It's Thursday, January 17th. I've got two classes to worry about today: Elementary Algebra starting at 1:10 in the afternoon and Gender and Human Rights starting at 2:15 in the afternoon. Because the latter class starts fifteen minutes earlier than the time the former class begins, I have to leave Elementary Algebra early at 1:50. I had to specifically ask Professor Waters permission to do that just for Thursdays, but it was definitely worth it. After all, I managed to work so hard in order to get to this semester.

After that dream I had yesterday, Quilene and Aerolynn seem to be getting along better. They're still shooting daggers at each other, but I haven't been hearing them argue today. Maybe we can all make it through the semester after all. I certainly hope so, anyway. This is only the first week. We've got a long ways to go before this semester ends.

First off, I have to head off to lunch at Efes Mediterranean Grill. I hear the food over there is great. Strange that I've never eaten there before, but oh well. There's always a good time to try everything. I've only got enough time to order something small for lunch and that's it, so I just decide to order some octopus salad and call it a day. After that, I have to head straight for Demarest Hall, which is where Elementary Algebra is being held. I don't even hesitate to sprint over to the room it's been taught in. Just like that, I've made it to my seat but not before other people have arrived and taken their seats. It looks like Professor Waters hasn't shown up yet. Oh, good, I'm not late. Okay, I guess I have some time to kill. What can I do in the meantime? Oh, I know, I'll just have a gander at that textbook everyone was assigned. I quickly skim through some pages and try to memorize everything in there. That's as much time as I'm allowed before Professor Waters shows up proper.

Professor Waters. What can you say about him? What the heck can you say about him? When you see him, you see this seven-foot-tall man with light golden brown skin, tightly curled gray hair on his face (but not on his head), an intimidating glint in his dark dark eyes, a round face, and a stiff upper lip. He's got a corpulent figure, too, so think like Shaquille O'Neal meets Uncle Phil from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." He wears a brown sweater-vest over a wide-lapeled white dress shirt, beige dress pants, and mahogany brown dress shoes. Someone's been getting fashion advice from Professor Read, I'm sure.

"Good afternoon, class," Professor Waters begins to speak. "It's good to see you again this week after we all decided to introduce ourselves. I'm going to assume that you've all gone over your syllabuses and just decide to start going over our textbooks."

We all do so. At this point, Professor Waters starts explaining the concepts that we'll be going over this week. He's explaining things that people might not already be familiar with like exponents, expressions, polynomials, like and unlike terms, and constants. I'd already learned this stuff back in William Dewey High, but I specifically signed up for this class because I didn't want to forget concepts like these. Jonah doesn't seem to have problems with algebra itself, but I think he would rather do anything else than that. Anyway, Professor Waters decides to start doing some equations on the whiteboard before asking students if they would like to solve them. As ever, I decide to raise my hand so Professor Waters will pick me.

"Yes, Miss Harvey-Dahl?" Professor Waters calls out to me. "Would you like to solve these equations?"

"Of course," I reply. "Just let me up to the board and I'll show you."

"Okay, come up here, then."

I just get out of my seat and go to the whiteboard. The first problem I see before me is "x+20=44." I decide to just subtract 20 from both numbers, leaving me with zero and twenty-four respectively. The remaining three equations on the board have something to do with subtraction, multiplication, and division. It barely takes me any time to solve those as well.

"Very impressive, Miss Harvey-Dahl," Professor Waters says. "Have you taken algebra before?"

I just nod at him. "I already took algebra back in high school. I actually still remember how to do these problems thanks to keeping all those notebooks."

"I see. You can go back to your seat now, Miss Harvey-Dahl."

"Thank you, Professor Waters."

I've left Elementary Algebra early so I can head off to Gender and Human Rights in Wessels Hall. Holy shit, I can feel my heart pounding as I run towards the inside of the building and reach my classroom. I look around me and make sure to take in all of my surroundings. It doesn't really look like anybody's here... well, except for three people who have already taken seats in the back. Oh, good, the seats at the front of the class have been left wide open. I take a seat at the very front because of course, I do. I decide to kill some time by looking through my iPhone and browsing Pinterest. A few students soon take seats behind mine. I briefly look all the way towards the back, and I can see some middle-aged folks who are eager to learn. Without even hesitating, I flip over my iPhone once Professor Austin arrives and makes her way in front of us all. All eyes are on her now.

Professor Austin sits in a wheelchair, which is her only means of getting around. She has light brown skin that reminds me of café au lait, curled seal brown hair streaked with platinum gray, wrinkled sepia eyes, thick lips coated in mauve lipstick, a squarish jaw, slightly pronounced cheekbones, a pear-shaped figure, and legs with most of the muscle that seem to have atrophied over the last several years. She looks like she'd stand over 5'5" or 5'6" without her wheelchair. She wears a long-sleeved gray sweater dress and black leather boots. I have to admit, she's got good taste in fashion.

"Good afternoon, class," Professor Austin begins to speak. "Welcome to Gender and Human Rights. My name is Amphyllis Austin, and I'm here to help you understand how gender is related to human rights. First things first, I'd like to get something out of the way: gender equality is at the very heart of human rights. In order to fully achieve universal rights for all, we also have to acknowledge problems inherent in our society, including those pertaining to how people face discrimination on the basis of their biological sex and gender identity, and try to fix them. Hopefully, this class will help in that regard."

Man, I'm really liking her so far. She really understands what it means to fight for what's right. I just have to lean forward and listen to her talk some more. The way she talks makes me even more confident about myself, including the fact that Quilene and I deserve human rights as much as anyone else. I'm actually glad I enrolled in this class. I want to use this as an opportunity to justify my own existence even more. Before I know it, Professor Austin has handed out the syllabuses and class has already wrapped up. I start to get up out of my seat and pack my things. As I leave the classroom, I think to myself how great this semester has been going so far. I just hope I'm not jinxing anything here. I'd hate to already set myself up for something bad later.

"Hey, how did you classes go?" Quilene asks me as I lay back on the couch with my backpack next to me.

I let out a happy sigh. "Wonderful. In Elementary Algebra, I got a chance to come up to the whiteboard and solve the equations that Professor Waters had written up there."

"Cool. Aerolynn didn't go to class today."

I look at her in confusion. This shouldn't surprise me, but somehow it does. "What? What happened?"

"She just... didn't go. I guess she figured she'd just cut class and go out partying instead. She's still not back yet."

"Oh..." I just look down in disappointment. "That's too bad. Still, it's only the first week of the semester. She might still turn this around."

"That's what I want to believe, too, but I don't think that'll ever happen. She didn't do so well in high school, either. The only reason she even got to graduate at all was because she had to take remedial classes to bump up her GPA. It's honestly a real mystery how she ended up attending Rutgers in the first place."

"So... what do we do now?"

"We're still going to do that three-month trial thing you suggested. She hasn't been a terrible roommate as far as I've seen, so she should probably stick around just a bit more."

"You're right. Though I still can't help but wonder why her previous roommates threw her out to begin with."

I hope we're not jinxing anything here. I really hope we're not jinxing anything here. Surely, nothing egregiously bad could happen during the first week of the spring semester, right?