Chapter Nine: Professor’s Crush:

-Liz-

Who is that? I have seen some cute boys in my class before. But this kid. Where did he even come from? At first, I thought that I was hallucinating. I reached up and pinched my right cheek. No, he’s real alright. Okay, Liz. You have to act professional about this. This is the first day of class after all.

I pulled out my role book and opened it to the first period.

“Eric Adams?” I said.

“Here.”

“Butch Andrews?” I asked.

“Here.”

I read down the list and that boy with the dark, dusty hair didn’t answer. He looked at me with no emotion on his face. I wished that I could tell what was on his mind. Maybe he’s not in the right class? I’m still on the K’s though. Just keep reading.

“Wallace Martin?” I asked. He finally perked up.

“Here,” the boy said. I was about thrown off by his Southern accent. A country boy, huh? A country boy out in the city. Hm… This could be interesting. I marked him off as present. I went through the rest of the role call as normal. Only two of them were out. Not too bad. Maybe they will show up on Wednesday or drag themselves in. I closed up my role book.

“Okay,” I said. “This is a class for introducing everything about film. Duh. We will go over the terms, history, the basics, and all that jazz.” I could recite this introduction in my sleep. I was bored but I had to sound like I wasn’t. (That’s what a professor is supposed to do after all.) But looking into Wallace’s face was enough to push me through it. I have to admit, he wasn’t that pretty. Probably an average looking boy at most. Still, I couldn’t stop looking at him. Who was this boy?

Now it came to the fun part of the class.

“Because we have to fill time before I can release you,” I said. “You will all stand up one at a time and tell us something interesting about yourself.” The class stared at me at first.

“Do we have to?” a little blonde-haired girl, I think her name was Nicole, asked. I shrugged.

“Up to you,” I said. “I am just trying to feel the time here.” I flipped back my hair.

“Guess I will go first,” I said. “My name is Liz and I tend to fall in love easily.” The students didn’t speak at first. Okay, this wasn’t going how I want it. I rubbed my forehead. Looks like I will have to draft someone. I really didn’t feel like doing this.

Then I believe it was Eric who stood up. Finally, someone to put this into motion.

“I’m Eric,” he said. “And I help out my dad’s beauty shop. He’s a hair stylist.” I raised my eyebrow.

“Interesting,” I said. A black girl with a short ponytail stood up.

“I’m Jackie, and my mother is a famous photographer from Canada.”

“Have you been to Canada?” Rocky asked.

“I have,” she said. “But I was really little. I think I was two or three.”

“Who’s next?” I asked. I had to admit they all had some fascinating facts with their names. Not surprising that I had another artistic crowd here. Well, this was an art college after all. Then Wallace stood up.

“My name is Wallace and I came to this school to look for an old friend of mine,” he said. He quickly sat down.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Wallace said, nodding. “I’m not really that talented in anything artistic.” I gave him an odd look.

“Can you draw?” I asked.

“No,” he said.

“Can you play an instrument?”

“No.”

“Can you make any films?”

“No.”

“Can you write?”

“No.”

“Nothing artistic?”

Wallace shook his head. Everyone stared at him as he spoke. I frowned at him as another student stood up. This wasn’t going to do. I’m going to have to work on him. I have my new project. I will make an artist out of Wallace Martin.