Playing For Keeps

11. What If It's Me?

Kit sat slouched in his chair as he stared forward at the professor droning on and on. He fanned himself with his notebook and stared ahead blankly. Of all days for the air conditioner to not work, why did it have to be on hottest day of the semester so far?

Beam was sprawled across his own desk snoring, like many other students in the class, while Phana seemed to be the only one taking notes. Everything seemed to be moving at a snail's pace and Kit was growing impatient. He was hot, he was bored, and he was hungry. When was class over again?

He looked up at the clock above the door at the front of the class and was happy to see that class would be ending in five minutes. He sat up straight and began to pack up his things as quietly as he could. Phana stopped writing and stared at him.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm packing up to go."

"Class isn't over yet."

Kit stopped packing and glared at him. "We only have five minutes left!" He whispered loudly.

"That's more than enough time to finish taking the notes."

Kit rolled his eyes. Phana could be such a parent sometimes.

"Who cares? Wake up Beam so we can hurry and get out of here."

Phana looked like he wanted to scold Kit but changed his mind last minute. He turned to face Beam and gave him a hard shove. Beam slid off the desk, knocking all his papers to the ground, then jerked upright.

"Who's there!?" He screamed, trying to catch his balance.

The class immediately grew quiet and the professor stopped droning long enough to turn and stare at Beam. Phana was back to taking notes as if he hadn't done a thing and Kit ducked down, completely embarrassed. A few snickers sounded around them as their classmates tried to hold in their laughter.

"Young man, what on earth are you trying to do? You wait until the end of my class to try to cause trouble?" The professor said sternly.

"Huh? I...I thought..." Beam stammered as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. He had no idea what was going on.

"Since you can sleep in my class, I expect an A on your quiz this Friday. Class dismissed!" The professor huffed, ending class abruptly. All the students wasted no time gathering their things and exiting. Beam turned confusedly toward his friends.

"What happened?" Beam asked.

"You slid off your desk." Phana said flatly as he threw his things in his book bag and stood to his feet. "Let's go. I already know you're going to ask to see my notes." Phana left without another word.

Kit and Beam watched him go for a moment before Beam turned to look at Kit, his face still filled with sleepy confusion. Kit shook his head, trying to hold back his laugh. Phana could be such a jerk sometimes but even he had to admit that what just happened was pretty funny. 

"Come on, Beam." Kit helped Beam to his feet, waited for him to grab his things, then followed Phana out the door.

****

"I can't believe how hot it is today." Kit said as he shielded his eyes from the fierce brightness of the sun. "There's no way I'm staying out here."

"Library or dorm then?" Phana asked as they walked. They were trying to decide on a place to study for the rest of the day.

"Wherever there's air conditioning." Beam said rubbing his stomach. "I'm hungry though."

"Let's head back to the dorm then. We can eat while we study. And we'll have air conditioning too." Phana said.