Rex vs. Midterms

I do not own.

Rex was throwing paper balls into the wastepaper basket at the foot of his bed. From the excess of paper that was on the floor, it was clear he was not a good shot. Noah walked in with a handful of books. Staring at the mess on the floor, he glared at his roommate.

"Dude, shouldn't you be studying for that Chem midterm you have tomorrow?

"I'll study tonight. That way it'll be fresh in my memory for tomorrow." Rex said tossing another paper ball. It missed and rolled to a stop at Noah's feet.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works." Noah kicked the ball which flipped up and landed in the basket. He went to his desk and dropped his books on the desk. "A couple of us are meeting in the library to study. Want to come along?"

"Are they taking Chem too?" Rex asked.

"Well, no. None of us have the same classes… we're just there for moral support."

"Phht," Rex scoffed. "I don't need moral support. Moral needs my support." He declared.

"That doesn't even make any sense. Rex, you need to study. The midterm makes up half your grade. If you fail it…" Noah started to warn him.

"Stop worrying! Geesh, you're worse than Doc." Rex waved away his concern. "I got this."

Noah rolled his eyes as he settled down with a book at his desk. Rex went back to throwing paper balls. A few hours later, Noah closed his book shut. Looking over at Rex, he realized he was fast asleep with drool coming out the side of his mouth. Noah shook his head. He grabbed his jacket and books and left the room. As the door slammed shut, Rex snorted awake. Looking around groggily, he checked the time on his phone. Stretching, he decided to get some food before he started studying.

0o0

Standing in line at the cafeteria, he stared at his choices. He wasn't sure what the brown stuff was so he decided to skip it and take the chicken. At least he hoped it was chicken. Sitting down at an empty booth he ate leisurely taking in his surroundings. Most of the tables were full of students studying or quietly quizzing each other. Rex munched slowly.

"Rex, what are you doing here?" Rex looked up to see Circe scowling at him.

"Eating dinner? Wanna join me?" He shifted over a little.

Circe shook her head. "I'm studying at the library with Noah and Claire. I'm just making a snack run for everyone. Why aren't you there?"

"I'll study on my own." Rex said.

Circe raised an eyebrow. "Really? Well, good luck then." Circe walked to the snack bin and loaded her bag with an assortment of treats. After paying, she gave Rex a wave before hurrying away.

Rex shook his head. Those poor suckers, all stressed out over nothing. Rex got up and was about to go to his room when a video game machine caught his eye. It must be new, because he never noticed it there. He read the title: Ms Pac-Man. Checking the time on his phone, he shrugged. He could spare a few minutes to try out the game. Rummaging through his pockets for quarters, he found a few. Popping them in, he started the game. After reading through the instructions, he started. A pink blob immediately killed his bow-clad yellow blob. Rex frowned. He could do better than that. He had several lives left. He tried again. This time he did better but he made a miscalculation and ended up sandwiched between a blue and orange blob that killed him. Frowning he tried one more time...

0o0

Three hours later, he was on his 121 level and only one life left. A crowd had gathered to watch. Rex's tongue hung from the side in his intense concentration.

"Wow, he's on fire!" Someone said in the crowd.

"Yeah, I didn't know that this game had so many levels." Another one said.

"I guess he doesn't have a midterm tomorrow." At that last comment, Rex stopped and looked at the time. The music for the death of the protagonist made everyone groan.

"Holy…, I've gotta go study!" Rex pushed his way out of the crowd.

Rex ran all the way back to his dorm. Bursting into his room, he rummaged around to look for his Chemistry textbook. Finding it under his bed, he flipped through some pages. He settled on a chapter in the middle of the book. He began reading out loud the chapter.

"One faraday is one mole of electrons. One coulomb is the amount of charge that moves past any given point in a circuit when a current of 1 ampere is supplied for one second." Rex yawned. "Faraday's law states that during electrolysis, the passage of 1 faraday through the circuit brings about the oxidation of one equivalent weight of a substance at one electrode, anode, and reduction of one equivalent weight…" Rex's eyes started drooping. His chin started to touch his chest. He snapped his head up and he started reading again. "All strong acids, strong bases and soluble salts will disassociate into ions when dissolved in water…" His eyes drooped again. He got up and went to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He went back outside. He pushed papers off his desk and settled in with the book.

"Okay, time to really study." He cracked his knuckles and started reading again. His eyes wandered to a pencil on the floor. "I need a pencil to write notes." He picked it up and realized that it needed to be sharpened. He looked around for a sharpener. There was none on his desk. He went to Noah's. After looking through his drawers and not finding any, he went outside. He knocked on the door of his neighbor. A boy wearing only boxers and a sleeveless t-shirt came to the door.

"Yeah?" He asked grumpily.

"You got a sharpener?" He asked holding up a pencil.

"Naw, I only use mechanical pencils. He closed the door in Rex's face. Not to be deterred, Rex went to the next room.

Eight rooms later he found someone with a sharpener. Returning to his room, he sat down. Now he was really, really ready to study. He tapped the pencil as he read the next passage. Only two minutes in, he threw down his pencil.

"I need coffee!" He declared getting up. Running across the street to the local coffee joint he picked up a double espresso mocha latte with extra foam. Returning to his room, he sat down again and took a sip. He spit it out. "Ugh, coffee tastes horrible." He pushed the cup aside and began reading again with pencil tapping away. "Gotta study, gotta study, gotta study…" He kept telling himself.

0o0

Rex felt someone shaking him. "Huh? What?" He looked up to see Noah.

"Dude! Your test is in like 20 minutes!" He said frantically.

"What?" Rex jumped up and checked the time. He must have fallen asleep while he was studying. Did he study much? He didn't know. He couldn't remember anything.

"Rex! Go! Or you'll be late for the midterm." Noah was yelling at him.

"All right! I'm going." Rex spun around the room looking for his things. What did he need? A pencil. He snatched one off his desk. His jacket. He looked around before realizing he was wearing it. His phone. It was on his bed. "I'm out." Rex waited till he was outside before forming his Rex Ride. Rushing across campus to the Science building, he rescinded his build when he got to the front. Sprinting through the halls to his classroom, he made it just as the professor was about to hand out the exams. Rex took a seat in the crowded room.

"You may start." The professor announced.

Rex looked at the exam. It was all multiple choice. "This is easy." He muttered.

0o0

"What grade did you get?" Noah asked trying to see the paper in Rex's hand.

"I don't know. What kind of grade is an I?" Rex asked baffled.

"Let me see." Noah snatched the paper from his friend's hand. "Rex! You got an incomplete."

"What? No way! I completed the exam. I have to see the professor." Rex stomped off.

A few hours later he returned.

"Well? What happened?" Noah asked.

"He said that it didn't look like I studied and he was going to give me another chance to take the test tomorrow." Rex looked dejected.

"Really? That's nice of him." Noah said.

"No, he was afraid if I brought home the failing grade, Holiday would come see him." Rex groaned. "Now I have to study again."

"Dude, you didn't study in the first place." Noah chided him.

"I studied… a little." Rex muttered.

"Now you're going to have to study a lot. Come on, my midterm's done. I'll help you study." Noah offered.

"Really? Thanks." Rex said gratefully.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Noah shrugged.

"How about we take a basketball break first?" Rex suggested.

"Rex, we haven't even started yet. You can't take a break till after you start." Noah pointed out.

"I like to take all my breaks in the beginning. That way we can study straight through." Rex was already leaving the room.

Noah sighed. Rex may never learn.

Rex: 0 Midterm:1 (maybe 2 by tomorrow)

I've been having trouble with uploading stories. The stories are there but FF doesn't indicate that it's been updated. So I updated a few stories last week. You should check them out if you haven't already.