I stretched my legs and stared at the empty track, relishing in the fact that no one was out running this early in the morning. The morning air was crisp. It was slightly chilly, but in a comfortable way. The sun was just starting to peak above the horizon, ready to take over its morning shift. 

Off in the distance was the soccer stadium where I could see the team practicing.  I could hear the coach shouting instructions and could make out the players doing drills. Taking a deep breath and a swig of my water, I popped in my headphones and turned on my music. It was time to run. 

An hour later, I had worked up quite a sweat. I sat down and took a drink of water and then began stretching my legs so I wouldn't be sore. I needed to start making the long trek back to my apartment and shower. My first class was at 9 am and it was already almost 7:30. I stood up after stretching and gathered my water bottle. I took my headphones out and started making my way towards my apartment. 

As I walked, I noticed a group of guys walking in front of me, mostly shirtless. I realized that it was the soccer team, as some of them were holding soccer balls and all of them were wearing cleats. I felt slightly self-conscious in my sports bra and cropped tights. I was still kind of sweaty and I was sure that my face was blotchy and red after my intense 3.5 mile run.

At my footsteps, one of the guys looked back and then raised his eyebrows. His face broke out into a grin and he stopped and turned around.

"Hey, Elliot! It's that chick from our apartment whose shit was all over the place!" the guy said, pointing right at me. I rolled my eyes.

Great.

Two of the other guys turned around and I realized that one was Sebastian. I hadn't run into him the rest of move-in week. This was partially because I hadn't really left the confines of my apartment since the day I had first met him. 

Sebastian smiled at me and waved.

"Hey, Blake!" he called out. I raised my hand and waved, too, as I approached the three boys. 

"Hey," I said flatly.

"Damn, girl," the guy that had turned initially said, scanning my body up and down very obviously. Sebastian elbowed him in the side and he scowled.

"What are you doing out here so early?" he asked.

"I was running," I said. 

"Into my arms," the first guy said, extending his arms out.

"James, can you quit being a dick?" Sebastian asked. "We were out here practicing," Sebastian said, with a wave of his arm. 

Thanks, I didn't ask.

"Yeah, I noticed," I replied. "That's cool that you're on the soccer team," I added. 

"These are my roommates. This is James. That's Elliot," Sebastian said.

"Pleasure to meet you," James said, taking my hand even though I hadn't extended it to him. "Emphasis on the pleasure," he added with a sly grin. Sebastian closed his eyes in annoyance.

"Seriously?" Elliot said, shaking his head. "I'm going to get him out of here before he makes an even bigger fool out of himself," Elliot said to me, grabbing onto James' shoulder and ushering him away. "We'll catch up with you after class, man," he said to Sebastian.

"James is an idiot," Sebastian said, looking at his roommates' receding backs. He turned to face me. "Sorry about him," he said. I shook my head.

"It's not your fault your friend's a douche," I said. He chuckled and nodded.

"True," he said. We began walking towards the apartment again. For a long moment, there was silence. I wasn't much of a talker. I wouldn't say that I wasn't a friendly person; I just wouldn't describe myself as extroverted. I could be polite and make conversation when I wanted to. But if I wasn't in the mood, I found it difficult to make even small talk. I was definitely an introvert and this was definitely one of those moments where I didn't feel like talking.

 "I haven't seen you around since I first ran into you," he said.

"I've been cooped up in my apartment getting second-hand high," I replied, accidentally blurting out the last part of the sentence. I felt my face flush as I bit my lip.

"Second-hand high?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. Then his eyes widened slightly. "Is your apartment the one that always smells like a dispensary when you walk past it?" he asked. I let out a small groan.

"So other people notice it, too?" I asked. He chuckled and nodded. "My roommate is a pothead. And I don't know how to tell her to stop smoking in the apartment," I said. 

"Gotta love California and its legalization of recreational marijuana," Sebastian said. "You should just be open about it. Before I decided to room with Elliot and James, I had some horrible roommates," he told me. 

"Yeah, I'll probably talk to her today. There's no way I'll be able to study in my apartment if she keeps that up," I said.

"Well, if you need a place to study, the library is awesome. But I know of some hole-in-the-wall coffee shops around here that not many students know about. I like studying in those because they're usually quiet," he said. 

"I might have to take you up on that offer," I huffed. 

"I can't believe we're talking about studying on the first day of classes," he laughed. I felt a small smile creep up onto my lips.

"I swear I'm not a nerd," I said. He laughed again.

"What's your major?" he asked.

"Social work and psychology double major," I replied. 

"Interesting," he said with a nod. "I'm a biology major. Pre-med," he said, rolling his eyes. 

"Nice," I said. 

"It kind of sucks. This year's going to be rough since I have to study for the MCAT. I'm basically going to be a loser all year and just study all the time," he said.

"It's okay. I'm taking 18 credit hours because I have to catch up in my programs so I can finish on time. I'll be studying all the time, too," I said. 

"Well, at least I won't be the only one," he said with a small grin, nudging me in the arm. I smiled at him, but moved away from him slightly. He was getting too friendly.

We got to the apartment building and he opened the door for me. I thanked him and we went inside. 

"I'll see you around, Sebastian," I said, going to my apartment.

"Have a good first day of classes," he told me with a smile, going towards his place. I grimaced and nodded, pushing open the door to the familiar stench of marijuana.

After an hour, I was showered and dressed and walking out of the apartment. I made sure to spritz a few extra sprays of perfume on in case any scent of marijuana lingered on me. I didn't want my professors to get a whiff of something that wasn't mine and ruin my reputation before I had a chance to make one. 

I started on the long trek to my first class. As I walked, I noticed that a lot of people were riding around on bikes, their backpacks on their backs. I made a mental note to look into buying a bike. It looked like it would come in handy and it would definitely save time walking to class. In the previous week, I had made sure to walk to all of the buildings where I would have class so that I could time how long it would take me to get from one place to another. Some of my walks ended up taking around thirty minutes, especially from my apartment. So having a bike would be helpful, especially if I was ever running late.

About twenty minutes later, I reached the building where my first class, Abnormal Psychology, was located. I walked into the lecture hall where my class was and scanned the room to figure out where I would sit for the remainder of the semester. I didn't want to be too close to the front for fear of the professor picking on me to answer any questions. But I didn't want to be in the back, either, because I wouldn't be able to see. I settled for the fourth row from the front, figuring it was a happy medium. Luckily for me, I was about ten minutes early to class, so there weren't very many people in the classroom. The professor wasn't even there yet. I took a seat near the middle so that I wouldn't have to keep getting up when students started pouring in. 

I pulled out my laptop and took out a notebook and pen. As I waited, I doodled aimlessly on the first blank page of my notebook. Within a few minutes, students began pouring into the classroom. The sound of chatter filled the room as people discovered their friends and figured out their seating arrangements.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" I heard a voice say. I looked up to see a young man with tousled dark brown hair and black framed glasses standing over me. 

No.

"Yeah, go for it," I said, kicking aside my bag so he had room for his.

"Thanks," he said, setting his stuff down and scooting into the seat next to me. "I'm Nate," he said.

"Blake," I replied. 

"Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around before," he said.

"It's a big school," I answered. He chuckled.

"Yeah, but only psychology majors take classes like these and I haven't seen you in any other introductory level psych classes," he pointed out.

"Touché," I said. "This is my first semester here. I did my first two years at a community college. Including the intro level psych classes," I explained.

"Nice. Saving money," Nate said, leaning back in his seat. He reached down and pulled out his laptop which was covered in stickers of various bands and superhero logos. He opened up the laptop to reveal a keyboard cover that matched the craziness of the surface of his laptop. It was colorful and had images all over it.

"Nice laptop," I commented. He grinned.

"Thanks," he said. 

After a few more minutes, the professor walked in and the class settled down. I raised my eyebrows when I saw the professor. He was incredibly attractive. He had messy brown hair, wide blue eyes, and glasses. He was wearing a dark grey plaid suit and he looked pretty young.

"Hello, class. I'm Dr. Parker. This is Abnormal Psychology. If you're in the wrong class, I suggest you leave now and find the correct class before it's too late," Dr. Parker, the professor, said as he set down his bag at the front of the room. Funnily enough, I heard someone curse under their breath behind me and the sound of scuffling as a student got up and left the classroom with a red face. "There's always one," Dr. Parker mumbled, shaking his head.

"I heard this guy is a genius," Nate said, leaning closer to me to whisper. "He graduated from Harvard at the age of 20. He started college when he was 16," he said. I raised my eyebrows, even more impressed. Dr. Parker began signing into the computer in the front.

"Everyone, please pull up the syllabus for the class. It's located on the Blackboard site under the class name," Dr. Parker said.

"His name sounds kind of familiar," I said, pulling up my student information tab. I searched for my mentors and came across his name. "Aha. That's why. He's my faculty mentor," I said, pointing to my screen.

"Damn, you got lucky. If you get on his good side, he could write you a wicked letter of recommendation next year," Nate told me. 

"All right," Dr. Parker said, projecting the syllabus onto the white screen in the front. "So like I said, this is Abnormal Psychology. I'm Dr. Parker. I'll skip my own introductions, because quite honestly, I'm not a fan of standing up here and bragging about myself. If you're curious enough to get to know me, you can ask. Otherwise, my credentials are located on the school website," he began. 

"Many of you may be thinking that this is syllabus week, so we won't be learning anything of any importance," Dr. Parker said, leaning against the podium in the front of the room. "I'm going to tell you that that is not the case for this class. You all are adults now and perfectly capable of reading a syllabus on your own time. To make sure you do so, I will be posting a quiz on the Blackboard site over the syllabus. This is to ensure that people don't ask me silly questions throughout the semester that can be found in the syllabus. So please, read it thoroughly. I will only discuss the pertinent details right now. Then we will begin our first lecture," he said. He stood up and went around the podium.

"My contact information can be found at the top of the syllabus. Email is the best way to contact me. Please don't call unless it's an absolute emergency. I'm usually in my office until about 6pm on the weekdays, but I teach two other classes and conduct my own research, so please be weary of my time," he said. "Speaking of time, I wanted to show you all a video about time, as represented by jellybeans," he said, pulling up a video on Youtube. 

The video was of several thousands of jellybeans, each representing one day in an average human being's lifetime. It showed, representatively, how much time we would spend, on average, doing some everyday tasks like sleeping, eating, and working. It showed that comparatively, we had very little time left to do things that we loved. At the end, it asked, if we had one more day left, what would we do? And then it ended. 

"Not to be depressing, but I'd like you all to think long and hard about the time that you have and the time that others have. At the end, did you see how few jellybeans there were, how few days there were, comparatively, to do whatever we wanted? I ask that you please take this into account when you think about being disruptive during class or emailing me at midnight the night before an assignment is due. Please be aware of my time and I will be aware of yours," Dr. Parker said. To this, the class was eerily silent. I felt my heart beating rather quickly in my chest, his words echoing in my head.

"That being said, let's talk about what's expected of you from this course," Dr. Parker said, and then dove right into the rest of the syllabus.

At the end of class, Nate let out a low whistle. 

"That was kind of intense," he said as he stuffed his laptop into his bag.

"I kind of liked it," I replied, putting my own things away.

"Yeah. I've heard really good things about this course, but I also heard that it's tough as shit," he told me.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to make sure not to fall behind," I said. 

"What other classes are you in?" he asked me. I handed him my schedule. My next class wasn't for another hour, so I had time to kill. "Oh, sweet. We're in cognitive and neuropsychology together. And personality theory," he said. "Are you a sociology major, too?" he asked, handing me my schedule back.

"Yeah, I'm doing a double major," I said. 

"Me, too. Except I'm doing a double with biology," he told me. 

"Nice," I said.

"This might seem forward, but can I get your number? Since we're in a few classes together," he said. I hesitated, but then looked at his kind brown eyes. He seemed like a genuine guy that didn't mean any harm. It would be helpful to have an acquaintance in my classes.

"Sure. Give me your phone," I said. He handed it to me and I typed in my number. "Just shoot me a text with your name," I told him. "I'm going to go talk to Dr. Parker really quickly, but I'll see you around," I said, glancing up at the professor who was packing up all of his things. I had seen a few students go up there to kiss his ass already and I wanted to introduce myself to him since he was my mentor.

"It was nice meeting you, Blake!" he called after me as I got up. I waved to him and made my way down to the front of the classroom.

"Dr. Parker?" I said, going up to the professor. He glanced up as he put the strap of his bag on his shoulder. 

"Yes? How can I help you?" he asked me, looking slightly annoyed.

"Sorry to get in your way. I just wanted to introduce myself really quickly. You're my faculty mentor," I said. At the mention of the word mentor, his features softened. From up close, I could see a smattering of freckles across his nose. He was really attractive.

"Ah, yes. And what's your name?" he asked me.

"I'm Blake. Blake Knightley," I said, extending out a hand to him. He shook it and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Blake," he said. "Shall we walk? I have a meeting to get to," he said. I nodded and followed him outside.

"I was wondering if I could set up a time to come talk to you during office hours. I think we're supposed to do bi-monthly check-ins with our mentors," I told him.

"You are correct. If you want, you can email me some times that work for you and I can schedule you accordingly," Dr. Parker suggested.

"I can do that. Thank you, Dr. Parker. I look forward to meeting with you," I said as we approached the building where his office was located.

"I'll wait for your email, Ms. Knightley," he said, smiling at me and pushing open the door, effectively dismissing me. 

I sighed as I watched his receding back through the glass windows. 

I would say my first day of classes was going pretty well.

________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Kind of slow to start. I'm just trying to introduce some characters. The goal is to finish the story as quickly as I can before classes start up again. But this might be an overly-ambitious goal. 

P.S. The video that was referenced in this chapter is in the media section above. Check it out; it's a really cool video!

Until next time...

XOXO