The Professor

1: Drey

I walked into lecture hall 206, glancing around in the sea of chairs. I was hoping I'd see someone I knew. It was the first day of the spring semester of my sophomore year at Hillman University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm a 21 year old Political Science Major. My birthday was last week actually.

I'm Andreyuh Nicole Carter, named after my dad Andre 🙄. I'm 5'9" 155 lbs tall and slim, but my curves are undeniable. I have two brothers (Andre Jr. and Dreymond) and three sisters (Angel, Destiny, and Zion). I'm originally from St. Louis, Missouri. I'm really close to my mom, but I went to college far enough away to get away from my strict ass daddy. I didn't want him trying to control my life any longer.

He was a military man who ran a tight ship. In high school, he never let me do anything. While all my friends were hanging out at the movies and going to the skating rink on Saturday nights, I had to be home by 9pm. Most of my friends could stay out until at least 11pm on weekends. I missed out on all the fun, unless my big sisters convinced him to let me hang with them. Angel and Destiny stayed local after high school and went to the university there. I stayed at their apartment on weekends just to get away from my daddy.

If they didn't want to be bothered with me, I went to my best friend, Aaliyah's house. Aaliyah lived next door to us, starting around kindergarten age, but then her family moved on the other side of town when we were in fifth grade. By that point, we were inseparable, despite going to different schools. We convinced our parents to let us play together nearly every weekend and we talked on the phone every night. That's when I fell in love with her.

For ninth grade, Aaliyah's family moved back into the neighborhood in the next subdivision over from us. Her and her sisters experienced a lot of racism and micro-aggressions at the middle school she went to and her parents decided they weren't going to subject their kids to that for high school.

We were so happy to be together again. When we went to ninth grade orientation, we made our parents get us put in most of the same classes. We were about to run high school. We played volleyball and ran track together, and we were at each other's house nearly every night just like back when we were kids.

On the weekends, me and Aaliyah would go up to Destiny and Angel's apartment and hang out with the college kids at their kickbacks. They let us drink sometimes. They'd let us go on dates and get time away to be together without having to being sneaky. They were the only two people in either of our families to know about us.

*****

I definitely wilded out a little bit when I got to college. The first semester was a blur. I finished with a 2.0 GPA and my parents were not pleased. I met some friends and we partied damn near every night. They'd buy my underaged ass alcohol and we'd just kick it. I barely studied, hell sometimes didn't even go to class. I got it together though. Second semester, I knew if I didn't get it together, my ass would be back at home and that was not what I wanted.

I checked my Apple Watch. Two minutes until class time and no sign of the professor. I didn't know anything about her, other than that she was supposedly every PolySci student ever's favorite professor. Everyone has always said they enjoyed her lectures and that she told great stories and was a very understanding professor. Which...if you've been to college, you know understanding professors are hard to come by.

"Andreyuh!" I looked up.

"Oh hey, Cali! It's so good to see a familiar face!"

Cali and I had taken Intro to PolySci and Political Theory together. We'd studied together a few times over the last two semesters and she was super cool.

"Oh, this is my friend, Lana."

"Nice to meet you, Lana. I'm Andreyuh, but everyone calls me Drey."