Chapter Text
One more semester. Just one more. You can do it.
Joel gritted his teeth as he braced himself and stepped into the lecture hall, not really ready to start a course where he would have to write essays and take tests and, more likely than not, fail.
If not for the graduation requirements, he would never even step into this building. ‘Ecology and Environmental Sciences’? He sure was glad scholars existed in this field, but he sure did not want to become one. But all his other options seemed to contain more despair, and with the weak points of ‘this is not physics’ and ‘at least the professor is known to be nice’, he managed to persuade himself into choosing this course in plant diversity.
Most of the seats were full. Joel tucked himself away at the corner of the lecture hall, propping up his laptop and scanning the room. He did not expect the amount of people in this class, and he expected less enthusiasm than the other students seemed to have. Some girls were excitedly chatting; the guy in front of him was typing away on his phone fast, presumably texting a friend; the front rows squeezed in way more people than he had ever seen.
Naive freshmen. Or sophomore. Something along those lines, Joel thought to himself.
The noise spontaneously grew then dropped to silence. Joel turned back only in time to see the door of the lecture hall open and slowly shut with no passer in sight, but the familiar silence of the presence of a professor urged him to realize otherwise.
A person he assumed to be an older student made his way up towards the podium, kneeling down to lean his bag against the wall before standing up and smiling to the room.
‘Good afternoon. My name is Etho and I will be your professor for this course.’
He was tall, good-looking for a college professor, and perhaps young as well, with long hair too blond to have color. Joel watched him take out his glasses and laptop from his bag, his back facing the students, and a phone camera flash came from a few seats behind Joel. Joel scoffs internally.
Freshmen with no decency. Dream about him all you want but there’s literally a law stopping him from dating you.
The professor himself didn’t seem to notice nor mind. He turned around, his glasses on his nose, the leftover smile on his thin lips softening his formal-attire sternness.
‘I am beyond happy to see a full lecture hall and your enthusiasm for the course reassures me, but as the department requires, I will now take attendance. Please simply answer “here” when you hear your full name, and I apologize in advance for messing anyone’s name up.’
A boring process, especially with such a large class. Joel knew he would never manage to regain his attention for the following lecture if he drifted away this early on, and he forced himself to actively listen to the professor read the attendance list.
‘Joel Beans?’
For unknown reasons, his first attempt to answer failed and the ‘here’ lagged in his throat.
‘Joel? Are you present?’
Joel coughed, gaining unwanted attention. ‘Uh, here.’
The professor smiled at him understandingly and wasted no time to continue, and the unwanted attention gradually faded. Joel touched his face; a bit warmer than he would have preferred.
Did I take my anxiety meds today?