"Professor?" Laney stopped by the door.
He looked up from his computer. "Laney, come on in."
Laney was majoring in biology in college. She wanted to be a vet technician, or maybe even a veterinarian someday. Unfortunately a requirement of the curriculum was organic chemistry. Laney had already taken the first O-Chem course last year and failed. The professor was young and -in Laney's completely unbiased opinion- absolutely crazy. She couldn't keep up with the class and failed the final exam. She considered changing schools, or switching majors, but she knew what she wanted to do with her life. So the next choice was switching teachers.
Her new Professor was fantastic. Well - the class was still impossible - but after she got a D on the first quiz, he pulled her aside and kindly suggested she stop by his office sometime to go over the materials more slowly. Every Friday afternoon she would stop by so they could review the week's lessons together and do some problems on the whiteboard in his office. Laney felt like she was finally getting a grasp on the concept.
But that was not the only thing she was excited about. She had an attraction for her teacher. He was a tall, strapping man with piercing blue eyes that made her feel warm whenever his eyes rested on her for too long. He was much older than her - based on the small wrinkles near his eyes she assumed his dark reddish hair was colored to hide the grey hairs. Also he did not wear a ring.
"Laney, I set up a problem for you on the board. Get settled and start working on it." He started filing papers away.
She had to draw disubstituted cyclohexane cis-trans stereoisomers. She drew one, then turned and looked at him.
He stopped and came over. "Ok good, you drew one of them - so the cis-trans complimentary compound would look like this."
His office was not very big. Laney liked that he was so close to her. He looked over and smiled at her.
"Oh, okay." Once in awhile Laney would pretend to falter just so he would come over to be near her. She loved the smell of his aftershave.
"Why don't you start on the assignment I gave you guys."
She sat on the loveseat and pulled out the O-Chem notebook. He sat down at his desk to start grading papers. The sounds of faculty and students leaving echoed down the hall as people exited the building.
A young man poked his head in. "Professor you are still here." He glanced over at Laney. "Hi Laney how are you?"
"Hi Yanni, good thanks how are you?" Yanni was a foreign exchange student. He was also brilliant. He was taking classes for his Masters Degree. He also helped out the Chemistry Department with various projects.
"Good. There is a game tonight - everyone is going. You should go!"
Just then a group of students walked by excitedly. They called out to Yanni as they walked by. Yanni waved to the Professor, and hurried off.
Laney was excited. She lived in an apartment off campus and commuted. She did not normally spend extra time hanging out on campus and had never been to a college baseball game.
