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Erin Gilbert stood outside the door to the lecture hall and shifted her satchel from one hand to the other. "It's no big deal, Erin," she muttered to herself. "Just the first day of the most important class of the rest of your life. No sweat." She reached out to push the door handle, then hesitated and dropped her hand, losing her nerve.
Someone cleared their throat behind her and Erin jumped aside. A young man gave her an odd look as he walked through the doorway.
Erin squared her shoulders. "You can do this," she whispered. "You can do this." After all, no one inside the room was going to make fun of her. They were all taking the same class.
Then why was it so hard to open the door?
Finally it was time that motivated her. The idea of sliding into the class late and having all the students watch her while she tried to find a seat was more terrifying that the idea of opening the door. With a few minutes left to go, Erin grabbed the door handle and pushed through to the other side.
The lecture hall was a large one, which was the norm for the first level classes. One of Erin's worries had been that there wouldn't be any seats left, but she found out she needn't have worried. The hall could easily seat about a hundred students, but only a dozen or so people were seated toward the front of the room, with one or two others who had parked themselves in some of the back rows, looking like they were ready to fall asleep before class had even started.
Gripping her satchel, Erin inched her way down the lecture hall steps to the front of the room. There was no way she was going to miss a single word of any lecture in this class, so she was determined to get a front row seat, if she could find one.
Erin bit her lip when she got to the front. She scanned the row quickly, not wanting to hold up anyone behind her, and saw that there were two empty seats between two young women right next to the stairs. Normally she would want there to be three empty seats, because she felt more comfortable if there was a seat between herself and any other students, but at this point class was going to begin any minute and she had precious little time to make a decision. Taking a breath to steel herself, Erin sank into the seat closest to her.
Erin kept her head down as she pulled her notebook and two pens from her satchel, before she dared to lift her head. When she did, she was surprised to find the woman she had sat next to was staring directly at her.
"Hi!" the woman said, holding out a hand to Erin. She was short with a round face and long brown hair done up in a bun. "I'm Abby. What brings you here?"
Not used to someone introducing themselves so enthusiastically, Erin stared like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Finally she cleared her throat and took Abby's hand, shaking it once. "Um, Erin Gilbert," she said, since it seemed polite to say you're name back when someone tells your theirs. "What brings me... why, is this the wrong room?" She looked around wildly, horrified at the thought that she had gone to the wrong lecture hall. "This is Dr. Spengler's class, right!?"
"You got it, chickee." The other young woman, who was seated to Erin's left with a chair between them, cocked her head sideways to regard Erin. She leaned so far to the side that she was almost stretched out horizontal across the chair. Her short hair fell in a cascade over one side of her scalp, the other half shaved short, and her glasses were the same tint of yellow as her hair. "Abby means, what made you want to take Parapsychology 101?"
"O-oh." Erin's voice got small. She didn't want to say why she was taking this class. They would laugh, whether they were taking the class for the same reasons or not. Everyone always laughed. "I, um, well. I--"
Abby was obviously a talkative one, and she plowed on ahead when Erin couldn't find her voice to answer. "I totally believe in ghosts," Abby announced. "I've checked out some haunted houses and I've even felt some things. I've read Dr. Spengler's Spirit Guide cover to cover six times." She had a pile of three or four books next to her feet and the top one was, indeed, Dr. Spengler's guide. Abby bent forward and patted it fondly.
The blond woman was still mostly horizontal, much to Erin's amazement. Erin noticed she had two pencils stuck behind one ear. "Jillian Holtzmann. Double major in Physics and Women's Studies. I've read a lot of online articles about the Ghostbusters' equipment, but they never go into details. Taking this class so I can corner the prof during office hours and pump him for information."
Erin stared at her in shock. Jillian smirked back.
A deeper feminine voice cleared her throat directly behind Erin; she turned her neck quickly to see an extremely tall African American woman with short black hair and a friendly smile. "I'm a History major but this counts as an elective. You know how many times the Ghostbusters saved the city? We're going to be taught by a living legend. We're basically making history just sitting in this class. That's why I'm here."
"Have you ever seen a ghost?" Abby asked, leaning toward her, not at all offended that the woman had injected herself into their conversation.
"Nah, but I'm open to the possibility. I'm Patty Tolan," she added.
Erin sunk low in her seat. I'm surrounded by extroverts, I'm doomed, she thought to herself.
Before the conversation could continue any further, the door next to the stage opened and an older man stepped through, his blond hair pulled back in a simple tail, saving Erin from finding something to say. He was wearing brown slacks and a blue sweater. Erin was surprised by her first sight of Dr. Egon Spengler. She had expected someone in a suit, at least.
"Welcome to Parapsychology 101," the man announced without preamble. "I'm Dr. Spengler. Let me know if any of you had any trouble ordering the correct textbooks." The few students who were chatting quieted. Jillian Holtzmann sat upright. Erin quickly opened her notebook.
"I'm not too late to join, am I?" a new voice announced from the top of the stairs.
Dr. Spengler stopped short, clearly surprised. "Janine?"
The professor's reaction had most of the class turning their heads to see who was coming down the stairs. She was a woman about Dr. Spengler's age, wearing a short navy skirt and a complimentary short-sleeved blue top. Her red hair was short and her glasses were oval-shaped with gold frames, giving her a trendy look despite being older than most of the other students.
"Ah, yes, you're just in time, Janine," Dr. Spengler said, obviously trying to recover from his surprise. He turned to the rest of the room. "Class, this is Janine Melnitz. When the Ghostbusters were in operation, she was our receptionist and accountant."
"I hope you know that's not the only reason I'm taking this class, Egon," Janine said.
The professor adjusted his glasses. "Of course." He addressed the room again. "Ms. Melnitz also experienced paranormal incidents herself more than forty-two times during her employment with us."
Erin stared at the confident older woman in amazement. Beside her, Abby gave a smothered gasp.
Janine sighed and took a seat.