Kevyn Morris sighed as she looked at the stack of books that she needed for school.
"Damned rip off!" She muttered as she looked at the anatomy and physiology book that had a sticker price of $150 and that didn't include the cost of the syllabus that cost an additional $30.00. She could've bought the book and syllabus used but she didn't want a book that had other people's markings or highlights.
At 33 years old she was going to school for nursing. She had been a nursing assistant for the past 10 years and it was time to make a change. She had thought about going to school before but money was always an issue. Her job at the nursing home had offered to pay all of her tuition and if she agreed to stay for two years when she was finished with school, she wouldn't have to pay it back Kevyn really didn't want to work in a nursing home as a nurse but it was a means to an end and so she accepted the offer.
Kevin was a pretty woman her skin dark, her eyes so dark brown they could have been black. Her hair fell just to her shoulders and had never been processed in any way something that she was very proud of. She was about 5'9" tall and while plump, she didn't consider herself fat. She enjoyed sports was a member of the softball team, enjoyed basketball and was an avid football fan.
She had been married and divorced by the time she was 30. She had made up her mind IF there was ever someone else, he would have to fill out an application and give three personal references, undergo a lie detector test and a personality test.
Lonnie her ex had been a sweet talker with big plans and goals but little ambition to make anything happen.
"Come on baby, stick with me and we'll go places!" He would tell her time and time again.
Kevyn had been 21 at the time. She had been young, naïve and fell for Lonnie and everything he was selling hook, line and sinker. What ended up happening was that they lived with his parents for the first two years of their marriage and then they found a cheap apartment and moved into it. She thought she was happy because Lonnie kept making promise after promise and he really seemed to be trying. It didn't take long for her to realize that they weren't going anywhere fast and that Lonnie was one of those people who looked like they were doing a lot when in reality he was doing nothing. She stayed until she was 30 and then initiated the divorce proceedings. Lonnie had tried to talk her out of it but she couldn't be persuaded to stay, she wanted much more out of life than living from paycheck to paycheck. She found a job at a nursing home and made enough to afford a cheap efficiency apartment and that's where she lived since the divorce that she had to pay for. It wasn't much but it met her needs and it was home.
The nine years that she had spent with Lonnie were a painful lesson that she had no intentions of repeating, men were not a part of her future and the only thing she concerned herself with was getting through school. That she would be thirty-seven by the time she graduated because she had so many prerequisites to take and she had to work but that didn't concern her, the anatomy and physiology classes, the math and the chemistry did; she was awful at science and math had to take high school chemistry twice.
Kevyn lugged the heavy book and syllabus up the three flights of stairs to her tiny efficiency and tossed them on the couch that doubled as her bed. She turned on the 13' color television which only had basic cable and headed toward the fridge. There wasn't much there other than left over Chinese food from the night before. It wasn't what she wanted but since she bought the books for her class and paid for the class, she didn't have any spare cash and it would be another week before she was reimbursed for the book and the class.
She ate the left over Chinese food not really enjoying it, cleaned up the dishes and was going to watch television but decided to get started on reading the first chapter of the textbook, it couldn't hurt and hopefully it would help.
*******
Patrick Sinclaire looked at his lesson plans, he hated the first day of class, he always had. The class would be full of people who were there only because they had to be and not because they wanted to be. He predicted that after the first night, he would lose about ten students because they would figure out that they had to work. By the second class he would lose another ten for the same reason. Of the thirty that he would start with, several of them would come unprepared meaning no text book or syllabus because they either couldn't afford one or both of them.
To help those students out, Patrick always purchased ten of the textbooks and syllabi and passed them out to those who needed them. It was something that he had always done much to the ire of his fellow professors.
"You make us look like we don't care." was a popular complaint or "not all of us are independently wealthy." was another. On more than one occasion he was asked why he taught if he was wealthy. The reality of it was that he enjoyed it and it was a way for him to face his fear of public speaking. After that first night, he was fine; it was just the initial meeting of thirty strangers that always made his heart pound and his palms sweat.
He also had another problem; at least he considered it a problem. Patrick was tall, blue eyed and blond like his brothers Ethan and Martin and the object of many attempted seductions and crushes. Ever since he stopped raping, he had chosen to remain celibate, it was hard at times but he stayed true to his oath. When and if he finally found his mate, he wanted to be able to tell her that he hadn't touched a woman since his last rape which had been several years ago, by his calculations, more than twenty five years ago. The twins, Veronica and Vanessa had been babies and they were now in their twenties.
He gave his lesson plan a final look over and was satisfied. The first night of class would be in two days and he was already sweating.
********
Kevyn read the first three pages of the text and she was already frustrated.
"Cells and nuclei?" she grumbled as she continued to read the chapter. The more she read, the more nervous she became. This was a "failure is not an option." situation. She had to maintain a "C" in order to have her classes paid for and just by judging from the first few pages, it was going to be hard to do.
She closed the book and changed into her night clothes and did her bedtime routine just in case she fell asleep watching television which was usually what happened. Kevyn checked her alarm clock and decided not to set it, she didn't have to be at work until eleven the next night and then she would be off for the next two nights. As she fell asleep she tried to remember what the nucleus of a cell did.
*******
First day of class. Kevyn was nervous and excited at the same time. She was finally on her way to making a major change in her life. She made sure that she had her supply of pens, pencils and highlighters and at the spur of the moment; she bought a small tape recorder thinking that it might help if she could listen to the lectures later. She glanced at the clock, she would be early but then she would be able to get a good seat.
She was an hour early and chose a seat toward the front of the room but off to the side so that she would have a good view of the whiteboard and that the microphone of her recorder wouldn't be blocked. While she waited, she organized herself and glanced over the first chapter of the book. Over the last two days she had managed to read the first chapter and answer the questions at the end of the chapter and the questions in the syllabus as well. She found herself wishing that she had started with an easier class like English comp first but she had wanted to get the hard ones out of the way and take the easier ones as a break. She wondered it was too late to drop this class and to sign up for an easier one.
*******
Patrick loaded his car with the extra textbooks and syllabi and headed toward the school. His heart was pounding and his hands slick with sweat as he thought about meeting thirty new people. He forced himself to take a deep breath and reminded himself that after the first half hour he would be fine.
He parked as near the entrance as he could even though he didn't need to, the textbooks and syllabi weighed next to nothing as far as he was concerned but it was all about appearances. A male student happened by and offered to help and Patrick put on a good show of being grateful for the help. The student as it turned out was going to be taking his class.
"I'm Josh Phillips, I'm in your class." he said as he took the stack of syllabi from Patrick's car."
