Jade tapped a evenly trimmed, unpolished and unpainted fingernail against the hard material of the table in front of her with the usual patient tolerance she had during this class. She eyed the surface of the table curiously as she continued her tapping, wondering just what exactly it was even made of. It kinda seemed like wood, but it also had some pretty plastic elements to it. It was one of those long, thin tables that the college used to make rows of desks in some of the classes, just tall enough to get a chair under. Which made actually sitting at them uncomfortable, since there wasn't much room for a student to put their legs. Especially for someone who had a bit more size to their legs than standard, as she and a few other students in the class did. It made little sense to her that they'd pick the most uncomfortable setup for any class, much less one that required memorizing a lot of numbers and regulations like this business course did.
With a frown she shifted in her seat a little, wiggling her legs about in an attempt to get more comfortable. She didn't want to disrupt the class though, since they were in the middle of watching and writing down notes from a informational video being played via projector at the front of the room. She jotted down another note of something that sounded vaguely like it was a good idea to remember, wishing the person speaking in the video would be a lot more to-the-point about what he was trying to teach. Judging from the disinterested way her professor was reading a book at his desk, he seemed to at least agree a little bit. That or he'd simply seen the video so much himself during the classes he taught over the years that there wasn't any reason for him to watch it another time. She wondered if he was as bored as he seemed because it was a business class, and the subject got stale after awhile, or if it was because he was pretty old and had been teaching for so long.
Soon enough though, the video came to an end and the professor snapped his book shut, leaning forward to shut off the projector. Giving a small grunt, the man pushed himself out of his chair and made his way over to the door, flipping the lights back on.
“Well that just about wraps up things for today. I want you all to do the assigned reading by next time, understand? Go over the notes you just took especially well as well, as we'll be having a small test to see how well everyone's remembering everything.” He clapped his hands together in a show of energy as all the students, Jade included, set about collecting their books, notes, and scattered pencils and pens. He pushed the door open, kicking down the small little stand screwed to the bottom that kept it from swinging back shut, before returning to his desk and shuffling about stacks of papers.
“See you at lunch, Professor.” Jade bid farewell in her usual way, giving her stiff legs a few get-the-blood-going stretches before getting up from her space with all her things in tow. The professor gave a small smile, with a nod as he looked up from his various stacks of papers.
“Oh I hope not, since that means you won't be on cooking duty today.” He joked. The aged professor was fond of visiting the culinary lab's “simulated restaurant” for lunch, which was run entirely by the culinary students during that period. It had become something of a in-joke between them, even though the chance of her making the dish he happened to order was a little slim even if she was sharing cooking with the half-dozen other students who got that assignment today, that she was one of the few people to ever make hollandaise sauce just the way he liked it. As much as she found his class a bit dull and the set up of the room irritating, the professor himself was a rather friendly old man that was easy to get along with.
Walking out of the classroom with the small flood of leaving students, backpack slung over one shoulder, she hurriedly made her way around the crowded walkways of the campus. Fishing it out of her pocket, she cast a glance at the time displayed on her phone in bright white numbers. 10:13 AM was what flashed dimly, thanks to the bright light outdoors and the sub-par light in her phones screen, back at her. That was a little past ten minutes over when the class was supposed to end, and left her very little time to get an early lunch before class and then changed into her culinary lab clothes. Frowning, she quickly went over it in her head. Class started at twenty after, and students were expected to be dressed and ready to go by then. She could maybe get a muffin or something from the cafeteria and still be on time, but the cafeteria wasn't exactly close to the locker room or the culinary lab. Deciding she'd just have to tough it out today, she hurried on towards the locker room.
Dropping her backpack once she slipped into the cramped, rectangular room lined with small blue lockers that served as the woman’s locker room and change room, she gave a few small nods and smiles of acknowledgment to her fellow female lab students that were hurriedly changing into the ventilated jackets, checkered pants, and non-slip shoes that were mandatory for kitchen work. While she was normally one for jeans, she had heard the fabric was prone to melting at high temperatures that were commonplace next to hot stoves and ovens. Some of the students complained about it, but she rather liked having skin on her legs. The checkered pants didn't look that bad anyways.
Fussing with the lock for a moment, she got her locker open and quickly set about getting dressed. By the time she was done, shoving her casual clothes into the locker and locking it closed once more, all the other female students had finished and filed out to wait for the professor to unlock the lab doors. Poofy chef's hat tucked under her arm and her bundle of cooking tools in the other, she gave one more glance at her phone. It'd be smarter just to hurry on to class, as if she was late she'd only make herself later, but the desire to know if she'd gotten dressed in time was a bit of a compulsive habit. 10:16 flashed back at her, and she briefly gave a satisfactory grin of triumph. That had to be record time of getting to the locker room and dressed up for her.
The smirk was soon replaced by confusion and concern as she became aware of a soft rattling noise, slowly getting louder as the metal lockers clattered and clanged against themselves. The ground shaking was soon apparent, as she steadied herself against the door. An earthquake? That was no fair, it was going to make her late for lab! She immediately found that thought a bit silly, since she should be more concerned if the locker room was considered earthquake safe or not. Except well, lab was her favorite class! She suddenly turned her focus from her worried thoughts to a bright light seeping in from the cracks around the door, briefly thinking it was the sun. She'd seen it do that a few times before, when it got towards sunset or sunrise and there was a west or east facing door. Then she realized it wasn't even noon, and that if anything the sun would be eastward and this was a west-facing door.
Jade felt panic and fear well up, her brain racing for things that could shake the ground and make that much light. It settled on some kind of big giant bomb having gone off, and she found herself worried for everyone that wasn't indoors on campus. Some part of her mind didn't know if the locker room would hold up to whatever explosion could make that much light and the ground shake for so long or so powerfully, but she was definitely sure it would be a lot safer than being out in the open. She was also glad she'd skipped an early lunch after all, since all the sudden shaking and immense feeling of panic and fear was putting knots in her stomach as the light got brighter and brighter.