My palms are stuck together in a sweaty handshake with itself. It's 7:50, exactly three minutes before my morning lecture on advanced chaos theory. As I fumble for my notes in my backpack, I knock over a stray Starbucks cup that was still holding its frost, now spreading like dirty ice on my classroom mate Alex's favorite book on fractals. I mumble an incoherent apology as Alex raises her head off the tabletop, gives me a 'what even is your problem, man?' look, grabs a stack of nearby papers, and starts methodically blotting the liquid on her book. It takes exactly eight attempts and a deep inhale before I find my lecture notes - neatly stacked with a Post-it on the cover: 'Chaos Theory = My Brain.' Time's almost up, the bell's gonna ring any second now, I grab a stray pen on my desk, rip out that single Post-it, shove all my stuff into my bag, and sprint out of the classroom right behind Alex, who I'm pretty sure gave a silent head-slap.
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