Ryan decided not to dwell on Jack Kelly, and he enjoyed his other classes and getting to know people in his dorm. He mostly hung out with Michael and a group of people from his hall, and Ryan decided he liked college. No nagging parents, freedom to do pretty much whatever he wanted (so long as it wouldn't get him kicked out of school, of course), and living with a built-in set of friends. Classes could be tough—multi-variable calculus looked like it was going to be killer—and there was a lot of work, but Ryan thought he'd be able to handle it. Yeah, college life was good.
On Thursday, Ryan biked to class so he could get from chem to Humanities faster. Ryan arrived in lecture a couple minutes early and sat down in an empty row near the back of the room. He doubted that half the class would already be ditching lecture, like that Sean kid seemed to think.
"Hey," someone said, sliding into the seat next to Ryan. Ryan looked up, startled: and then there was Jack Kelly.
"I'm Jack. From section. And…you know," he shot Ryan that same dazzling (no, not dazzling, Ryan didn't think of boys as dazzling. Ridiculous. Yes, totally ridiculous) smile.
"Oh, yeah, hey!" Ryan grinned back—he couldn't help it. "Oh, and I'm Ryan."
"Don't worry, I remember," Jack replied easily. "So are you totally excited to learn all about Socrates?"
"Oh yeah, Socrates is my life," Ryan laughed.
"Mine, too, for sure," Jack replied mock-seriously. He leaned towards Ryan, "But you know, the sad thing is, Socrates probably is Professor McGowan's life."
Ryan laughed. "Totally. You know whenever he's got a problem, he's completely like, 'Hmm, what would Socrates do?'"
Jack laughed, then lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Tell you the truth, I think Socrates is a nut-job. I mean, he's put on trial and when he's supposed to defend himself, he just insults everyone in the court. And then, when he has an easy chance to escape and avoid execution, he says he can't do it because the Laws talk to him and are telling him he can't ruin himself by being hypocritical like that? I mean, come on!"
"Well, why don't you try telling that to Professor McGowan, I'm sure he'd love to discuss that with you in office hours" Ryan grinned.
Jack laughed and leaned back. "Yeah, well maybe we can talk about it in section later."
Ryan smiled. Yeah, college was definitely awesome.
Over the next few weeks, Ryan made a point of rushing out of chem lecture in time to get a seat next to Jack in Humanities class. And whenever he arrived too early, flushed from a breakneck bike ride and forced to sit alone and wait for everyone else to trickle in, he was pleased to notice that Jack sat down next to him. Even though he spent way more time hanging out with the guys from his dorm, Ryan considered Jack a good friend, and the time they spent talking and joking through lecture made Humanities a hell of a lot more bearable.