Everyone in this story is over 18 years old.
"Please take a seat, class is starting."
Students quickly files in for my lecture on Psychology 101. There seems to be about 20 students in my class. As they all take their seats and prepare for lecture to begin, I take note of everyone in attendance. I see a group of rowdy men sitting at the front, their legs up on the desks, making jokes with each other. I try not to bias my grading based on how I feel about the students, especially not after the first day, but these students are certainly going to fail. I can tell they're going to be trouble. One of them turns around and talks to a girl behind him. She giggles. She's cute. She has shiny black hair in a tight bob around her head, blue eye shadow, pink lip gloss and a silver nose ring. It's winter so everyone is dressed for the cold, but she's overdoing it. She's got on a brown puffer and black snow pants. We'll have to change that later. I have to find a way to get her after class.
Luckily for me one of the rowdy men grabs some paper, crumples it up, and throws it at the girl behind him. I'm pretending not to look, staring at my lecture notes instead waiting for the opportune moment to look up. She stands up, grabs the paper and throws it back at him. I look up and aim a question straight at her.
"Excuse me ma'am, what's your name?" and the class goes silent.
"J- Jasmine," she says, nervous with all eyes on her.
"Come see me after class Jasmine, we can't have this kind of behavior during lecture. This is an undergraduate institution, leave that for high-school"
"But-" She yells and I say, "If you want to explain yourself, come talk to me after class."
She shakes her head in disbelief like "why, me?" and hunches into her seat, defeated. The guys at the front quiet down after little consoling shrugs, happy it wasn't them.
I go through my whole lecture, talking about whatever the fuck I teach, just thinking about what I'm going to do after class. As the lecture ends everyone gets up to leave, except Jasmine who starts walking out with a couple of her friends but then waves them to go onward as she comes up to my desk.
"Look I'm really sorry about earlier. I was just joking around, it won't happen again" She says as the last few students rush out, trying to avoid this awkward conversation. They shut the door behind them. She just stares at me, biting her lip. I can't tell if she's trying to look hot or not and I wonder if she notices the little twitch between my legs.
"It's alright," I say. "I'm sorry for overreacting a little. If I'm honest, I'm just a new teacher and I wanted to stop any disruption before it began. I was probably too harsh." She looks confused, but her guard lowers. She thought she was about to get scolded and now I'm apologizing to her.
"it's ok..." she responds. I see the muscles in her face loosen.
"I'm Domi." I say and stick out my hand.
"Um Jasmine, but erm I already told you that," she responds and shakes it. Her hands are soft and her nails are painted pink and blue with a white diagonal line separating the colors.
"What are you studying?" I ask her.
"Um- Psychology?"
"Is that a question?"
"Haha well kind of. I mean I'm a sophomore so I'm supposed to know by now I guess, but I'm still trying to figure it out." Her long eyelashes flicker and she smirks, a dimple appearing on her left cheek. I don't think she's wearing blush, but her cheeks are rosy.
"I can help you out if you like." I suggest.
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"I know we got off on the wrong foot, but do you want to assist me in my research. It would be really good experience and could help you figure out if this is the right field for you." She looks hesitant for a moment, but luckily she's got some spicy spontaneity.
"Fuck it whatever!" She giggles again and shoots at her hand for another handshake. I shake her hand.
I'm going to ask her to test out this new app I've developed, to see if it helps people relax. What she doesn't know is I've already ran it through multiple trials, and it does more meditation.
"Ok, awesome! I'll email you soon with more details, but real quick, if you wouldn't mind helping me, could you take a look at this app I've been developing to help people relax. It just plays a video and some music, and you stare at it for a little and it's supposed to get your heartbeat down. Could you take a look and let me know what you think?"
"Haha sure, I have a minute" And she leans over. "You got my full attention Mr.Domi" she snickers and widens her eyes sarcastically, to show that she's really paying attention. She's a jokester.
I pull out my phone and hit play on the special app I have loaded. The screen turns pink and oscillates in brightness. A soft whirring starts. I'm starting to feel it, but I don't look at the screen to stay lucid. She's staring right at it and instantly I can see her eyes start to droop. Her smile fades and her mouth turns into an absent frown. Her full pink lips puff out a little and her brow furrows.
"Huh, I feel weird." She whispers slowly, looking confused.
"You do not feel weird."
"No?"
"You feel good."
"I do?"
"You feel relaxed."
"Relaxed?"
"Yes very relaxed."
"Very... relaxed." She lets out a deep sigh and her brow becomes soft. The frown softens into a blissful smile.
"You haven't a care in the world."
"No care..."
"You haven't a thought in your head."
"Yeah?"
"You are so relaxed and empty."
