Chapter 13: And So It Begins...

August 23, 1982, McKinley, Ohio

"Well, here we go again!" Jason said as he, Clarissa, Sandy, and I plopped into front-row seats in the O-Chem classroom."

"Look at it this way," Sandy laughed. "You're about one-sixth of the way done. We doctors are about one-eighth, not counting the Summers we have to work for no pay and our Intern year when we get a small stipend! By then, you'll be earning major bucks developing bioweapons for the CIA!"

"I'm actually thinking of doing a PhD at some point, but I'd have to find a Fellowship that would pay for it. Unlike you doctors, I won't make money I borrow back in spades!"

"When we're in our 30s, if we're lucky!" Clarissa replied.

Professor Chakraborty walked into the classroom. She was new, having been hired over the Summer with a batch of new professors to accommodate the increased number of students at WHTU. She introduced herself, and I breathed a small sigh of relief that her English was only slightly accented. I'd heard horror stories of math and science lecturers and professors who were, for all intents and purposes, impossible to understand due to heavy accents.

"Good morning, students! I am Doctor Devi Chakraborty. I hope you'll bear with me, as this is my first teaching assignment here at William Howard Taft. Before today, I was at a small private college in Oregon, where I taught chemistry for five years. Would the two young women in the front row please take these course outlines and syllabi and pass them out?"

Clarissa and Sandy got up, took the stacks of papers, and began handing them out to the class.

"You will see," Doctor Chakraborty continued, "that I do not take attendance. You are all adults, and I expect you to be in class on time, ready to begin when I arrive, which will be punctual. When I ask the class for answers to a question, I'll call randomly from my gradebook. If you are not here, you get an 'x' next to your name, and your homework assignment will not be accepted unless you've spoken to me beforehand.

"Homework is to be placed on my desk when you walk into class. Once class has started, any homework turned in will be regarded as late and will be docked 1 point. Quizzes will be given each Friday. Missed quizzes, without an excuse in advance or proof of an emergency, will be recorded as a zero. If there are no questions, please take out your books, and we'll begin with chapter 14."

She clearly didn't WANT any questions from the way she gave the instructions. Jason and I looked at each other, shrugged, and opened our books as instructed. Doctor Chakraborty, despite seeming stern, was an engaging, interesting lecturer, and I decided I liked her no-nonsense style. We were, after all, in our second year in college and shouldn't need our hands held as we had the first few days of our first semester. If we did, Doctor Chakraborty certainly wasn't going to do it!

"Who peed in HER Cheerios?" Sandy asked when we walked out of class.

"Believe it or not, I liked her style," I said. "You have to admit she did her best to make O-Chem interesting. And she didn't give anyone much grief when they couldn't remember answers from last semester."

"I bet you anything you care to wager that's not true in two weeks," Sandy replied.

"I can see that," Clarissa said, nodding in agreement. "She'll expect us to know our stuff."

"Which is, in fact, a reasonable expectation, don't you think?" I asked.

"Sure. But the way she spoke at first sounded like boot camp!" Sandy protested.

"I observed some medical students in a hospital," Clarissa said. "Doctor Chakraborty was a sweetheart compared to the doctor talking to those students."

"Wonderful," Sandy sighed. "And I'm not even old enough to drink!"

"It's 10:12am!" Jason laughed. "What do you guys have next?"

"Latin for Mike and me," Clarissa replied. "You?"

"Computer science. Pete's in that class with me. Sandy?"

"Introduction to Classical Music. I figured it's as good a choice for a humanities elective as anything. Jeannette is in that class with me."

"Who do you have?" I asked.

She pulled out her schedule sheet.

"Blahnik."

"She's cool," I said. "She's my guitar teacher. I also sang duets with her daughter occasionally before class. Do you play an instrument?"

"I had piano lessons for a few years when I was little, but I haven't played in ages. What about you, Clarissa?"

"Unlike Mike here, who has a wonderful voice, I can't carry a tune if you give me a bucket! Never tried to play an instrument. Jason?"

"I sang in some musicals, but no instruments."

"Well, there goes my idea for starting a band!" I chuckled.

"Why?" Jason laughed. "We teach Clarissa to play drums. Everyone knows drummers can't sing worth a damn! Sandy can play keyboards; I can play bass because anyone can play bass; and you play guitar!"

I laughed, "And our name?"

"The Three Musketeers, of course!" Sandy laughed.

"You're making a big assumption if you think you can teach me to play drums," Clarissa laughed. "I am the proverbial white girl with NO rhythm. Larry and Carter were giving me all kinds of grief about not being able to dance!"

"I was joking," I said.

"It's actually not a bad idea," Sandy said. "A band could earn some extra spending money. But you're the only one who has any recent playing experience."

"And I'm not that good," I said. "I can sing, and I can play a few songs really well, but I need at least another year."

"But think about the groupies!" Jason laughed. "Isn't that why you play?"

"Frank Zappa certainly implied that in Joe's Garage!" I grinned. "But that's the last thing I need right now!"

We arrived back at the dorm, and the four of us went to my room to hang out for about half an hour before our next class, which, for Clarissa and me, was Latin. I was surprised when we walked into class and saw the professor wearing Roman Catholic clerical garb — black slacks, black shirt, and white 'Roman' collar. Clarissa rolled her eyes as we sat down in the front row of the small classroom.

"Salve! I am Father Jacobs, and this is Latin 101," he said promptly at 11:00am. "I'm an adjunct professor here and pastor of Saint Augustine Catholic Church. Besides Latin, I teach church history and theology. For those of you who are uncomfortable with my clerical title, please feel free to address me as 'Professor'; I will take no offense.

"Latin is, as I am sure you all know, a classical language which stems from the Italian peninsula, and which was spread first by the Roman Empire as an official language, and then by the Roman Catholic Church. The Latin used in our churches is somewhat different from classical Latin, varying in pronunciation and, in some ways, is simplified. I'll be teaching you classical Latin. I majored in classical languages before deciding to attend seminary.

"There is no syllabus for this class, as we'll simply work through the text on a chapter-by-chapter basis. This course, Latin 101, will cover the first half of the textbook. Next semester, Latin 102 will cover the second half of the textbook. If you go on from there, you'll study classical Latin texts.

"One thing you will discover, and something that will seem scary at first, is that Latin is a highly inflected language. It has three genders, seven noun cases, four verb conjugations, four verb principal parts, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two aspects, and two numbers. By comparison, English is quite simple."

"And a partridge in a pear tree..." Clarissa whispered to my amusement.

"I don't mean to scare you," Father Jacobs continued, "but I do want you to know that for a typical noun, you will need to know the singular and plural in six cases. There are five different ways to do this, and there are exceptions to those five sets of rules. This is called 'declension' and is something which barely exists in English. Allow me to give you an example, and then we'll get started.

"The word for water is 'aqua'. In the nominative and vocative cases, it remains 'aqua'. In the accusative case, it becomes 'aquam'. In the genitive and dative cases, 'aquae'. And in the ablative case, 'aquā'. In English, the word remains 'water', and we apply various syntactical methods to distinguish the cases. I say all of this because all of this is going to be very foreign to most of you!"

"So it's all Greek to us?" a student in the back asked, causing the room to erupt into laughter.

"Something like that!" Father Jacobs said with a smile. "Let me take attendance, and then we'll get started."

I'd heard all of this before in High School Latin, and when I'd first heard it, I'd almost dropped the class. It was, in many ways, mind-boggling. Russian had many similar features, but I'd simply learned them by listening and speaking, the same way I'd learned English. This was a completely different exercise.

"I'm going to need your help," Clarissa whispered.

I nodded my agreement as Father Jacobs called the roll. An hour later, Clarissa was shaking her head as we walked out of the room.

"And I thought French was hard! This is going to be my toughest class for sure!"

"Two semesters fulfills our requirement," I said. "Then we can study some Greek together on our own. Both are going to help with all the medical lingo, which is derived from Greek and Latin."

"Oh, joy," she groused.

"Hey, it's just more quality time we get to spend together!"

"Angie is going to HATE me by the time we graduate!"

"She's pretty understanding. I'll have enough time for her."

We headed back to the dorm to drop off our books, then hung out in the common area on our floor to wait for the rest of the gang before heading to lunch.

"Mind if we sit with you guys?" a male voice said from behind us.

"The more the merrier!" Jeannette said.

"I'm Lee, that's Robby, and that's Sophia."

"Grab a seat!" Pete said warmly.

"We heard a bunch of you are biology or biochemistry majors."

"Who spread THAT scurrilous rumor?" Larry asked, laughing. "I'm a history major and want to teach High School; Angie here wants to teach grade school; Clark is an economics major; Carter is a ChemE; Melody is a political science major planning to be a shyster lawyer; Jeannette is studying sociology for God-knows-what reason; and Marie wants to be an English Lit professor, which proves she's crazy!"

"I think he meant us, you clown!" Clarissa laughed. "Pay no attention to Larry! I'm Clarissa, and I'm biochem, along with Mike and Sandy here, and all three of us are pre-med. Jason, sitting next to Mike, is also biochem, but he's going to do research, and according to some, develop bioweapons for the CIA. Pete, on the other side of Jason, is a biology major, but he's unsure of his career plans! And down at the far end is Kurtis, the physics major, which means his labs suck because they never work!"

"Sophia is pre-med, and Robby and I both want to do research," Lee said with a smile. "Rumor has it you guys have the best study group on campus."

"The configuration kind of changed," Clarissa said. "Once we finished our core courses, we kind of divided into a smaller pre-med group, though we let Jason hang out with us."

"Let?" he growled in mock offense.

"Ignore them," I laughed. "Where are you guys from?"

"Lima. We all went to the same High School," Sophia said.

"Are you Greek?" I asked.

"Yes! My grandparents on both sides left Greece the day the Italians invaded. They went to Spain, but didn't like it there under Franco, and managed to get to the US. How did you know I was Greek?"

"The name, plus the dark hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. I've met a lot of Greeks over the years. My mom's best friend is married to one."

"Where is your family from?"

"My dad's ancestors are mostly Dutch. Mom is full-blooded Russian."

"Orthodox or Protestant?"

"Orthodox. Dad converted when they married. Angie and I attend church at Saint Michael the Archangel on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays."

"Whoa! The full schedule? Nobody I know does that! That's like for monks and stuff!"

"And crazy Russians!" Melody chimed in.

"Angie is your girlfriend?" Sophia asked.

I shook my head, "No. Just close friends. She's Roman Catholic, but she's going to be chrismated at Pascha."

"Weird. I mean, sure, that makes sense if you guys were getting married, but why would an American go to a Greek or Russian church?"

I'd heard that kind of attitude from Greeks before, and it was why many Greek kids ended up becoming Catholic or Protestant. To many of the Greek kids, church was an ethnic thing, and being an American meant going to an 'American' church.

"I love the Orthodox Church," Angie said. "It's beautiful and mysterious. And I agree with what the church teaches more than I do my old church."

"It's just I've never seen anyone become Orthodox unless they had to if you know what I mean."

"We have a number of convert families in my church back home," I said. "I'm from West Monroe, which is near Rutherford, just about an hour to the west. It's not uncommon amongst the OCA churches to have converts. The Arabs are more like you, from what I hear."

"Well, whatever. I'll go on the holidays if you don't mind."

"You're welcome anytime."

"So, can we join your study group?" Lee asked.

I looked over to Clarissa, as she was the one who had formed it, and waited for her to reply.

"Sure," she said, "but we'll have to figure out how it will work because we'll be ahead of you."

"That's why Doctor Stanton recommended we talk to you. Do you think it would work if we kind of had a sub-group? You know, where we study in the same place, and we can ask for help when we need it?"

"I think that could work," I said. "Sandy? Pete?"

"Sure," they both replied.

"We meet in Rickenbacker on the eighth floor at 7:00pm Sunday through Thursday," Clarissa said. "Mike is usually not around until around 8:30pm on Wednesdays because of church, but otherwise, we're all there and usually study until around 11:00pm, sometimes a bit later. I'll talk with the front desk and make sure all three of you can get in. They changed the rules this year, and your campus ID isn't enough to get you into a dorm which isn't yours."

"Why did they change that?" Sophia asked.

"There was a string of rapes on or near campus last year, and this is one of the security measures they put in place," Jason said. "We have an escort team for our dorm floor, and others do the same thing. You should check with your RA, if they didn't already tell you about it during orientation."

"Nobody said anything about that at all! Did they catch the guy?"

"Yes!" Jeannette said. "He'll be enjoying his stay as a guest of the governor for the next thirty years or so."

"Unless somebody puts a shiv into him," Marie said. "Then he can know what forcible penetration is REALLY like!"

"Meet Marie, our resident vigilante!" Melody said. "The guy is in prison, and that's where he belongs."

"How did you guys all get into the spiffy new dorm?" Lee asked.

"We were in one of the oldest ones, so we had first dibs," Jeannette said. "There was a kind of lottery, and we all applied, then worked out roommates as necessary to get everyone in. Once we were in, we all asked for the same floor."

"I'd KILL for air conditioning!" Robby said.

"I'm sure the governor would provide a nice air-conditioned cell if you did that!" Jeannette laughed.

"It actually wasn't too bad last year," I said. "Just get a fan, and you should be OK."

"Should we show up tonight?" Lee asked.

"Sure," Clarissa said. "We already have homework and reading to do, though some of it is for electives."

We got to know the three Freshmen during lunch, and once we'd finished eating, we all headed back to the dorms to get our books. Pete, Jason, Clarissa, Sandy, and I headed to biology class, where Doctor Stanton was already sitting at the desk in the front left corner of the room.

"Good afternoon!" he called out to us.

"Hi, Doctor Stanton!" I replied as the others greeted him as well.

"It's always good to see bright, shiny faces eager to learn and wanting to be here, rather than anywhere else!"

"Who?" Sandy laughed. "Us?"

"A professor can hope!" he laughed.

About five minutes later, class started.

"This is Honors Biology," Doctor Stanton said. "As I invited each of you into the program, I'm sure you all belong here. As you can see, this is a small class, and we'll be covering nearly twice as much material as the normal cellular biology and serology course. You'll be in labs with the students in the regular course of study, but your lab reports will have additional requirements. If you're here, it's because we're sure you can handle it, and we're sure it will aid you greatly in the future."

He handed out the syllabus to the fourteen students in the room, asked us to take out our textbooks, then began the lecture. What he had said about the coursework was staggering, but I also knew it was what would happen once we got to medical school. I wondered if our usual four hours of study each night was going to be sufficient. I suspected the notion of having Thursday completely free had just gone out the window. I discovered the gang agreed when we left the class an hour later.

"Is everyone free on Thursday mornings?" Clarissa inquired. "I think we need a special study period just for this class and the lab reports."

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Pete asked, shaking his head.

"A ton of work, that's what," Sandy said. "I'm free on Thursday."

"Me, too," I agreed.

Pete and Jason agreed as well, and we agreed on 9:00am. We headed back to the dorms where Angie and I relaxed with Cokes on the couch in the common area of my room and listened to Love and Dancing by The Human League. We didn't have enough time to finish the album because I had to leave for my Western Civ class. Clarissa came to the door, and she and I headed across campus.

"I'm Doctor Patricia Barnes, and this is Western Civilization I. As you should be aware from the book list, we'll be doing quite a bit of reading from ancient texts in addition to the textbook. I don't believe in quizzes, so your semester grade will consist of two exams, one paper per week, and class participation. Keep up with the reading, turn in your papers, and participate in class, and a B is relatively easy to achieve. Don't do those things, and a D, or worse, is probable."