READY FOR LOVE | JENLISA

Chapter 5

Lisa

"Jennie!" the girl across from me excitedly shouts, nearly giving me, and almost everyone else in the class, a heart attack. I turn back around to look at the girl sitting across from me, and she's smiling wide while looking at the door. Rodent boy looks up from his phone, surprise written all over his face as he sits up straighter.

I look to the doorway to find a tall, slender brunette standing there, a deep blush spreading across her cheeks. She gives a quick sheepish and apologetic smile to the class for her friend's outburst while stepping through the threshold, keeping her head down as she briskly strides to our table, her long caramel hair flowing behind her.

My breath hitches in my throat. She's... beautiful.

She's not the conventional type. She's not drop dead gorgeous, sexy as sin, or hot as hell. No. She's the subtle kind of beauty, the kind that can easily be looked over if you're not careful enough. She's not the kind to turn heads on the streets, her demeanour far too shy and reserved to purposefully attract attention, but nonetheless, she manages to take my breath away.

Our eyes meet briefly as she gets closer, and she gives me a small, kind smile. It's like a breath of fresh air. I'm used to girls smiling at me, but they usually have some sort of motive behind it. Her smile isn't suggestive or seductive, and there's no hunger in her eyes or awe signalling that she knows who I am. Her smile is genuine and friendly, and damn does it make me feel good.

She's dressed simply in a white T-shirt and jeans, not a usual first week outfit. Most girls go out of their way to dress up the first week of classes, wanting to catch everyone's attention. Not this girl. Even in such a simple outfit she manages to capture my attention, whether she intended to or not. Again, this girl has such a reserved demeanour to her that I don't think she has the intention of capturing anyone's attention, undermining her own beauty.

She stands next to our table and her warm honey coloured eyes meet mine once again. "Hi, is this seat taken?" her soft, melodic voice asks politely, gesturing to the empty chair next to me.

Caught off guard, I shake my head, my lips parted open like a damn idiot as no words come out. She gives me that smile again before shrugging off her powder blue backpack, setting it on the floor, and taking a seat next to me. The faint smell of vanilla wafts through my nose, giving me a much needed momentary relief from the formaldehyde.

"Hey, Jennie!" the girl across from us greets her.

Jennie.

"Hey, guys." she greets the two across from us.

"What are you doing in this lab?" pale rat boy asks abruptly, some accusation in his tone.

"Oh..." she startles, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I had to rearrange my schedule a bit at the last minute because the other TA for Mrs. Lee's lab had a scheduling conflict. She asked if we could switch times, and I didn't have to move my schedule around much to accommodate the switch so I agreed to help her out and run the morning lab for Mrs. Lee instead." she rushes out, seemingly trying to brush off the subject.

"I swear, that woman's in love with you. Ever since freshman year she's found a way to keep you around somehow because you're her favourite. TA, grading assistant, tutor for her class... I swear Mrs. Lee would let you move in with her if you asked. Yet she acts like she hates everyone else and barely let me pass her class with an A." The girl across from me scoffs bitterly.

Jennie rolls her eyes. "She is not in love with me, Rosé. She's actually a really nice lady. A tough teacher at times, yes, but nice. And hey, at least you got an A."

"Says the girl who passed the hardest freshman class with a ninety-seven percent." Rosé grumbles.

Pale boy sits forward in his seat. "You should have told me you were switching to this lab section. I would have saved you a seat so we could be partners."

"Gee, thanks. What am I, chopped liver?" Rosé asks, offended. "Too bad you've already promised to be my partner once you knew that Jennie originally wasn't going to be in this lab."

"Sorry." Jennie offers up. "So, did you guys do anything fun this summer?" she asks, quickly trying to skirt around the topic again, leaning over in her chair to pull out a binder from her backpack.

Rosé launches into her summer adventures, talking about all the trips she took and the fun things she did. I don't care to listen, my eyes focused on Jennie's profile as she listens to her friend, amusement written on her face as her friend goes on and on enthusiastically.

Rosé's story gets cut short when the teaching assistant walks in, juggling stacks of papers in her arms as she shuts the door behind her. She's young, probably a graduate student, her reddish hair tied up into a bun on top of her head. She drops the stack of papers down on the front table with a thud and walks over to the desk to wake up the computer and turn on the projector.

"Hello, everyone!" her high pitched voice silences the low murmur of the classroom. "My name is Irene, and I'm going to be your TA for the semester."

She pulls up a power point that outlines the syllabus and begins to pass out physical copies to all of us. When everyone receives a copy, she goes over it in great detail, explaining the class policies and procedures for nearly twenty minutes. Usually, I'd just get up and leave by now, but I stare at Jennie as she reads over the packet intently, highlighting and circling.

Next, Irene passes out a tentative class schedule that goes over weekly topics, including page numbers to study from our manual. She lets us know there will be a quiz every week over the previous week's material and tests will be every four weeks, along with a final exam. Since we're not going over any material this week, there will be no quiz next week.