-- ALL THINGS ARE EQUAL && [evie]

This was why he didn't procrastinate.

He had felt a little off the day before and had decided that he should turn in and not do any more revision for the upcoming exam until morning. Josh was an early riser and did not require a lot of time to wake up and get his thoughts organized. He was used to running on a lot of caffiene and very little sleep, being that he studied with a double major and had plenty of work to do. Including studying. He figured that it would be fine, he had done it before. That is, until the soft click of the door interrupted his dreamless state of sleep. He had always slept lightly—likely out of paranoia. The gang had made him fear for his life and while that fear had passed, the old habits remained. He did not react to the sound, shifting his position slightly with his eyes closed. Alarm's not gone off yet, he thought drowsily. I can spare a few more—

Apparently he could not, for in the next few seconds a persistent hand on his shoulder had him groaning in protest and cracking open his eyes. Blinking once or twice, glad that there was not any sunlight pouring into the room to blind him, he fixed her with a questioning stare. "Josh," she said, and he immediately shushed her with a quiet hiss. "I don't want to wake Nell," he whispered. "What do you want?" Thankfully for Annabel, he was not grumpy in the mornings. Tired, yes, but not unpleasant. "I don't feel good." Her voice sounded scratchy, now that he thought about it. Looks like we're both getting a bit under the weather. His good immune system meant that oncoming colds often stopped after a day or two of discomfort rather than fully forming but it still wasn't a good thing for two out of three members in the household to fall ill. He got up without further question, careful not to wake his sleeping fiancée.

With a pang of guilt he called his parents, knowing that he was probably going to wake them. They agreed to take Annabel for the day and watch over her while he was at school, to his relief. Joshua himself went to the medicine cabinet and knocked back a dose of cold medicine, expression contorting with the taste. It was vile but it worked. By the time he had everything sorted, the Fire elemental realised that he did not have enough time to comfortably study in the kitchen and still avoid the morning rush of cars into the Academy parking lot. He had a lot of patience but did not much enjoy traffic jams. Sighing, he left his empty plate from breakfast and a half-filled cup of coffee for the maids to take care of and headed out the door.

As he'd already ate breakfast and he didn't need to eat again until lunch time, Joshua instead ordered two extra large coffees from Tim Hortons. Seven hours sleep was quite a lot—more than usual for him, really—but it did not feel as much when he was fighting off illness. The exam he had to sit meant that he could not take the day off and he wouldn't have even if the option were presented to him. He did not skip school because he felt like it, he did not skip school when he was feeling a little low, he only skipped school when it was absolutely necessary, like after he'd been attacked and he had several injuries causing him serious pain. That had been a valid enough reason. He made his way to the mess hall once he'd gotten inside the building, sitting down at an empty table and pulling out his notes. Fuck, my head hurts. Just what he needed. Sucking it up, Joshua suppressed a sigh and began to review them. I'd better ace this fucking test.

[Couldn't write a classroom starter but the exam can be for a class they both have, if you want xD]