a/n - pls put me out of my misery
The soft scratch of pencils on notebook paper. The squeak and smell of a dry-erase marker on a fresh whiteboard. The teeming tension between a roomful of new college students, all hoping to meet people or happy that they won't.
"Alright. After last class's discussion of examples of classical conservatism and progressivism in the modern era, today we will be extrapolating other conceptions introduced in the Enlightenment Period. Can anyone define classical liberalism?"
A hand in the front row lifted, forming an almost perfect right angle.
"Yes?"
"Classical liberalism was coined by John Locke describing a group of governing principles where the government takes a limited role in dictating the people's lives," answered Niles Sparks. He briefly mentally scolded himself for answering so quickly.
"Yes, well said. So, in modern history terms, one example of classical liberalism, as opposed to the modern rendition of it..."
Niles smiled down at his notebook and started writing. "Intro to Political Science, Class 2."
Niles loved political science and knew he would love college, although the first few classes of his intro courses were proving to be a little slow. He began to doodle in the margins of his notebook, then stopped himself, deciding to listen intently instead. The hour and a half of class continued as the first few minutes had, with Niles diligently taking notes and occasionally answering questions.
As he was leaving class, Niles heard a voice behind him. "Hey, that was really good stuff! Did you read the summer material, like, yesterday or something?"
Niles turned around. It was surprising that anyone would start a conversation with him during class, given that no one had come up to him for the entire orientation week plus three first days of school so far. "No, I, uh..." Niles turned and fiddled with his folder for a second, then turned back around and offered the person a stack of packets. "These are some history-level overviews of Enlightenment philosophy. Not advanced enough to use in here, but they have some good definitions and they made the summer homework really easy to understand."
"Oh, cool, thanks. Austin," the student continued, extending his hand.
"Niles. Nice to meet you." He shook his hand.
"Do you want this stuff back? I'll probably glance over it in the next few days."
"Yeah, that would be cool. Where do you sit in this class?" Niles responded, starting off in the direction of his next class.
"On the side, in between the front and the back. I want to hear what's going on without the teacher calling on me."
Niles smiled. "Yeah, I get that. I wish I was better at laying low. College professors are scary."
Austin smiled back. "Well, it sounds like you're off to a bad start with that, then. What you said in class was really smart."
"No, it wasn't! It was basically taken directly from those packets I gave you."
"Still," Austin gestured with the packets, "being able to understand this stuff is really cool. And in the first week of class, too."
Niles just smiled. "Well, thank you. Have fun getting through that. See ya 'round?"
"Yeah, see ya!"
Austin turned around and Niles watched his light brown hair bob for a second as he walked away. Wow, he thought to himself. This making friends thing was turning out to be pretty easy.
