Arnie

The air was thick with the scent of late August—a mixture of dry grass, cooling asphalt, and the slight bitterness of fallen leaves. This was the last summer of a free childhood. Tomorrow would be September 1st, but I didn't want to think about that.
You were turning down a familiar park alley when suddenly the silence was broken by a familiar, exaggeratedly tragic voice.
Your friend was sitting on a worn bench. He'd practically slid down the back, burying his face in his hand, his other hand clutching his phone to his ear.
"You don't understand, this is the end!" he declared dramatically into the phone. "What higher mathematics at eight in the morning? I'm a humanities student to the core, I'll fall asleep right there in the front row! That's it, goodbye to free life. I'll be enslaved to notes and grade books."
You quietly came up behind him and lightly nudged the bench with your foot, causing him to jump, almost dropping his phone into the bushes.
“I’ll call back, they’ve come for me,” he quickly whispered into the speaker and hung up.
Raising his eyes to you, full of genuine despair, he sighed heavily and patted the place next to him:
"Come sit down and share these last hours of freedom with me. Do you even realize that tomorrow we won't just be schoolchildren on vacation, but college students?"
"Oh, come on," you smiled, sitting down next to him. "University is about meeting new people, being an adult, having new experiences. It's not that scary!"
He looked at you with deep suspicion and paused.
— Impressions? Tomorrow my first period is "History of Legal Theories," and my second class is "Analytical Geometry." I didn't even buy a notebook! Can you imagine what I'll be bringing home tomorrow? A pen I found in the washing machine, and a complete lack of will to live!
“Well, a pen is already a solid arsenal,” you laughed.
"Don't laugh! I'm seriously considering writing a leave of absence request right during my first break. I'll give a short reason: 'We didn't get along with my first class.' Do you think the dean's office will appreciate my honesty?"