Should I Take Note?

I have this friend. I met him in a mathematical economics class where we were both sitting in the front row like the dorky keeners that we are. Said friend is double-majoring in economics and applied math, so he's a really good friend to have in a mathematical economics class. He also takes really good notes, a fact that I have exploited once or twice. Okay, three times exactly. Whenever I have to miss class, he's good at explaining the missed lecture to me or letting me copy his notes, and he used my notes once to get some missed material.

I was sick last Friday and missed class, so today, I asked if there would be a time in the afternoon when the two of us could meet up with a photocopier on campus. We arranged a time and parted ways, him to his next class and me to the gym. When we met up at Bound and Copied, the copy centre run by the Student's Union, we got started on the four pages of meticulous notes from which I would be reviewing the applications of lambda values in Lagrangian functions. Our first copier turned out to be completely bereft of paper, as did the second and third. The only copier currently not empty was being used to photocopy an entire textbook by some freshman too cheap to buy a book that he could probably sell to someone else next semester for the same price he paid for it. This was frustrating to both me and my friend. The funny thing is that it prompted him to tell various stories of all the annoying people who have asked him for his notes throughout the ages, some of which were pretty funny.

One was the girl who ran into him in the hall and, upon recognizing him from her class, asked if she could get notes from him for an upcoming lecture, as she would be getting her wisdom teeth out. In a rush, he said to ask him again in class. He never saw her again, as the semester was almost over. However, six months later he got a facebook message from her, asking why she had never gotten the notes and telling him that she thought they had a connection that day in the hallway and was he interested in going out with her?

Another was the girl who didn't speak English and kept asking him to explain concepts. After this had happened numerous times, he asked her if she had the textbook, to which she replied, "I no need textbook. You explain for me." He politely asked her to stop using him as a textbook for the course, especially since he didn't know all the concepts perfectly anyways.

I commiserated with a few stories about people who have asked me in advance for the next two weeks' worth of notes, since they'll be going away on holidays. People seem to think that when one sits in the front row, as we do, that we're really smart and know everything the professor is talking about. What they don't realize is our ulterior motives: I need to see the board, and my friend is borderline anti-social and so sits in the only place that isn't full of other people.

It took me this long to remember what we were doing as we complained about sharing notes with people. That's right, I was borrowing his notes. This must have occurred to him around the same time, because he hastily threw in,

"I knew you'd know what I'm talking about. That's why I don't mind sharing my notes with you."

Sitting on the front row makes me the exception to the rule.