The events described here actually happened, but names, places and certain details have been altered to protect the characters' privacy.
___________________________
When I was fifteen, my parents enrolled me in an SAT prep course hoping in their usual Asian fashion that it would help me achieve the score necessary to give them bragging rights over their other Asian friends' kids. Personally, I thought this was going to be the biggest waste of time, but as with many things in my pre-college life, I did as my parents ordered, realizing it was useless to fight.
When I'd been dropped off at the little center and seated, a very tall man walked into the room. He looked to be in his early thirties, with very thick, wavy brown hair. His build was slender, but leanly muscled which I could tell by the way he was dressed and he sported a pair of simple wire-framed glasses. He introduced himself as Timothy Klein, said that he taught in one of the suburban high schools and then asked each of us to introduce ourselves. When he got to me and I told him which high school I attended, he smiled and said, "Really? That's where I'll be teaching in the fall." It turned out that he was recently hired as one of the new history teachers at my school -- no small feat considering it was one of the top five public schools in the nation.
As the class progressed, I quickly realized that I was right and that it likely would not help me boost my scores all that much, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to the man talk. He was articulate, witty, with a dry sense of humor that appealed to my anglophilic tendencies. It was also quite obvious that he was extremely well read and intelligent and I was able to quit the class after one session happy with the knowledge that I would see him again and perhaps even be lucky enough to take a class with him.
Sure enough, my junior year, I was passing through one of the lounging areas on campus and I saw him striding through the halls on those wonderfully long legs of his. Looking back on it, I think he was the main reason I became enamored of men who were above six feet tall as he was about six-four. Waving to him, he looked at me with an expression o f partial recognition and I reminded him, "I came to your SAT prep course for one day."
"Oh, yes!" He laughed, and it was a very pleasant sound and I must have grinned like an idiot back at him. When I asked him what classes he was teaching, he had a regular history class and was also teaching the advanced placement European History class for college credit. I immediately made up my mind to sign up for his course next year. I mentioned my interest in British history and he smiled and suggested, "You should definitely take my class then." I didn't need any more convincing.
Senior year, I was seventeen and finally starting to come out of my awkward phase. My parents had consented to letting me wear contact lenses, I had finally shed all of the baby fat that had been plaguing me for years and I even snuck a little makeup on after I got to school. Nothing fancy, just some lipstick. What surprised me the most was that although I had been teased as the fat, nerdy kid for so many years, now I actually look kind of...pretty. I had big brown eyes that were unusual on Asians as well as a smattering of freckles that people seemed to find charming. I also dressed somewhat unusually, wearing boys' combat boots with boy jeans and oversized T shirts with some British band splashed across the front or long black dresses with shiny vinyl shoes. I was also an artist, and I constantly carried either my guitar or my large cardboard portfolio around with me as a symbol of my identification with the angsty artist mindset.
The class that Mr. K taught was better than I could ever have predicted. His teaching style was dynamic, unconventional and with the sarcastic wit he possessed, it was like watching Monty Python every day. On the first day, I pulled up a seat in the second row (not wanting to be too obvious) and when he walked in, he again recognized me and greeted me with a warm, "Well, hello! Good to see you again." The fact that he remembered made me feel all warm and squishy inside. I don't think I ever enjoyed a class as much as I did his and I worked my ass off to do well. I think because I admired him so much, I needed him to approve of my work.
In my spare time I'd often go to his office to ask questions about history or literature and would stare at him in awe as he talked knowledgeably on one subject or another. He'd lend me books which he thought I'd find interesting, some of which I eventually bought my own copies of. Timothy Klein was the perfect Renaissance man, well versed in all subjects, handsome, fashionable and clever. I think from that time on I was spoiled for all men as he occupied a place on a pedestal in my eyes.