Blind date with Professor

10 a.m. Clara headed towards her classroom, along with her friend next to her. “Hey, Clara, have you heard about the new professor that will be joining today?” her friend asked with a curious face. “What prof?” Clara asked, tucking away the strands of hair that fell over her face. “The new one that was supposed to arrive one week ago.” “Mrs. Baker has retired due to her fractured leg, so he’ll be taking over from today.” “Oh….I forgot about him.” “Today’s his first class with us. I’m excited.” Her friend says with a dreamy face. “What’s so exciting about it?” Clara grunted paying no attention to her friend. “What do you mean it’s not exciting?” she fumed. “He’s not an ordinary prof, he’s the youngest prof I have ever heard of. The girls in our class said he’s only 24, and not married yet I heard.” “So, the chances of him being single is quite high.” “How do you know he’s single from that only?” Clara grunted. She glanced at the wristwatch in her hand. “Hey, we are late! You can chat later about him.” She said, grabbing her friend by the hand and heading towards the classroom in a hurry. They took their seats and waited for the professor to arrive. But, what was playing on Clara’s head was the flashbacks of the past two nights. The door opened, and a man arrived walking over to the teacher’s desk. The whole class started cheering for him when he entered. But, Clara was still lost in her world. Her friend tugged at her arm. “Clara! Look! It’s the prof!” her friend whispered slowly. “Clara!”. Clara came back to reality and gave a puzzled glance at her friend. “What happened?”. “Why are you calling me?” she grunted. “Look at the professor! He’s handsome!” her friend stated, trying to be as much quiet as possible. “Why did you all start cheering for me when I entered?” a voice drew Clara’s attention. “I’m not a celebrity or anything special sort of. Just a plain professor.” Clara turned to the man standing at the teacher’s desk. And seeing his face her jaw dropped. She blinked several times, and she rechecked. “Isn’t the professor hot?” her friend giggled. “Ruth, can you pinch my face for a second?” Clara asked her friend while staring at the prof. “What? Why?”. “Just do it!”. “Well…sure.” She pinched as hard as she could. “Ouch!” Clara grunted in pain and looked at the professor once again. “I’m not dreaming after all?” she murmured to herself. “Did you say anything, Clara?” Ruth asked. “Uh…no…”. Clara kept glancing at the professor whenever she could. “Please allow me to introduce myself,” the man started talking. He wore a blue coat with a white shirt underneath and was 6’3 feet tall with a good build. With messy brown hair, he kept his hair parted sideways with some strands falling onto his face. One of his attractive features was most probably his crystal blue eyes, which were hidden behind the glasses which made him look quite sexy in every angle. “His eyelashes are so pretty,” Ruth murmured. “My name is Ralph Sullivan.” “I transferred from a university in London, after teaching there for two years because of my job change.” “And from today onwards I will be in charge of the English literature class which used to be taken by Mrs. Kyle Baker.” “Hope we will get along well.” He said with a soft smile. The girls in the class started screaming the next second with his introduction. Ralph became nervous to see that. “Uh…please keep your voice low. There’s a class next to us.” “If any of you have any questions for me you can ask right away.” “The main class will start from tomorrow.” A girl raised her hand and got up on her feet the next second. “Teacher is it true that you are 24 years old and single?” she asked with no hesitation. Ralph sighs. “These are my personal information.” “As we will get along for 4 years, I guess you’ll be curious to know me well.” “Fine then.” He smiled. “I’ll answer your questions.” He sat on top of the desk, staring at all of their faces. “Yes, I turned 24 recently. And I’m single and not married at the moment.” “Teacher, the girls seem to have taken a liking to you a lot. Do you think we guys stand a chance against you?” one of the boys said, raising his hand. Ralph chuckled. “Of course. You all are quite young than me.” “I’m no match against you guys.” Clara kept her head low and decided to stay quiet waiting for the class to end. Ruth was listening to the people talking with the teacher. When the class was going to end, Ralph checked the time and turned to the class. “I introduced myself already. How about you all introduce yourselves to me one by one. It’ll help us get along well, I guess?”. The whole class cheered in response. Clara glanced sideways and her face became pale out of fear. “Why do we have to introduce ourselves now?”. “If I knew he was going to be our prof, I would’ve skipped the class already.” When it was time for Clara’s row, her heart started beating faster. When the girl next to her introduced herself she felt as if she was going to faint any moment now. “Clara, it’s your turn!” Ruth said, tugging at her arm. Clara glanced at her and nodded. She got up on her feet the next second. She couldn’t dare to look the prof in the eyes. When she glanced at him, his jaw dropped in surprise. “Uh….”. “Um…”. “Clara! Say your name!” Ruth whispered. Clara cleared her throat and started speaking, “Uh….m-my name is….Clara Miles.” “Nice to meet you…..Mr. Ralph….Sullivan.” He kept staring at her with a surprised face. The whole class focused on them only. “Professor, you are spacing out!” One of the boys yelled. He came back to reality, glanced at Clara for a few minutes, and adverted his gaze with a nervous laugh. “Uh….alright. You can sit down now.” he stuttered. Clara nodded and sat down with her head lowered. Ruth introduced herself next and the class was over soon. When Ralph was walking out he glanced at Clara and left. Clara got up on her feet, carrying her back. Ruth glanced at her and became puzzled. “Where are you going?”. “I…don’t feel good for some reason. I won’t attend the next class.” “I’ll come back by the third class. Don’t worry about me!”. Ruth grabbed her by the hand with a concerned face. “Is this related to Adrian?”. “That’s why you don’t want to attend the next class?”. Clara saw Adrian leaving with a girl holding her hand in hand the next second. She clenched her fists and turned to Ruth. “Yes, kind of.” “You don’t need to worry. I’ll go and cool off my head for a bit.” “Got it?”. Ruth nodded. “Don’t talk with him again. It’ll only make you feel bad about yourself." “I know,” Clara responded coldly as she walked out of the classroom by herself. She went to the rooftop, and sat down under the shade, after putting away her bag. Heaving a deep sigh, she closed her eyes. “God, I messed up big this time!” she murmured. “How will I handle the situation now?”. “Am I disturbing you?” a voice called, drawing her attention. Ralph stood at the doorway of the rooftop with a stoic face. Clara got up on her feet right away to see him. “You?”. “Why are you here?” she retorted. He came over to her side and stood face to face. “No need to be afraid, I mean no harm,” he said in a polite tone. “How did you know, I was here?”. He adverted his gaze. “I saw you coming this way, so I followed you.” Clara clenched her fists tightly. "Is this why you transferred to this college just so you could stalk me?" she yelled.