Extracurricular Activities
It was Prof. Moser’s European history class at the college. He was about to explain the midterm project for the class. A laundry list of topics about the Middle Ages were projected onto the lecture hall’s screen, and each group of four, which he had already determined at random, had to select one and give a 10-minute presentation on it. The project was due three weeks from now. Other than that, it was fairly standard college writing fare: cite your sources, use proper spelling and grammar, that kind of drivel.
Prof. Moser started naming who was assigned to each group in a dry voice. “Group 1: Genevieve, Mark, Jared, and Ashley. Group 2: Helen, Millie, Sam, and Andrew.”
Helen was not sure how to react to her assigned group members being who they were. On the one hand, she was quite happy to get Millie, her best friend forever. Any time Helen wanted a girls’ night out, she brought Millie along.
Sam was an OK guy, Helen thought. An intelligent guy who was always good for homework help, if at the price of dating potential. Helen saw Sam as nerdy, and nerds weren’t Helen’s thing. He could also be a little less uptight. Overall, though, Helen liked Sam.
Helen’s mood was dampened, however, by also being grouped with her ex. Andrew was something of a flirt, but not a classy one, Helen thought. He was more of a creep when he was drunk, propositioning what seemed like every girl for sex. He was an embarrassment, and she was glad to be rid of him, especially after he barfed in her car and she had to clean up after him. Rid of him, that is, until now.
“Group 3,” Prof. Moser continued, but after that Helen wasn’t paying attention until he was done giving out the groups, eight in all.
“Get into your groups and discuss which topic you’d like to present. I will call each group toward the end of class and ask which topic you have chosen.”
As Helen united herself with her friend, her enemy, and her helper, she looked through the topics to be chosen about. Two stood out to her, and she was torn between them. She asked her groupmates about which one they’d rather write about.
“I’m thinking either St. George’s Night Uprising or Wat Tyler’s Rebellion,” Helen said. “What do the rest of you think?”
“I’d rather do St. George’s Night Uprising,” Millie replied. “That or one of the Crusades.”
“I don’t want to present about the Crusades,” Sam complained. “One of the other two is fine by me.”
“I’m fine with whatever,” Andrew said apathetically. He had to write about something, after all.
“I think we’re semi-agreed on St. George’s Night Uprising?” Helen asked.
“Pretty much,” Sam replied.
The other two just nodded.
A few minutes later, Prof. Moser spoke up. “OK, class. Would anybody like to pick a topic first?”
Helen rose her hand almost immediately.
“Yes, Helen?” Prof. Moser acknowledged.
“We’d like to do St. George’s Night Uprising.”
“St. George’s Night Uprising for group 2,” Prof. Moser said, updating it on his slide. “Anybody else? …Dave?”
“Wat Tyler’s Rebellion,” Dave responded.
“Group 5, Wat Tyler’s Rebellion.”
Dave was Helen’s crush for the past couple of weeks, and his group had gotten the other topic Helen was thinking about. This would be fun, Helen thought. Besides that, however, group 2 wasn’t paying attention to Prof. Moser anymore.
“So,” Helen said, “when should we meet for studying?”
“The weekends sometime?” Andrew suggested.
Helen shot him down with a laugh before he could even offer a location. “Come on, Andy. We sit through Moser’s boring lectures five days a week. The weekends should be MY time!”
“Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00?” Millie offered instead. “Ackerman Library?”
“Good by me,” Sam agreed.
Andrew offered only an apathetic “Whatever.”
“So it is,” Helen said. “Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00 at Ackerman Library.”
At that point Prof. Moser dismissed the class for the day. Sam had a class immediately after, but Millie was free for the next hour and a half.
“Hey, Millie, where do you want to get lunch?” Helen asked as they were on their way to her car.
“I feel the most like taquitos right now,” Millie said. “José’s Mexican Restaurant?”
“Sure!”
Once they were in the car, Helen started it up. If you wanted to beat the crowd to José’s Mexican Restaurant at lunchtime, then you didn’t take the highway—you stayed on the side streets. Those were never the bottlenecks the highway was, though sometimes you had to wait a bit at traffic lights. Helen knew that secret.
As Helen pulled into the restaurant, she got a call. It was Dave! What a pleasant surprise!
***
Helen had arrived at Dave’s studio apartment. It was Thursday, 4:07 PM. Both had had their last classes of the day. She had gone to the study session on Tuesday, but really to assign parts—it was a research project, after all, and everybody had everybody else’s number. What’s a missed study session if she can still get the same work done another time? It wasn’t urgent.
“So what do you think of my apartment?” Dave asked.
“It’s small,” Helen replied, “but I like it. Beats Andy’s trashed, noisy apartment any day of the week.”
Dave chuckled. “Not above dissing your ex, are you, Helen?” he asked cheekily.
“That drunk? Of course I’m not!” jeered Helen.
“So, what do you want to do?” asked Dave. “I have a bunch of movies, a PlayStation… Not many people come here for cards, but that, too…”
“I’d like to get to know you better,” Helen answered with a wink. She sat next to Dave, happily letting herself into his personal space as if it didn’t exist, and she put her hand on his shoulder.
Dave blushed, not sure how to react to what he saw as sexual attention from her. He was open and looking, and he thought Helen was pretty, but a girl taking this much interest in him was a new experience to him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… OK, what do you mean ‘get to know me better?’ Do you want to…”
Dave was interrupted by the sound of Helen’s phone receiving a text. It was Andrew, clearly angry.
“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?” the text from Andrew read. “YOU’RE TEN MINUTES LATE!”
“Let’s not answer him,” Helen told Dave. “I’ve got a better idea of what to do with our time.”