4 Chapter 3: Madwoman

Two girls marched with a purpose under the shade of clouds, well, one girl marched while the other was dragged along like a limp doll. It was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and humid air blew from time to time. Just a few days ago it was sweltering hot, precious moisture escaping from their pores as if eager to escape from their bodies.

Now, the wind felt sticky and warm, it made a person's hair stiff and limp. It felt uncomfortable, Rina frowned in disgust. She sneered with a low voice, "Ugh! This feels so icky! I need to get a bath again."

"A rain infected with a virus, Rina." Zee snickered.

"Ew! I wish that the professor gets exposed. Extensively." Rina drawled in irritation. They had to make it fast, Zee's precious notes must be retrieved, or else she will be doomed! She didn't even inform her parents yet. She was planning to pass remedial first before going on a holiday.

If she failed, there will be dire consequences. When she thought of the possibilities, she shivered, "You won't tell my parents, will you?"

"Sure, sure," Zee muttered. "If they called, I will tell them you were with me. If they call! You owe me big time. Your parents are scary enough when they stare at you waiting to speak."

"Don't remind me, please." Rina paled as she imagined those pairs of piercing blue eyes and stiff faces. "They can suck out all the secrets from your bones! I just need to pass those preliminary tests and then I won't have to stay for the whole Remedial session."

"I guess you're still lucky. Who would have thought there were more than twenty of you."

"Thirty-four actually, with all the weirdest excuses you could imagine." Rina waved her hand and counted her fingers, "Some got bitten by their pets and got hospitalized, severe insomnia and collapsing during exams, one became narcoleptic with a real health certificate to boot, some said they had flu, while the rest got mild to moderate heatstroke."

"Flu? Can you even get flu in this weather?"

"Well, I heard there were also more cases in other places. Just a little more and it would have been declared as an outbreak." Rina spoke like a professor giving her lecture.

"Eh? How do you even know these things?" Zee stared at her friend.

"Doctors! The lot of them!" Rina rolled her eyes. "When you want to fool the teachers for sick leave, you have to fool the parents first. I swear I must have been adopted. I just don't feel being a doctor, even though they said it runs in our veins."

"At least you'll have it easier when you go to med school." Zee consoled her friend. Though it was a bit hard for her to understand her so-called difficulties, at the very least all those resources were at her fingertips just waiting to be plucked.

"I'll have it easier when you go to med school with me!" Rina exclaimed.

"Eh!?" Zee gaped at her friend. There was a twinkle those eyes, and they made Zee nervous. But, before she could ask Rina about her crazy ideas, she was dragged into the halls of the Engineering Department.

Half dazed and half anxious, she wondered why on earth were they in some other department when they were nursing students. She could have sworn that the person who borrowed her notes was from their department.

There were a lot of students loitering the halls. Unlike in her department, you could count the students who were still wandering here and there due to some unfinished business. "Why are we here again?"

"Twenty-one out of us, remedial students, came from this department. I heard they formed a few study groups for it." Suddenly, the crazy girl hailed her left hand flagging an unsuspecting student like a taxi on the highway, while the other was dragging Zee. "Excuse me! You there! Yes, you! YES! IT'S YOU! Stop pointing at your chin like an idiot!"

Zee wanted to curl into a ball and bury herself somewhere dark and faraway! God! She didn't know this madwoman. Someone save her!

The poor student came over timidly. He looked like a typical nerdy freshman with thick glasses, curly hair, checkered shirt, and an over-sized brown backpack hiked over his shoulders. He was, for the lack of a better word, tiny. He was shivering. Zee could almost mistake him for a poor squirrel waiting to be slaughtered.

"D-d-do you n-need something?" The poor boy stuttered. He flinched when Rina grasped his shoulder lightly, his wide eyes fixed on the girl's shoes. His throat felt dry, unconsciously he gulped. "Ye-ye-yes mi-m-miss?"

"I was looking for those students who had remedial classes. Do you know where they are?" She smiled. Unfortunately, in the eyes of a terrified prey, it looked vicious. Zee couldn't stand it anymore. This crazy human beside her, was just... well, crazy. She felt powerless, even though Rina meant well, sometimes she was tactless.

Zee coughed to hide her embarrassment. Unfortunately, her flaming cheeks just couldn't hide it.

"Uh... sorry about this idiot," Zee was squirming inside, she had the desperate urge to just disappear into thin air. Her voice thinned as she reached the end, "Can you help us out, please? We just need something from those students."

The squirrel-boy whipped his eyes between the two girls in front of him. Realizing that they meant no harm to him, he heaved a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to reply, an angry voice growled behind him. "Get your paws off our friend, woman!"

Amid the humid afternoon, thunder reverberated in the campus as a bolt of lightning flashed down. A gentle pitter-patter of raindrops followed right after.