Professor

Calculus

Here I am, sitting in class, laughing my ass off with all the other students because our professor just tripped over the desk, once again. She's very funny and makes being in class fun but she has a strict side. She doesn't mind fun and games for a short bit but when it's time for the lecture, she goes serious. I don't blame her, teaching a bunch of 20 and 21-year olds Calculus is probably not a fun time. It doesn't help that I have a helpless crush on her.
"That damn desk won't get out of my way...I'm starting to think it has the hots for me or something." She smirks. That makes everyone giggle a bit too. She claps her hands and turns around to point at the chalk board.
"Alright, back to work." She continues the lesson. I'm quite surprised that she's a professor though. She doesn't look a day over 22. From what I hear, this is her first year teaching. After another hour of the lecture and taking notes, I spring out of my chair, anxious to get to dinner, I'm starved. Before I could leave though, I hear someone call my name.
"Ms Hart?" Professor Helbig calls out, she doesn't quite spot me but I walk toward her.
"Yes ma'am?" I say.
"Ah there you are." She smiles. I nod and look at her with confusion.
"I normally wouldn't do this, but I'm very concerned. On that test you took on Tuesday, you didn't do so well." She hands me the test. On the top, in red pen, is a circled C.
"I-I don't understand. I studied hard for this." I state.
"I don't know what happened Ms. Hart. You're one of my best students. So it was alarming to see that you got a C. Look, Calculus is a hard class but you're a very smart woman and I know you can do better than that." She says.
"I can do better than this. It won't happen again, ma'am. I'm sorry." I blush.
"It's absolutely fine, everyone has bad days. I just wanted to notify you as soon as possible, so that, if you wanted, you could look it over and see what you did wrong. Make sure you give it back to me next class." She says.
"Wait...But I thought you weren't allowed to give us our tests to take home." My brows furrow in confusion.
"You're right. I'm not allowed to." She smirks and walks out of the room. I smile and walk out behind her. You see, it clearly states in the manual, Rule 15 to be exact, "No professors may give a student their test back, they must simply give them their grade, nothing else." Professor Helbig broke a rule just so I could learn better. Damn.
-
I looked over my Calculus test and realized that I guess I really don't understand this unit. It could be because I don't pay attention to the lectures, I only pay attention to her. Whatever, fuck it. My roommate Mamrie comes home around 10 pm from her forensics class and asks if I wanna go out tonight, since it's Friday. I said yes because, why not? We're both 21, we can have some fun from time to time. We go downtown and find a popular bar that everyone goes to. We dance with some of our other friends and we end up getting pretty hammered. I see a blonde dressed in red a couple seats away from me. Her back is faced to me but she has a nice body so why not go talk to her?
"Red is definitely your color." I slur. She turns around and my eyes go wide.
"Oh my god. Um uh I'm so sorry ma'am. I just uh I'll just go." I stumble over my words quite a bit. I can't believe I just hit on my professor.
"Relax, Hannah. It's okay, really." She laughs. That's the first time she's called me Hannah. She says it with a slight accent. It's adorable.
"Um okay...." I stand there awkwardly. "Have a good night?" It comes out like a question but I don't care, I'm already half way to Mamrie.
"Dude what the fuck? She wasn't interested or what?" Mamrie looks confused.
"No! She's my calculus professor!" I close my eyes and put my hand on my forehead.
"Sweet. Are you guys like a thing or what?" Mamrie asks, excitedly.
"Mamrie! No! I started talking to her because I was hitting on her but then she turned around and I realized it was her. I'm such a fucking idiot." I admit.
"Hey. Looks like she's only with a few friends...that means no boyfriend...what is she, like 24?" She asks, eyeing my professor.
"Right!? That's what I was thinking. I don't know how she's a professor. Don't you need like 8 years of college for that or some shit?" I ask. Mamrie shrugs.
"So what did she say?"
"Well I apologized and she just said it was okay. It's pretty embarrassing that not only did she see me drunk, but that I also hit on her. Fuck my life." Mamrie just laughs and we carry on with our night.
Of course I get even more drunk. I'm on the dance floor and I see a red blur dancing in the middle of the dance floor.
"Your professor has got some sick moves." Mamrie yells over the music.
"Wha? That's my professor? The hot one?" I slur.
"Your calculus professor that you were hitting on earlier tonight? Yes. That's her." Mamrie laughs.
Note to self: Come to this club more often. We get back to our dorm later and go to sleep immediately.
The next morning I'm awoken by the sun shining through the window. I groan and clutch my head. My head is pounding. I look over and see Mamrie sitting on her bed, writing something. She notices I'm awake and smiles.
"Hangover huh? I'll get you some ibuprofen." She gets up and disappears into the bathroom. She comes out a couple seconds later with some water and the pills. I take them gratefully and thank her.
"You got a hangover too?" I squint.
"Not as bad as you. I didn't drink nearly as much as you last night dear." She chuckles.
"You remember what happened last night?" Mamrie asks.
"Oh god. What did I do?" I groan.
"Your professor was there..." She trails off. Images come back to my head. Professor Helbig was there. And I totally hit on her. I smack my head on my hand.
"Oh my god. I hate myself. I'm so fucking dumb." I laugh nervously.
"Eh it's alright. I bet she gets it a lot." Mamrie shrugs.
"Yeah well, I'm the shy innocent girl in the class. I've hardly spoken two sentences to her." I sigh.
"I really don't think she'll say something to you." Mamrie says.
"I hope not."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm dreading going to class on Tuesday. I have to give the test back to Professor Helbig. That means one-on-one conversations. Oh my god. I should just drop the class.
I get there ten minutes early, as usual. Professor Helbig is writing on the board, preparing for the lecture, like always. I try to quietly sneak past her while casually dropping the test on her desk but she catches my eye and turns around.
"Ms. Hart? Did you look it over?" She asks.
"Yes I did. I uh don't know what happened. I'm kinda struggling with this unit, I guess. Oh, thanks for letting me see it though." I say quietly.
"It's fine. Did you really look it over or were you too busy dancing at clubs?" She laughs.
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry about that. Like, extremely sorry. I'm not usually like that, I swear." I stutter.
"Ms. Hart, it's really okay, I'm just messing with you. Do you go there a lot?" She asks.
"Umm not really. We usually go to a bar that's very vintage and not very popular a few blocks down. We just thought we'd go to a club on Friday, I guess. You?" I ask.
"I go there once in awhile. When my friends drag me out, that is." She giggles a bit.
"Also, sorry about my behavior too. I'm not usually like that either..." She says.
"What do you mean? You were perfectly fine." I say.
"Well you must not have seen me then...let's just say, I got pretty wasted..." She whispers while smirking.
I gasp jokingly.
"Me too...I totally understand." I whisper. She laughs.
"Okay well, class is going to begin soon so go take your seat. See me after class. I need to speak with you." She says. I nod.
What could she have to talk to me about?
Oh well, I guess I'll find out.
With Professor Helbig making her usual funny comments, the class goes by quickly. When it's time to go, I pack up my things and migrate over to her desk.
"Um you wanted to talk to me?" I ask nervously.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Listen, you mentioned you're having trouble with this unit, correct?" She asks.
"Yeah..." I say.
"If you think you can do better on your own, then that's fine but we do offer tutors since this is a difficult class. Would you be interested?" She asks.
"Um yeah maybe." I say.
"Well you would meet once a week, probably on an evening. If you don't want to, it's totally fine. Don't be afraid to say no." She laughs a little bit.
"I'm definitely interested but I'm worried about the cost..." I shrug.
"Oh please. It doesn't cost you anything." She laughs.
"What? They just voluntarily do it? They don't want money for it?" I ask.
"Well, no. I would be tutoring you, Ms. Hart. You do not need to pay me." She says.
"Really? No, I definitely have to pay you. I can't not if you're taking time out of your schedule to meet with me." I say.
"It's not a problem. Really, it's not. I'd be glad to. Soooo is that a yes or....?" She asks.
"Um yeah, why not?" I say.
"Ok. Are Thursday evenings from 7-8 okay?" She asks.
"Yeah."
"Where would you like to meet?" She asks.
"Uh anywhere is fine." I shrug.
"Okay, let's do the library. No one ever goes there." She laughs. I nod.
"Thank you so much ma'am. I'll see you then." I wave.
Huh. Once again, she broke the rules for me. Teachers are not supposed to give special treatment to a specific student. Especially if it's tutoring. I'm actually looking forward to Thursday.
---------------------------------------------------------------
When Thursday comes I'm freaking out. I have no idea what to wear. Casual right? It's just a tutor session. I need to relax, it's not like it's a date. It's 6 and I have to be there at 7. Great, that leaves me some time to do my hair and makeup. I decide on a casual red v neck with some skinny jeans and converse. I would wear something nicer but I don't want her to think I'm trying too hard.
When I show up at the library, I begin searching around a bit for Professor Helbig. It's a huge library but while I'm searching, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it's Professor Helbig smiling down at me.
"Hey sorry I'm late, shall we?" She points to an empty table.
She's wearing a tank top and skinny jeans. It's so weird to see her in casual clothes, usually she's wearing a dress and heels. We sit down and she takes a bunch of papers out. We go over my test and she has me do some worksheets and stuff. At 8, she begins to pack up.
"You did very well today Ms. Hart, good job. If you want this to be a regular thing then we can do it at the same time every week?" She asks.
"Uh yeah sure. Are you sure you're okay with doing this? I mean you really don't have to." I tell her.
"Right. But I want to. Shall we?" She stands up and we start walking out of the library.
"Oh by the way, you can call me Hannah if you prefer." I say.
"Alright. I'm glad you brought that up actually because you really don't have to call me ma'am or anything, outside of class. You can call me Grace for now because, I don't know, it makes me feel old and I'm really not that old!" She laughs.
"You honestly look my age." I say.
"Only three years older." She smiles.
"That's what I thought. So how are you like....what?" I ask.
"I get that question all the time. Well, I graduated high school at 16 then went to college the first four years here then did an extra two years to become a professor. And I did internships and now this year, I was hired." She grins.
"Damn. You must've been really smart as a teenager." I smile.
"In math I was but history and geography? Nope not at all. What I do know is, there are 7 continents. The only reason why I remember that is because 7 is my favorite number." She giggles.
Gosh, it's so weird to see her being herself outside of class. I like it.
"So tell me about yourself. Since I teach so many students, I don't get to know them as much as I want to." She shrugs.
"Um well what do you wanna know?" I ask awkwardly.
"Anything."
"Um well I major in Japanese and I've always liked math I guess. I have two sisters and I grew up in San Francisco." I tell her.
"That's awesome. How's college treating you so far?" She asks.
"Well so far it's been pretty tough but I've been doing pretty well. But yeah almost done just have this year to finish then senior year. Oh, my roommate Mamrie is my best friend and she's a lot of fun. I'm glad I got to meet her." I say.
"Oh the red head? She was with you at that club, yeah?" She asks.
"Oh, um yeah that was her." I blush.
"She seems like a riot." She laughs.
"Yeah she's a bit crazy but I love her." I laugh.
By this time, we're sitting on a bench outside the library, just talking. I like it, it's nice.
"So, where are you from?" I ask.
"South Jersey. I've always wanted to go to Berkeley and they gave me a scholarship so I took it." She says.
"That's amazing, Grace!" I place my hand on her shoulder for a moment.
That was kinda weird. I don't know why I did that.
"Thanks. But I do miss my family a lot but they visit so that's good." She says.
I nod.
"Sorry, this is probably weird that I'm like telling you my life story." She says.
"No it's fine, it's nice to be able to talk to someone other than the couple of friends I have." I laugh.
"Yeah, same. I have like two friends and they're both my age but they party like crazy. And I'm not like that, I guess. Of course I like to go out once in awhile but not every weekend, that's a bit excessive. They're both bartenders too so I don't know I just feel like they're not that mature ya know?" She says.
"Yeah I get that. I mean you're a professor and they're bartenders. I was a bartender last year but I quit because I got too busy with school work and didn't have the time." I say.
"Oh yeah? My friends are always being hit on and stuff while they work. Did people flirt with you?" She asks.
"Um yeah a little, usually the girls who had just gotten out of a relationship who were sad and stuff but not too much." I answer.
"That's good. I don't know, I don't think I'd like it if people were flirting with me non stop like that. My friends love the attention though so whatever makes them happy." She smiles slightly.
I hum in agreement.
"Hey, Grace?" I turn to her.
"Yeah?" She says.
"Why did you um, why did you wanna tutor me and help me and stuff? Not that I'm not grateful, because I am, it's just none of my other professors would do anything like that so...I don't know, I guess I'm not used to having a nice professor." I laugh a little.
"Well, your other teachers probably don't do that because it's against the rules. But I wanted to because you seem like a great student and I knew you wouldn't be happy with that grade so I offered to help. I just thought back to a few years ago and I wish one of my teachers would've done the same for me." She explains.
"Well thanks for doing that. That's very nice of you." I smile.
"My pleasure." She says simply. I look at my watch and it's now 9 pm.
"Hey, I should go, but thanks for the help!" I stand up. She stands up as well.
"See you in class tomorrow then?" She walks backwards to face me.
"Definitely." I smile and wave.
Yup. I definitely like her.

Author's Note: I've had this in my drafts for awhile because I wasn't sure if I wanted to make it a one shot or not. I think it'll only be a few chapters but we'll see! Let me know what you think so far!