As Joe walked into another Wednesday morning class, he knew the day was going to be a long one. The class was only scheduled for a little over an hour, but he knew he would most likely be bored with the lecture. In fact, he hadn't really been interested in the material since a couple weeks after the semester started. Bio was never really his favorite subject, but since it he needed the class for his General Education units, he figured he'd get it out of the way quickly. As a second semester freshman, he still hadn't gotten enough units to get into the really good stuff that he wanted. But until he got his units for this semester, he was stuck in these boring General classes.
Since the class was early in the morning, from 8:00am until around 9:15am, there usually weren't a lot of students packing the auditorium-style room. State colleges try to focus on smaller classrooms and more intimate lectures, so the room was one of about 30 on campus, as opposed to the hundreds of regular sized classrooms, and most students ended up ditching classes held in the larger rooms. However, since Wednesdays were the day before his lab class met, he knew he could count on them being there in their entirety. Including his cute redhead lab partner, Taylor. Bio wasn't the only class they had together. It had taken him a week to realize that she was also in his Critical Reasoning class, which he had a much greater interest in. But that class was only twice a week, so he mainly got to see her in Bio. Of course, in Bio lecture she sat all the way across the hall. Not on purpose, of course. She just preferred to sit closer to the front so she could hear better. This was understandable, as the professor had a distinct Indian accent that was slightly more difficult to hear the further back you went in the seats.
Joe, however, preferred sitting towards the back. There were usually enough students sitting back there for him to blend in, and almost everyone took notes on their laptops, so nobody questioned him having his out. Of course, instead of taking notes like he was supposed to, he spent most of his time in class messing around on Facebook, Reddit, and gaming sites. Also, from the back, he had a good view of most of the girls walking into class from the back entrances, most importantly their butts as they walked by. He wasn't exactly what most people would consider a pervert, since he never acted beyond taking notice, but he knew that if he got caught he'd receive a stern talking-to from somebody or other. Especially looking like he did. Nerdy looking Latino with glasses and a mustache, sitting all alone in the back of the class, he fit the bill of a perv looks-wise. Joe didn't care, though. He wasn't doing anything wrong. And since nobody usually sat by him, nobody ever noticed.
That Wednesday, Joe did his usual routine when he came into class. He went into the third row from the back, took off his backpack and placed it on a seat next to him, sat down, took out his laptop, and immediately hit Reddit. He was ten minutes early, and he didn't really see a point in waiting to get started. After a while, he opened up Facebook, and noticed he had a new message, and a few updates. He skimmed over the updates, noticed they were just game invites from a couple of his relatives, and ignored them. He checked the message, and it was from Taylor, his lab partner.
"
Hey Joe
," her message read. "
Remember how we're having our mid-term in CR coming up? Well I'm not really getting some of the material, and I wanted to know if you were free after class to study?
"
Joe was quick to respond. "
Hey Taylor :] I actually have a class right after this, but when that's out, I've got a 3 hour break until my next class. Are you free to meet up then?
"
While he knew that Taylor was always on Facebook on her phone, he hadn't expected her to reply so quickly. "
Omg, thank you SO much!! I'm open that entire time. Meet me on the second floor of the library, outside Starbucks :D
Joe smiled, and looked down to where Taylor usually sat. She was there, looking back up at him and smiling. She had a nice smile. Not the best, but definitely not the worst. Also, Joe sort of had a thing for redheads. Aside from that, the class went about its course, mostly uneventful.
His second class, English, was sort of boring as well, but Joe stuck through it. For some reason, English was required before he was allowed into ANY history or political classes, which he needed for his Political Science major. He received back an essay that he had written about some Shakespearean character that he didn't care much about. Another B+ paper, and he wasn't complaining. He'd been a decent writer all throughout high school, even having written a play for his Theater class so that he could get out of having to do any actual acting in the second semester.
In his English class though, he had a few more friends than his Bio class. On his right sat the punkish, skater-girl lesbian Katie, and in front of her sat the nerdy, but observant Ryan. Katie didn't tend to dress girly at all, eschewing skirts and short shorts for skinny jeans, a rotating assortment of Asking Alexandria T-shirts, Vans, and a backwards baseball cap. Ryan played the nerd trope perfectly in terms of his attire, what with his khaki pants, polo shirts, and thick glasses. He wasn't nerdy to the point of being antisocial, though, as he always had some good points to add to conversation between Katie, Joe, and whoever else they were conversing with.
"Dude, what'd you get?" Katie asked as Joe got his paper back.
He looked over it for a second, reading the comments and notes that their professor had made in the margins. It took him a second to realize he'd been asked a question. "B plus. D'you get yours back yet?"
"Nahh, not yet," she replied. Katie tended to mix her speech with some skater-talk, and Joe mixed surfer, 'gangster', and nerd into his, meaning that he used the words 'dude' and 'man' a lot, while tending be somewhat eloquent in his speech, and also throwing in random cusswords just because he wanted to. But if you had a text-based conversation with him, his grammar was almost always perfect, and he rarely cursed.
"Damn dude, well when did you turn yours in?" he asked again.
"Same day you did, man. So I don't get why she hasn't graded it yet."
"Well that fuckin' sucks. Try asking her why she isn't done with it yet."
"Already did," Katie sighed. "I think she just hates me, man."
Joe and Ryan laughed. "Did you try asking her nicely?" asked Ryan.
Katie gave him a little glare. "Of course I did, dude. When do I get anything other than nice with people?"
"When?" asked Joe, with a hint of disbelief in his voice. "Two weeks ago at that show, you beat the shit out of that one guy in the mosh pit just 'cause he bumped you."
"Damn kid shoulda been looking where he went!" Katie replied, slightly flustered.
Joe laughed quietly. "It's a mosh pit, what did you expect!? People go in there to
get
bumped! Shit, I know I did!"
Joe and Ryan both laughed at this, and after a few seconds Katie did as well. "Fuck it," she replied. "I'll just wait 'till next class. She should be done by then."
The three agreed as the clock signaled that it was time to leave. They went their separate ways. Ryan headed to his next class, Katie headed home to her girlfriend, and Joe up to the library to meet Taylor.
The library at his school wasn't like most other libraries. There were four floors, and two main parts of it, the North Wing and the South Wing. He'd never been to the South Wing, so he didn't know much of what was over there. But he HAD been to each floor on the North side, including the basement. First floor was a typical library setup, with a few cushioned seats lining the front entrance, and row after row of bookshelves behind them for a few hundred feet. Towards the back there were a few rows of computers, but these were present on the first two floors. Third floor was another typical library section, but had more tables for groups to sit and meet, as well as a media section to checkout music and movies. The fourth floor was just a meeting area for staff, so he hadn't seen much past the lobby.
The second floor, however, was the area that he frequented the most. Half of the area was tables, both long and short, for groups or individuals to have a spot to get work done. The other half was more tables, but was also arguably the loudest area of the library. It was as close to a social section that you could get outside of the Student Union building basement, which was like a giant shopping mall/pool hall/bowling alley. On this side of the library was the Starbucks, and he could see Taylor already waiting for him.
Taylor wasn't entirely unattractive. In fact, she had been the first girl in Joe's lab to really catch his eye. While most of the girls were thin, fit, and athletic, Taylor had a bit of extra baggage around her sides. Not a gross amount, but enough to give her body ample size, and Joe had always been a lover of the thicker girls. Her breasts were a nice size, too. They weren't very large, probably around C-cups, but it was definitely enough for him to take notice of. She had a great butt, too. It curved out slightly to the sides, which he loved, since he'd grown tired of girls whose butts just go straight at the sides and make their bodies look rectangular. Curves were his thing. Also, her hair, which she was wearing down instead of in her typical ponytail. It was a nice shade of auburn, and her plastic-framed glasses were a shade of brown that seemed to match it and her pinkish-white skin flawlessly.
"Hey Taylor!" Joe opened as he approached her. He got her attention quickly.
