Back to School Romance

Chapter 2 - September

Towards the beginning of September, Stephanie found herself in a study group with a random assortment of students. They ran the gambit from fresh out of high school to around her age. They had been paired up through the first year seminars. The youngest were Natalie, Amber, Xena, Uriah, and Braelon, who were all way too young to even know who they were themselves yet. It was interesting to hear their conversations tied to partying and coming to class hungover. It made Stephanie feel old, since she had already lived the life of drinking too much...but didn't have the fun stories to go along with it.

Nicole was the next youngest. She was a 25 year old black women with an amazing wild streak. Nicole was going to make a difference in this world, Stephanie could feel it. David was 27, gay, and wanted to be an architect. Sam was a slick 30 year old who Stephanie thought might be deciding whether to hit on Nicole or her. Hopefully he went for the younger model. Stephanie liked to just sit back and watch the group start to bond over school and life, it was an interesting thing to see. Laura was their group leader. She was also around 30, but a blonde stay-at-home mom. The only way she was able to attend school was her mom was helping watch her 10 and 12 year olds after their dad ditched them all for his secretary...so cliché. 

Interestingly, they were all in history together. Stephanie assumed that was the link that created the study group in the first place. Although there were also overlaps in their English, math, biology, and other classes, it was history that linked them together. That was how Stephanie had started to find herself sitting near at least some members of the group on a regular basis, instead of her usual loner habit in most of her sections. Their first larger assignment was due in a week and the group was currently trying to understand the prompt and rubric to make sure they didn't fail the first thing.

"Maybe I would understand what he wanted, but I cannot seem to focus on anything other than Professor Sanchez's hotness in class. Drool" Natalie added into the silence that had fallen.

"Swoon." David added in, laughing slightly as everyone seemed to reflect on the fact that their history teacher was hot...Stephanie could not disagree.

"I'd say 'distinguished professor' does not do him justice." Nicole added in, while Amber laughed and said "I'll do him justice." 

Everyone laughed when Sam had to add in "I just don't see it," at the same time Uriah chimed in with a "He could get me to swing that way for once."

"Someone needs to go double check why the prompt and rubric seem to be asking for 2 different things. I do not want to start my college career with an F." Laura stated a bit forcefully to pull them out of their conversation that had totally degenerated into picking out other professors that hit the hot scale. "I would do it myself, but my kids have a lot this week and I don't think I will be able to make it to his office hours."

Stephanie waited patiently for someone else to volunteer. She really did not feel confident enough to go to a professor's office hours yet. The idea of talking one-on-one with someone so smart seemed totally impossible. Stephanie had been thinking in her head about how she still felt out of place at college, like she was lacking and didn't know what she was doing, when she was pulled out of her thoughts.

"Earth to Steph, hey." She looked up to see Laura staring at her, snapping her fingers. "Lost you for a sec. I was trying to ask if you could do drop in office hours with Sanchez? These fools," she paused for dramatic effect, "are too worried that they will fall all over themselves in their teacher crushing to even ask about the assignment. Since you are the only other adult I see in this room, is it possible?"

Stephanie couldn't help but laugh as she saw the faces of the group. They ranged from laughter to guilt since Laura had called them out for crushing on the professor. "Sure. I guess I can overcome my lack of confidence more than they would be able to overcome the crushing." As chatter turned to what Professor Sanchez was wearing yesterday and how fine his ass looked, Stephanie thought back to their first day in class and how she also hadn't been able to get over her attraction to the man. It had been a long time since she felt anything for a guy, long before her relationship with Ricky had collapsed. When she was younger there had been crushes on multiple boys and men, but she had been with Ricky...then she had just stopped looking, stopped even looking at Ricky. Maybe she should start looking again...just not at her professor who she tended to daydream way too much about for her own liking...