When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Chapter 20

Matt

After he'd double triple checked his schedule, Matt had arrived into his Drawing II class 15-minutes early the next day. He'd kept his head down and hoped he hadn't appeared too nervous, but the first day of new classes had always spiked his anxiety:

Who was going to be in his class?

Would he know anyone, or would he be entirely alone?

What was the professor like?

Much to his relief, Eden had walked in with Zach and Jenna, even Heather had joined them before the bell rang. Matt noticed Mandy and Lindsay were in his class too; they both sat by another gorgeous blonde he knew was named Eliza. Personally, Matt thought she'd looked a little too orange with her spray tan in the middle of winter, and she'd given him the vibe that she knew she was pretty, so she'd felt superior and could get away with being a bitch to other people.

An older man entered the room without a single word. He'd worn a simple black short sleeve and dark wash jeans with glasses and a had a side part with dark hair greying along the edges; he'd looked like he had a constant worried expression stuck on his face. The whole class was silent as he'd regarded each of them as if he'd been sizing everyone up, like he'd already determined who would excel and who would break under the pressure.

Matt wondered which category he'd fall under.

"Hello, my name is Daniel Arquez, and I am the instructor for Drawing II, so if you're in the wrong class, I'd suggest you leave now."

One student had actually gotten up and left, which lead to small laughter amongst a few of those who'd remained. Professor Arquez's face revealed only slight amusement mixed with annoyance before he'd continued straight into attendance, to which he said was mandatory every class, and that if anyone had planned on skipping his course, they'd absolutely not pass his class. Matt cringed; their professor seemed pretty intense.

Matt found himself suddenly missing his old eccentric instructor from last semester, Mr. Price. Matt heard he'd retired after last semester, so he was probably going to spend the rest of his days fishing off his boat talking about fruit.

Matt's name was called, so he'd jumped in his seat as he'd replied. He'd looked up at the instructor, saw his eyes narrowed in on him before he'd given another one of his Mona Lisa smiles.

"Well, Mr. Anderson, I see you were able to make it to class this time. I missed you yesterday in my Three-Dimensional Design fundamentals course," Arquez checked his name off on his clipboard.

"Oh, so you teach that class too?" Matt gulped.

"Oh yes, which means we're going to be seeing a lot of each other this semester. We're either going to be the best of friends, or absolutely despise each other before it's even over."

Matt's body sunk even lower into his seat.

Luke

The first week of classes hadn't even finished, and already there'd been a shit ton of homework assigned. What happened to what it was like in high school, where the only homework for the whole first week was bringing back a signed syllabus by Friday?

Luke was back in his room, doing some required reading for his Biology class, which was some environmental awareness course that was half lab, half lecture. Brett had told him it was supposed to be pretty easy to pass, so long as you'd showed up, took decent notes during the lectures and didn't fall behind on the online readings outside of class. He'd failed to mention that it was also boring as hell, and that it could cure an insomniac of their sleeping disorder.