Danica was walking to campus when she saw Bea Jane at a corner store.
Danica had not seen her friend/classmate since they were in 12th grade back in their province. But during their six-year stay in the same high school, Danica had never seen Bea Jane interested in sports and exercise in general. So imagine her shock when she saw that same friend in a tracksuit, a workout headband, and a pair of sneakers.
“Oh, Bea Jane,” Danica greeted. “Looks like you’ve been busy working out during summer vacation.”
“Who? Me?” Bea Jane answered. “Oh, I slept during our vacation. I’m just training today for our first day of school.”
“Why? Are you joining some sort of first-day marathon?”
“Even worse. I heard stories of unfit first-year students collapsing at the gate, and I don’t want to be sent to the nurse’s clinic on my first day.”
Danica scoffed. “It couldn’t be that bad.”
But Danica’s smirk disappeared when they reached the main gate of Saint Louis University. Smack dab in front of them was a mountain of steps. Crowds of people climbed up and down, left and right. There were students whose legs quaked as they climbed higher. Others sat on benches, clutching their thighs and fanning themselves with their face masks. Danica swore she saw someone fall face-first at the top of the stairs.
Danica looked over at Bea Jane, face white as salt. “So we need to climb these stairs?”
Bea Jane replied, “Yup.”
“And we need to do this every day?”
“Only on the weekdays.”
“And our first class is on the 7th floor of Perfecto?”
“Hey, at least we start on floor 4. But then again, that’s three extra flights of stairs we need to climb too.”
Danica looked back at the kneecap-busting flight of stairs. Just observing those steps made her lowland calves scream in objection. She sighed and turned her head towards Bea Jane.
“Do you have an extra headband?”
Originally submitted to SLU Stellaris
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