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Monday morning lectures should be illegal, point blank. There was absolutely no reason anyone should have to be in a lecture hall at 8.30 on a Monday but apparently whoever planned these things didn’t care in the slightest. Cause Frank was there, at 8.30 on a Monday, to sit in a fucking Maths lecture, of all things.
It would probably be fine if the lecturer wasn’t so bad or if he had any friends in the class or if he didn’t live all the way across town and had to commute to the university for an hour. Or rather, it would still suck but not that much.
He sat down at his somewhat centred seat in the hall, not too far to the front to be noticeable to the professor, not so far to the back that he’d stop paying attention. The hall filled up quickly, everyone was arriving more or less at the same time - they all came on one of three different train and bus routes and everyone obviously took the latest one they could get away with.
Sometimes he got lucky and had some space around him, sometimes he didn’t - it was always a gamble. Today he was in bad luck and a guy in a black hoodie sat down next to him, hood up over his dark hair.
“Morning” Frank greeted him while unpacking his notebook and pens
“Yea, you too” the guy answered, doing the same. That was about the maximum of social interaction anyone could expect at this time in the morning.
The lecture started not long after that and Frank was seriously starting to regret attending in the first place (as he did every single week). Reading the presentation while the lecturer read it off word for word was mind-numbingly boring but he knew himself too well to just read the presentation at home, he’d probably never even look at it.
“10 bucks says that he’ll read the next page word for word without giving a single explanation” the guy next to him suddenly whispered.
“What”
“Seriously, he’s done that four times by now. And we’re only on page 6!”
“Then why even bother coming to the lectures?”
“I don’t really know either man”
At least he and the dude were on the same page on that. Everyone else would probably agree too, maybe with the exception of the three people in the front row. They seemed very interested and way too awake for 8.30
“Wanna play lecture bingo?”
“What?” Maybe Frank should consider more creativity in his reactions but he didn’t really plan on chatting during his morning lecture with zero of his friends in the same class.
“It’s really easy, we both draw a bingo sheet and whenever he says one of those things, we can cross it out. Can’t be a word on the presentation though, that’d be too easy”
“You literally just pointed out that he never says anything apart from reading the presentation. So how would that work?”
“Let me figure that one out. Just prepare your bingo sheet”
And Frank did. If it made the lecture less boring he was absolutely up for it, especially since the suggestion didn’t even sound bad - the professor had this awful tendency to overuse some very specific words…
“You ready?”
“I guess so… It’s a 3x3 sheet, that alright?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t come up with more either. Now watch and learn…”
And he raised. His. Hand. In the middle of the lecture. Who the fuck does that? Noone! Not even the idiots in the front did that and they were seriously into this stuff!
“Yes, a question?” the lecturer said, indicating the guy could speak. Frank didn’t really pay attention to the interaction, too busy drowning in the embarrassment of sitting next to the guy that asked a fucking question (which even he knew made zero sense, but seriously, who does that), but sure enough, the professor said “allegedly” while answering and psychopath-dude proudly checked it on his bingo sheet.
“Are you actually crazy?” Frank hissed quietly.
“What? It’s a lecture, we’re allowed to ask questions”
“Yeah, but…”
“But?”
“Nothing I guess” Except the dude had to be absolutely insane to do that and Frank would never recover from that.
The lecture (and game) continued normally after that.
“Hah! “Trivial”, I got that one”
“I have that too though. It’s his favourite word, I’m sure of it”
…
“ “Obviously” I have that!” Frank whispered while checking off his sheet.
“Damn, I don’t... should have been obvious, really”
…
“ ”Easy”, that was an easy one!”
“I hate you” Frank answered, groaning at the absolutely horrible pun. He wasn’t sure whether he loved or hated the man.
…
“I feel like we should’ve added phrases too. “You can quickly figure that one out at home” seems to be a favourite too,” Frank said after the lecturer said exactly that for the fifth time in that lecture. He indicated it in his notes, not that he ever planned on doing said easy calculation. It would probably take him hours and hurt his brain more than the lecture already did and he preferred keeping his sanity.
“Oh yea, let’s do that next time”
“Next time? We’re gonna do this again?”
“I’d assume you want a rematch after losing”
“You haven’t even won yet!”
“Wait and see”
And oh God, why, what was wrong with him, he raised his hand again. Frank seriously considered leaving right there and then. It worked too, the lecturer said the right word and the psycho next to him checked it off, proudly showing Frank his completed row.
“What the fuck, we’re totally banning that next time!”
“So you do want a rematch?”
“I guess so…But not questions next time! That was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced” slight exaggeration, maybe.
“We’ll see,” the guy said, fucking smirking.
The lecture ended not soon after that and students quickly started leaving the hall.
“So, next time?” Frank said
“Absolutely. Sit in the same row and I’ll find you?”
“Sure. I’m Frank, by the way”
“Gerard. And I want a prize next time I win”