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Blu sighed.

The green blue bird had buried his face on his crossed wings for what felt like an eternity now. Where was Mr. Tulip? The tutor was supposed to come back to the classroom once he'd finished talking with another student, but the strict, serious-minded hummingbird hadn't walked back from the corridor. If only it hadn't been impossible, Blu would have thought his teacher had forgotten about him.

He admitted he had a tendency to get distracted in lectures, but usually nobody noticed or even cared. Why had Mr. Tulip taken it so personally? Blu had no idea, but things weren't looking good for him. He only hoped they would let him go soon - he had plans for the afternoon.

A few minutes later, Mr. Tulip walked into the room, carrying something under his wing. He approached Blu and placed the weird contraption on the student's desk.

"What's tha...?" Blu began, but Mr. Tulip interrupted him with a gesture.

Now that it was close enough, the young blue bird could tell the mysterious object was actually an old-fashioned metronome, one of those you could only find in music rooms. Which was weird, because as far as Blu knew, their university wasn't offering a single Music course at the moment.

Mr. Tulip maneuvered with it for a few seconds and then the familiar tic sound echoed in the hall. And then again. By then, Blu was beginning to wonder if that was part of a punishment he was still unable to comprehend or if Mr. Tulip was somehow feeling cheerful that morning and wanted to chirp a few tunes with him.

"I realize," the tutor began, his voice as serious and strict as usual, "that you find it hard to focus on class. Isn't that right?"

Blu nodded, slightly intimidated. The metronome kept ticking and even though the blue bird assumed Mr. Tulip wanted him to look at him while he scolded him, truth was his eyes kept darting to the small iron bar. He'd only ever toyed with digital metronomes in the past and the real swinging effect was, for lack of a better word, hypnotic.

"Well, see? That's your problem. A single distraction and your mind simply runs off to its arms." Mr. Tulip's voice lowered a bit. "So we're going to make an exercise, you and I. I want you to focus on my voice. I want you to try and ignore the metronome for now."

Blu nodded, gulping a bit. He tried to move his gaze away from the metronome, but the distracting sound made it difficult not to go back to it.

"I know it's hard," the tutor insisted, wings tapping patiently on the desk. "But you have to keep trying. Try not to let yourself get distracted. Try to focus on my words and only my words."

Blu wanted to ask many questions, but he'd been told to shush earlier and he wasn't risking getting scolded again. He made a huge effort to hold Mr. Tulip's gaze and ignore the clicking sound, but his thoughts kept returning to the rhythmic motion.

How many beats per minute was it playing on? It was more or less one beat per second, so Blu assumed... 60?

"No. Focus." Mr. Tulip's inflexible tone brought Blu back to his tutor. "Don't think about the metronome. Ignore it. Don't think about the metronome, Blu."

It was easier said than done, but Blu tried to do it. He put every ounce of his mind power on the task of ignoring the metronome.

"It's just like when you're in class and you ignore what I'm saying. It's just as easy. Just let your mind drift and ignore the sound. Focus on my voice. Don't think about the metronome, Blu. Don't think about it."

The blue bird relaxed on his seat. Having a familiar experience to hang onto made things easier. He'd ignored Mr. Tulip many times in the past, much to his dismay. It was never intentional, but his voice had that dreamy, monotone quality to it that made it hard to pay attention. He only had to do it the other way round.

But it wasn't that easy. Ignoring the metronome in purpose made it harder to focus on his tutor's voice. He couldn't force his mind to do one thing and not the other. Instead, it felt like his thoughts were somewhere else entirely, fractured between ignoring and paying attention.

The metronome kept ticking, he thought, but he wasn't completely certain of that. Mr. Tulip kept talking, he imagined, but his words were beginning to feel as blurry as the classroom in front of his tired eyes.

"Yes. You're there now, I can see. That's right. Ignore everything, Blu. Blank for me."

Those words should have worried the blue bird, but by now he had something different in his head.

It was so easy, when Blu came to think about it. To let every distraction fade into the back of his mind. To focus entirely on something that wasn't the metronome or the sound of Mr. Tulip's voice, but another thing. Something shapeless and meaningless, that kept him away from everything - something inside his head, that his head had no idea about, that not even his head could make sense of.

It was so easy to get properly distracted and not know why.

Mr. Tulip smiled slightly and looked at the glassy-eyed student sitting on the desk in front of him. The green blue bird was nodding rhythmically, following a ticking sound that had stopped echoing in the room long ago. His body was slumping on the chair and, even though the hummingbird knew that he'd spring back into awareness with a clap or a sudden sound, he had other plans for his student.

"Let's see," he began, the smile on his face fading as he considered his options. "How can I make sure you'll be paying attention to me in our next class, Blu?"