I have always loved stories with ensembles.

Something about group dynamics, inner workings, melding relationships and utter messes appeals to me. The haphazard groups have always been my favorite: weird roommates welcoming a new girl, teenage criminals committing the heist of a lifetime, Spanish failures coming together to accidentally join a tutoring group. 

My friends aren’t as interesting, though we definitely failed Spanish at one point. Still, I love the idea that we are one of those little groups, even though we haven’t been in the vicinity of each other together for around half a year.

There is a firm consistency in going to school everyday, meeting certain friends between certain classes and having lunch with certain friends on certain days – all of which are obviously gone now. 

But there are new things as well, things I’m just as happy I get to consistently expect in these last few months. I wake up to thoughts on whichever album of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time we’re planning to get through on that day along with a few dog pictures (as demanded by me) and a life report on all that happened since our conversation the night before. 

While I’m on Zooms, I get sent jokes for the sole purpose of making me laugh on video and be embarrassed in front of the class.

I go to sleep to terribly-told stories of whatever teacher did whatever weird thing that day, various complaints about grades and at least a few “I’m going to drop out” texts always closely followed by an “I finished my assignment.”

I’ll wait for the day I can force my friends to walk me to my next class and be late to theirs and have someone come with me in an attempt to stave off starvation with a run to the vending machine during the 10–minute passing periods. 

But in the meantime, I’ve found an alternative I can live with, as long as I have the people I want beside me, even if it’s just through a screen. 

Follow Anjali(@anjalikrishna_) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.