Marissa

Over the course of one normal day,many things can happen.One short second can irreversibly change your life,and the weight of time is only felt when emotions come to play.Well,today I had my obligatory daily dose of uneccessary embaressment,which wasn't a big thing but I thought it was the most interesting that occured for me today.

I stare at my wrist watch,wondering where the rest of the class was-until one of them comes in.I don't know her name-Australian,a bit on the short side-I manage a halfhearted Hi that is greeted with a friendly invitation to small talk.I don't remember what it was about.

Few minutes later,the tutor comes in.Neil-freakishly white skin,orange bright hair and speaks with his mouth half-closed with the words sometimes lost in quick mumbles,but a really nice guy-he wears a suit today,and proceeds to explain that the past few days he'd been attending job interviews and that he feels sick of the suit somehow.

The Australian girl had been listening attentively,nodding at his every word-she asks some vague question about work life,and Neil responds enthusiatically,in the process telling a short story about something that both of them chuckle cutely too.While this is happening,I stare idly at both of them and try to find a crack in the conversation from which I can suitably enter without looking like a busybody idiot,or an Asian retard.

They continue to talk about things I couldn't be interested about even if I tried-something about classes and fish,but then a golden opportunity emerges for me to crash in-Neil starts to tell us about how he intends to complete his degree here,then continue at UCLA.

''Yea,I didn't know what I wanted to do,until my third year.I'm finishing my science and math course,then I'm going to the University of California,Berkley,where I'm told Marissa goes to''

I look to the Aussie girl,she looks utterly clueless,her eyes scrolling to the floor.My chance!

''YES'',like the way people on tv quiz shows shout their answers after forcibly hitting their beep button,my yes sounded about a hundred times too loud.Shit.Relax Al,keep it cool.

''Urrmm,yea she went there.It was a...'',for a second my left forefinger twitches as I try to find the right word to articulate my point-''yep,Marissa was like,freaking Einstein''.

Both of them seem to have not registered this,their faces a mixture of concern,drowsiness and confusion.Inside i'm reminding myself both of them were total strangers to The OC and it didn't matter that I had lied-in truth Marissa was a whorish idiot who died before she even got into college-but before anyone could say anything a pack of tall,scruffily-dressed boys who dressed like it was still summer entered the room,noisily chatting,and Neil flashed a quick smile to both Aussie girl and me,before turning to the board to scribble down some stuff.

The rest of the class I tried to keep myself busy with the tutorial work,but couldn't help laughing to myself every now and then-for a while considering to give an afterclass session of Know Your Oc 101 to Aus Girl as to try and fix whatever was broken-but nothing was broken,and we all walk on.Forgetting,laughing,surviving.