What's Love Without A Little Fear [MFL: Jonathan Crane, Book One]

Chapter One - The Professor's Apprentice

Chapter One - The Professor's Apprentice
Olivia Sky

The loud beeping of my alarm clock was awoke me from my uneasy sleep.

I was groggy for a moment before I bolted up in bed, realizing that today was the day, my first day as the apprentice professor to Dr. Jonathan Crane.

I was now officially working at The Gotham University with my ex-professor, whom I was embarrassed to say that I harbored a bit of a crush on.

Getting up, I quickly dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt, jeans, black slip on shoes and my white lab coat. I quickly brushed my wavy, brunette hair and checked my reflection in the mirror, applying some smokey grey eye shadow around my hazel eyes before putting on my glasses.

Satisfied with my appearance, I rushed out of the door of my living quarters and had to force myself not to run to Dr. Crane's lab.

Once I arrived, I opened the door to find him already busy at work mixing chemicals. Dr. Crane was working on creating what he called 'Fear-Toxin', which caused anyone exposed to it to experience their worst fears.

I thought it was genius.

Dr. Crane thought so as well, though, he was sure that the School Board wouldn't agree with it, seeing as he was testing the chemical on his students.

It was because of this that Dr. Crane had been hesitant to take me on as his apprentice, but, he had finally agreed, and for that I was happy. Dr. Crane seemed to like me quite a bit, much more than any of the others students anyways.

"Professor?" I spoke quietly, to which Professor Crane stood up and turned around, and upon seeing me standing there, he smiled.

"Ah, Olivia. Come in." He gestured with a hand for me to enter, and I smiled before walking further into the lab and over to stand beside him.

That was how it began; I just started helping him with mixing chemicals, perfecting his hypothesis and correcting the formula for his Fear-Toxin. We were perfect partners, we both had a high understanding of Biochemistry, and the techniques we were using came easily to the both of us.

At about ten o'clock, the first class was scheduled, so we made our way to the classroom. I would be acting more or so like his assistant, helping him with demonstrations and such with his class.

The class didn't seem very interested, but, I found the subject of Fears and Phobias intriguing. Once the class was over, Dr. Crane returned to the lab while the students and I cleaned up our books and prepared to leave.

While gathering my things, I overheard a group of students talking badly about Dr. Crane, and it made me rather mad.

"Yeah, talk about freaky. Crane's a weirdo, I doubt his 'experiments' are even legal." One of the students laughed along with the others.

"I agree, they should get a sane and relatively normal person to teach this class, not a freak with a fear obsession." Another student chimed in.

I found myself clenching my fists in anger as exited the classroom and headed to Crane's lab.

When I entered the lab, Professor Crane looked up at me, and when he saw the annoyance on my face from overhearing those students talking bad about him, he frowned, confusion written on his face.

He set down the chemicals that he was looking at and stood up straight, looking at me quizzically

"Something wrong, Miss Sky?" He questioned, to which I looked up at him and smiled slightly, blushing because I was getting so worked up about someone talking bad about him.