Page 16 of The Scientist
“Some of us have to be here,” he countered. “For some reason, the University of Stanford thinks a music course is necessary for my law degree.”
I turned and started to play the theme song forLaw and Orderas a chorus of laughter rang out. “A lawyer, huh? You plan to put the bad guys away?”
“I plan to defend them,” he said, smirking.
Should have known.
I played the infamous dun-dun sound from theLaw and Orderscene starter, and he smiled despite himself.
“Well, there must be a reason you chose composition instead of another introductory course,” I said, trying again to make a connection.
Another cocky grin played across his face. “Yeah, I heard the teacher was hot.”
The kids were all trying to hide their faces or cover up their laughter with coughing, but it was no use. Eventually, the whole room was shaking with laughter.
“Alright, alright, settle down.” I shook my head. I needed to get this lesson back on track before I had Chris Hansen walking through the door on my first day.
A curious thought suddenly came to my mind. “So, who here is actually a music major?”
I don’t know why I never considered the fact that some of them might not even be interested in music. I looked around to see only about half the class had their hands raised. Now I just felt foolish for assuming they were all music majors. I went to a performing arts college so I’d always been surrounded by people in the same field of study. A very obnoxious teacher-esque idea suddenly sprang to my mind, but I was going for it.
“I just had a great idea, ladies and gentlemen!” I bounced on the balls of my feet excitedly. “I want all of you to pair up in groups of two or three to compose one single song, any genre. The catch is the group has to have at least one non-music major in it, and I want your composition to be about whatever it is that person is majoring in. I’ll monitor each group’s progress weekly and give feedback. It will count toward your final grade for the semester.”
There were audible groans and sighs as they looked around the auditorium, starting to size each other up. I knew what a pain in the ass group projects could be, but I was actually excited by this. I dismissed the class for the day before any real complaining could start up.
???
“I guess it goes without saying this hasn’t been the best first day so far,” Sarah said as I met her outside the cafeteria for lunch. I had told her all about the morning I’d had, including the car breakdown and my biblical heckler.
“I don’t know.” I half-shrugged. “I think I made my point to polo shirt. And as far as the car goes, I’m counting myself lucky that someone was still there this morning that I was able to catcha ride from. Marge was on her deathbed. I should have looked into getting something sooner.”
I still needed to call a tow company to come pick up poor Marge. I was hit with a twinge of sadness at the thought of having to part with her.It was always a hassle to own a car in New York City, but I never even considered giving her up. My mom could never bring herself to sell Dad’s car and had kept it in a garage all these years. She gave it to me when I was old enough to drive, and I loved taking her out on the weekends. It was like a private getaway each time I got behind the wheel. I could drown out the noise of the city and let my brain be as creative as possible. Ironically, some of my best pieces of music had come about just through being silent and meditative.There was nothing I loved more than driving in complete and total silence—no music, no books on tape, no talking whatsoever. The white noise of tires moving along asphalt combined with the motion of the car always put me at ease and dissolved any tension I might be feeling.
“So, how was it being up close and personal with Alexsander the Great?” Sarah asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“It was okay, I guess. He didn’t say a whole lot,” I said, remembering his standoffish demeanor. “Honestly, I don’t think he likes me very much.”
“Ahhh, the shoulder tap thing.” I had filled Sarah in on what happened with Benson at faculty night. She’d laughed her ass off when I told her about the Dr. Dre joke.
“It wasn’t even me!” I protested. “Maybe I should tell him that.” Itwaspretty rude. I think I’d be annoyed if someone did that to me while I was mid-sentence.
“Oh, who cares? He sounds stuck up if that’s really what’s bothering him.”
“Maybe. But I think I need to make nice anyway. We might be seeing a lot of each other. We’re neighbors, after all.”
She shook her head. “I can’t even picture it. Seems like they’d put him up in a chateau or something, not faculty housing.”
“Don’t hate. They’re actually pretty nice.”
“You’re just saying that because you lucked out and don’t have to share it with a roommate.”
She might be right about that. On my drive over from New York, someone from the Faculty Advisor’s Office called to let me know that my almost-roommate failed her background check, and they were unable to fill the vacancy last minute, which left me sans roommate. I had been disappointed at first until I saw the size of the upstairs bathroom we were meant to share.
“Did I tell you about Lex’s roommate?” I asked her.
“Lex? You call him Lex?”
“He asked me to. What’s so weird about that?”