Prim and Katniss left Professor Trinket's class after being wished a "Very very very wonderful afternoon!" "Kat, I thought you took comp already." Prim said as she and her sister made their way toward the student center. As it was a ten minute interval between classes, nearly all 30,000 students of Panem University were crossing campus.
"I did take comp. But then I dropped. You didn't tell mom did you?" Katniss asked staring hard at her sister.
"No." Prim said before an evil grin spread across her face. "Hey, that was the year you and Peeta were in the same class!" Though she didn't hear a reply from her sister, a blush creeped up Katniss' face. "Did you and Peeta skip class to make out?" Prim giggled. "And you dropped so you wouldn't fail?"
"Shut up!" Katniss hissed through clenched teeth.
"PRIM! KATNISS!" A voice called amid the throngs of students. Rue hurried over to the Everdeen girls grinning. "Hey, wanna eat at the Student Union before physics?" Rue asked.
"We'd better hurry if you two want to eat there." Katniss said as she began to nearly jog.
"Katniss - we don't have physics until 1pm!" Prim gasped.
"You wanna be standing in line until one?" Katniss asked. They crossed the central plaza where tables were set up advertising student clubs and the Rocky Mountain Credit Union's free checking accounts and credit card specials for students. The smell of dozens of deep fryers going at full blast led them to the food court on the second floor of the Student Union. The usual fast-food chain restaurants plus a Chinese place and a sandwich bar had enormous lines of students snaking through the aisles in between the tables. The three girls got in line at Panda Express which had one of the longer lines in the Food Court. Prim pointed out Cato who was ordering two large to-go boxes of food. "Ok, girls. Rich frat boys like Cato can eat here every day. You girls will run out of money if you eat here every day. What's your meal plan?"
"Uh - I think three meals a day." Rue said.
"Yeah. Well, the dorms are crowded, but seriously. Don't eat here every day." Katniss said. "Ok?"
"Ok." The freshmen chorused. Soon it was their turn. Rue ordered the broccoli and beef, Katniss ordered the spicy chicken, and Prim ordered the famous orange chicken. They found a table and ate lunch.
"Did you girls get your syllabus?" Katniss asked. "Prim, I know you got Trinket's."
"Yeah." Rue said. "I'll look over them tonight."
"Yeah. Don't lose them." The two girls nodded. "Ok, you girls talked to the other girls on your hall, right?"
"A little bit. Yeah." Prim said as Katniss grinned.
"Who do you think would like to join the archery club?"
Katniss shooed the girls away at 12:40 so they were sure to find their physics class. They entered a two story sandstone building labeled: Engineering and Physics. "I sure hope this is it." Rue quipped as Prim giggled. Pushing open one of the two sets of double doors to Physics Lecture Hall 101, they gasped as they looked down into the 300 seat lecture hall.
"Come on down, get the best seats in the house!" A man called from the front. He appeared to be setting up some sort of pulley system on a stage type area. Running a dark hand through his black curly hair, he smiled at the girls before adjusting his glasses. Prim and Rue exchanged glances before walking down the endless flight of stairs to the first floor. They sat in chairs with small desks that lifted up from the armrests.
"Are you Professor Wright?" Rue asked.
"Well, I'm Professor, but I'm not always right." Professor Wright quipped. A soft laugh joined Prim and Rue's giggles. "Wire, do you have the weights for this thing? I swear I brought them from the office." Prim smiled at Wiress who came out from behind the podium with some weights in her hands.
"I was looking at the powerpoint -" She began as she looked at Professor Wright's machine.
"How does it look?" She nodded for an answer. "Good. Thank you, Wire."
The enormous lecture hall got noisier as the other 298 students filed into the room. "Good afternoon, class!" Professor Wright called at exactly 1pm. "Welcome to Physics for Biology students! Yes, I'm the professor. No, I'm not always right." The class laughed and groaned at his joke. Prim noticed Wiress smiling sweetly at the professor even as she rolled her eyes, and Rue just acted like she hadn't heard the joke less than ten minutes before. "However, I am Professor Wright. Our smart, talented, and very helpful teaching assistant is Wiress Carpenter." He gestured to Wiress who had pulled up Professor Wright's PowerPoint presentation on his computer at the podium. "She will be running the majority of your lab sections. As you all know by now, the first day of college starts with a discussion about the syllabus. Have you all downloaded it from your email or the course website?" Most everyone shook their heads. Rue pulled hers out of her backpack while Prim opened the file on her iPad. "You will have weekly assignments due related to your lab exercises, three quizzes, and then a final. As you all realize by now, this is standard for many college courses." Professor Wright paused. "And I realize by now that not everyone in this room wants to be a world-class engineer like your teaching assistant back here." Prim and Rue bit back giggles as Wiress turned a dark maroon and pretended to mess with the cords on Professor Wright's laptop. "How many of you are premed or pre-health sciences?" Prim along with about half of the room raise their hands. "Pre-Vet?" More hands went up. "Other biological sciences?" Rue's hand went up along with the remainder of the class. "Alright. I will try and make this class as relevant to your classes as possible!" Pulling a cord on the pulley system, a 10 foot tall structure stood in front of the class. A metal circle with a smiley face was connected to metal arms, legs, and a clamp on each arm for hands. Pulleys were attached where the joints were. "We'll talk about some basic stuff today with Mr. Pulley Man!" Before Prim and Rue prepared to take notes, they grinned at each other. Though they were biology students, they knew physics would be tolerable and perhaps even fun!
A/N: "Beetee Wright's" inspiration came from Jeffrey Wright who is apparently playing Beetee in Catching Fire. So, if you're wondering how I picture him, that's how.
Random fact: At my university we really did have Physics for the Biological Sciences and the guy who teaches it does a lot of hands-on stuff. Here's to you, Prof. Jones!