Chapter Text
“Hey, y/n!”
You’re standing in the middle of the hallway, more than a little preoccupied scanning the print-out of your classes one more time to make sure you’re actually heading to the right classroom. As soon as you hear your own name being called, you pull your head up and see your friend Rebecca waving to get your attention before trotting up to you.
“Oh...hey.” Lowering the paper, you smile lightly back at her. “What’s up?” you say as you start to fold your print-out back up.
“Just heading’ to my last class of the day,” and with that, she pulls out her own class schedule.
You scan the bottom of the paper and look up at her more than a little curiously. “You signed up for Introduction to Songwriting, too?” you say with an eyebrow raise, to which she shrugs.
“All the electives were full up, like...you don’t even know. Plus I already got my language credits. Figured it might be interesting…” With a mischievous grin, she nudges you and adds. “Or easy .”
You roll your eyes but you can’t deny part of you was hoping on something similar. If not being a total gimme, it might be a good cool-down class, hence scheduling it for the afternoon.
“Soooo...what do you know about the instructor?” Rebecca asks as she falls in step alongside you, checking her printout as you hand it back to her.
“No idea. Nobody I recognize,” you admit.
Rebecca sighs. “Probably a new teacher, right out of teaching college if we’re lucky so...probably a total pushover.”
You scoff, more than a little amused. “Shut up.”
The room is at the end of the hall of the music and arts building, one of the smaller lecture halls and not just an extra all-purpose room. When you both clear the wooden double doors, there are twenty or so other students scattered among the gathering of desks, the larger desk at the front standing unoccupied.
You both sit somewhere near the front and exchange a look of confusion, to which Rebecca lets out an overblown and pointed sigh.
“Somebody's late.”
Less than a minute passes until you hear the door click open and then closed and you look behind you as a tall guy with long curly hair carrying a shoulder bag and a travel mug strides through the rows of desks. At first, you think it's one of the students struggling to get in before the instructor comes in and counts him late...until he gets to the front desk, setting his bag and mug on the desktop.
“Whew! Sorry I’m late, guys!” He turns around and smiles disarmingly, ruffling his crazy mop of hair. “Don’t really have a good excuse except the copier decided to totally crap out on me, and on the first day of class.” He rolls his eyes and makes a face. “Heh. YIKES.”
He claps his hands. “So! My name is-”
Turning smoothly around, he writes on the whiteboard with a black dry-erase marker and sounds out the name as he’s writing. “Professor Avidan.”
After that, he turns back around, circling around to the front of the desk and leans against the edge of the desk, crossing one long leg over the other. “So, this is Introduction to Songwriting. I should say right off the bat, this isn’t going to be a...traditional course? Er, what I mean by that is you are going to get letter grades and things like that. This isn’t going to be totally freeform or anything but this is going to be a class to push or at least...y’know, nudge you out of your comfort zones so that means more hands-on assignments and exercises, not so many written essays and stuff like that. The way I have this class set is intentionally small and there are two...ish reasons for that. One, honestly less work on my end and two, from my own experience doing versions of this class with larger and smaller classes, the smaller ones worked out better overall and yielded more uh...heh, interesting results. I honestly chalk that up to that...I dunno; with fewer people, everyone feels more comfortable opening up and sharing, which is awesome. Songwriting, if you’re new at it and not used to performing in front of people, can be a bit scary but also very personal because you’re going to be asked to both writing and performing your own songs in front of the class. But that’s fine! Nerves are perfectly normal to have but overall, fewer people take away some of the pressure. We aren’t going to jump into that right away, though. Sorta do everything by degrees. Believe me, I won’t tolerate any heckling when other students are performing for the class...from any of you.” He points around the room and laughs like there are no hard feelings but you can tell he’s serious about it, or as serious as he can be without potentially scaring everybody on the first day of class.
Professor Avidan takes out a stack of papers from his bag and goes up to your desk, towering over you before handing you a smaller stack, smiling briefly at you. “Can you pass these behind you, please?”
You blink and accept the stack, taking one stapled syllabus and then hand the rest of them to the desk behind you as you watch the professor stride past the other desks.
Rebecca does the same but as she watches the professor as he makes his way through the room, the look on her face says one thing: JACKPOT.
As if that wasn’t enough, she mouths “Oh my GOD” to you when his attention is not on you and you stifle a giggle. When he makes his way back to the front of the room, you both instantly clam up and sit up straight at your desks, trying to act innocent.
“Now I know syllabuses are boring as shit...syllabuses? Syllabi? Whatever the fuck. But yeah, it's the first day, need to at least go over it.”
You’re more than a little surprised at how...casual the professor is. You’re not a prude or anything and you’ve had professors before who weren’t exactly prim and proper before but not any professor that would liberally swear on the first day of class. That seemed to be an end of the course kind of thing when even the instructors were feeling frazzled during exams.
As he grabs his own copy of the syllabus and starts reading through it aloud, you feel your phone buzz in your pocket. Thinking it might be important, you very slowly and gradually slide the phone out of your pocket so you won’t get noticed. Your bag is already on the top of your desk so it happens to be a handy shield as you put it behind the bag as you quickly glance your eyes over the front of the screen
>does the D in D. Avidan stand for D A D D Y? >:)
Your face screws up for an instant and your eyes dart towards Rebecca sitting next to you, who’s smiling more than a little overly pleased with herself and your face almost turns purple trying to stifle any involuntary giggles or noise of any kind.
>Rebecca STFU. You’re going to get us in trouble :O
>we’re not gonna get in trouble, chill out. Btw, did you check out his butt? <_<
>BECCA JFC we should have sat in back if you were gonna act like this
>what and miss this tall drink of hotness? :P
Another text immediately follows that
>PROF IS PACKING HOLY SHIT
You stifle a cough.
>BECCA STAHP
Despite yourself, your eyes glance forward towards Professor Avidan. He’s talking animatedly, occasionally breaking into chuckles like he can barely contain himself. He’s wearing jeans and a button-up chambray shirt, looking both casual and grown-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
This is so immature, you think as your eyes go all the way down his slender body and panic flashes through as they dart down to his crotch, just as quickly darting away before he notices. Thankfully he doesn’t, his eyes on the paper in front of him.
Crap, he IS packing!
Your face colors.
>SHIT WHY DID YOU MAKE ME LOOK?!
>Lmaoooo, this class is gonna be fun ;D
Your eyes squeeze shut, only just barely restraining yourself from groaning aloud at your friend's shenanigans and giving both of you away but by then, Rebecca doesn’t send you any more texts. Thank god for that.
You follow along reading through the syllabus while Professor Avidan goes point by point, occasionally stopping to clarify something or to make a little joke. Soon, you stop paying as much attention, your eyelids starting to droop but not out of boredom. You don't really know if it's just the tone of his voice or rhythm of him just talking but there's something soothing about it, lulling you into a dreamy state.
As discreetly as you can, you shake yourself awake. You don't want to fall asleep in class, especially sitting where you are in the front row. You'd probably never hear the end of it. You WANT to pay attention, at least know what textbooks to rent. Taking a pen out of your bag, you start doodling in one of the blank spaces in between the blocks of typed text, if only to keep yourself awake. It doesn't seem like you need to because you can hear Professor Avidan start to wrap up his spiel of going through the syllabus and look up, wanting to make sure you catch everything.
He clears his throat, flipping to the last page. "Now, if you flip to the back, I’ve got a little questionnaire...thingy I want you guys to fill out. There’s no wrong answers or anything, just answer honestly. How much you know already about reading music, notes, chords, stuff like that. Then there's the, tsk, INTERESTING stuff, namely your 100 percent honest answer about why you signed up for this class and what you hope to get out of it. I know I’ll be setting myself up for a lot of smart-ass comments and I’m pretty prepared for that. Mostly it's for my own understanding. I know I’m not a perfect teacher or anything and I always keep tweaking things from class to class and semester to semester. I’m still learning the best way to teach and because my classes are small, it’s better to tailor things or adjust things so nobody falls behind and everyone’s on the same page. Plus don't feel like you're just going to be memorizing facts for quizzes and tests and you can just coast through this class. If you really, honestly feel like this class is not your speed, I'd rather you drop it before the cut-off date and have to suffer through y’know...me being me,” and he breaks off in a self-deprecating laugh, brushing his hand through his hair. "But yeah. What I mean is..." he pauses to suck his teeth in thought. "For example, your musical background is like...say you've done choir, some musical theater so you have that to add or you play guitar but you want to expand your repertoire and try out some different styles. Stuff like that. Or...I dunno. You took this class because it seemed fun. That’s also a valid reason. But yeah. Don't feel like what you have as far as previous musical experience won't help you in this class, even if you have just dabbled in writing lyrics. Even if I have to go and ask the other professor in the music department who specializes in songwriting, I'm just sayin': I can at least try to help you out with whatever problem or stumbling block you have, even if its one-on-one outside of class."
One-on-one outside of class.
Your cheeks warm despite yourself.
“Bottom line,” he pauses before continuing. “I’m just curious and I do want to get to know you guys. This class is small and I do want to eventually learn everybody’s names so don’t try to impress me or write what you think I want to hear. I’d much rather you be honest with me. Think of it…” He rolls his eyes and gestures. “...as a prelude to, heh...venturing into the new waters of songwriting? Or something. Hah. All I really ask is be honest with me and most importantly...with yourselves. Plus...it counts as calling the roll.” He laughs to himself and makes a fist. “Nailed it!”
That comment is one of the few that gets the other students to laugh back and Professor Avidan takes some pride in that, it seems.
Soon enough, you’re back to zoning out and quickly fill out the questionnaire in the back and the spend the rest of the time continuing your previous doodle, putting more time and detail into a scene of a cute mermaid playing with a school of smiling fish.
Before you know it, Professor Avidan has declared the class to be over and you hear the other students leaving but you’re intent on putting the finishing touches on your over-elaborate doodle. This is your last class of the day and you’re not in a hurry to go anywhere afterward...until you hear throat clearing and you jump as you see a finger tapping on the top of your desk.
You jerk your head up to see Professor Avidan looking down and half-smiling at you.
“Um...heh. The class is over, sweetie.”
You blush and freeze in your seat.
“Oh...yeah. I mean...yeah, s-sorry...”
Professor Avidan hums, turning his head to the side to look at your paper, smiling at you. “Wow. Sorry, was I boring you?”
You choke, trying to cover your paper. You’re so used to teachers confiscating your drawings, it’s practically become a reflex. “NO! Not at all! I mean-”
Professor Avidan laughs. “It’s all good. The first day, going over the syllabus…’s really not the most exciting thing in the world but I’m kinda obligated to do it, even if it’s just to let everybody ahead of time of what the projects are going to be and stuff.” He shrugs his shoulders. “So yeah, I’m pretty used to students kinda tuning out a bit. Probably should have spiced things up with one of my shitty Powerpoints but...too late now.” He gives another shrug and then scratches his cheek with a finger thoughtfully. “Can I see your questionnaire thingy...heh, since you forgot to pass it up.”
You tear away the sheet from the stapled syllabus pack and hand it to Professor Avidan and he tilts his head to the side as he scans through it.
“Okay, sooooo...you are familiar with music notation already.”
“Yeah,” you say with a nod of acknowledgment. “I took band in high school.”
He looks back at you, smiling suddenly with warm interest. “For real? What did you play?”
You shrug, your mouth twisting more than a little embarrassed. “Soprano Sax. And I know a little piano but...mostly sax.”
Professor Avidan chuckles. “Well, I have the class set like it is for all skill levels but mostly beginners who aren’t familiar with taking music classes so...yeah. Good...to...know.”
He keeps reading and his easy-going smile goes down a fraction. “Oh. You said you quit band?”
You wince at the memory, growing warm around the neck. “Yeah. I had to because of my mom. She got c-” You hesitate and shake your head. “I mean...she got sick and band was taking up too much time so I had to drop it to help out around the house while she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Oh. Shit. I’m sorry to hear that. So…” He glances back at your paper. “You kind of wanted to take this class to get back into music but in kind of a...eh, different context than band.”
You nod. “Yeah...more or less…,” you mutter.
To that, he smiles. “Well...I hope I can offer you some challenge and heh...adjust things accordingly for you. I give you permission to draw mermaids the next class when I’m going over notes and staffs,” He chuckles and gives you a wink.
You blush again. “OH! N-no, I mean...I’ll probably need the refresher anyway…” You let out a nervous, self-conscious laugh.
“Alright, then. But yeah. Class. Over.” He sticks his hand out and makes a shooing motion to you and you finally get up out of your seat, gathering up your things.
“Okay, I’ll be here on uh...Thursday.”
“Alright then.” As he turns to tidy up his stack of papers, he turns back to you. “Uh, one more thing before you go.”
You stop mid-stride and turn to face him. “Y-yeah?”
He smirks and furrows his eyebrows in mild disapproval at you. “If you’re going to text during class, maybe... don’t sit in the front row?” He holds his hands up. “I mean, hey: I’m not a fuckin’ Luddite or anything. I won't take phones away or try to make an example out of anybody. You guys are technically adults and stuff. BUT...I’ll give you pass this time because it's y’know...first day. Boring shit. I do expect some level of engagement during class from here on in, okay?”
Heat flares across your face. The impulse to deny that you had been texting or make up a quick lie dies on your lips. You didn’t think you were being that obvious about it but apparently not if he saw right through you.
Shit! Maybe he also caught you looking at his crotch.
“Uhm! I...I’m sorry! It...won’t happen again, Professor Avidan,” you mumble an apology, hanging your head before he chuckles.
“Hey...just...calm down. I’m not a mean teacher or anything. Just FYI, this class is small so I notice everything, er... almost everything.”
“Oh..okay…”
Professor Avidan looks up to some area just above and behind you, cracking a smile and giving a wave.
“Uh, I think your buddy is looking for you.”
You turn around and see Rebecca standing in the doorway giving you a deviously amused look and you turn back around before Professor Avidan scoffs out a laugh.
“See you Thursday.” and he does the shooing motion to you again.
You give a fleeting smile but say nothing as you trot down the row of desks to Rebecca as you leave.
“So...what was that all about?” she says with a conspiratorial hum.
“Uh...n-nothing. I just got...I lost track of time.”
“Oh. Did you get in trouble or something?”
“Uh...not really.” You think about telling Rebecca about being called out for texting but it’s not like she needs to be reminded to not text during class, especially in such a small class sitting in the front row. It was a monumentally stupid thing to do and you’re almost glad you got caught but thankfully not in front of everyone.
“Okay...well, that’s good. Unless…” A wicked smirk appears on her face. “You WANT to get into trouble.”
“What are you talking about?” A realization hits you. “Rebecca, PLEASE don’t try to…” You look around and lower your voice, saying through gritted teeth. “Hit on our teacher.”
She scoffs. “What? No...of course not. Just...maaaaybe one day I’ll wear a sliiiightly more low-cut top or-”
“Oh my god, Becca, DON'T-”
Rebecca cackles, more out of your scandalized tone than anything else. “Pffft! Jesus, y/n, I was making a joke! I mean, he’s a cute teacher. He probably gets hit on students all the time anyway, y’know?”
“I mean...I guess…,” you mutter.
If Professor Avidan was aware of you texting, he’d most likely be aware of anybody trying to casually or not-so casually flirt with him. It may be the first day but he seems pretty sharp and aware of what being a teacher is like and also what students are like and capable of, given the chance. The thought of that is a little unnerving. Definitely no sleeping or texting in class. For some reason though, the idea of doing anything bad in this class makes you feel more rotten than just being inattentive. Professor Avidan just seems so nice. A little on the dorky side, like a dad, maybe trying a little too hard to act cool, but...nice.
Despite that, you’re actually kind of hopeful. You hadn’t been lying. You did take this class to get back into music on your own terms and if the teacher happens to be cute...well, that was just a nice little bonus, right?
Though you can’t deny to yourself, being alone with Professor Avidan, if only for a moment, didn’t make your heart start to race, both the thought you were in trouble and just...him as a person, a presence. A man.
Heat reappears on your cheeks as you remember that he got your attention by calling you ‘sweetie’. Shit, was he just trying to be friendly or did it... mean something ?
You reorient your train of thought. You’re jumping to way too many conclusions. It’s only the first day of class. Not even that; going over the syllabus. A freebie class. Thursday would be the first actual class. Deep down, you just want to be proven wrong, proven that he’s actually a good teacher. Maybe you’ll get something out of this class besides a bit of eye candy.
One could only hope.