Matt

FOUR CANDLES

“For those that need further clarification you can see me in my office after this class!” she shouted with her spanish accent as she walked down the stairs of the auditorium’s stage and lividly paced in the direction of her office.

Prof. Antonella was a resplendent lady in her forties and always wore a bewitching smile and so seeing her annoyed felt very odd to me.

She was taking us Cost Accounting, one course a lot of us found really difficult to grasp and while she was trying to deliver her lecture, there was a lot of murmuring from the audience.

I guess this was what triggered her.

I had managed to absorb the main points of the lecture but I still felt I needed more insight.

My friend Jade sat beside me during the lecture.

“why don’t we go together to her office?” she asked, slipping her iPad into her bag.

“I think we should wait a little bit. Her office would probably be crowded right now,” I replied.

I had noticed a handful of students scampering right after the professor as she left the auditorium.

“How was your night Jade?” I asked. We didn’t have time to talk before the lecture so I decided to start a conversation while we waited.

“I had a pleasant night, thanks. How about you?” she asked, giving a broad smile that exposed her gap tooth.

“Well mine was also good,” I replied. “Awesome.”

“My little brother is four today,” I continued.

“Wow! You have a little brother?” she asked.

“Yeah I do.”

“Interesting, happy birthday to him. I know he isn’t as ugly as you are,” she taunted with a grin.

“I’ve gotten compliments from an oceanful of girls concerning my charming looks,” I said and we both laughed.

“Yeah sadly you’re actually handsome. I just felt like poking some fun at you and I think I got you right there.” she said as she chuckled loudly again.

“I was totally lost all through today’s cost accounting lecture,” she continued.

“Well that’s because you’re dumb,” I teased her in revenge.

She gave me a quick angry look, picked up her bag and began to walk away.

“Jade! Jade!” I called, running after her. She stopped short and turned back.

“I didn’t mean to…” I began, as I took her hand. “It’s fine,” she interrupted me and started to walk towards the row of seats where we sat.

“I wasn’t actually angry,” she said with a beam. She got me for the second time in one morning.

“Well you scared me,” I said, heaving a sigh of relief.

If there was one thing I avoided so much in my life, it was getting on anyone’s nerves.

However, I was now convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Jade was super good at acting.

We continued talking for some minutes more and then went to see the lecturer at her office.

I headed back to my room so I could get some respite before the next lecture which was scheduled for 3pm.

I looked at my watch. It was almost noon.

After taking off my shoes I jumped on my bed.

In no time, I dozed off and got up an hour to the lecture.

I hurriedly got dressed so I could go have lunch quickly before going to class.

Within the first minutes of the lecture I was very attentive.

However, after I had gotten a clear picture of the concept the lecturer was trying to explain, my mind began to drift away.

I started thinking about Matt’s birthday celebration and i felt sad that I wouldn’t be with my family in person that day, all because of school.

I planned to give them a video call immediately I got home.

“Happy birthday to you Matt.” I said to him.

“Thank you so much Chris,” he replied. He now had a few teeth so he struggled with the ‘s’ sound at the end of my name.

“Let’s sing a happy birthday song for Matt once again so he’ll tell us how old he is,” Dad suggested and then they began.

After singing, Mum said, “over to you Matt.”

“I am four years today, I am four years today, I am four years today, I am four years today,” he sang with his tiny voice.

We gave him a round of applause and then I spoke with mum and Dad for some time until it was time to go.

They had to go continue with preparations for Matt’s birthday celebration which was in about an hour’s time.

“Please make sure to send me a lot of pictures and videos,” I reminded them before getting off the call.

Cost Accounting was one hell of a course for me.

I was still having a tough time understanding it despite the extra explanations Prof. Antonella gave me the previous week after her lecture.

I prayed that I would at least get a pass in the course that semester. I was very scared of failing any paper throughout my college days.

I got up from bed very early on Friday morning because I had to be at the library in time so I could do a lot of study before the weekend.

As I combed my hair I began contemplating whether to spend the entire day at the library or not.

It then occurred to me that Jade might be able to explain some of those concepts to me.

She was really brilliant and the day we were in the lecturer’s office she seemed to have understood everything unlike me who was absent minded in the woman’s office.

My body was present in that office but my mind was at home with my family.

Another option was to check YouTube if there would be some video lectures there.

I could also d******d some more simplified PDFs from the internet and study them.

Going back to Prof Antonella for another round of teaching however, was totally out of the picture because apart from the fact that I might not have been able to access her, it might have been quite embarrassing for me.

After exploring options in my head for few minutes I decided to see if Jade would agree to explain everything for me.

“Hello Jade!” “Hi.”

“Do you mind we meet at the classroom this morning? I need you to give me some insight into some of those Cost Accounting concepts,” I asked.

“No problem. Can we make it 8:00 AM?” “Yes that would be perfect. Thank you,” I replied.