"I'm surprised you made it here on your own," Chicago joked as I sat down beside her.
I shook my head with a smile, "Yeah-yeah, you're so funny."
Chicago chuckled as I pulled my notebook out, "Hey, I would've lied to the teacher for you."
I dramatically raised a brow, "Oh wow—that's good to know if I ever want to skip class."
Chicago narrowed her eyes at me, resting the end of her pen on her lips as she leaned against the desk slightly, "In that case, I take back what I said."
I dramatically scoffed, "Wow, I thought we were cool," I said, settling into my seat at the long table that extended down the row for other students to sit at.
"We are, but I'm your RA—and I'm pretty sure helping you skip class is finna get me fired," Chicago pointed out, raising a slight brow.
I shrugged, "Fair point."
As the clock hit ten, the professor stood up from her seat, walking over to stand at her usual podium stacked with papers.
"For today's agenda, we're going to be reading an exert and having an open discussion about it—but before we get started on that, I wanted to introduce your first assignment," Professor Mathews said, picking up the stack of papers and handing them to the first rows to pass back and down. "It's nothing big, just a three-page paper in MLA format that highlights one of your classmates," she explained, turning on the projector. "I will be giving you one week to do this, and please put your best effort into it—think of this as an opportunity to get to know one another. We're going to be around each other for the rest of the semester, so there's no reason to be shy."
I really didn't care about anything she had just said, I seemingly only grasped the fact that she was only giving us one week to complete this... Was college really this fast-paced?
In high school they would've at least given us three months, if not the whole year to complete this assignment.
"I'll be letting you choose your own partners, of course, but be prepared to present your papers next Thursday—the goal of this assignment is to bring us together as a class. I want you all to feel comfortable enough to speak in front of one another," the professor explained, pulling up the exert that we were reading today.
I felt Chicago lean over to me, and even though she wasn't that close, I could easily smell a faint scent of vanilla. "You tryna be partners?" she whispered.
I briefly glanced over to her, nodding as I said, "Yeah, I'm down."
At least I wouldn't be partnered with anyone I hadn't known—then again, I think that was the professor's agenda.
But technically, I don't even know Chicago, so it still counts.
"Bet that," Chicago replied, leaning back in her chair.
I focused my attention back to the front, following along with the exert we were reading as I grabbed a paper from the stack of papers before passing it over to Chicago who mimicked my actions, passing the papers down to the students seated beside us.
The class seemingly flew by as we all went around in an open discussion, talking about the exert we read. It was really weird talking in class so openly—I don't know, even in high school we never really talked aloud like that or presented.
Honestly, I hated presentations, even if I knew all my classmates at Montrose—so I knew this presentation might be much more intimidating.
"So I say we get started on this assignment today. We could meet in the shared space of our complex?" Chicago suggested.
