They Don't Know About Us (BWWM)

Chapter 3

Ava sped up her pace as she headed through campus to the psychology building for the first time. She was excited to see something new and to learn something new. The topic of psychology had always been interesting to her, but she wanted to get to know it even better before she declared herself a psychology major. She wouldn't mind continuing to go to school after her bachelor's either, as long as the grad school was out of state. She went inside of the building and down the hallway to the right, her eyes shifting across the room numbers until she saw 106 for her class. She stepped into the large lecture hall and headed down the stairs to sit in the front row on the left side in front of the professor's podium. She found that she focused better when she sat in the front.

Ava glanced around her, noting only a few other people were in the room with her since she had arrived so early. Just in case she had trouble finding the room, she had left earlier than normal. Jackie was already gone to take her morning run by the time Ava got up, so she turned on some music and got dressed before heading out. She had a feeling that today was going to be an interesting day. The first day of any class proved to be memorable in some way. She took out her laptop and opened up her notes document, titling it with the date and the class. She couldn't believe she was already halfway through her second college semester.

Students continued to file in as eight o'clock steadily approached, the smell of coffee and the sound of yawns filling the room as people started to gradually wake up. A minute before eight, a door to the left of the stage at the front of the room opened, a man in his late twenties or early  30s walking through with a tan messenger bag on his shoulder.

At first, Ava thought he was another student because he looked so young, but a confused expression graced her face as she watched him walk onto the stage and start setting up at the podium. She could hardly believe that he was the professor, and she heard surprised murmurs coming from her other classmates as well. She tried to get a better look at him, but his face was hidden by his laptop that he was working on. Soon, the projector streamed his slides on psychology onto the board, drawing her attention away for a few moments.

"Welcome to Introductory Psychology. I'm Professor Gavin Rivers. You can just call me Rivers or Professor. Whatever you want," the professor's voice suddenly boomed out throughout the lecture hall.

Ava glanced back over to him as he walked to the center of the stage, noting the white button down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the slim fit khakis he wore. Her eyes trailed up to his face, at first noting that he was pretty attractive, but all of her thoughts fell away to shock as she recognized his face as the one under the hood from last night. She stared at him with wide eyes, unable to even really move. The circumstances seemed so impossible since she had convinced herself last night that she would never see the hooded man again, but there he was as her psychology professor. She didn't know whether to laugh out of ridicule or to cry because she knew how dangerous he could be.

Gavin let his gaze sweep along the front row, the motion immediately halting when his eyes met Ava's, a look of recognition dawning on his face. "I'm excited to get to know all of you and teach you the wonders of psychology," he voiced, trying to stay on track as he tore his eyes away from her. His voice wavered a little at the beginning, surprise sapping the usual strength of this tone.

Chills threatened to shudder down Ava's spine when their eyes briefly met, anxiety flushing through her face in the form of a reddened blush. He had somehow remembered her from last night, and he knew that she saw what he did to that other man. She didn't even know what happened after she ran from the alley. Gavin could've killed the other man for all she knew, and she could likely be next if he wanted to get rid of any witnesses.

"I'm going to call roll. If you don't hear me call your name, see me after class and we'll get you added," Gavin announced as he turned his back and went to his laptop to read off of the list of names on the document. He leaned closer to the screen, lifting his hand to trail his forefinger along each name to keep himself on track.