Cindy and Zoe arrived at the university about twenty minutes later.
Cindy panted heavily having to keep up with her friend's pace; who, unlike herself, was dedicated to not arriving late on the first day of class.
"Why are you so anxious to go to class?" Cindy asked, huffing up air as she walked closely behind Zoe, "You never care much for class other than those revolving your major; especially not a G.E."
Zoe turned back at her with a playful grin, "I heard that we got a new professor to the school and this is the first class he is teaching at this school. I need to know how cool he is so I can ditch after fifteen minutes because there is no way I am staying in this class for two hours every Friday."
Cindy chuckled and speed up her pace to get right next to Zoe. Finally the two friends had made it to the classroom where the sat directly in the back row. Zoe looked at the clock and smiled.
"Hey! We're eight minutes early! Not too shabby!"
Cindy glared at her for having to be so fast but soon smiled too. She took out her laptop sleeve from her chestnut brown crossbody and removed her Macbook from it. After booting up her computer, she surfed through emails, notes, or anything else that would keep her busy for the time being.
Zoe suddenly stood up four minutes later to curse her extra large ice coffee that morning and stormed off to the bathroom. Chuckling, Cindy went back to her computer. All around her, she could hear the sounds of students piling into the classroom all chattering and laughing. Some were complaining about having to take this class by force and others were excited to learn about poetry. After taking a swift look around, Cindy concluded there were around forty students in the class; all squeaking their wood chairs down from their folded positions under the desks.
On both sides of the classroom were large windows that covered half of the wall starting from the end; giving Cindy a clear view of the snow falling down on the campus. At the front of the class was the classic chalkboard as well as the empty teacher's desk.
Cindy looked at the time from her computer. Two minutes left, this teacher is really cutting it close.
All of a sudden she heard the door open with a boom and Cindy was startled from her thoughts. She struggled putting her laptop back in her sleeve and bag; not seeing who the person was just yet.
"Sorry I'm late class, lost the time!" the stranger said, who Cindy guessed was the professor. When she was done putting her laptop away, a sea of college students covered her view to the teacher in the front. Cursing Zoe for choosing their seats, Cindy struggled to look in the front. Should she move?
After a few minutes of getting settled in, she finally heard the professor speak.
"Ok guys, I understand probably more than half of you are in here just because Poetry is a G.E. and will try to ditch class most of the time, honestly I do not blame you." the mysterious teacher said as the class laughed. "When I had to take the class at college, I was a naive 15 year old without the slightest drop of creativity within my body. Why focus on the literature works of the past while there was more significant things to learn about? I constantly left class and was scolded numerous times by my parents and teacher; so eventually I stayed."
Cindy looked outside as she heard the professor spoke. 15? Not bad at all. Was he taking college classes on the side while going to highschool?
"By going to class, I found myself immerse in the content. I found inspiration in the smallest things and thrived to look for more. If it was not for that class, I would never have studied into it more or did a side teaching job. To find the true extent of humanity, we have to understand other's perspective on life. We need to understand how to express love and pain or even just humor. True, we can do that with novels or documentaries, but what about the passionate or emotional aspect? Poetry is not just a hobby or a pastime, but a guide to morality and representation of our inner selves; whether we know what it is or not. Trust me, I was not truly aware of mine." Cindy heard chuckling follow.
"So before you guys go off into your own ways about whether or not this class is worth taking or if even you have to try, I guarantee you will not be disappointed."
There was a little silence after he said the last line of his speech, and then the class clapped a little and murmured among themselves.
"Woah.." Zoe said next to Cindy, who did not even notice her friend come into class.
Cindy smirker and asked, "Second guessing your leave?"
Zoe gave a sly grin and her eyebrows rose, "Ok Mom, you got me. I'll stay."
Cindy smiled warmly at her and whispered, "It would be better if we could see though. I didn't even get a chance to look at our professor!"
Zoe pointed out and two vacant seats near the middle row and whispered back, "Then let's make our move."
The professor just then cleared his throat as the two young adults started gathering their belongings.
"I am going to take attendance; you know the drill."
Cindy and Zoe rose and started making their way across to room, trying not to make too much noise and avoid eye contact.
"Jesse Adams?"
"Here!"
Cindy shuffled through various seats while her friend followed closely behind.
The professor kept going down the list.
"Samantha Mason?"
"Here.."
Finally the two had made it to the table and got settled in. Cindy put her bag down and stretched out her arms across the table. Zoe poked her playfully.
"Zoella Simmons?"
"Here."
Cindy put her bag down on the floor and started pulling her notebook and pencil out. Struggling to find her cell phone so she could switch it to silent, she dug deep into the bottom of the bag.
Don't tell me I left it in my room! How am I sup-
"Cynthia…...Vortex?!"
Cindy turned up to look but hit her head on the bottom of the table.
Real smooth, Vortex.
Rubbing her sore head, she rose to finally look up at the teacher.
Holy shit.