Forelsket

English 2001 was located across campus in Sanford Hall. A building notably older than half of the side of campus it resided on. It was home to three floors, all of which sheltered numerous long maze-like corridors and a lack of air conditioning. I found room 112 with little ease, but took pride in being one of the first to claim a desk. As the rest of the class filed in I took silent note of my classmates, none of which to my excitement had dull blue eyes.

“Good morning!” A woman with large flared jeans and copper hair exclaimed as she took place behind the podium that seemed to swallow her whole. “I’m Mrs. Heiks, but I prefer you call me Kris, and this is Writing Across the Curriculum. Let’s start off with seeing who was brave enough to roll out of bed, and then get this show on the road.”

I cupped my cheek in my palm as I absently doodled in the margins of the syllabus she had passed around as she began role call. I had zoned out so much as I colored in the petals of my mediocre flower that I missed my name the first time it was called.

“Keelyn Stewart?”

“Oh, here!” I raised my hand and dropped it as soon as she was looking over.

“I said that right? Kee-luhn?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Okay, good. Now that that’s taken care of I want to start with an activity. You’ll see I passed out a syllabus to all of you, so make sure not to lose that because I’ve included a class-by-class outline of the semester. I don’t want to hear any excuses when something’s due because you all have access to that information.” The class was completely silent, some paying attention to Kris, while others texted under their desks or played with their writing utensils. “Anyway, everyone take out a piece of paper or notebook. Your first assignment is going to be a haiku. I’m going to require one to be written at the beginning of every class period and I’m sure this seems juvenile to some of you, but it’s going to help get you into the right mindset for English this early in the morning. I don’t have any criteria for what you need to write about, but I will pick them up from time to time to grade them for completion. That being said get started, you have ten minutes.” She finished with a smile and directed her attention to the desktop monitor in front of her while the rest of the class got out the needed supplies.

I wasn’t a poet and I never have been. As soon as she set us loose I hit a block and had to stealthily Google the rules of a haiku because I couldn’t even remember if the first line needed four or five lines. I wrote down the first thing that came to my mind, and decided it was good enough simply because the most it would be graded for was wholeness.

Why do this to me?
Isn’t college hard enough,
Without distractions?

When the ten minutes had ended Mrs. Heiks cleared her throat, signaling to stop. “I know how terribly sad you all must be to get out of class so early today, but I figure you’re all competent with reading since you’ve made it this far and can check over the syllabus by yourselves. Make sure you do, because you may or may not have a quiz on it Thursday. Have a good day!”

The rest of the day was a simple blur of syllabi and role calls; ice breaker games and homework assignments. I stopped at the on campus convenience store and picked up a few groceries before walking back to Newland residence hall. Inside, Gabby turned to greet me as I shrugged off my backpack.

“Long day?” She asked, breaking down what looked like her last cardboard box. It was a funny sight to see her all unpacked on day one of classes—she had been my roommate the year before as well and had taken two weeks to fully unload.

I rubbed my face before looking up at her with an expression of pure exhaustion. “Do you happen to remember that guy from the bookstore yesterday?”

“No way, did you see him today?” She slid the flattened box under her bed and sat on it, giving me her full doe-eyed attention. I shook my head. “Did you yell at him again?”

“No!” I shook my head, a physical expression of my brain trying to sort through my thoughts. “I mean yes, but that’s not what I’m getting at. He’s—“ I sighed before falling back onto my crumpled duvet. “He’s in my class.”

“No!” She gasped in disbelief, an undertone of excitement in her voice over the developing drama.

“Yes. And he sat in front of me and got me into deep shit with my professor so now I have to write an extra credit paper with him as retribution for being bad students.” I didn’t think she’d ever stop laughing, but when she did she got up and came to sit on the edge of my bed.

“Don’t worry about it okay Keels? I know exactly what will cheer you up!”

“And what’s that?”

“Weeeeeell,” She started, a smile growing so quickly it was threatening to cut her face in half. “Remember how Annalie joined that sorority last semester? I nodded. “She invited us to the first house party of the year!”
“A frat party’s supposed to cheer me up?”

“Not just any frat party, a Delta Chi party!”

“I’m still not making the connection here, Gabby.”

“That’s because I haven’t told you the best part. We’re not just going there to fuck with the pledges or touch some butts.” She paused, her ecstatic eyes searching mine. “We’re going to steal their banner.”