"Megan, hurry up, it's my bathroom too! I'm going to be late!' Sara yelled, pounding on the bathroom door. "Okay, just give me a second. I'm almost finished." Megan yelled back. Sara rolled her eyes and waited a few more moments before Megan opened the door. Her makeup was perfect and there wasn't a hair on her head out of place, as always. Sara never understood girls like that. Or even the fact that her best friend was one of "those" girls. Sara could honestly roll out of bed and go straight to class and wouldn't care.
She and Megan became best friends during their freshman year. Their dorms were on the same hall and only separated by one room. Berkeley no longer made sophomores live in the dorms, so they decided to rent an on-campus apartment. "How do I look?' Megan asked with a smile spread across her face. "Perfect. Are we ready to go now?" Sara ran into the bathroom, washed her face, applied her moisturizer and threw her hair into a hurried ponytail.
"So, what classes do you have today?" yelled Megan while she was scrounging her room, looking for her books. "I only have Intro the Entomology today. Thank God, because I was exhausted yesterday after 4 classes." Sara replied. "I know that I have no clue or understanding about your major and millions of classes, but you're taking a class on bugs? Like all the bugs in the world? Are you supposed to memorize them? Know what they do? Sara, I have no idea how you do it" Megan said. "Well, I haven't even been to class yet, so I have no clue on what we are doing or what is required." Sara said with a laugh, her cute gap between her front teeth showing. "I have heard that the professor can be tough and a few others have said he's rather boring." Sara said "What's his name? I'll look him up on the professor app and see what his rating is." Megan suggested.
"Doctor….Grissom? I think that's what it is" Sara responded, trying to see how well she remembered her schedule since only looking at it once. "Uhhh….would his first name be Gilbert?" Megan asked smirking. "I am pretty sure that's correct. I'm sure there's only one person in the world with that name." Sara said rolling her eyes.
"Doctor Gilbert Grissom. Oh, he's a doctor" Megan said rolling her eyes. "And?" Sara said laughing. "That means he's smart Sara. He'll be a hard ass like all the other "Doctor" professors out there" Megan said knowingly. Megan continued to scroll through her app. "Ok…Doctor Gilbert Grissom….he's a 5 out of 10 overall. 40% said they would take his class again. Sara, that's terrible. And the difficulty level is 95 out of 100. Sara you're screwed. I know you thought this would be an easy class of just memorizing. I mean it's not too late to drop it! You are a 4.0 student though. If anyone can get though his class, I know it's you" Megan said while packing her bags up. Sara was officially regretting signing up for Doctor Grissom's class. Yes, her major is physics, but she just thought this class might be a break from her typical academic classes.
She finished grabbing her books and laptop, throwing everything together in her bag. She looked at her watch, it was 11:05. Class started at 11:30. She knew she better get a move on it. She always loved getting to class early, but her chat with Megan had thrown her off on her time.
She got to the lecture hall just in time, at 11:26. Thankfully she wasn't late. She stopped at the back looking around, finally finding a seat on the second row. She liked sitting alone. No one beside her so that she had plenty of room to spread out her things. She was pretty sure that she came across as a loaner and she was definitely okay with that. She honestly loved keeping to herself instead of trying to make small talk with some stranger. As she was spreading her things out and getting prepared, the professor entered from a door to the side of the stage.
The room became very quiet as he started writing on the board. Sara's attention went instantly to the board. He began writing, "Entomology 101". "Um..Sir? I believe this class is, Introduction to Entomology" said the scrawny guy in the front row with glasses. Doctor Grissom turned around, "You would be correct! I just wanted to see if anyone was going to correct me on the first day!" he said while laughing. A few smirks and laughs came from around the lecture hall. As he was finishing setting up, Sara began to observe him. For some reason she was expecting a frumpy old man in his late 60's teaching this class, and boy was she wrong. He was very attractive, but she always seemed to be attracted to older men. He was your typical man in his 30's except he wasn't overweight, nor was he skinny. He was the perfect size for his body frame. Broad shoulders. Brown curly hair with a few gray hairs coming through and the cutest cleft chin.
He scanned the auditorium briefly. "Let's get started. I'm Doctor Gil Grissom. I am not about the formalities, so please call me Gil, or my work colleagues call me Grissom. Either one works for me. I hold a doctorate in entomology. I also work as a supervisor at the San Francisco Police Department. I am over an amazing team of scientists who work the nightshift and help solve crimes in San Francisco. I am sure you are wondering what I'm doing here. I have taken a sabbatical to teach this year long class. I enjoy teaching and this was the perfect opportunity to take a little break from all the crime and problem solving. As you saw when you signed up, Introduction to Entomology is a year long course. It is a year long course due to the content of the course. As you have probably figured out skimming your text book, there are A LOT of bugs and insects in the world and only having this class for one semester would be very daunting on you and me. Please read through the syllabus, there is some very important information in there. Things like my email, office hours, phone numbers and test dates" he said
"Since you all have your laptops, go ahead and pull up the syllabus online and I will tell you how to read the test dates and a few other things so that you have been told and not understanding it will not be an excuse" he told them. Since Sara had her laptop already out. As Doctor Grissom was waiting, Sara began to observe him more. He stood there, almost as if her were hiding behind the podium. Maybe he had first day jitters too. She was surprised about his lack of wants for the formalities. All the other professors she's had have made sure they were called by their credentials. He took a drink of his coffee before he began his explanation. After about 30 minutes he was finished. "Since we are finished and we have the entire year, I will go ahead and dismiss class. Don't expect this to happen often. Please, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me or meet with me after class! I will see you all on Thursday."
Sara is "that" girl that introduces herself to the professor on the first day. I mean why not make a good impression? Of course, there were at least 15 people wanting to talk with him. Sara purposefully remained in her seat until the line began to dwindle. While waiting, Sara began to flip through another one of her textbooks. Why not do some reading while waiting on the other students to finish. Lost in her textbook, a voice brought her out of her studying, "Ah, Physics, my least favorite subject in college." He said smiling. Sara looked up and instantly smiled when she saw who had interrupted her studying. "Well, considering that it's my major, it would definitely be my favorite" Sara responded laughing. "Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting, Miss?" he said questioningly. "Sidle, Sara" She responded quickly while shaking his hand, but please call me Sara" she said. While shaking his hand, she began to take in his details up close. His beautiful blue eyes. His height and his curly hair. Instantly she was attracted to him. "Since I know that this class is not required for a Physics major, what made you decide to take it?" he asked. "Honestly? I just like a good challenge. And I thought that this class might give me a little break from my typical academic classes" she said smiling. Grissom returned her smile, "Sara, this class will certainly be challenging for you. I can understand wanting a break from your typical academic classes. I had the same problem while in college, I just wanted to try to keep myself from getting burned out on my major classes. Berkeley can burn a person out" he said with a wink.
They continued their small talk for about 20 minutes in the lecture hall. They began to notice students filing in and had to cut their conversation short. "Well Miss Sidle, since we have obviously run out of time, it was a pleasure to meet you and I'll be sure to keep this class challenging for you all year" he replied with a smile. "Thank you, Dr. Grissom, the pleasure was all mine. I'll see you on Thursday!" Sara said with a smile.
Megan was home, snacking in the kitchen. "Soooooo, how was class" Megan asked. Sara laughed. "It actually doesn't seem so bad. We did talk a little after class. I went to introduce myself and we ended up talking about other things. He saw my books and realized I'm a physics major and he started talking about how he hated physics and wanted to know what made me want to take his class since it wasn't required" she said. "Oh, so now, Miss I don't chat with anyone, now chats with her new professor. He must be attractive in some way for Sara Sidle to chat with him and miss 20 more minutes of studying!" Megan said. Sara immediately rolled her eyes. "I found out that he also went to Berkeley to complete his degree. The few minutes that I spoke with him, he's very nice" Sara said while popping a chip in her mouth. There was defiantly something about him, but she was not going to admit that to Megan, she would never hear the end of it.
Gil was back home in his condo in San Francisco. He was finally relaxing on his couch, watching a little tv after finishing a quick dinner. He was pretty excited about getting this opportunity to take a year long break from the crime lab to teach. It was something he was interested in, in the future. It was a great way for him to currently avoid getting burned out at work. He knew the burnout was coming. He started staying at work hours after everyone had left. He was having more trouble than usual falling asleep. He knew he needed a little more daylight and a little more life and less death in his life. He sat there thinking about his first day. For some reason this beautiful brunette kept coming to mind. Sara, that was her name. He knew that he shouldn't have even had the thought that his student was beautiful but he couldn't help it. There was something about her. He was already looking forward to class on Thursday.