#bernard:start

katarina generally preferred to smoke outside out of respect for others, but the situation they were in had stressed her out more than she’d prefer to let on. she’d just gotten out of the showers after practice when the power went out and all the students had been ushered over to the library, and in turn, didn’t have any of her things so that she might be able to work on some of her assignments. just thinking on all the time she was losing was stressing her out by the minute, and she couldn’t not smoke. she’d found herself a nook at the top of the stairs as she watched her fellow students party beneath her.

“But have you considered,” Eleanor slurred, reaching for her drink as she pretended to be twice as drunk as she actually was, “how dangerous libraries really are?” Glancing around like this was some sort of secret information, she lowered her voice. “Think about it. All that paper? If a fire starts?” She paused and shook her head. “WHOOSH.”

Eleanor’s last lecture had been an exercise in patience. It had felt like every time on of her peers spoke up, she wanted to immediately pipe up and tell them how terribly wrong they were. There had even been a few occasions where she’d started and ended up having to back track to the idiotic persona that she’d been resting on since arriving at Bernard.

Two hours, six cups of coffee, and one slice of toast. Michael had been at the small diner for two hours, had consumed six cups of coffee, and only eaten one of the two slices of toast that were on the plate. And he still wasn’t finished with this fucking assignment. He let out a grunt of frustration, erasing and re-shading the same area on the paper before him for the third time in five minutes. He glanced up, noticing that there was someone in the booth across from him, his cheeks immediately flushing. “Sorry,” he murmured, clearing his throat. “I’ll keep my noises to myself. I mean -- I just, I’ll be quiet.”