Shades of Grey

First Meeting: Freshman Year

He didn't look so very different from the other people in the class.

He wasn't conventionally handsome. Tall and somewhat lanky, with a well-used backpack slung over his shoulders as he entered the room. He was quiet, unobtrusive, finding an unoccupied seat in the middle of the room and waiting along with the rest of them for the professor to arrive. 

There was just something about him. Maybe it was the book he carried with him to class. Elementary Analysis: The Theory of Calculus, Third Edition, which basically told her that intellectually, he was already out her league. The fact was, she had a thing for smart people and he was already starting to tick off her mental checklist. 

Short black hair. Soft brown eyes. Thin lips that seemed to tug up in a hint of a smile as long fingers crossed and rested lightly on top of the desk. He was cute, in a smart, nerdy sort of way, even if he wasn't wearing glasses.

Oh, damn it. He was completely her type. 

It was the first day of the second semester and she already couldn't take her eyes off him. 

It was a good thing that she was sitting at the back, to the side, so he couldn't see her staring at him like a creep. It wasn't like she was alone in her staring habit; the rest of the class were also sneaking looks at each other, already creating first impressions of the people they were going to get stuck with for the next few months. She hoped that the people she met in this class would be those chatty, friendly, talkative types; the last class she had been in was as silent as a tomb and she could already tell that that class would be prime sleeping hours. 

It was fifteen minutes in and the professor wasn't in yet. Maybe she would get lucky and the prof won't show; it always happened during first days. Ah, but no such luck, a young man, but definitely older than the rest of the class, in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, carrying a backpack of his own made his way towards the front desk. Immediately, the soft buzz around the room immediately quietened. He looked like a student, that was for sure, but with an air of someone older, experienced, been-there-done-that while still retaining that connection with his class that was common with young professors. 

She moved her attention towards the front as well; thank god, or she would be staring at probably-taking-a-math-course guy too long to be considered appropriate. 

"So," Professor Benjamin--call me Prof. Benj--said, standing casually at the front of his desk, looking up at the class. "Welcome to Introduction to Philosophy. You're the lucky batch of students that managed to enlist early and get into one of my classes. Some of you might know me by reputation and I'd say right now that it's 70 percent mostly correct, 20 percent bullshit, and 10 percent hyperbole." 

She blinked, managing to catch the eye of the person beside her and exchanged a quick look. She did enlist in the class primarily because of the prof's reputation: that his classes were demanding but honestly fun. He specialized in the Philosophy of Love and Sex, which was a coveted elective for the higher levels. She was interested in Philosophy as a whole, never mind learning about Love and Sex, so when she enlisted it was a win-win in her book. 

Prof. Benj continued without pause, "So you need to know all the people in this class, because you're all going to be working together in one way or another." He leaned back against the desk, raising an eyebrow at them all. "I can assure you, dearest students, that by the end of this school year, you'll be as thick as thieves. You'll know each other's names, courses, Facebook accounts and sometimes even their dark, dirty secrets."

Another exchanged look with her seatmate.

"Some of you might end up getting together." He said airily, and the whispers started up again with a vengeance. "It happens, and I take great pride when two of my students end up together."