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(Y/N) breathed in deeply, the warm air and blue sky soothing. Jeans that were slightly too warm for the weather, some professors notorious for cranking the climate control to arctic blast and she didn’t want to be caught wearing shorts in that unfortunate situation. (Y/N)’s index finger and thumb gripped the collar of her shirt as she trudged along the courtyard, fanning air across her chest with the front of her white t-shirt.
The last days of summer hung upon (Y/N)’s head as she walked over the grassy patch between large brick buildings. The final days of summer, and (Y/N)’s classes had started up again. How she wished she could just lay down on the grass and nap. First week of classes and she already wanted to pass out on the grass.
‘What a fantastic start to the semester.’ (Y/N) thought grimly.
(Y/N) shifted the backpack on her shoulders as she unlocked her phone, checking her class schedule once again.
“Crap, I’m gonna be late!”
(Y/N) picked up her pace, nearly sprinting across campus.
“Why does the bioscience building have to be so far away from my literature class? Why do I need biology? I want to be a software engineer, not stare at cells all day.” (Y/N) grit out as she rounded the corner, nearly tripping as she ran inside of a large white marble building with large letters carved into a slab reading “THE LIFE SCIENCES” above the grandiose mahogany doors.
(Y/N) ran through the halls, eventually making their way to a door, a small plaque reading “LS-145” next to the doorframe. (Y/N) nearly slams the doors as she throws them open, skidding into the lecture hall. It was half empty.
(Y/N)’s eyes raked over the rows of semi filled benches, eventually landing on a frizzy-haired woman writing in a notebook. (Y/N)’s eyes narrowed as she marched through the isles towards the woman tapping the end of her pen against her chin. The woman wore a top with rainbow stripes running down horizontally beneath a faded jean jacket. A pair of sky blue sneakers adorned her feet and a pair of black jeans covered her legs.
The woman glanced upward, realizing (Y/N) was stopped next to her.
“(Y/N)! You made it!” A wide smile plastered itself to the woman’s lips.
(Y/N) glared murderously at the woman who was sitting quite contently.
“Why did you tell me I was late, Bill? I ran halfway across campus for nothing.”
Bill raised an eyebrow, amused. “You are horrible at keeping your schedule. Lucky for you I changed all the class times on that note you have to be early by ten minutes.”
(Y/N) groaned, sliding down onto the bench next to Bill, laying her face on the desk. “But I ran across campus. I don’t run. That was torture. It’s too hot for running.” (Y/N) whined.
A chuckle escaped Bill’s lips. “Well, maybe you’ll find that this class was worth running for.”
(Y/N) scoffed. “Biology is never worth running for. There is no part of the field I want to go into that has to deal with mitochondria or mitosis.”
Bill rolled her eyes. “Well regardless, this is supposed to be the best intro to bio classes. I think even you will manage to enjoy it. I’ve had this professor before and he’s amazing.”
(Y/N)’s eyes narrowed as she faced her friend, “Didn’t you have him for some real obscure class that was, like, not biology in any capacity?”
Bill shrugged, an elbow supporting her arm on the wooden desk as she placed her chin in her palm, “He was still a good professor. Besides, even if you don’t like it, it’s only for your GE requirements. You don’t need to take any more bio classes after this one as long as you pass.”
A soft grunt leaves (Y/N). “I’m not taking this blasted class again. I’m going to barely be able to sit through this semester.”
“Come on, be a little more optimistic. Maybe you’ll like this class.”
“I haven’t liked a bio class since middle school.” (Y/N) closed her eyes, breathing deeply.
Bill ran a few fingers through (Y/N)’s loose hair lazily.
“Must you harass me?” (Y/N) slowly opened an eye, mirth dancing in her iris, contradicting her harsh words.
“Until someone better comes along.” Bill teased back.
(Y/N) closed her eyes again, a soft smile edging on her lips, “You’re impossible.”
As Bill ran her fingers over (Y/N)’s nape, (Y/N) listened to the sound of students slowly shuffling into the large lecture hall. She could identify a few groups of loud groups—a set of boisterous men, a gaggle of giggling freshmen girls, a batch of hooting sports junkies—and was immensely glad when the echo of their voices traveled away from the spot from where she sat.
A sudden slam of the doors opening and a sweeping silence across the room prompted one of your eyes to open. Unable to see from the angle you were at, you let out a long-suffering sigh and sat up, opening your other eye to see down the rows of benches.
Old.
That was the first thing (Y/N) noticed about the man placing a bag on the lectern at the side of the room. First thing she noticed about him after his eyebrows, anyway. He had curly grey hair, but he was tall and lanky. He wore well-fitting clothes, a dark jacket with a red silky material on the inside that stood out against his black vest and pants, the white collar and visible ‘V’ of his shirt starkly contrasting the black as well. Well-polished shoes occasionally clicked across the wooden floor of the stage.
“Morning.” An accent laced his words as he spoke.
So he was Scottish.
“I’m your professor for Introduction to Biology, Malcolm Caecilius.”
(Y/N) leaned over to Bill, whispering, “I was expecting something a bit different from that. Not something that sounds and looks like some bloke they dug up from Pompeii.”
Bill lightly hit (Y/N)’s shoulder.
“Ow.”
“This course will mostly be run by an assistant professor.”
Bill sat up, her eyebrows furrowed. “That’s new. He generally doesn’t like having other people teach his class.”
You pulled out a notebook and a pen, flipping it open to the first blank page to start notes.
A sudden thump at the door and it having been thrown open in haste caught the attention of nearly the entire room. Professor Caecilius didn’t look up from his bag. A blonde woman stumbled into the room, a yelp on her lips as she barely caught her balance.
(Y/N)’s breath caught in her throat.
The mystery woman’s hair was short, slightly curling in at the ends towards her face. A pair of rounded square glasses sat on the bridge of her nose, the wide black frames slowly slipping down her face. As she stumbled across the stage, a few loose papers flew from the large stack in her arms. She wore a pair of jeans and a dark navy button-up shirt.
She set the stack of papers down on the desk before rushing back to pick up the papers that had fallen in her hurry.
(Y/N) heard a low whistle.
“She’s your type.”
(Y/N) nearly choked, barely covering a cough, “Bill!” She hissed out.
“I’m not wrong. Ditzy, airhead.” As Bill added to the list she counted them off on her fingers.
“Hey!” (Y/N) hissed.
Bill snickered. “You gonna have trouble paying attention?”
“What?”
Bill grinned. “I mean, you’re definitely going to be paying attention to her, but I meant the content of the class.”
A flush spread across (Y/N)’s cheeks. “I—”
“Should I make arrangements for you? Help you get a hot date with the TA?”
(Y/N) managed to huff defiantly, the impact substantially subdued due to her red face. “Oh shut up.”
Professor Caecilius finished rooting through his bag, writing his name across the wide black chalkboard in white chalk, ‘Biology 101’ written beneath. “Due to last-minute reshuffling of staff, you’ll be receiving lecture from Jane Smith. I will be ultimately in charge of the course, but she will be lecturing a sizable portion of it.”
The woman seemed to nearly jump as her name was mentioned while picking up the flyaway papers from the floor. She quickly stood up, facing the students whose attention all shifted to her. Her eyes seemed to dart back to Professor Caecilius before she cleared her throat. “Hello, I’m Jane Smith. I’ll be your lecturer for this semester. I do hope we get on.”
(Y/N) clicked her tongue. The universe must be conspiring against her. There were far too many good qualities about this woman. Cute looks, cute accent, cute demeanor. (Y/N) suppressed a sigh. The least the universe could have done was give her a tolerable professor who was decent at teaching. She didn’t need any more trouble passing bio than she knew she was going to have.
Well, maybe she’d be an asshole when grading. There was always hope for that.
Jane picked up a much smaller stack of paper, significantly more manageable than the entirety of the stack she barged into the room with, and started towards the end of the first row of seats. “Uhmm, I’ll be passing the syllabus out at the end of each row, so please pass it down the rest of the way. Please tell me if there aren’t enough.”
As the stack of papers reached (Y/N), she took one from the stack, passing it along to Bill. (Y/N) flipped through the packet, further deflating. The grading system didn’t seem too unfairly skewed towards exams. Good for her in the sense that she wouldn’t fail and need to retake it if the section wasn’t purely exam-based, but not so great in that it didn’t make the lecturer any less appealing.
(Y/N) slouched in her seat.
“We’ll be going over the syllabus today. I know you’ve received this speech all week, so I’ll make quick work of the basics...”
(Y/N) flipped through the packet occasionally zoning out. At the end of the day, syllabuses were pretty much the same. Go over grading, no eating in class, if you cheat you fail the class and it’s put on your file. Nearly a full hour of the hour and a half lecture time was eaten up by the professor going over the syllabus and answering questions pertaining to it. (Y/N) was slightly surprised that Professor Caecilius managed to wrap up all syllabus related content before the end of the class session. Many other previous professors made no issue of extending deep dives of their syllabus to fill the length of their two or three-hour lecture. Honestly, they could just say use a pen on all assignments in one place instead of reiterating it in every single section of the syllabus.
“Right. Now if there are no more questions, I’m going to have you all turn to your neighbor and introduce yourselves. You will benefit greatly from having connections in this class if you need help when neither I nor Dr. Smith is available.”
As introductory chatter began to break out (Y/N) turned towards Bill, wiggling her eyebrows. “Nice to meet you, beautiful.”
Bill promptly pinched (Y/N)’s nose.
“I camp breeb.”
“You could try not being annoying. That might help your situation.”
“Bub ‘ou lub me anyway.”
“Hmmm. Not totally sure about that.”
Bill let go of her grasp on (Y/N)’s nose and (Y/N) took in an exaggerated breath of air. “I have been freed.”
Bill rolled her eyes, “Maybe go introduce yourself to somebody new. You need more friends anyway.”
(Y/N) blew a raspberry at her so-called friend before turning to her right, the brown woman seated next to (Y/N) wrapping up her conversation with the lanky man seated on her other side. The stranger turned her torso to face (Y/N), chocolate eyes flicking across (Y/N)’s face quickly before extending her hand.
“Hello, I’m Yasmin Khan.”
(Y/N) took her hand in a firm grasp, “I’m (Y/N). Nice to meet you, Yasmin.” (Y/N) shook Yasmin’s hand, “So what are you here for? Major?”
Yasmin scratched the back of her head. “I’m mostly trying to get bio out of the way. I have to take quite a few of these to be a police officer.”
(Y/N)'s eyes lit up in interest, a wide grin on her lips, “A police officer, huh? Well, I think you’d make a fine cop miss Khan.”
She smiled gratefully at the grinning student. “Thanks. How about you?”
(Y/N) chuckled, “Computer science. Hoping to be a software engineer if I make it out of here alive.”
A soft snort left Yasmin. “I feel the two of us are in a similar boat, then. Want to exchange contacts for the semester? I’ve heard good things about this professor, but always a good idea to have a classmate to contact just in case.”
“And here I was thinking I’d have to ask first.”
Yaz just shook her head and smiled as she pulled out her phone, “Oh, actually. While we’re at it, this bloke next to me,” Yasmin lightly batted at the arm of the man next to her, “this is Ryan. He’s mostly here ‘cause I dragged him along.”
(Y/N) waved, “Nice to meet you.”
The man turned from his conversation with the person seated behind him to face (Y/N) briefly, “Nice to meet you, too. Have Yaz give you my contact.” Ryan turned back to his conversation with the brunette man.
Yasmin rolled her eyes, “I’ll give you his number.”
(Y/N) pulled out her phone, reciting the digits for Yasmin to type in. She quickly entered the number, typed a quick message, then sent it to (Y/N)’s phone which pinged lightly as soon as it received the message. As (Y/N) was attaching Yasmin’s name to the phone number, Professor Caecilius drew attention to the front of the room.
“Now wrap up your conversations, I have a few last announcements before I let you all go. I’ve taken the time to gather some campus resources and are in the back of the syllabus packet, but I would highly recommend finding additional resources.” Professor Caecilius approached a podium near the door, a stack of papers sitting atop, “Your first assignment is to fill out a small packet that I have at the front of the room, so take one on your way out. I will be in my office if you have any individual questions. Class dismissed.”
Yasmin turned to (Y/N) “Well, see you next class, yeah?”
(Y/N) grinned loosely, “Yep, see you next class, Yasmin.”
The woman stood up and waved a quick farewell, turning to exit. She joined up with her friend, Ryan already at the end of the row chatting with another man, before leaving the lecture hall.
Students quickly emptied out of the lecture hall, quite a few flocking to Professor Caecilius before he left, taking a copy of the homework packet as they exited the room. The professor announced he would be taking the rest of the questions back at his office, and the small pack of remaining students followed him eagerly out the door. (Y/N) slowly descended the stairs with Bill, in no rush to get to their next classes.
“See, it wasn’t that bad.” Bill raised an eyebrow at her companion,
(Y/N) rolled her eyes, “It was syllabus day, the worst offense syllabus day usually has is being boring as all heck.”
Bill sighed as both women reached the bottom of the stairs. She glanced across the stage, lightly nudging (Y/N) with her shoulder. “Gonna shoot your shot?”
“Huh?” (Y/N)’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, turning her head when Bill nodded in a direction across the room. A soft groan followed by a withering glance was aimed at Bill. “You can’t be serious?”
Bill only grinned in return, “I’ll grab you a packet. If nothing else at least introduce yourself. It’s good practice to get in the lecturer’s good books anyways.”
(Y/N) blew a soft raspberry at Bill, a sigh leaving her lips as she trudged towards the woman organizing papers on a wide podium. (Y/N) hesitated before stepping onto the stage, unsure if she should clear her throat or offer some sort of signal that she was going to initiate conversation. She pursed her lips and stepped onto the stage, light, carefully placed steps until she stood approximately two meters away from the assistant professor.
(Y/N) hesitated once more, shook her head, and stepped forward, clearing her throat from behind Jane, “Excuse me?”
A small squeak and a slight jump of Jane’s shoulders followed, “Oh, yes, hold on just a moment.”
Jane tapped the bottom of the stack of papers in her hand against the flat of the desk before turning around. Her eyes seemed to widen as she turned around, fumbling slightly with the papers in her hands.
Easily startled, (Y/N) presumed.
The lecturer seemed to stop, a sort of lost expression painted across her features, eyebrows drawn together. Her gaze flickered back to (Y/N), seemingly lost in thought. Jane quickly snapped out of whatever internal musing she was going through, quickly nodding her head slightly, hand flying up to adjust the temples of her glasses, “I’m Jane.”
“I know,” (Y/N) immediately winced as the words left her mouth. Smooth, (L/N). “You introduced yourself at the beginning of class. Sorry, not good with words.” (Y/N) clarified, “I’m (Y/N).”
Jane chuckled nervously, brushing her hair behind her ear. (Y/N) noticed star-shaped earrings adorning Jane’s ear, the chain connected to a cuff glinting slightly.
Cute.
“Err, well I look forward to the semester.” Unsure what to say, (Y/N) rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Admittedly bio isn’t my strongest subject so I may be coming to office hours quite a bit.”
Jane fiddled with her glasses, eyes darting from the undergrad to the wall, uncertain what to say. Before she had time to process her words mentally, they spilled from her lips, “Well, be like 8.5 percent of the human population’s blood type and B positive.”
(Y/N) blinked. She had no response.
“You know because B positive is—”
“Yeah, I got it.”
(Y/N) bit her lip, trying hard to suppress a smile and a groan. The joke was just so bad.
Jane was back to fiddling with her plastic frames.
Silence.
“Right, I just wanted to introduce myself. I look forward to this semester!” (Y/N) practically shouted before dashing out of the room. (Y/N) caught Jane’s eyes widening in alarm at her sudden exclamation as she rushed out of the room, grabbing Bill’s arm and dragging her along in the process. As soon as (Y/N) made her way into the hall and far enough away from the double doors she groaned.
Bill barely managed to suppress a yelp as (Y/N) grabbed her arm in her rush out the door. As (Y/N)’s brisk pace steadily slowed she loosened her grip on Bill’s arm. Bill raised an eyebrow at (Y/N) as her arm was released, able to walk properly and not being half dragged down the hallway. She matched her steps with her friend.
Bill’s elbow lightly jabbed against (Y/N)’s side. “Smooth.”
“Shut up!” (Y/N) hissed, the burning in her cheeks still not subsided.
How she was going to survive the rest of the semester, (Y/N) had no idea.