After Luca hurried off to the student council room that day, the rest of the lecture flew by in a blur. Because it ran a bit late, I didn't have the luxury of browsing the library shelves like I usually did. Instead, I headed straight for the train station and rode back home. At that point, the campus festival was still ongoing, meaning the streets and station were still buzzing with lingering crowds and excitement.
However, as a week or two ticked by, the festival finally wrapped up completely. The lingering crowds vanished, the roads cleared back to normal, and my days slipped into a familiar, monotonous rhythm. With the festival buzz officially gone, I no longer needed to leave excessively early, sliding right back into my standard daily routine. It was quiet, steady, and admittedly a little dull like attending lectures, taking notes, visiting the library for research, reading, and studying in my room.
During this time, Luca would occasionally make it to class, but his responsibilities with the student council had completely consumed his schedule. We barely had time to talk, and our interactions were strictly business. When he did message me, it was mostly to ask for the notes of the classes he had missed or to check on assignment deadlines. Knowing how swamped he was, I didn't want to be a bother, keeping my replies helpful and brief.
As for my new friends, those odd girls, they continued to live up to their unpredictable nature. They sent short, casual messages saying they were tied up with personal works and wouldn't make it to class, always signing off with a quick "See you again, Iris!" Since I already knew how irregular they were, I wasn't surprised at all.
Just as my days had settled back into their quiet, solitary normal, reality caught up with us.
During one of our morning lectures, the professor stepped up to the podium with a stack of papers and made a serious announcement: the semester exam dates were officially locked in. Along with the written finals, the department was introducing a mandatory viva to test our practical understanding, with the scores heavily weighing into our final grades. On top of that, they assigned our final, high-stakes semester projects.
Suddenly, the air on campus grew heavy with tension. Panic buzzed quietly among the students, and my own days instantly transformed into a relentless blur of research, drafting final assignments, and memorizing review notes. The quiet, boring routine was gone, replaced by the intense, overwhelming pressure of the upcoming exams.
Following the exam announcements, the professors quickly moved things forward by assigning our final project topics and dividing the students into groups. We had to select our focus areas and dive straight into research. Suddenly, my life became a whirlwind of collecting reference materials, organizing data, and drafting my project.
For a full week, I buried myself entirely in this cycle of assignments, independent studies, and relentless material gathering.
Then, right as that frantic week was winding down and we only had one week left before the project submission deadline, my phone suddenly buzzed with a notification. It was Luca. Seeing a message pop up from Luca caught me completely off guard.
"Hello, Iris. How are you? Are you holding up okay with all this madness?" he messaged.
I blinked at the screen for a second before typing back: "Hey Luca! Yes, I'm doing fine. How are you? How are you holding up with all your council duties? Are you actually resting properly?"
His reply came almost immediately: "Yes, of course I am! You know how hectic things have been lately, but I'm managing."
"That's good to hear," I replied.
There was a brief pause before he typed again. "Actually, Iris... I have a huge favor to ask you."
Curious, I asked, "What is it?"
"Can you help me arrange some reference materials for my project topic?"
Seeing his request, I didn't hesitate. Luca had helped me out and checked in on me multiple times in the past, and I genuinely wanted to return the favor. "Sure, send me your topic. I'll see what I can gather for you."
A few minutes later, he sent over his details. Without wasting any time, I set to work, digging through library books and digital archives to pull together useful materials not just for my own project, but for his as well.
Later in the chat, Luca pushed the request a bit further: "Say, Iris... can you also help me write parts of it?"
I stared at the screen, a wave of hesitation hitting me. "Oh no... how can I write your project for you? It's your assignment. If I write it, how will you handle the viva or answer the teachers when they question you about it?"
Sensing my worry, Luca quickly reassured me. "Don't worry, I can handle the defense part. You don't have to do the whole thing. But if you're hesitating or uncomfortable writing it, it's completely fine..just help me pull together and organize the core data, and I'll take it from there."
Relenting a little, I typed back, "Alright. I can help with the data and structuring."
Over the next few days, we managed to meet up briefly in the hallways or quiet corners of the campus to exchange notes, review the materials I had gathered, and go over the data points. It was a hectic partnership, but helping him gave me a strange sense of purpose amidst the pre-exam panic.
Just like that, the final week flew by in a blur of shared notes and rushed meetings, until the morning we all dreaded finally arrived: the day of our project submissions.