I heart Bio Tutes (Silvia)

“Oh my god,” Bez groaned, putting her head in her arms. “What am I doing here? Why did I come? I’m in distress!”
“You’re fine,” I said absentmindedly. “You’ve got a five hour gap, this’ll be good for you. You can learn ahead of the other people in fundamentals. Come on, don’t leave me alone here. I’ll be sad and lonely, no-one wants to be my friend. I need you here.”
Yes, I knew I was putting Bez through hell. Who would want to attend more lectures? Especially since I was in Chemistry 1. It was like throwing a toddler into calculus. And I enjoyed watching the panic on Bez’s face, muahaha. Since she had nothing to do for five hours straight, I used my charisma and good looks to persuade her into gate-crashing my chemistry and physics lectures. I’m sure she must have enjoyed some of it, since at the end we were laughing pretty hard.

It all started in physics…

“Oh my god,” Bez suddenly said, sitting up straight and pointing frantically. “I think that guy’s in my bio tute!”
I rolled my eyes slightly, enough to make a point but not enough to let her see. “You said that about some other asian guy,” I said patiently like an adult to a child. “And it wasn’t him, was it? Besides, all asians look the same. Black hair, brown eyes…”
“No,” Bez insisted. “It could be! Say his name and see if he turns around. Say Quintin.”
“Quintin?” I said, confused. “What kind of name is that?”
“You know, like the Tarantino guy.”
“Taran- oh, you mean Quentin.”
“Yeah,” Bez nodded. “That one. Now say his name.”
I folded my arms and looked at the back of the person’s head in front of me, eyebrow slightly raised. “Quentin,” I said loudly and clearly.
No reaction.
“See,” I said. “That’s not him.”
And in the space of one hour, Bez quickly sunk deep into depression. Her head nodded sleepily as the lecturer intoned on about velocity and time, she pulled out her phone and texted and she lay her head on the table to rest.
I was also distracted. I could not help but notice that ‘Quentin’ had a little laptop and was facebooking. I’m a facebook junkie, I just could not stop looking at the telltale blue and white and thinking, “Yes… when I get home, I’m going to put this, this and that in my status and she and he will like it while he and they will comment…”

Apparently, Bez was fascinated by ‘Quentin’s’ facebooking too, because at the end of the lecture she said, “His name’s not Quentin, it’s Jack!”
Her eyes are sharp. From about half a metre away, Bez could make out his name in little letters. Quite a feat, seeing as she sees as clearly as a gorilla stumbling in the dark.
And even though she knew Jack was not the same guy, Bez still went up to him and asked, “Are you the guy in my bio tute?”
I commend her bravery. I could have done no such thing.
I myself have not made a lot of friends in uni. Most of the friends I have made were Bez’s friends first. I became their friends by default. I am truly grateful to have a friend like Bez. I know you’re reading this because:
1. This is going on facebook and
2. You’re a good friend and you read my posts 🙂
So know that I love you, Bez <3

It turns out Jack and us had a mutual friend! And the friends he was sitting with were friends with a friend of mine! Coincidence, coincidence. Fate is scary but we all found a common topic (a mutual friend and Mandarin… kind of. I don’t think Bez’s screechy vietnamese-accented Mandarin counts too much) and could not stop laughing. It was the type of laughing where you laughed so hard your laugh goes silent, then you bellow out like a dying whale, wheeze asthmatically and gasp, take a few deep breaths and regain control. You feel hot and giggly and when you look at your friend, you burst into giggles all over again. It was so much fun talking to Jack, we even considered crashing his history lecture, but so many people came in I felt guilty we were taking up extra seats.
Another day, another friend. Not just in real life, but also on facebook.

So, if you hear a girl asking, “Oh, hey! Are you in my bio tute?” it’ll probably me Bez or me. Point it out and say, “Hey! You stole that from Bez!” It’ll give us a common topic, much better than the stale: Are you a first year as well? What subjects are you doing?
Let’s face it, no-one wants to repeat those answers to every single person they meet. Find something new and refreshing to ask!

I learn from the best 😉

~Silvia

I need a haircut. The ends of my hair are beginning to look like that of a frayed, straw boom.