“Edith Willows, I need to speak with you for a moment, please.” His deep voice penetrates my head. Shit. Like a zombie, I turn around and shuffle back. Karma really has it out for me in this life, doesn’t she? What a little bitch.
Jack
I stop in the cafeteria prior to my class to pick up a cup of coffee and grab my student roster from Dean Andrews. I pay for the chalky brew, and I now remember why I always got coffee near my place and never on campus. I walk down the hall, passing students eager to start their day, and read over the list of fifty-five names I will be instructing for the last few weeks of the semester. None of the names ring a bell…until I get to the end of the list. Edith Willows. I reread the list twice, figuring it had to be a coincidence. Rutgers is an enormous campus with several thousand students. It is impossible for it to be her. I want it so badly to not be her, the one who stopped me from pursuing teaching.
I go to my classroom and meet Daniel Munson, the TA and senior Calculus major, by the door. After a brief greeting, I walk past him into the classroom. He is checking names off the attendance list. Of course, he is near the end and I catch his call for Edith Willows. I set my bag and coffee down, looking into the risers of the lecture hall. A head peeks up, all dark glossy hair and big brown eyes set in a pale face that looks almost as horrified as I feel when she meets my gaze. Immediately, I look away and reach into my bag, grabbing my notes for today’s lecture. There is no way it can be her, but it is, I know it is. Taking a deep breath, I make sure I stand behind the podium and instruct Daniel when I want him to write something on the board for me.
I am more than capable of doing it myself, but the problem is that I am sporting the kind of wood only freshman boys do when they catch their first glance at a naked co-ed. Edith Willows had tormented me when I was student teaching at her high school almost six years ago. I had fast-tracked through college, thinking I wanted to teach math full-time. Then I saw Edith and all hell broke loose with my anatomy. It was possibly the worst year of my life. So much so, I minored in business and started my own company so I would never be tempted in the classroom, the way Edith tempted me. I was ashamed by my own attraction to her and, admittedly, I wasn’t very nice or kind to her back then because of my fears. All I had to do was stay away from her, get my teaching credits, and get the hell out of there, but I fucked that all up.
Edith Willows had a way about her, the tough girl who always looked ready to shatter into a million pieces. I knew the kids in her school teased her and bullied her quite a bit as she was a loner with a less-than-friendly attitude. Her family lived in a trailer park on the edge of town. Her daddy was a well-known drunk and beat the shit out of her mother, who was always equally drunk. I never knew how Edith made it to school every day. She was always late to my class, sneaking in the back unnoticed and finding reasons to cut out early. I felt bad for her and, as long as she was quiet and turned in her homework, I didn’t have it in me to send her to the principal’s office. I never saw her as college material, so the joke’s on me for assuming she wouldn’t amount to much. I figured she would follow in her parents’ drunken footsteps. But here she is now, sitting in a senior math class. Good girl, I thought, until I realize I need to not have any thoughts about her, good or bad, if I am going to get through this. I can’t exactly call Dean Andrews and back out of teaching this class without a legitimate reason.
I really need to forget about Edith. It was the same dynamic nearly six years ago and I am not going to lose everything simply because my dick wants something it can’t have. I finish the rest of the class by giving the students the assigned quiz Dr. Roth had left before his medical leave. Daniel, my puppy dog TA, shoved a paper at me, while students scribble out answers to the questions.
“Professor Hamilton, this is a list of the students who are averaging a C grade or less. Dr. Roth asked me to prepare it before he went on medical leave.” Daniel’s voice pitches at the end and it grates on my nerves for some reason.
“Any of them on scholarship that might be in jeopardy? The Registrar’s office usually includes that information so we can let them know if they haven’t looked up their grades already.”
“Just one, sir. Edith Willows.” Damn. Of course. How else would Edith be able to get out of her current situation?
“Alright, Daniel. I will address it. Just collect the quizzes for me.” The last thing I want to do is have a conversation with a student who I want naked and panting with her legs around me. I watch Daniel take Edith’s quiz first, gleefully moving onto the next student. TA’s were always an oddity to me, even now as a professor. I can see Edith is tense as Daniel takes the blue booklet from her fingers. She hesitates letting go before he snaps his wrist, wrestling it from her grasp. I need to see if Dean Andrews will let me pick a new TA. Daniel irritates me and I don’t want him touching Edith, even if I have no say in the matter.