Mad Dash- Alex

People have told me that a person's true colors are revealed when faced with hardship, that it will show you whether a person is going to either flourish and bloom, or wither and die.

Whoever it was that told me that however, I decided, was a complete idiot. An idiot who obviously had never been late for class before anyways.

Sure both Adam and I made it to our respective classes on time, and sure we set a new land speed record to do so. However if you asked either of us, we would say that right at that moment, we defiantly felt more withered and ready to die, than accomplished and flourishing.

"Well, at least I'm now awake" I thought to myself, as I hunched over my desk panting as quietly as possible, trying to slowly recover from our early morning adventure.

To say that it was tough to make the time crunch we had found ourselves in, would be an understatement. Adams and my breakfast dishes had remained unwashed and left at the kitchen table. Yesterday's outfit was thrown on shortly after, wrinkle free clothing being sacrificed for a little bit of extra travel time.

Both of us had skipped showers and teeth, instead making due with a couple can of respective body spray, and a bottle of deceivingly strong mouth wash.

"Not that it matters much now" I muttered cynically, as I took a whiff of my pit and mentally groaned.

The stink accumulated from sprinting several blocks with 30 pound back packs, was not something a quick spray of deodorant would cover up.

A silent sigh escaped my lips, before leaning my head down onto the desk in front of me, making a mental note to put showering, near the top of my ever growing to do list.

As my professor entered the class room, I took a few calming deep breaths. I tried to still my rapidly beating heart, tried to will my completely wired brain into focusing on him, tried to pay attention to him as he began his morning lecture.

All the preparation however proved to have been for naught as 15 minutes later, the lecture was done and a work period was assigned for the rest of the class.

This not only made my mad dash to class completely for naught, but also making me realize that in that said rush, I had completely forgot to grab most of the work I had done or could work on, for the project we were now supposed to be doing.

"Shit" I muttered to myself, "Well thank god at least I got here on time", sarcasm practically dripping from each word I uttered.

Quickly looking around the class, I unfortunately found everyone else diligently working on each of their respective projects. Despite this barely any sounds were being made, short of the rustling of papers and the tapping of computer keys.

Even the usual slackers of the class were hard at it, leaving me as the residential black sheep of the class.

With a small groan, did a quick double check to make sure I had indeed forgotten my work.

Still finding nothing and with little else to do, I quickly balled up the hoodie I was wearing, and quietly resigned myself to catching up on sleep for the rest of the class.

All 2 and half hours of it.

"What a waste of energy" I thought, as my eyes slowly shut out the rest of the world.

"Hopefully Adams class was at least worth the effort" were my final thoughts, as sleep over took me.

Mad dash – Adam

I was running as fast as I could manage.

My knees were groaning in protest, and my breathing was becoming more and more labored, still though I pushed on, forcing myself to sprinting up the last few steps of the stair case I was currently on.

Sharply rounding the corner in front of me, I found my target coming into sight.

The start of class bell started to ring just as I all but threw my self through the door of my first class.

"SUCCSESS!" I thought to myself with a smile, before I stop dead in my tracks.

Any feelings of triumph leaving me instantly, as I examined the room, I had just suffered through a personal hell, to reach on time.

Confusion filled me as look around the mostly empty class room, a horrible feeling starting to creep up on me again.

There were only 3 other people in the room, 2 guys and a girl, all of them whom I recognized from my class, though none of them I knew by name.

All of them had their eyes trained on me right at that moment with a look of amusement.

My stomach started to feel a little queasy as I examined their faces.

"Umm where is everybody?" I asked, my voice labored from all the running I had done to get there.

The three other students looked at each other with knowing smiles, seeming to silently contemplate telling me what they knew or not, before turning back to me. Amusement and pity again clear in their eyes.

The girl spoke up first. Her voice laced with arrogance "Class was canceled today. Remembeeer?"

I blinked a couple of times in shock, not really comprehending her words.

"Wait what?" I responded. Confusion and disbelief clear in my voice

"Yah, prof told us last week? Something about a board meeting or something?" she stated. Amusement at my predicament, twinkling in her eyes as she spoke.

I stared at her for a solid half minute. Hoping for her to smile and say she was joking, hoping against hope that my entire escapade this morning was all for not. Finally after about a minute of staring, the girl shook her head and spoke again. "Yah sorry but its true. But hey at least now you have time to do a couple of well…. personal favors."

I raised a tired eye brow in her direction, "what are you talking about?" I asked, much to disappointed with what had happened this morning, to deal with her games.

She chuckled at me before gesturing to my body, "Well I'm no expert on hygiene or anything, but I have a feeling a shower may be in order".

I looked down at myself, noting the large sweat stain on the neck of my shirt as well as the dirt and leave that stuck to my jeans. That coupled with my not showered hair and unshaven face, made me pretty sure I looked closer to a homeless person than a student.

"Ah" I muttered, understanding what she meant now.

I looked up from my examination, giving her a quick thank you nod for her help.

I receive a smug smirk and an eye roll from her in reply, before she turned her back to her two friends, effectively ending the conversation.

"Ok, shower it is" I decided, practically running out of the room and towards the athletics center.

Shaking my head, and silently hoping against hope that no one else would find out about my embarrassing mistake.

Lord knows I had had a bad enough morning without this little story getting out. I could only hope Alex's morning had gone better than mine.