Chapter 5: A Simple Morning

Theresa checked her phone. It was a good ten minutes after eight and Alexandria still hadn't showed up. It was getting harder and harder to save her a seat from all the vultures; she had been forced to smile apologetically at least six times so far at hopeful students.

She reminded herself that Alexandria still had at least twenty minutes before the exam started, and, anyway, there wasn't much more she could do at this point. She had already mailed Alexandria a reminder message, and it wouldn't be nice to do it a second time.

The room continued to fill, and Theresa continued to fret. Finally, at ten minutes until the start of the test, Alexandria walked in, wearing sweat pants and her gray K3 jacket. Theresa moved her purse so that Alexandria could sit down.

“You're dressing to impress a lifeless piece of paper?” Alexandria had sat down, and had promptly folded her arms across the pull-out surface and placed her head on her arms. The sound came out muffled.

It was true. Theresa was wearing a green cardigan and a brown skirt, along with her nice shoes and knee-high socks. “I try to be consistent,” Theresa said.

Alexandria chuckled, and sat up. “Why don't they just let us take these things at home on our surfaces there?”

“Cheating, my dear. They have a duty to make sure that the only material we use for these exams is the good old gray. Plus, the surfaces here only display the tests. Yours at home could access far more information.”

“Yeah, I get that, I just wanted to complain about it.”

“Lex, what time did you go to bed last night?”

Alexandria frowned, thinking. “Two?”

Theresa jumped a little in her chair. “What? You must have gotten home by one or so. And you weren't talking with Calvin, because I heard him get back as I was brushing my teeth.”

“I was staying up waiting for Al. He didn't come home last night.”

Theresa grabbed Alexandria's wrist. “Do you think he's ok?”

Alexandria interrupted before Theresa could start listing all the terrible things her brother could have gotten himself into. “I'm sure he's fine,” Alexandria said. “Before I went over to your place to study, I told him he should find something to do that evening, because all he was doing was sitting around deconstructing stupid programs. Apparently he took me at my word, and found something to do.” She laid her head back down on her arms, and finished her thought with that same muffled sound as before. “I hope he found something pretty darn awesome to do, because he still wasn't home this morning when I left, and I waited for him for, like, an hour.”

Theresa looked at her friend. “Were you worried about him, my dear?”

Alexandria bolted up again. “No!”

Theresa smiled, and waited.

“Yes. I mean, maybe a little. It's just not like him, you know?”

“I know,” Theresa said.

At that moment, their professor started announcing the usual procedures for the upcoming test, and Theresa shushed Alexandria to listen. Make sure to thumb your surface to key in your identity. Don't forget that all surfaces have their eye-trackers turned on. Do well and good luck.

Conversation around the room ceased, as the surfaces sprang to life and the test began.

After Theresa thumbed her surface off, most of the other students had already left. Alexandria had only left a few minutes ago, and Theresa hoped that she was waiting outside the hall for her.

There had been a couple questions that Theresa hadn't been entirely prepared for, but she felt like she had done the best that could be expected of her. The final open-ended essay about the Prisoner’s Dilemma and evolutionary triggers was one she finished with relish.

All in all, it had been a fairly standard test for Archmatic University. All the knowledge one expected to be tested on, with a fair amount of eccentricity one had come to expect.

The traditional education system had finally collapsed a couple of years before Theresa had gone to college, and Theresa was glad for it. There had been so many college offering majors that were completely useless in the modern age, but ones that weren't of any special interest to the students either. They were just easier than the other majors that University offered. Theresa thought of Alexandria’s brother, Alexander. If he had been in a traditional college, he probably would have ended up as an English major, or whatever they name they threw Literature classes under. It certainly wouldn't have been what he wanted, but it was the closest thing.

As the information age continued its inexorable march forward, people gradually realized that there was absolutely nothing profitable to do with half of the majors that these schools were offering. If someone was to take those classes, it would be because they really, truly loved the material and had the resources to study it. Most schools which weren't the top engineering, medical, or vocational schools simply shut down, because the demand wasn't high enough to sustain their catalog of ‘hobby’ majors.

Thus Archmatic University was born. The University still offered all the normal job-centric paths of study: engineering, tech, medical (which was what Theresa was studying), and so forth, but they all had their own bizarre and fascinating quirks thrown on. And instead of shutting down their ‘hobby’ majors, they increased the eccentricity tenfold. They had realized that students and their families would pay truly insane amounts of money to get a boring, somewhat lifeless, and completely ineffective major— they figured that if they made those same majors completely focused on being fun and varied, the students wouldn't mind the lack of applicability later in life as much.

Amazingly, Archmatic University carved out a decent niche for itself in the University market. Those who still saw the University system as a way to prepare for the workforce could go here and learn those skills—but the interesting related topics that the University kept adding on put those students far ahead of those who went to normal schools. Those who saw the University system as a way to self-improve their minds could work closely with an adviser to create a series of classes that were completely fascinating to them, and didn't have to settle for something they truly did not care about.

Theresa was the first kind. She had wanted to be a surgeon, and had originally gone to Archmatic University for the prestige. After a year, though, she had lost none of her drive but gained a love for the beautiful side of her work. Alexander was solidly in the second camp. Theresa wasn't sure what he wanted to be, but as far as she could tell he took classes that interested him alone. Alexandria took the middle road between interest and applicability. She studied one of the strangest combinations that Theresa had ever heard of: Biology and Fashion, and all this to be a corpse dresser post college. One of her Fashion professors had even managed to get Alexandria an internship, and, apparently, she was enjoying it so far.

Placed on the end of the plateau of Wyoming’s Great Plains, with the mountains looming in the distance and the river lazily wandering through the heart of campus before rushing down through the canyon, there was an air of romanticism and adventure about Archmatic University. Combined with the strange yet fantastically interesting classes, the whole effect of the school was… well, Alexander would call it other-worldly. Theresa wasn't sure what to call it. 

 “Well, that was hideous,” said Alexandria. She was leaning outside.

“You shouldn't complain so much,” Theresa said mildly. “Do you have plans for the rest of the day?”

“I’m seriously considering just going back home and going to bed.”

Theresa waited.

“No, I’m not going to do that,” Alexandria stood up straight with sudden decision. “I think I might get some breakfast, then get some homework done, and then go for a run up to the Sunlight Spires, and maybe do a bit of bouldering. Want to come eat breakfast?”

“I ate this morning, dear.”

“Before the exam? Wow, I’m impressed. Well, what about climbing at the Spires with me?”

Theresa examined her nails, freshly painted that morning. “No, thank you dear. But I might bring my surface down there and watch you.”

Alexandria chuckled. “Make sure you put on some good running stuff. You don’t want to go for a run in a skirt and those shoes.”

Theresa ignored her. “Also, dear, what evenings are you usually free? I’m hoping to get this party off the ground some time soon so I can plan everything out to my satisfaction,”

Alexandria paused in thought. “Any weekend night, I suppose, but Wednesdays also work well.”

Theresa smiled. “I’ll keep you updated about it, my dear, and do let me know when you decide to head up to the Spires this afternoon. If I can manage it, I’d love to watch you.”

Alexandria nodded. “I will. I’m headed to Cliffside to study and probably eat breakfast; I’ll mail you, or whatever.”

They embraced, and Alexandria took off at a steady job. Theresa turned back and started walking towards her apartment, trying to think whether she had any clothes that she could plausibly run in.

Chapter 5: 1,562 | 10,500/50,000

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