My Dear Professor

Chapter 1: The Grey-haired Man

"Don't worry, Dad. I'll be fine at University. It's only my first day! Calm down! Okay! Okay! Love you, Dad." Clara chuckled to herself as she hung up her phone and heaved a box out of her car, into her arms.

Today was her first day of her second year of University. She was going so she could be a teacher, an English teacher. Clara's hair was cut in a medium cut with bangs which were somewhat wavy because she slept on it without doing anything to it. Her dress was a bright red with black roses littering the entire thing. A Peter Pan collar decorated her neck. The black combat boots she wore were hot in the August heat.

Students everywhere moved all about, talking, shouting and catching up with friends. The first year University students looked pretty clueless, honestly. Clara had her music plugged into her headphones and had her iPod in her pocket. Lana Del Rey's Playing Dangerous rang in her ears as she carried her box of records towards the dormitory building. Clara glanced over to the right and saw a grey-haired but certainly attractive man wearing glasses walking down the sidewalk, reading Shakespeare while he walked. He glanced up for only a moment and their eyes met awkwardly. His right eyebrow rose in curiosity for a second but just as soon as it happened, he was down the sidewalk. Clara shook her head to get the thought of him out of her mind and continued to walk into the dormitory building. He left her in a sort of daze. Who was he?

--

"Clara!" Said a red-headed girl named Amelia as Clara walked into her dorm, number 6 on the third floor. "You look like a doll! Beautiful thing." Amelia waited until Clara set her box of records down on her bed to embrace her. "I missed you!"

Amelia was her roommate. They had been roommates since their first year, so this was their second year together. Amelia's hair was a bright orange-ish red that reached past her collarbones and was slightly wavy. She was skinny, not unhealthy skinny, but still thin. Amelia was a beautiful girl. She mostly was called Amy or even Pond since that was her last name.

"Hey, Amy!" Clara hugged her back and then pulled away. "How was your summer holiday?"

"Pssh, complete rubbish. I stayed with my mum all holiday. We fought almost everyday." She laughed and started to unpack clothes again like she was when Clara walked in. Clara didn't say anything, she simply pursed her lips.

"Oh, God! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I just--" Any suddenly realised.

Clara's mother died when she was fourteen. Even though Clara rarely cried over her mum anymore, everyone always thought that mentioning their mum or someone else's would trigger Clara to cry or get angry or something. Clara wasn't that sensitive to it.

Clara interrupted her, "It's fine, Amy, really." She chuckled and put her box of records under her bed.

"Okay.. Anyway, how was your holiday, love?" Amy said without looking at Clara and folding dresses.

"Good actually. Caught up on some readin', watched Sherlock until 2am and blogged."

"Really?" Amy looked at her accusingly.

"Yup, why?" Clara's eyebrows furrowed.

"God, Clara, you're such a dork." Amy laughed goodheartedly.

"I know." Clara laughed back. "'Im gonna go get more stuff from my car, be back in a few." She then popped out of the room and bounced down the hallway.

When she exited the building she immediately caught the gaze of the grey-haired man again. He was now talking to a group of grey-haired chubby men that looked to be around the same age as him, except he was very slender and tall, while most of them were chubby and short. It seemed that as soon as Clara opened the doors, he immediately looked in her direction. His gaze followed her down the sidewalk as she walked to her red car. The man pursed his lips and fiddled with his hands before turning his attention back to the group of older men.

Were her cheeks hot? Clara put her palms up to her cheeks and felt them. They were warm, hot even. Clara rubbed her palms on her cheeks a few times before pulling out two huge suit cases and a large body pillow. Deciding that she can hold more, Clara also picked up her quite big bag that held her purple comforter. She started up the sidewalk again to the front doors.

He was looking again, wasn't he? Don't look, don't look, don't--dammit! Clara turned her head to glance at him and caught herself blushing. She suddenly went tumbling forward and tripping over one of her suitcase. Clara groaned as she hit the ground.

The man noticed her fall and ran to aid her. "Are you alright?!" He said while grasping her arm firmly but gently and helping her up. The man picked up her pillow and comforter bag. "Can I help you? It seems you need it." He gave a light chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clara smiled nervously as she grabbed the handles of her suitcases. "That'd be great, thanks." She quickly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and started for the doors.

Once they reached her dorm, Clara was huffing and puffing. The elevator was full of students, so she had decided the three flights of stairs wouldn't be so bad. Clara was wrong. "Thank you, again." Clara looked at him, taking the pillow and comforter.

"No problem." He smiled slightly and took off down the hallway.

Clara entered her room to find it a complete and utter mess. "Amelia?! What the hell?!" There was dresses, shirts and pants scattered across the floor and scarves and jackets strung over the bed frames and dressers. Amy's head popped out from under the bed with a smile.

"Sorry, sorting things." She grinned with a embarrassed blush.

Clara started to take clothes down off of things and off the floor and pile them on Amy's bed so she could organise. "Gosh, Amy. You are so lucky you got here before I did last year and had time to do this before I arrived. Trust me, I would've freaked then." Clara smiled and took out her comforter and bed sheets. With petite fingers, Clara put the bed sheets on the bed and made her bed.