Chapter Eleven
Channing
Professor Sedway was a ball of wrinkles, with a poof of black baby hair on his head, and a pudgy stomach. He only wore white dress shirts, the kind with metal buttons and short sleeves. Most days his pits were stained, but today was particularly hot, so his entire shirt was drenched. I could see the front of his undershirt peeking through when he turned around and narrowed his eyes at us.
“The Protestant Reformation is one of the most important events in western civilization. It’s been integral in shaping the map of Europe and defining the course of world events. You need to understand it if you want to pass this class.”
Sedway had a way of meeting all our eyes individually when he talked. It was as if everything he was saying was life or death. It made everyone uncomfortable, so I sat I in the middle row because he always skipped us when he was looking around the room.
I never had to study very much for western civ. All he had us do was read the chapters and answer a series of quick questions. It was all open book. The only thing we had to do was look the answers up.
“I need your chapter four questions,” the teacher motioned around the room. We all started opening our bags and rustling through our papers. Some students were printing their assignments on the printer in the back corner of the room.
The rest of us started passing our papers down the rows of desks. The quiet period seemed to go on forever, while the students’ shoes squeaked against the tile. Somehow, all of our papers landed in the right place.
The teacher stood up to walk around the front of his desk. All of a sudden, the printer started and a guy in the front row shot up to bring his paper to the teacher. “What is this?” The teacher snatched it away before the student rushed back to his desk. “This isn’t Chicago style.” Sedway crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash.
“Can I get it in to you this afternoon?” the student asked.
“No, this is college, not grade school. You turn your assignments in when I ask for them, or else you don’t get credit. I hope I don’t have to remind any of you of the test in two days.”
My stomach jumped.
“And I’ll need your papers on the Holy Roman Empire on my desk when you walk in the door.”
The students started to shuffle out. I met Mike near the front door. “Did you study for your test?” I asked.
“I didn’t get much done. I didn’t even know we were supposed to be doing a paper on the Holy Roman Empire. What is that anyway?”
“It’s the Catholic state.” We walked into the hall and made our way back to the courtyard. “You’ve got to know when it was established, when it fell apart, how they lived—everything.”
“I get it,” I followed him into the hall.
“Are you going to pass?” I asked. “Have you been reading?”
“I’ve been trying.” Mike and I walked into the courtyard and sat down at our table.
“I’m not trying to lecture you,” I said. “We’ve both been dealing with enough. We don’t need to come down on each other.”
“I wish the coach would let up a little bit,” Mike said. “I’m so tired; it’s getting hard to think.”
“He’s not letting up,” I said.
“I know. I don’t think I can handle it. I’ve got my classes to worry about. I don’t need to be covered in sweat and hyperventilating all day.”
“You’ve got to take care of yourself,” I said. “You’re probably not eating right. Too much beer.”
“I just don’t think I can handle all these laps.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time. “I have to get to my tutoring session.”
“Alright.” Mike pulled out his textbook and opened it when I walked away.
We were both working hard. For the most part, all we had time for was football and studying. Mike and I still managed to eat at the diner and meet in between classes, but there was no real alone time. I couldn’t sit back and watch TV, or even surf the internet. We were too busy working.
Managing the game was no problem, but coming back to study was difficult. I’d pump myself up all day, and get back to the dorms too tired to do anything. I studied as much as I could, but sometimes I just fell asleep. The coach was working us too hard. It was as if he couldn’t help adding a little bit more pressure.
Some of the guys told him to ease off. They walked into his office unannounced and told him to go easy on us. He benched them all right away. He had a program to run. The coach had been using the same system for decades. He had every count, from push-ups to jumping jacks, memorized. It was all well planned out and calculated.
The stress was meant to amp us up to give it our all during the games. It worked. We were faster, stronger, and more organized than many of the other teams. Some schools treated college football like an elective, rather than the opportunity it was.
They put together a mess of stoners and meatheads and called it a team. They never practiced, never organized themselves. They were just a bunch of guys getting together to play football. They were the bottom end. We’d moved through those guys.
Now we were fighting the actual teams. They had their plays straight, quality players, and they knew how to play the game.
Teams like that could be tricky, so we were on our game. If we weren’t careful, we’d fall behind, so the coach kept us hustling. It was only going to get worse. He was going to start giving us an extra day of practice every week. He wouldn’t let up. He’d double the counts, and make us run twice as many laps. I wasn’t going to have time to breathe.
I made good time in getting to the tutoring center. When I walked inside, the light was already on in the study room, and Ava was sitting at the table waiting for me. Her head was down, and her hair was falling over a book she was reading.
She sprang up when I opened the door. “You scared me.”
“That’s for hitting me with the door.” I sat down across from her. She was reading a novel with a school book jacket.
“What is that?”
“Wha—oh? This?” She ducked down to put her book in her bag. It was sitting on the floor next to her chair.
“That’s not fair.”
“Yes, it is. I don’t do small talk.”
“But now I won’t be able to focus because I’ll be wondering what it is. You’re my tutor. You’re supposed to help me study.”
“Fine.” She pulled it out of her bag and lifted it up for me to see. It was called The Woman in White.
“What is it?”
“It’s a really old mystery novel.” She put it away in her bag. “What are you working on?”
“Western civ,” I opened my bag and pulled out my textbook. “I have to do a paper on the Holy Roman Empire. I know next to nothing about the place.”
Ava set the book aside and started to explain the basic facts to me. She showed me where the empire’s borders were, and some of its most famous rulers. Then she went on to talk about the empire’s influence over the rest of Europe.
I retained much of it, but I had to write down the dates, and some of the names. When I was done with my notes, we moved on to calculus. She wasn’t very good at describing the problems or the concepts, but she knew the definitions, and she had a good idea of the mechanics. I could glean the rest from what she told me.
“English has been a big problem for me.” I set aside my calculus notes.
“What unit are they on?”
“They’re talking about literary devices. They want us to memorize a list of millions of them and use them in our papers. It’s barbaric.”
“Well, they’re not hard to learn. Do you have the list he gave you?”
I pulled out my phone to open the file and turned it around so she could see. She leaned in closer to see it. Then she squinted her eyes.
I laughed.
“What?” She sat back.
“Well, something’s making you laugh.”
“It’s the way you squinted.”
“You think I squint funny?” she asked.
“No, it’s adorable, actually.”
She went pale, then bright red. She tried to play it off by staring at my book, but I could see. She wasn’t even reading anything in particular. I decided to give her a break.
“So that’s the list of terms we have to study.”
“It’s long, but it’s not hard. Try to come up with examples of every term, use them, and then you’ll remember them more easily.”
“God,” I ran my hands through my hair, “that’s way too much work.”
“It won’t take you too long. Some of those literary devices are really easy.”
“It’s just one more thing to do.”
“You think you’ve got a lot to go through?” she asked. “I’m taking anatomy. They want a full map of every major system, so every week I’m memorizing thousands of little dots on a chart.”
“I’ve heard that class drives people crazy.” I checked the time and put my book in my bag.
“It does. It drives you insane.” Ava motioned to her book in her bag. “I have to read crap like this just to keep my head clear.”
“You must be here all the time,” I said. “Doesn’t it get boring?”
“I like it here, and no, I’m not here all the time.”
“Then come out with me.” I got up and shrugged my backpack on.
“What? No.”
“There’s this diner up the street. They have the best burgers. Me and some of the guys from the team were thinking about going there tonight. You should come along.”
“No,” she said and grabbed her bag from the side of her chair.
“Why not? You must get bored in here.”
“I don’t want to hang out with the football team. They keep hitting on me, and it’s getting weird.”
“Oh,” I laughed, “no wonder. Then come with me tomorrow. It’d just be you and me.”
She smiled with her head held low so I wouldn’t notice, but I saw it. “I guess.”
She stood up, and I held the door open for her to walk out. Her arms were folded over her chest. She had such beautiful eyes, but she always held her head low, with her hair falling down the side of her head. She must’ve curled it. I saw a strand fall behind her shoulders before she walked into the elevator.