Friendly Advice

I walk into the huge lecture hall and look around. I recognize maybe ten percent of my fellow students from orientation exercises the last few days. I see Sam and wave; he looks sheepishly at me and waves back. I gave him a blow job last night, but he hasn’t left a seat open on either side of him. Both males, as most the room is. A little over twenty percent female. Only three I recognize. All three live in my dorm; none I would consider friends, not yet at least.

The room fills quickly. Only a handful were sitting in the first two rows, so I grab a seat just in front of me in the front row. Must be over 200 students in here.

A man walks up to the front of the room, adjusts a lapel mic, and says, “I’m Dr. Pappas. Welcome to the first day of 15-112, Fundamentals of Programming and Computer Science. This class presumes no background in programming, but it can be a little intense. If you’re really unsure that you’re ready for this, I strongly suggest you talk to your advisor today about shifting to 15-110. It will cost you time on your path to graduation, but so will failing this course. We do not slow down to let you catch up.”

I’ve played a tad with programming, but not done anything real yet. I’m pretty comfortable I can keep up. I hear a lot of squirming in the seats behind me. Not everyone seems to share my confidence.

The professor continues, “If you’re intimidated by the size of this room, it’s okay. You’ll get used to this and you’ll have a recitation section every week with no more than twenty students. If you’re struggling, make sure you get your recitation instructor to help you keep up.”

The professor explains the course policies and goes over the outline of what we’ll cover. I feel good about these. I already knew, more or less, what about a third of the topics were, although I doubt I could pass an exam on any of them. And he covers material at a comfortable pace and explains things clearly. This is exactly what I’m hoping for out of college.

By the time the class ended a little over an hour later, I’m excited. In the half of the class he’d actually taught new material, I’d learned far more than any week for any class in high school.

After class, I hang out at the bottom of the steps, hoping to say hi to Sam. He walks right past, focusing on the two guys he was talking to. I know he’d noticed me standing there on his way down, but he never looks my way when he goes by. He seemed nice yesterday. See if he gets another blowjob from me.

I go through the line at the cafeteria and then look for a table to sit at. I recognize one of the women from my dorm who’s in my CS class. She has an empty seat next to her, so I ask if I can sit with her.

“Yeah sure, it’s not taken.”

“You’re in 15-112 right? And I think you’re in my dorm. My name’s Lily.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen you. My name’s Abby.”

“Did you like class today?”

“Who does he think he is, with that garbage about he won’t slow down. Of course he will. He’ll get yelled at if he fails all of us.”

“Well, I hope he doesn’t slow down. I thought that was fun today.”

“You would.”

I decided to try to change the subject. “Do you know Sam? He’s in our class, too. He seemed nice last night, but he wouldn’t talk to me today.”

“You’re the one who blew him last night, aren’t you? Do you have that little self-respect?”

“I think I have a lot of self-respect. But I enjoyed it last night and it made him happy. Or it seemed to last night.”

“Of course he enjoyed it last night. He’s a fucking guy. That’s all they want out of life. And I’m sure half the guys in the class now know you’re the class slut. Do you fuck em and suck em, or is it only your mouth on the menu?”

“I didn’t think a blow job was that big of a deal.”

“You really don’t get it, do you? All the guys will now expect that they can just smile at you and you’ll suck them off. No guy’s going to be serious with you now. And you just made all our lives miserable, too. They’re going to expect us all to put out like you do. And if we don’t and they get horny, they’ll just have you take care of them. We have no leverage.”

“But I had a good time and so did he.”

“Is he talking to you today? Then it didn’t mean anything to him, did it. I’ll tell you what. I guess I don’t care what kind of a reputation you give yourself, but stay away from any guys I’m chasing. You get one of them off and I’ll come for you. And I’ll make it hurt. Understand?”

I nod my head, but I’m not sure I fully do.

Having finished her food, Abby stands up and walks away. I enjoyed class today, but this people thing is not going too well.

My English class has a more mixed student body. And they seem nicer to me. It’s also my first woman teacher. My intro electrical course was maybe the worst. About half the size of the CS class, but I think almost everyone in electrical was in the CS class. And only seven other women in the whole room, so roughly eight percent.

Maybe it was my imagination based on Abby’s comment, but it felt like everyone in the room knew I’d given Sam a blowjob. The other women hate me and the guys just want their own blowjobs.

But I’m learning a lot in every class. That’s great. Midway through class on Wednesday, someone asks the CS professor to slow down. He looks for a moment at the guy who asked, and then says, “Check your notes for my comments about 15-110. It is not too late to change classes.” He proceeds at his usual pace.

I sit up front, so I couldn’t see Abby’s reaction but I wonder what she thought about that. Maybe she doesn’t know everything about being a college student after all.

The best thing my first week was my programming recitation on Thursday. There were nineteen of us, five of whom were women. Then the teacher walks in. I don’t think she’s that much older than me. She says her name is Sara; she seems smart and really nice. She relaxes a lot of the students, especially after the CS professor had spooked so many with his pace.