Time Flies By

I felt the water squish around in my shoes as I pressed down on the brake with my foot. I glanced down at my muddied shoes before noticing the green light and pressing on the gas pedal, causing the mud to squish in between my toes.

I took a deep breath as I noticed the college up ahead. I tried to pay attention to the cars in front of me, but I had a hard time suppressing my nerves. It was my first year, and also my first time away from home, except for a week at summer camp when I was seven.

A car suddenly honked from behind me and I looked ahead to see the line of cars was moving again. When I finally made it to the parking lot I looked around for a parking spot, but didn't find any in the first row of cars. I shrugged and went down another row, but to my dismay there weren’t any parking spaces there either.

By the time I got to the fifth row there was a scowl etched on my face and I made a sharp turn out of the lane, causing a car to honk at me. I honked back at them and looked around desperately, seeing a back-up of cars in all the other lanes.

I inhaled sharply as I drove to another parking lot, only to see all the spaces filled up there as well. I banged on my wheel, causing it to let out a honk, and the car in front of me honked back in response before the girl leaned out her window to yell something at me while the cars were at a standstill.

I leaned back in my seat and looked upward, as if the sky would just open up and a light would came down from the heavens, illuminating a vacant parking space. I looked at the small clock on my dashboard and bit down on my lip nervously when I saw that it read 9:15. I only had fifteen minutes to get to my first class, and at this rate I would never get there!

I let out an exasperated groan and leaned my head over. I suddenly spotted a pizza shop just across the street from the college with a bright, glowing sign above it that read, Pattie’s Pizza Parlor. The parking lot was deserted except for a couple cars off to the side, which wasn’t unusual since it was only a little after nine in the morning. I sat up and a grin started to spread across my face. As soon as traffic started moving again I turned out of the parking lot and pulled into a parking space on the side of the side so I wouldn’t take up one of the spots in front.

I smiled to myself and grabbed my backpack from the passenger seat before stepping out. I locked my car and turned to head to the college when a voice called out to me.

“You can’t park there, miss.”

I turned around with a frown to see a boy about my age standing inside the double doors of the pizza shop, a white apron on with what looked like flour spots on his red shirt. I crossed my arms and sent him a glare.

“Why not?”

“These parking spots are for the customers.”

I looked around at the empty parking lot and raised an eyebrow.

“But there’s nobody here!”

“There will be when the lunch rush comes in.”

I felt like crying. I couldn’t find a parking space, I only had ten minutes to get to class, and here this guy was telling me to pack it up and move somewhere else.

“Please, there are no parking spaces over there! I’ll be out of her when my classes end at 12:30, I promise, but please just let me park here, I’m not in anybody’s way!” I practically begged.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t do that. If we let you park here we’ll have to let all the other students to park here too, and we just don’t have enough space.”

I felt my eyes fill with tears. “Look, I’ve had a bad day so far, ok? My car tire blew out on the way here, I stepped in a mud puddle getting out, and I had to change the tire all by myself! I’m probably gonna be late for my first class anyways, so I would really appreciate if you could just let me park here for a couple hours!” I nearly yelled, feeling the tears threatening to spill. I normally wasn’t this emotional, but I’d had a bad day, and well, I was already feeling anxious over that fact that I was a thousand miles away from my family.

The man seemed a little taken aback by my outburst and the tears in my eyes. He just stared at me for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.

“Alright, but just this once!” he said.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile, wiping at my eyes. He gave me a small smile before walking back in the shop. I took a deep breath as I mentally told myself to calm down before sprinting across the street. I pulled a map of the school out of my back pocket and looked down at the building numbers. I looked up and spotted building T just past the large outdoor swimming arena. I shoved the map back in my pocket and ran as fast as I could.

When I finally found the room number I walked in just as the teacher stood up to speak. A few curious eyes turned around to look at the latecomer before turning back around. I walked to the back row and took a seat next to a girl who looked about my age. She had light blonde hair that went a few inches past her shoulders with a black flower clip pulling her bangs away from her face. She turned to eyes on me as I pulled out my new math book and I realized they were a startling light green.

“Hi,” she said with a small wave. I smiled back.

“Hey.”

“So, I take it you’re not to good at math either?”

“Yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be taking Prep-Math, a.k.a. Math for Dummies,” I said with a smirk. She let out a small laugh.

“You’re right about that,” she said before sticking out a hand. “I’m Lynette. What’s your name?”

“Avalon,” I replied, shaking her hand. Her eyes widened in interest.

“Like from the King Arthur legends?”

I raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Avalon was the island where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur, was forged and where King Arthur was taken after a battle,” she explained.

“Um, I guess that could be where my name comes from. My parents never really said,” I said with a shrug.

“Oh. Well, either way I think it’s a pretty name,” she said with a beaming smile. I couldn’t help but smile back before turning my attention back to the teacher.

I pulled out a piece of scrap paper, doodling on it while listening to the teacher introduce herself and talk about what we would be doing in her class this semester. It reminded me of the first day of school somewhat, so I knew we wouldn’t really be doing anything today except going over the work we’d be doing and do an introduction of some sort. I was drawing a giraffe when the teacher said something that made my head snap up.

“And in this class you are not permitted to use a calculator on the homework on any of the exams or tests,” she said. I felt a fear course through my veins. I was terrible enough at math [iwith a calculator, how would I survive it without a calculator?! I turned to look at Lynette and saw that she had turned pale, her eyes wide.

“She can’t be serious. She’s not serious…right?” I asked her in a quiet voice. Lynette nodded slowly.

“I think she is,” she whispered back.

“Oh, great…” I mumbled under my breath.

The rest of the math class I couldn’t concentrate on anything-not my doodles or what the teacher was saying. I was too worried about how I would pass this math class. I was so used to using a calculator, and really, what was the point of not using a calculator? Is it supposed to get is ready for the real world, because really, when does a person not have a calculator with them? If not at their desk or at home, they always have a cell phone with them at the very least!

When class was finally over I called a short goodbye to Lynette over my shoulder before sprinting out of the classroom. I had more than twenty minutes to get to my next class, but I couldn’t stand being in that room a second longer.