Not So Quiet In The Quiet Zone

A man in a blue shirt and a short girl with “nerd glasses” are sitting in silence in the corner, but glancing at one another and giggling frequently. They keep looking at me with odd expressions because I sat near them, almost like they’re wondering why I came to their spot. Maybe they will be here next week? There are only two other people here that are both sitting in the corners against the opposite wall, glued to their computer screens. One is a female with her headphones in, the other is an Asian male focusing intently at the work on his computer.

Some time passes before another man in sport shorts enters, sighing and rubbing his eyes. He sits next to the short girl without saying hello, greeting them by explaining that he hasn’t studied at all for the exam they must be studying for. Short girl pulls out her notes and immediately begins going over them with the man in sport shorts, but the man in the blue shirt loses interest and doesn’t say much. Sport shorts asks her how long she has been here and short girl shrugs, not knowing the exact time, but says that she is tired. They go silent and begin studying, all the while blue shirt mumbles small sentences to the girl and checks his cell phone a lot. The guys keep glancing around, not seeming to be very interested in studying, while short girl looks over her notes and reads through the book. Blue shirt and sport shorts seem to be more interested in who can keep short girl’s attention the longest. After five minutes (if that) sport shorts guy gets up and leaves for a moment, adjusting his shorts as he returns. This tells me he probably went on a bathroom break. When he returns, short girl asks if the professor is going to ask about any material from chapter seven on the exam. Both men shrug and they go quiet again, resuming their text messaging or browsing on their phones.

 In the corner directly opposite of where we are sitting, the female with her headphones in is joined by a male who takes off his jacket, revealing his muscle shirt. Muscle shirt leans down to greet her with a kiss and sits on the opposite side of the table, instead of the same side as her, and they both begin writing in their notebooks. They go silent and don’t seem to have any updates to tell one another. Then, sport shorts suddenly comes up with a question to ask and the three of them begin to talk about if they do/do not think their professor will put the information on the exam. Blue shirt shrugs and gets back on his cell phone, while short girl and sport shorts guy begin to argue about the information being relevant or not. Short girl ends the discussion by saying that he should go ask the professor if he thinks it will be on the exam. They go quiet for a few minutes, then he starts the conversation again, but short girl is annoyed and tells him that it is not relevant enough to be on the exam. Blue shirt seems to be pleased with her annoyance of the guy in sport shorts. A thick male in athletic clothing sat down right across from me with his music blaring through his headphones. I don’t think he can hear himself breathing because he’s huffing and puffing like he just ran a marathon. I’m going to take that as a good place for me to end my notes and free myself from the music he’s wanting us to hear.