6: Hey, Thesis Mate! part 3

“What is it, Sir?” Anthasia asked.

“I’ve seen your proposed topics earlier, and Ashmille’s final topic is related to one of your proposed topics. May I see it again?”

Anthasia handed him the printouts of the three proposed topics they had for the consultation.

“Here, the first one,” The professor pointed out with his black pen, Drino’s group’s first proposed topic. “And this is Ashmille’s chosen final topic.” He handed Ashmille’s printout to them, containing the final topic she chose.

“They aren’t totally the same, but they are related. Gathering information about this will be challenging. You can help one another with this since Ashmille will be doing her thesis alone.”

“You’re doing it by yourself?!” Drino looked shocked.

“Yes,” Ashmille answered.

“For some reason, she and Jeron agreed to do an individual thesis instead. I don’t force you to collaborate, but it is recommended as long as there will be no plagiarism involved.”

“That’s a good idea, Sir.” Drino smiled, looking full of hope.

“Sir, we selected the third option for our final thesis topic.” Anthasia interrupted. “Here,” She flipped the paper and presented their third proposed topic. “We already have interviewees in mind to prove a claim for this study.”

“Alright. You can go with that. But if ever you change your mind about choosing the first topic, you can help Ashmille, and Ashmille can help you, too. All clear?”

“Yes, Sir. Thank you.” Terryl and Anthasia answered.

The three of them left the table.

“Ashmille, are you okay with completely doing it alone?”

The professor was concerned that he called Drino’s group for a possible collaboration to ease Ashmille’s workload. He was also thinking of doing the same thing as Jeron’s case. He would try to convince other groups to help Jeron, too.

“No problem, Sir. I can concentrate more on it.”

“That’s one of the pros of doing your thesis individually.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Ashmille went back to her seat to gather her stuff before going home.

After several minutes, the class ended. Their professor went ahead.

“What? No! You’re not leaving!” Ashmille gazed at the girl who exclaimed. It was Anthasia.

“It’s been settled. I want it this way.” Drino replied.

“You’re no fun! Why would you want to do an individual thesis instead? I thought we already agreed on this?”

“Sorry, guys, it might be my calling. Don’t worry about me. I can retake a term and graduate 4 months later after you, guys.” He forced a smile, knowing that Anthasia wasn’t amused.

“The heck? What’s gotten into you?”

“You really think that we think you’ll fail this? It’s we who will fail the thesis if you aren’t with us, hahaha!” Terryl joked to lighten up the mood, but it didn’t work on Anthasia. She’s totally mad.

“Now’s your time to shine, guys. It’s my time, too.” He winked at both of them.

“How absurd of you, Drino. You’re so disappointing!” she said angrily.

“My, my, don’t be mad.” He comforted her by hugging her.

Ashmille looked at them. Her eyes are telling some juicy news in there. They might be boyfriend and girlfriend. Look how sweet they look. She just witnessed a live lover’s quarrel in college.

“You’re not fair. We talked about this for days.” She glared at him.

“I know. I’m sorry. Please let me off the hook for once.”

“Whatever!” Anthasia wiggled out of his embrace. She walked out of the classroom.

“Anthasia!” Savi called her. She and her boyfriend chased her out.

“Tsk, tsk. I’ll be out for a while. We’ll talk after this.” Terryl tapped Drino’s left shoulder and ran out of the room.

Ashmille remained staring at them until Drino’s eyes met hers. She avoided his eyes immediately. She became conscious that maybe Drino thinks she’s eavesdropping, but it wasn’t intentional.

She packed her stuff and grabbed her bag. She walked 6 steps before approaching the exit door where Drino stands. She didn’t look at him and continued walking fast.

“Hey, thesis mate!” Drino’s voice echoed in the classroom.

It was just the two of them. Their classmates left earlier when Ashmille was deep into her thoughts, reflecting on her final topic. On the other hand, Drino’s group waited for Savi’s group to finish their consultation.

Ashmille glanced slowly at Drino. They are 1 meter away from each other. Their eyes met.

“Uhm, hi… hello?” she asked in a tone that she was unsure if he was referring to her, but it was only the two of them, unless Drino sees something Ashmille couldn’t.

“By the way, I’m Alejandrino Montezales. They call me Drino to shorten it. That’s my nickname too,” he smiled at her.

“Yeah. I’ve heard your names multiple times when you were talking with your friends…”

They are the noisiest group in the class and often get called by the professor, who wouldn’t remember their names.

She was weirded out by Drino’s sudden approach. “What do you mean by thesis mate?”

He chuckled. “As you heard a while ago, I decided to do my thesis alone, too, like you.”

He sounded excited when he announced that he’ll do his thesis individually. Ashmille thought, what’s to be excited about it when it is more difficult, and he already has a good, reliable set of thesis mates. Instead of asking these questions, she remained silent because they weren’t close enough to meddle. And as far as she knows, Drino is extroverted. For sure, he works better in groups.

“Technically, we’re not thesis mates, but shall we call it individual thesis mates instead?” he smiled.

She nodded and forced a smile, as if to say, "Ohhh, okay….And then?” No words came out of her mouth with the joke Drino made up.

“I like our first option the most, but Anthasia and Terryl would like to go with the third option. And I don’t want them to change their preference just because of me, so I left,” he explained.

Drino preferred to work on their first proposed thesis topic, and coincidentally, the one he chose happened to be closely related to Ashmille’s chosen final topic. It was the relevance of the topics that led the professor to suggest they collaborate.

“Are you sure you’re okay doing an individual thesis? How about your friends?” she asked in a concerned tone.

“They’ll be alright. I believe in them,” he answered calmly.

“Okay…”

She’s more concerned about his friends' reactions, especially Anthasia’s. She looked so pissed that she might call their friendship off because of this guy’s spontaneity.

“Oh, about Anthasia? Don’t mind her. She was just shocked, but she’ll cope. She’s with Terryl, so they will be alright. They could also work with Jeron instead.”

It seemed as if he could read her thoughts or perhaps her expression because he managed to answer even before Ashmille could ask.

“Okay. Do tell Sir Monrey about your decision,” she reminded him.

“Yup, will do. Thanks for the heads up.” He motioned his hands, making two thumbs up.

Ashmille ran out of words on what to say to Drino, who suddenly approached her just to introduce himself. It was quite awkward because this was the first time they had talked with each other for more than 20 words, even though they shared several subjects from previous terms.

“We got this,” she smiled.

What she meant was that, even though they would be tackling their theses individually, success was still within reach. It wouldn’t be easy, definitely. But she believed that with determination and effort, they could pull it off. They had to hold onto hope and push forward.

Drino's eyes lit. He nodded and smiled warmly. “Yeah, we got this.”