Okay, he likes this class, but he does not like this class enough to hang out in it doing nothing when he could instead be going for a drive.

After the drive, there is the writing seminar, which includes Karen. Karen is once again at the front of the class, and doesn't seem him when he comes in. 

He sits next to her again, because why not.

She smiles at him when he sits next to her. She still didn't remember to bring any fidget toys with her, though, damnit. Not that it might matter much in this class if today is anything like Tuesday's class. This isn't really her kind of topic, that's for sure. "Hey there, nice to see you again!" she says, for lack of a better thing to do. Hm. "Hey, have you decided what you're doing your essay on? I haven't yet -- I plan to write mine this weekend, though, so I'm sure I'll figure it out by then." 

"I have absolutely no idea and kind of don't even know how to pick something."

Yikes. "Well, pick something you're interested in, I guess? That's probably what I'll do, write something about some show I've watched recently, you know? We've been getting explanations in class -- just pick something about something you'd like, and make an argument about it." She pauses. "I'm not sure I explained that very well. Academic writing isn't exactly my strong suit, as you might have guessed." 

"I bet you it is even less my strong suit than yours! I'm going to end up trying to write about my car or something stupid like that, and then not being able to come up with an essay because I can't actually think of an argument to make about my car. It's very nice but that's not... an essay topic."

She giggles. "You could argue why your car is a better car than all the other cars you could have gotten! It's... probably not the best essay topic no. But it's something! It's supposed to give the professor an idea of what you can write, I suppose. It doesn't have to be all that good of a topic." 

"Man, maybe I will write about my car, then. Or write about why my car makes for a bad essay topic."

Karen giggles some more. "If you do, I think I might want to read that one, if you don't mind! Just for the humor value." She's grinning pretty widely now. "But if you don't want to do that, I don't know, maybe ask the professor for some ideas. I'm sure he'd be happy to share." 

And that's when class starts, so Sean doesn't really get a chance to respond. 

Today is more discussion about the structure of an essay, but this time they actually have a bunch of examples that the professor has passed out to point at for demonstrative purposes. This probably makes the experience marginally better. Not a lot, but some.

Okay, sure. He can handle this. Paying attention in this class and learning things from it is a task he is capable of accomplishing.

Then he will do the thing! 

A hour and a half later, the thing will be done doing. The professor reminds everyone that they have an essay due on Tuesday next week -- and releases them all from class. 

Karen gives him a wave, on the way out the door. "I've got to get going -- but I'll see you again on Tuesday! Have a nice weekend!"

Sean now has about 4 hours before the dance. 

He is going to spend those four hours driving around composing an essay about why his car is a bad essay topic. By the end of the four hours he has it typed up and saved, because he can manipulate his laptop by magic on the road. It is titled I Have A Really Nice Car and is not, by most definitions, a """good""" """essay""", but it follows the criteria given and it's written entirely using words he understands and he thinks he did pretty okay under the circumstances.

Now: dance!

There are maybe a couple dozen people standing around milling awkwardly in the studio room when Sean shows up. It's a reasonably decent studio -- it's got hardwood floors, mirrors, and a sound system built into the ceiling. The sign on the door exhorts everyone to put on their dance shoes before they go in -- and if not, to wear socks instead. 

Inside, Jenna is talking to a couple of her new friends, but definitely is keeping an eye open looking at the door for Sean. Her classes have honestly not been so bad so far, even if the stupid writing course is boring and she hates writing. But as for the rest... the workload in class is pretty killer (Stagecraft looks like it's going to be exhausting, and Acting Techniques looks like it's going to be even worse) but honestly they don't seem to be giving her all that much homework yet. She expects things will get worse once they make her start to memorize lines and practice movements outside of class, but honestly even with that workload and whatever else they throw at her she expects she can make some room for a boyfriend in her life. Maybe. If he hasn't found some other girl yet but he probably hasn't it's not even a week of school yet, right? And he was clearly looking forward to seeing her again, and they got along so very very well when they first met! She's still very much going to take it slow, of course, but she really is looking forward to seeing him again, and maybe getting to dance with him and feel those muscles and see that cute smiling face up close. And maybe give him a kiss or two if the opportunity presents itself. She wonders how good he is at kissing. Hopefully she'll find out before the end of the night, though! 

He puts on his dance shoes and heads inside and immediately spots Jenna and grins. She's so cute!

Jenna sees him around the same time. 

He came! He actually came! And he definitely looks super happy to see her! She smiles back at him and waves and maybe bounces up and down once or twice or three times with glee and runs over to give him a hug and say hi. 

She sortof collides with him because she might not quite be used to running with dance shoes on this floor, but he's big and strong and can catch her and this is probably fine. The hug is definitely just chaste and not anything more than that, she makes sure. At least for now. Taking things slow, remember? 

"Hey there! I'm so glad you came!" she says, letting go of the hug, and giving him a friendly pull in the direction that she came from. "Come on, my friends are over there! Come on and meet them!" 

Tacklehugs are adorable and Jenna is adorable.

"I would love to meet your friends," he says, and hugs her again before he follows her across the room.

Hugs are nice! He's so friendly and sweet and has such a very adorable smile! 

"This is Martin, and this is Carol," she says, having successfully dragged him back over to them. "They're both in... most of my acting classes, at least. They've never done partner dancing before, but I convinced them to come and try! They said they have a beginner lesson at the start of the class, and the refresher will be nice anyways. Martin, Carol, this is Sean! I... may have mentioned you once or twice," she tells him, blushing a little. 

"Yeah, she's talked about little el--ow!" Martin says, before he's not-so-surreptitiously elbowed by Carol. 

"Hush you," Carol says. She turns to him and gives him a friendly, but careful smile. "So Jenna told us you're taking architecture, right? How's that going?" 

"I am continually surprised by how much I don't suck at it!" he says cheerfully.

Carol blinks. That wasn't quite the answer she expected. "Well, that's good, I think," she says. "It's probably good to not suck at your chosen major. Are you having a good time at it, at least? Or any of your other classes?" She looks at him a little pointedly. 

"I like physics! Writing's okay. Calculus is godawful but I found someone to tutor me so maybe I'll pass."

"Oh, well, that's not too bad. And yeah, I'm not that much a fan of calculus myself," she says with a smile. "We've got a variant on that writing course ourselves, it is a bit of an annoying requirement, but oh well." 

"I can look out for myself Carol," says Jenna. "Don't worry about her she's worried you're a serial killer or something." 

"In her defense," says Martin, "If you were a serial killer, she probably would still think you were incredible. That and your car. Ow!" Carol elbows him again. 

"Alright, everyone get in a big circle!" one of the older students says. "We're going to get started. Everyone get in a big circle, and we can start teaching everyone the basics. Or reviewing them, if you know them already." 

Oh good this means Sean doesn't have to address the question of whether or not he's a serial killer.

The two students, who introduce themselves as Mike and Wendy, are in charge of this club here -- and they take the students through the basics steps of ballroom, eventually getting the leads and follows to partner up, and rotating follows as they continue to teach. There are a couple more follows than leads in this class -- so Sean always has a partner even if the follows don't always. He gets to dance with Jenna a few times, and Carol a few times, and a bunch of girls he doesn't know at varying skill levels. There isn't too much opportunity for idle chitchat as they go around and learn, but there is some.

Jenna also has the opportunity to learn everyone's names, but mostly she's paying attention to only one of them, though she tries very hard not to be obvious about it. When everyone first pairs up for practice she tries to get to Sean first but she's in the wrong place in the room at the time and has to pair up with some other boy she doesn't know. He ends up being a reasonably competent dancer, but he's not really who she's here to dance with, though she is really quite happy to meet new people. 

Eventually, she does make her way around the circle to him, and wow is he still really cute up close holy crap. She knows a bit intellectually that she might have been putting him up on a pedestal for the past week or so and maybe he's not everything she thought he was but nope when he's holding her in his arms and leading her through the moves with his cute smiling face (such a good smile!) and his muscles and everything about him is just so very wonderful! They're only doing basic moves at the moment but his frame is so strong and perfect and it feels so good when he leads her and she wants to kiss him right there and now but she knows that Carol is probably keeping an eye on her (Jenna knows she has her best interests at heart, even if she is a little uptight about it) and in any case she told herself she'd kiss him at the end of the night. Not the beginning. Or the middle. It might end up having to be the middle though. 

Jenna does not trust herself to do much talking in this current state, she should probably calm down a little bit first (or a lot, but she really enjoys being caught up like this) but she should probably say something at the very least so he doesn't just have her staring at him with what are probably lovesick eyes so she manages to say "You're really good to dance with, you know" before blushing and feeling stupid that she said something like that of all things.