Loving Eleanor(BWWM)

Chapter One

Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Date: August 15th, 1949
Name: Eleanor Hazel Bush
Age: twenty-three

"Thank you," Eleanor murmured after putting the token into the slot and she made her way to the back of the bus.

It was her final year before graduating with a Master's degree at Yale University. She only had one more class to take before walking the stage, and it was an English class. Earlier on in her college career, she put off taking an extra English class to take a theater class, so now she had to spend nine months taking one class.

As the bus neared her stop, she silently prayed for a smooth and quick year. Grabbing her bookbag, Eleanor stood up and walked out of the bus and down the sidewalk.

The walk to the building was fast and she entered with much time to spare. She liked being early for things, there was always talk about colored people being lazy, and she didn't want to fall in with that idea.

"Ow!" Eleanor cried as she fell to the floor with her bookbag coming with her. Some careless person walked straight into her and they had yet to apologize.

As she went to stand, a white hand came into her line of vision, but it soon retracted itself as she turned her gaze upwards.

"Get out of my way," The white man sneered and turned his nose to her.

Eleanor scoffed and shook her head at him. "You're the jerk who walked into me!" She snapped back and stood up on her own.

The man's eyes narrowed and a scowl grew on his face. "You witch." He muttered, which caused Eleanor to flinch at the word.

"I can't believe this!" She whispered angrily as she walked into the classroom and sat in the back of the class.

Eleanor didn't hate white people, they just irritated her soul. However, that man, she already hated him. He was arrogant and rude, he was now on her list.

After cooling off from the encounter with the stupid white man, Eleanor decided to note down the information written on the board,

'Professor Curtis' and 'English Literature'

As she wrote down the date and drew a cute little flower, the professor walked in. He began to speak and introduced himself as, "Professor Curtis." Eleanor didn't look up though, she was too busy finishing her rose.

"And done," She whispered and decided to finally pay attention. "This must be a joke," She said once she looked up at Professor Curtis.

It was the jerk who ran into her. She hoped and prayed that he would only be a substitute, but by the way, he spoke and explained things, her prayers were null and void.

-

Professor Curtis's eyes swept the room as he spoke, and his expression went from blank to annoyed in a matter of seconds.

He didn't want to teach the smart mouth colored woman, but his luck and prayers went unanswered.  He would make the most of his time with the sassy colored. She would regret speaking to him the way she did in the hallway. He would make sure of it.

The class went on and time passed by quickly. Professor Curtis was done teaching and Eleanor was grateful to God. She didn't desire to be in his presence any longer.

"Have your papers turned in by this Friday, you're all dismissed." He announced and gave a stiff nod to the students.

After putting away her composition notebook, Eleanor grabbed her bookbag and went straight to the door. She wanted to go home and vent to her mother.