Natalia: On the Same Wavelength

Sometimes life will throw you a curveball. Sometimes so unpredictable and weird surprises happen that you just have to throw up your arms in defeat and just go with it.

This was not one of those times.

Sitting with Audrey, Delia, Eileen, Rachel, Kate, and Leslie was exactly what I predicted would happen.

"Okay class" Abbey wound up: "Take a good look at your study group, because those are the people you will have to get to know, and depend on, because those are the groups you will all be in for the next year."

Audible groaning echoed through the class room. The groups were pre-made and only Abbey and I knew the true reason why.

"Now, there are three main themes we need to get through in your last year of physics: Electrostatics, vector kinematics, and hydrodynamics and acoustics, and since you are in three groups of seven, I'm sure you can all figure out what that means."

More groaning.

"Each group will work with one of the subjects. You will under my guidance research these topics. You will then, under my guidance as well, plan a study seminar, where you present your findings and showcase a couple of experiments in front of the class, and you will also present assignments for the rest of class to do."

The groaning could at this point be mistaken for a moped igniting.

Abbey looked at the group with the cheer-captain Denise.
"Pick a number between 1-3." Abbey asked.

Before anybody manages to think about anything Denise just loudly proclaimed: "#1!"

"Okay." Abbey sighed: "What about you?"

The other group mulled it over, before the LizPrez guy just muttered: "Pfftt... 3, I guess."

"And the last group has to deal with a #2."

That was the possibly the worst way to phrase that. Some guys in the class snickered. Abbey pulled out some cards each marked with a number, and on the other side was the subject we had to work with.
Denise's group got vector kinematics, LizPrez guy's group got electrostatics, which, of course, meant that our group got hydrodynamics and acoustics. Water and sound, huh? Alright, should be more manageable than calculating vectors. Fuck vectors.

Talking to the rest of group proved tougher than I even imagined it to be. Due to the slightly awkward nature, the fact that we were all seven fairly different people and due to the oppressive nature of group mentality we were all just silently looking at each other... well except for me, since I was on a quest to save their sorry asses. But every time I tried to take some responsibility, and some initiative it was either met by silence or with a response that had an amount of syllables I could count on one finger.

"How about we for today just individually try to wrap our heads around the subject matter, and write down all of the different concepts and theories that we need to research. From there we can make a plan of what to do."

"Okay." Kate, the cute little nerd answered. Sweet! Two syllables. Making progress.

This was a very asocial way of doing group work, but due to them being in a group, their outer walls were hard to break through. It's hard to break the ice, if it just freezes solid again the nanosecond your proverbial ice pick touches it.
Everyone was now just kind of doing their own thing, and while the awkward tension could be cut with a knife, to cut the sexual tension in this room would probably require heavy machinery, a crew of undead construction workers working overtime, Moses, and three out of the four Ghostbusters (because let's face it, Winston had no idea what he was doing).
Rachel was in her own dream-like state, Delia was zoning out to some music, and Audrey just kept up her stone-faced façade... what was going on in that girl's head? At least those three seemed to genuinely try to study, which was more than could be said for Eileen who very obviously was just pretending to study, and Leslie, who didn't even bother to pretend instead leaning back on her chair, with the closed textbook on the table, and an arm swung over the back of the chair, like she was waiting for a bus that would never arrive.
The only one who seemed to actually give a shit (other than me) was Katherine... or Kate as she wanted to be called. Throughout the lesson we compared notes and asked each other things when we were confused.
At the moment, she seemed to be the best person in this group, and it just kind of begged the question of why she was being deemed as a "problem student". She seemed capable, smart, kind, and diligent enough. Maybe she was a pervert or something.

Leslie still bothered me. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with her. I was genuinely out to try and save her from the higher ups, but she didn't even seem to want to be here... and while I understood why she felt that way, it was less like how I or Eileen seemed to treat school, and more of a purposeful act of defiance. It was like she was resisting having friends, like she was resisting having the responsibility of any type of relationship in her life, like she was defying the idea of human attachment itself, and...

and...

and...

and maybe we had more in common than I first thought.

Should I comment on her study defiance?
I should.
No, I probably shouldn't.
Actually I should.

"Hey, Leslie?" I asked to the surprise of everyone. Even Audrey showed some sign of emotion.
Leslie just glared at me.
"Do you need help with anything?" I asked.
"Why would I need your help?" she asked narrowing her eyes.
"It's just, I've noticed that you haven't touched your book." I was treading on thin ice here, and I knew it, but I wanted to gauge her. She seemed like someone who had been ignored for too long. Someone who had gotten complacent in the fear of her peers. A real bully, but I needed to know why. I needed to know if it was just pure sadism, or if there was a need inside that brain, kicking and screaming for some release, feverishly gasping in a sea of panic for someone to dig through her annoyingly thick skull to finally pour out those years of insecurities and bottled up emotions.
"So?" was her answer. Expected but still annoying.
"Well, if you want I could scoot over there, and we could look at it together. See, it's all about waves, being waves in the water or sound waves, and if you are struggling with physics, I'm sure we-"
My generous offer was cut short as the world became completely black for a couple of milliseconds as Leslie's textbook made contact with my face. I was beginning to agree with the school boards assessment of "problem student".

But this was just the first out of many beatings I knew I would get. This game was about persistence. Leslie struck me as a type of person to quickly shun people away. If, for once in her life, someone would persevere, and continuously show interest, maybe she would finally shed some of that hostility. The question was, who would break down and give up first. This wasn't going to be easy.

Abbey looked at me concerned, but I signaled to her that I was okay, and that she shouldn't report this. This was for Leslie's own good, and I couldn't just back out now. We were just getting started.