"I'm so nervous, my students are gonna hate me, I just know it! They're not gonna take me seriously!" I exclaim frantically as I slip on my shoes to head out the door.
"I highly doubt that, 'Hot Teacher!" My roommate Jess says as she pushes me the rest of the way out.
"I would literally kill to have a teacher even half as hot as you, gay or not. I doubt you'll have any issues!"
I take a deep breath and smile half-heartedly as she closes the door in my face. It's my first year teaching at Horizons University in my hometown, and to say that I'm a little nervous would be an understatement. I remember college thoroughly and I know how some kids treated the professors. Though, my roommate, Jess doesn't seem to think that I'll have any issues.
I will admit, I'm not bad looking. I'm 6'2 with a full head of dark brown hair that I style perfectly every day, my hazel eyes have been described as dreamy and must say, my jawline does not quit. But, that's the issue. I feel like they'll think of me as just another kid in the classroom, and won't take me seriously, and if that were to happen I don't know what I'd do.
No need to freak out now though, Dax, you've already accepted the position and you have to fulfill your duty to the university.
I walk into the already half full classroom and immediately I hear whispers, giggles, and snickers behind my back. But, I proudly walk up to the board and write my name.
"Professor Donaldson...more like HOTerson!" a girl says from the back of the room.
"Stop, you're going to get him in trouble if you keep hitting on him!" I hear her friend tell her as they both giggle and shoosh each other.
I choose to ignore them and continue to stack the syllabi on the edge of the desk for them to grab once class began. As I'm stapling and stacking with my head down, really working diligently, I hear a roar of laughter and commotion come from the back of the room.
I look up and see an extremely tall Asian kid who seems to have dropped all of his papers out of his binder while coming down the steps. Of course, those catty girls are laughing and he's frantically trying to pick up everything, I rush to the top of the stairs to try and help him out and he looks up at me with the purest and innocent eyes, and I actually lose my own footing for a moment and begin to fall over.
Before I could hit the ground he reaches over and catches me in his arms, which shocks me to my core, because although he seems so scrawny he's actually really strong.
"Ah, thanks for that," I say as I regain my footing and stand to shake his hand in the most nonevasive way I possibly could.
"It is alright, Sensei." The young man says with an earnest smile, a little too earnest, his purity is really trying to melt my icy heart.
"No need to call me Sensei, over here you can just call me Professor Donaldson. Where are you from?"
"I'm from Hokkaido, Japan. And I'm sorry, but I feel like it'd be disrespectful to you to call you anything other than Sensei, Sensei!"
This kid is really not good for my heart because his genuine smile and cheerful disposition just makes me want to take him home and show him how dirty the world can be.
I clear my throat and straighten my tie and go back to my desk to actually do what I came for which was to teach the seminar. As I compose myself and begin to speak, I can feel the heat on the back of my neck every time I turn around. Following every swooping trace of my chalk on the chalkboard and every flick of my fingers on the computer keyboard. I begin to nervously sweat while trying to teach about stocks and bonds!
"What am I even doing here? Why am I teaching an economics class? I don't know what I'm doing! They're all looking at me and laughing at me, I can't take this!"
I hear a student cough at the back of the room and I'm broken from my depressing spell, and though I keep having these nervous and insecure thoughts every time I looked up at my students they seemed to be taking notes diligently, not having a care in the world whether or not it was me or Beyonce standing here. Though, I'm sure they'd prefer the latter.