The Art of Forbidden Romance (Student x Teacher)

Chapter 1

I opened the door to the large auditorium and the crisp air conditioned air blasted out. I shivered slightly, a little sweaty from the trek across campus. Scanning the room for familiar faces, I caught my closest friend and roommate, Mel, almost dead center in the second row of the auditorium.
"Winona! Over here! I saved you a seat!" Mel shouted over all the chatter. The auditorium was mostly full. I made my way over, tossing my bag over the heads in the first row to claim my saved spot next to Mel. After climbing over the other students to get the seat I slumped into the chair.
"Remind me next time to take Art History as a Freshman, like how it's recommended," I told her.
"You're telling me," she said. I glanced around the auditorium and noticed how young everyone looked.
"They can't be freshmen, they all look like 12 year olds," I whispered. Mel laughed.
"I know, they look younger and younger every year..." she whispered back. She slid a bag of potato chips towards me and I snagged a couple. I watched the as more kids filtered into the room and noticed a couple other older students from my senior level classes. A couple of them were able to snag seats near Mel and me before the first couple of rows completely filled up.
The auditorium was loud with chatter, bursts of laughter breaking through the drone of voices periodically, when the door opened again, and an older man walked in. He couldn't have been over 40, his face was youthful. The only thing that gave his age away was his hair and beard which were speckled with grey. Even his clothes would've passed for a student, he wore jeans and sneakers with a flannel. He walked to the podium in the front and pressed a few buttons for the control unit. A large white screen slid down from the ceiling and the projector turned on, casting a large blue square on the screen.
"I thought we were having that old teacher, Johnson or whatever his name was," Mel said to me. I nodded.
"I think he retired?" I asked her. She shrugged.
"Maybe? That sounds right," she said. "I never had him so I wouldn't really know." I tugged a notebook and pen from my backpack and tossed it on the table in front of me. The auditorium had just started to quiet down as more and more people noticed the Professor had arrived.
The lights dimmed and the blue projection changed to a PowerPoint. Art History 101. Everyone was silent now.
"Hello everyone," he said into the microphone. His voice was deep and boomed through the room. He looked startled and messed around with the control panel on the podium again.
"Is this volume better?" He said. The volume was much lower and tolerable. A few 'yeah's' sounded from the auditorium. "Great. Well, I'm Charles Hill - you can call me Chuck. Please do not call me Mr. Hill, that makes me feel old." He smiled and a few chuckles echoed through the room.
"This is Art History 101, so if you're not in the right room this is your queue to leave. I'll be handing out the paper syllabus in a minute. Please know this is online on the class page - so if you lose it it is online," he held up a huge stack of paper. He walked up to the front row and handed the stack to the first person and instructed them to pass it along. As he glanced up, our eyes briefly connected and he smiled softly. My heart thudded momentarily in my chest.
"Please keep in mind I also will update the timeline on the portal as we will inevitably fall off the schedule in the paper syllabus. So if you're ever unsure what we're doing, or when something is due, check online. We're all adults here, so I trust you all will read the syllabus in your own time, we will not be doing a syllabus review today. Any questions before we get started?"
A few hands shot up around the room. Chuck took questions and answered them quickly. Most of the answers were to, 'read the syllabus, it's in there!'. Once he had answered all the questions he started the presentation.
"While this is a 101 class, I will not be teaching this as a 101 class. Art History is pivotal in what it means to be an artist. Much of the art we appreciate today would not be considered art or even exist if it wasn't for every single thing we will discuss in this class. We're going to start with prehistoric art and work up to the turn of the century. Art History 102 covers turn of the century to modern day - so hopefully I will see many, if not all of you, next semester." He said, starting the lecture.
"I recommend everyone take notes, as all my lectures are geared to make you succeed. Pay attention, take notes, and you'll do fine on my tests and quizzes." The auditorium filled with a rustling sound as most students pulled out notebooks and pens that they didn't previously have out. The lecture was engaging and went over a few key art pieces from the prehistoric era. His explanations and details on everything were extremely thorough and he repeated his key points multiple times, making it very easy to take notes and remember things. When the Venus of Willendorf was showed, a scattering of snickers echoed through the room.
"Yes, this is an early human sculpture of a voluptuous female figure," he said. "Nudity and the female form is a common theme throughout art history, and art in general. I take it a majority of you are freshmen, but by the end of the year you will not find yourself snickering and laughing at the site of nudity. In fact, hopefully you won't be phased by it at all, just ask the older students in the class." A smaller amount of laughter broke out from me and the other older students.
When the lecture was over Chuck announced our first assignment.
"Everyone, please write one page about yourself so I can get to know you a little. There's roughly 150 of you here, but I would like to know you better than as an amorphous blob of students. Just write about you, your art, where you are in your college career, bonus points if you share links to your own website or Art social media. Due Wednesday at the start of class!" Everyone packed up and cleared out fairly quickly. Mel and I hung back, waiting for the crowd to clear out so we wouldn't get trampled getting out. I grabbed my orange from my backpack for my snack between classes.
"That was a much better class than I was anticipating already," I said as we headed out of the room. Mel nodded. I peeled my orange as we walked. Chuck sped past us, presumably heading to his next class.
"And he's not bad looking either," she said. I shrugged. "Oh c'mon, you know he's your type. He looks like every guy you've dated in the 4 years I've known you. Older, bearded, and lumberjack-y." I snorted, my mouth full of orange.
"Lumberjack-y?" I asked. I offered orange to Mel and she shook her head.
"No thanks," she said. "And yes, lumberjack-y. You know I'm right too, Win."
"Sure, sure," I said, not wanting to concede. "He's also our teacher so don't forget that."
"I'm just saying, he's your type," she said with a shrug.