Then There Was Maverick

Chapter 7

Over the course of that week, I had encountered many firsts. Some of which I found absolutely endearing, and others I could go without seeing and/or hearing for the rest of my life. I had loved the sense of newfound freedom that floated around campus. It made me feel as if I was invincible, for some odd reason. However, I could do without the people in the room above mine hooking up with their significant others during the quietest hours of the night. Convenient for them, but very inconvenient for me and my, now tarnished, sleep schedule.

It was now Friday and I had endured a whole week of classes. Most of them seemed as if they were going to be easy enough because I was taking mostly general education requirements this semester. Although, I did enroll in a major-specific American Literature class. This excited me most because I have always been fascinated by literature and how it has evolved over time. I feel that it is was for us to connect with people of the past and create a golden vision for the future ahead of us. Words have the power to bring nations together and to tear lovers apart.

As I walked across campus, I was met with more people than I had been over the course of the week. I felt as if every step I took towards my class was being closely observed and judged. I tried to ignore this uneasy feeling as I walked up the stairs that led to the entrance of the building in which my class was taking place that day. When I reached the top of the stairs, I recognized a few girls from my Humanities course the day before, so I gave them a friendly smile and waved.

"That's her," I heard one of them comment in a hushed tone, "That's Katie Callahan."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that," said another, "I figured he'd at least pick someone who knew how to dress. I bet she's just trying to sleep with him because his family is loaded."

I was cutting it close to making it to class on time, so I kept moving forward. Surely they weren't talking about me. Perhaps there was another Katie Callahan on campus that I hadn't met yet. Just as I found my classroom, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. Before walking through the door, I quickly pulled it from my pocket to see what the notification was. I had three messages from Max and two missed calls from Bonnie. I quickly texted in our group chat and told them that I would call them after class.

I hurried into the room, quickly found an open seat, and put my phone on do not disturb before finally settling in and preparing myself for the class ahead. As I pulled my American Lit. notebook from my backpack, I felt a presence beside me followed by the sound of a familiar voice.

"This seat taken?" Mason asked.

"Nope," I replied, "It's all yours."

He grinned and took the seat, taking out a notebook of his own and placing his phone and air pods at the corner of his desk.

"I didn't know that you were into literature," I stated incredulously.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Katie Grace," he responded with a wink and a toothy grin.

He turned his attention from me to his phone as he opened his Instagram and scrolled through his feed page. I decided to look back over my notes from my readings of The Great Gatsby from the previous night. I had read this book numerous times before it was assigned to me for the purposes of this course, and I must say that Fitzgerald is among my top three favorite authors.

"Good afternoon, everyone," I heard from the front of the room, "I am Dr. Stevenson, and this is Intro. to American Literature. If this is not the course that you registered for, please arise and exit the room at this time."

A couple of students stood up from their seats and walked out of the room in a hurried manner.

"Now that we have that out of the way, we'll begin today's class by seeing who actually completed the readings that were assigned for class," he said as he pulled a stack of papers from his briefcase.