treat my body like a canvas | Glowfic Constellation

to-my-knees

It's the first week of the fall semester, and, well.

Ji's been kind of busy. It helps her mood that she got her sister out from their shitty family's immediate control - and while technically her sister has to pay to live in the first year dorms, no one seems to be really stopping them from just sharing Ji's apartment and leaving the dorm room empty. (That's contributing to the business a lot. She's never had her own apartment before.)

She's stayed on top of pre-class readings, though, totally unlike her first year. It helps that she knows more of what she likes, that these are exciting classes. (Like this one, an economic history of the Middle East.)

Ji gets to class early, a bit on accident - the cafe she'd been planning to get lunch from was way too crowded so she skipped it, and she'd left a bit early because she's not very confident yet in timing her walk from her apartment to grounds - and getting lost didn't successfully eat up all the extra time.

She is, however, pretty hungry as she sits down in the front row and digs out her notebook (she found some plain canvas covered notebooks last year and splurged on more than enough for her entire university stint - this one she's covered in sketches of the Hirshhorn Museum), and a proper selection of colorful gel pens and also the syllabus.

(Technically, the door had been locked, like they usually are when the teacher isn't there yet. Ji hates loitering in the hallway though, and was pretty good at picking the cheap locks on school doors even before she eclipsed.)

She's the first one there but not by a lot, and more students trickle in as it gets closer to class start time.

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building-the-bridges

About five minutes before class starts, a young woman enters and heads for the teacher's desk. She's dressed sharply but without much color, favoring crisp black and white. A pair of cat ears, the same rich, sleek brown as her hair, twitch slightly at the students' quiet chatter. She sets her bag down and withdraws her laptop, getting it hooked up to the room's projection equipment.

At precisely the time scheduled, she claps her hands, cutting through the buzz. "Your attention. My name is Ellie Davis and I will be the proctor for this section of Ancient History of the Middle East. The focus will be economic history, from the founding of Uruk to the conquests of Alexander of Macedon. This gives us more than three and a half thousand years to cover in slightly under three months. As such, we will be moving quickly. If you do not intend to focus on my lessons, kindly remove yourself to the back of the room or vacate it entirely at this point." She pauses briefly.

to-my-knees

Oh, she's going to be focusing alright. Her own ears prick forward with interest (they shade to a lighter auburn than her hair at their tips, and she has several rhinestone piercings in each, set asymmetrically).

She might be focusing on something other than the lecture, though, like those pretty lips.

building-the-bridges

"Any use of magery or psionics by a student during class time will be grounds for prosecution under the student code of conduct. My office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays eleven to two and Fridays three to six. You should have received an electronic copy of the syllabus on your university email. I am required by policy to review it in class with you," she flicks the projector screen on and displays each page of the syllabus, lingering on each for three seconds. "As you can see, it explains the grading policy and gives a week-by-week schedule. If you have further questions, see me outside of class."

With the formalities out of the way, she jumps straight into the first lecture.

to-my-knees

She actually wants to learn this, and the proctor's voice is very lovely, so she tries very hard to pay attention to the material too. So she can remember things the cute girl said to use later.

She's definitely going to have syllabus questions, of course.

She also puts her hand up at every single pause for questions (and a few pauses that probably were not meant for questions but are long enough to get her hand up). Her questions do at least reveal she did the readings and also some supplemental info dives, and she mostly tries to prod for more details. Also more talking. Cute girl should definitely be talking to her.

building-the-bridges

Her questions are all answered thoroughly- and begin to prompt a quirk of the lips as Ellie sees that they are all consistently thoughtful and insightful.

to-my-knees

That definitely is how you encourage someone like Ji to do even more reading after class. And also to not ask silly joke questions.

Office hours aren't until tomorrow, tragically, but if she lingers on packing up her bag maybe she can catch the proctor on her way out...

building-the-bridges

The proctor is very efficient and businesslike about packing up her own bag. Almost as much so as the quicker students.

to-my-knees