Duke Basketball

Chapter 2

"Welcome to systematic inquiry. I am Professor Levitt as you all should know." It was our first day of classes and I was beyond excited. The class went on for about an hour and a half and I somehow managed to stay engaged the whole time, even being the fidgety, impatient person I am. At the end, I inspected everybody in the class, hoping I would see some familiar faces from orientation week. I did see a familiar face, but not from orientation. It was Luke Kennard, the basketball player. I turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

The rest of the day went by quickly and I was back at the coffeeshop Kenzie, Mia, Carter and I had met at the day before. I knew I had sometime to myself before the others would get there so I went in and ordered my drink. It was pretty busy and took a while. I was deep into Instagram when hearing my name snapped me out of my focus. I walked up to the counter to get my drink, quickly grabbing it so I wouldn't be in the way of others. I walked outside and sat down, taking a sip.

"Oh god" I said, wiping my mouth with a napkin, trying to get the taste out. "What is this?" I questioned with disgust.

"That would be mine." I heard a voice said in front of me. I looked up to see Luke Kennard standing above me holding what had to be my drink.

"Chocolate gingerbread latte? Really?" I asked handing his drink over to him.

"Ice tea? Really?" He laughed, handing my drink to me.

"It is nowhere near Christmas." I said, taking it.

"You realized this is unsweetened,right?" he remarked. I scowled at him, partly joking, partly not.

"I'm Luke." He said, shaking my hand.

"Lucy." I replied, smiling.

"Nice meeting you. Well, I'll see you around. Bye!" He said as he walked off.

One by one my friends began to arrive. All with stories about their first day, favorite classes, and people they'd met. Carter was the first to come.

"Hey! How was it?" She asked.

"Great! My classes are really interesting, what about you?" I said, as I was Kenzie walk in. She walked to order her drink then came to sit with us.

"My classes are great and I got to meet a ton of new people." She smiled as Kenzie approached our table taking a seat. We all talked for a while when Mia finally came. She came straight to our table looking both annoyed, but fired up. She didn't waste a second to speak.

"Oh my god. So, there's this guy in my developmental psych class who thinks he's all that. It drives me crazy! We literally spent the whole class debating about a single issue. Afterwards he came up to and was all like 'class was really fun today'" she said mocking his voice, "Like, what the hell? You just spent an hour arguing with me and now you want to talk like we're friends?" She huffed and put her elbows on the table.

"Was he at least smart?" I asked, hoping lighten up her mood.

"That's the worst part. As much as I hate to admit it, he is. He's like really, really smart." she said. We all laughed and she shook her head, smiling. Eventually, we all headed back to the dorms realizing we had homework to do.

The next day I walked into my systematic inquiry class and sat down in the seat I had previously sat in. This time, Luke saw me first, smiling and waving at me. I waved back and class started. Luke wasn't really on my mind the rest of the day. The coffeeshop near the Chapel became a usual meeting place for my friends and I where we would meet almost everyday.

* * *

It was the third day of my systematic inquiry class. I walked in expecting everything to be the same as it had been the past two days. This time Luke greeted me at the front of the building, surprising me with an iced tea.

"Umm, thanks!" I said, surprised by his gesture.

"No problem." I took a sip. Noticing something different about it, I looked at Luke, who was keeping a pretty good poker face.

"You know, usually iced tea doesn't taste like chocolate." He grinned.

"It does if you ask for it!" I rolled my eyes sarcastically, but took another sip. It was surprisingly good.

We walked into the room, me sitting near the back, and Luke heading to his seat at the front of the room. The class was hard, to say the least. While everyone else would jump into the discussions, I would just sort of sit there and try to think of something to say. I didn't succeed. After that class, I met up with Kenzie. She was a lot nicer than you think, considering the way Mia treats her. Clearly a little spoiled and she sure as heck never had to worry about whether she could afford something. Other than that, she was really funny and kind. The rest of the day I took lots of notes, trying to see if that would help me with the work. I went to bed early that night after a shower. The next morning was a relaxed one, and I got up early to go through some things for my classes.

Outside the systematic inquiry classroom, I ran into Luke again. We said our hello's, and walked into the classroom. I expected us to break off like we did yesterday, but he kept talking.

"So, how're you liking the class so far?" Luke asked.

"It's okay. I like what we're doing, but it's harder then I thought it was going to be." Luke nodded.

"Well, this is Duke. Everything's pretty hard. I should know, it's the third day of classes, and I'm already behind on my work. I like this class though." He said. I shrugged.

"I don't know, I just don't get it. Like, I understand it in theory, but every time I actually try to do something, I feel like I don't know anything." Luke looked concerned.

"If you want, I can tutor you. I have some extra time after basketball practice today, and the Bostock library opens tonight." Honestly, I was impressed. I hadn't met a lot of people I think would offer to tutor someone they just met, especially not nearly professional basketball players that were famous nationwide.

"Sure, thanks!" I had reached my seat. "So, I'll see you at the library tonight?"

"Yeah, my practice ends at seven, so I'll grab some food and meet you there." Luke walked off towards the front of the room, talking to a boy who looked he seemed to know, but I didn't recognize him from the basketball team. The class went well, especially when Luke kept turning around and making funny faces at me. He got a lot of weird looks from the people sitting in the rows separating us, but I just laughed. He didn't seem to care. After class, I went out before him. I thought about waiting, but thought better of it when I saw he was surrounded by at least a dozen other students.