anyway. And so, I make sure to pay attention as Professor Waters goes over every problem from the assignment. As I follow along, I note how I managed to solve this or that just about the way he wanted us to solve it. It's a good thing I've been doing really well in this class. Otherwise, I don't know how I'd be handling all this. No matter, it all seems to go by really quickly, because now he's going over the review material for our first exam once more. It's fairly standard stuff, especially for a university exam. I keep calm, and I try my best to absorb everything I'm reading before me. I try to remember everything I've learned in algebra up to this point. This will all be essential material for the exam, so I have to make sure I at least pass this exam. It's okay to slip and get some problems wrong. Perfection isn't everything.

I'm all done with Elementary Algebra and Gender and Human Rights for the day. Now's a good time to unwind and maybe read for the fun of it. It's so rare that I do that anymore. These days, I spend more time worrying about Mom and the baby, yearning for April's touch, watching Netflix, thinking about Jonah and how he's holding up at Delaware State, or... just missing Van in general. I'm still missing him every day. I hope he's watching over me and feeling some sort of pride for the achievements I've been making this semester. I'm sure he'd be happy that I was at least putting myself out there, doing the best I could to survive this kind of era in my life.

So anyway, I just decide to read "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli. I gotta say, it's actually a good book. It's got compelling characters, an interesting plot, and just overall good writing. I think Hermione recommended this one to me, if I remember correctly. She actually got me into it the summer after graduating William Dewey High. There is one thing about this book that reminds me of my situation with Aerolynn: the part where Martin threatens to out Simon if the latter doesn't set him up with Abby. I think that's where Aerolynn got the idea to blackmail me. Still, I like the book.

I don't remember how long I've been reading the book for, but by the time I decide to place a bookmark in it and set it aside, we're already starting to lose light. I look around and notice that Quilene and Aerolynn aren't here right now. Knowing them, Quilene's off taking evening classes and Aerolynn's out partying somewhere. Great, guess it's just me now. I decide to start studying for that algebra exam in the meantime. Better late than never, right? I keep calm, and I try my best to absorb everything I'm reading before me. I try to remember everything I've learned in algebra up to this point. This will all be essential material for the exam. Still, I can't help but feel a little distracted from what I just read. Surely, Aerolynn wouldn't sink to Martin's level, right? Then again, she probably already did if she and Quilene aren't friends anymore. Do I really want to know what happened, though? I can't ask that of Quilene. I don't want to cause her anymore pain.

I decide to study long enough that the review material stays in my brain for a few hours and then take a break. I need to try to focus on something else... like Netflix! What sounds good to watch right now? Well, I guess I could watch "The Great British Baking Show" for the millionth time. Noel and Matt's antics never get old for me, especially when they're making food-based puns. So I decide to watch that and figure out what might be the best way for me and Quilene to tell Jonah that she's intersex. We could go all informative and educate him on androgen insensitivity syndrome, or maybe we could just tell him she has it because he might already know what that is. We're going to need more time. All we need is more time.