“What was that?” the professor asked.
“She told you to shut up,” Benji said.
“What!? I did not!” I exclaimed.
“Are the two of you going to become a problem? Because I have no issues throwing you out of my class.”
I glared at Benji, who only smiled back at me before he plugged his ears with his headphones. After being forty-five minutes late to class in the first place.
“No, sir. I’m sorry. I don’t even know this guy,” I said.
“We’re in the same dorm!” Benji yelled over his music.
“I really don’t know him,” I insisted.
“She was spying on me last night talking with my guys. I think she’s got a crush.”
The class giggled and I wanted to die. Right then and there.
“Uh huh. Well, keep your emotions out of this class. They won’t do you very well unless you know how to channel them,” the professor said.
“Oh, she can channel them all right,” Benji said.
“I’m going to kill you,” I murmured.
“Sweetheart, you don’t have the balls.”
He held up his phone before pressing the ‘play’ button. And as the professor went back to lecturing, it was all I could do to tune out the blaring rock music I heard pouring from the outside of those stupid, cheap ear-plug-music-headphone things. I gripped my pencil so tightly I thought it might break. I shifted around, trying to get comfortable as the snoring to my right mounted with a mighty roar. The girl directly next to me slipped down a little further. The copper of her jeans scraped against the plastic chair.
It took so much energy to focus on the professor that I didn’t have enough to keep taking notes.
It’s going to be a long semester.
I couldn’t pack my things up quickly enough when the professor finally wound things down. And with an hour before I had to be in my next lecture, the one thing I needed was coffee. I wanted to douse myself in coffee. No, no, I wanted to sink an I.V. directly into my vein and fill it with coffee.
Right after I apologiz
ed to my professor.
“Sir, if I could--?”
He held up his hand, stopping me in my tracks.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
I swallowed hard. “Danika, sir.”
“Miss Danika, first impressions are everything.”
“I’m so sorry about what--”
“Let me finish.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. Of course.”
He sighed. “They’re everything. But they’re also up to interpretation by the person who is receiving said first impression. Your words created more conflict than necessary in my class. One could argue it would’ve been in your benefit to simply stay quiet. You chose not to, which came with consequences. Consequences you couldn't talk yourself out of. That’s what my class is all about.”
“Yes, sir.”