FSE

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Exam season had come around again, and everyone was stressing out over it. Students were filling the library on campus, budging to get the last free computer on all six floors, from first years who delayed their essays, third years getting last minute changes for their final year projects, and a scattering of second years grappling for survival, still not in the vibe of studying after a whole year.

Among the many hordes of students in slow mental breakdown included a little fox named Alex, slouched at his desk nearly 24-7, if not doing assignments then sleeping and distracting himself on Tumblr. The problem wasn't that Alex didn't know what he was doing for assignments, or that he couldn't manage his time - the problem was that he was absolutely terrible at sitting down and actually working. He was fortunate enough to not have exams the first two years of his course, but the pressure of all the assignment deadlines looming over his head was enough to send him on a spiral downward.

In the middle of his mini-meltdown of doing-work-but-not, his phone blares out mariachi music. As he already knew, he looked at the screen to see Sam phoning him up, likely to gloat about finishing his work early.

"Hello?" Alex said into the phone, rubbing the back of his head as he turned from the computer screen.

"Hey man, what's up?" The wolf said cheerfully on the other end of the line "How's the assignment coming?"

"Not good" Alex replied in an exhausted tone.

"You should have started earlier" Sam gloated, punctuating with a laugh. "Hey, me and some of the guys are going out tonight if you want to come along? Work off some stress."

Despite how tempting that all sounded, the fox had to decline. "I've got to get these assignments finished, A.S.A.P. I can't have another set of extensions - I've already had two for the last assignment."

"All right, but you don't know what you're missing" Sam responded. "If you want I could help you out with it sometime this week?"

"Nah mate, we did different things."

"Okay, just offered. Well, catch you later, Al."

"See ya" The fox replied, pulling the phone from his ear and hanging up. Alex would kill for any time for some time devoted to him, but he felt that he already wasted enough time not doing his assignments.

Later that night, during a 15-minute break from his last-minute writing, Scottie came home from shopping with some friends in Leeds.

"Hey mate" Scottie said as he walked through the door, a surprisingly hefty amount of bags, filled mostly with (in Alex's opinion) ridiculous clothing and geeky merchandise. "So, how was your day, cooped up inside and not washing? Seriously, it's getting ridiculous."

"First of all, I bathed yesterday and I don't smell that bad" the fox replied.

"You smell like mouldy clams!"

"Secondly" Alex continued, ignoring the clam comments, "I think I'm on my way to finishing everything."

"You said that when you 'started' everything," Scottie said. "I know you better than you do, little idiot! Stop lying to yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever" Alex replied.

"This is exactly why I dropped out in first year" The lizard responded, smug look on his face. "And as you can see, I have more money for it!"

"Sure, that's the reason" the fox said sarcastically. "So, you're cooking tonight?"

"Yeah" Scottie said, "as soon as you've helped me carry this shit upstairs."

"What we having?" Alex asked the reptile boy, picking up the first bag.

Scottie leaned over to Alex, mockingly sniffed at him and answered "yep, definitely not clams."

. . . .

Later that night, Alex had resumed his position in front of the computer, working away at the last minute schoolwork. His eyes were starting to get harder and harder to get open, his head flopping forward due to tiredness. Obviously, it wasn't long until the fox finally caved into sleep and let himself to shutdown, head hitting the desk in front of him heavily.

What can be assumed to be hours later, the fox started to feel his return to consciousness, the faintest sensation of a hand shaking him from behind.

In the background, he could just faintly make out Scottie telling him to get up, move from the desk.

"Seriously, mate" the lizard boy said as he shook him more frantically, "get up or I'm calling an ambulance!"

"I'm up, I'm up" Alex said, forcing himself up, waving away his roommate away from him. The sudden light coming from the window shocked him, his eyes seemingly on fire. "Wait, what about my assignments?"

"You finished them" Scottie said, grin on his face. "Yeah, you got them sent off last night!"

"Really?"

"Yeah man! Relax, you're free now!"

The fox could feel the smile form across his face, tail wagging rapidly from back and forth. He couldn't believe it; he finished them.

The fox got up, heading straight for the front door and asked Scottie "so, what you want to do today?"

"Oh, I don't know" Scottie answered. "How about you open the door?"

Curious as to why his roommate said that, Alex opened the door and saw not the usual scenery outside his house. Instead, he saw a world made up of term papers, essays and reports, covering the world into a cube, with no bottom to it.

Before the fox could react to the image, Scottie had pushed him out of his house, sending him falling into the abyss.

As he reached the bottom, he saw a strange fleshy floor. When he landed on the floor, he almost got sucked into it, like a waterbed with grip.

"What the hell is going on?" the fox asked himself, trying to get around the sludgy, waterbed-like ground.

Suddenly, just as he thought he was out of the red, he felt his hands and knees get sucked into the floor. Suddenly, he saw a hoard of zombie-like clams coming for him, each one snapping their mouths.

As they came closer and closer, he became more and more unable to move, eventually becoming completely paralysed.

As the creatures came closer, they started sniffing him, licking at their non-existent lips with their tongue-like goo.

This was it - the moment of truth. The death of a fox. The first clam closed around his head.

. . . .

Alex was sent out of sleep and back into the real world, breaking out in a cold sweat and breathing heavily.

"Okay, I need a break" the fox said, shutting down the computer and heading for bed. "And I'm never eating clams."