Acceptance | ✓

Chapter 4

[ETHAN]

The lecture hall fell into silence as I walked into it. People seemed to have paused all activities to look at me. I stared at them, only turning away when the lecturer clicked his tongue to grab my attention.

"And who are you?" he asked, giving me a dull irritated look.

"New?" I said, making the previously quiet classroom burst into murmurs.

The lecturer rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath before motioning me towards the seat. There were no introductions of any sort. I just took a random seat as I tried to catch up with the rest of the lesson.

The lecture called to talk to me privately after class. I sat on my seat as the rest of the class cleared, watching the Lecturer as he awkwardly arranged the sheets on his table.

"I have a class in ten," I said aloud, hoping he'd take the hint and say what he wanted to say and dismiss me.

"I'll give you a pass," he announced, ignoring my hidden plea as he continued to sort out the sheets. He adjusted his glasses a few minutes later, giving me some form of attention.

"Where are you transferring from?" he asked, looking back down at the sheets on his table.

"Stanford," I said monotonously. He frowned, looking up at me with newfound interest.

"Then why move here?" he asked, putting his sheets aside. I shrugged looking towards him. I inspected him, noticing his pale skin was freckled and looked harshly harassed by sunlight.

"Isn't there any reason at all?" he asked, folding his hands while giving me a calm look.

I was not in the mood to narrate my mother's wish to send me far away so she could plan her wedding with her fiancé in peace. Besides, I'm sure it isn't quite okay for him to pry into my life like that.

"Not that I know of..." I trailed, being stubborn. He sighed before deciding to just hand over some worksheets to me.

"Are you staying with anyone? You don't stay in the campus dorms, do you?" he asked. I frowned, wondering why he was trying to force some sort of conversation out of me.

"I'm staying with my mother's fiancé's nephew," I stated calmly as I looked over the worksheet. I'd already missed a good two weeks of tuition regarding when I stopped attending College to prepare to come here.

"Is there a deadline for this?" I asked, brushing stray strands of hair away from my face.

"Not exactly," the lecturer said, giving me a considerate look. "Just get them all in before the end of this semester so I'll have something to score you on."

I nodded in understanding, tucking the worksheets into my folder.

"Oh yes, I still need you to fill out this form," he said, slipping a piece of paper across the table. I took note of it, filling out Andrew as my guardian and his address. I reached for my phone to receive his cell number, and by the time I looked up the lecturer already had the half-filled form in his hands.

"Andrew... I remember him. He used to be a student of mine," the lecturer said looking up at me. I took the form from him with a little difficulty before filling out the phone number.

"He still stays here?" he asked no one in particular, fumbling with the pen cup on his desk.

"Sort of," I answered, slipping the form across the table to him. He grinned at me.

"Why are you studying literature, do you want to be a published writer? Or do you want to be an editor?" he asked, filling the form away. I looked down at my lap realizing I'd never fully addressed that question.