An Introduction to Human Sexuality

[Astaroth]

"Welcome to An Introduction to Human Sexuality," the man in the Marvin the Martian tie and owlish spectacles- Professor Brian French, if the scrawl of blue dry-erase marker on the whiteboard behind him was to be believed- greeted his small assembly of students. "This class will be primarily lecture and discussion. No papers. Instead, you get to have one project for every six weeks. Due dates for these projects are in the syllabus along with the dates of your exams. We'll be kicking off the first project during this class period. Before I go into detail on that, are there any questions?"

One hand shot up immediately from the front row.

"I'm sorry, but you mean this isn't Anthropology 101?" asked the girl, her voice shrill.

"...Does 'Human Sexuality' sound like 'Anthropology' to you? You'd better get going." She was already scrambling out of her seat by the time that Professor French had finished talking, and he watched her hasty escape with a sigh and a stroke of his well-trimmed goatee. "Any questions relevant to this class?"

The room was silent.

"Good. This class," Professor French continued, "will explore the sociology and psychology behind relationships and dating, gender and sexual orientation, and romantic or sexual attraction. Some of you might have more first-hand experience here than others; that doesn't matter. Forget what you think you know. Pretend that you're setting out to study animals in the wild, if that helps. Our first project will be a field study, if you will, of a relationship. All of you please look to the person to your left. And if you're on the farthest left row, please look to your right and not at the wall."

There were a few chuckles as the class followed his instructions.

"Shit," Jackson mumbled, sitting up a little straighter in his seat. A partner assignment on the first day of class, one that would last for half the semester, and he'd had to be running late.

Otherwise, he might have been able to snag a seat next to his girlfriend rather than the random stranger on his left, who was...

 

[Vay]

PAP!

The sound of popping gum sounded through the lecture hall as people looked awkwardly at their partner there was one person in the back row who lifted their head and raised an eyebrow. With their feet on the desk and their chair dangerously close to falling backwards they reached out and grabbed one of the many empty chairs in the back row and pulled it closer.

"Well honey, looks like you and I are partners.... if only..."

Anne Miller's voice had a sightly posh accent, like someone had spent a lot of time making sure she got into the habit of enunciating every syllable, than with a sigh she swiveled her gaze in the other direction, her eyes peering past a large blonde gradating down to pink pigtail. If she had known a good portion of her grade would depend on some random late coming bum then she probably would have taken pottery instead...

Raising her hand she wiggled her fingers in a small wave before looking the boy up and down and arranging her facial features in a skeptical expression. "Nah... think I'll take the chair..."

 

[Astaroth]

"Hey," Jackson objected, propping his elbows on his desk and giving the girl an injured look. "Come on. I can't be that repulsive. I washed my hair today and everything."

It sure looked like Jackson washed his hair every day. The guy had hair worthy of a shampoo commercial, light brown and brushing his chin. Maybe he showered after working out, because he was also a mile tall and fit as all hell. Had he stumbled into this class out of a modeling agency?

The professor was speaking again.

"As some of you may have guessed, you're looking at your new partner for your first project. Partner being a very apt term, here, because this person is going to effectively be your significant other for the next six weeks."

This statement garnered an immediate chorus of protests and questions. As Professor French attempted to quell the chaos, Jackson swiveled in his seat to pick Sarah out of the crowd. She met his eyes from across the room, gave him a helpless little shrug, and grabbed at the arm of her new apparent "boyfriend". Jackson's eyebrows rose a bit, but... yeah, he could take that guy. And it's not like he didn't know exactly what would be going on.

He'd be doing the same damn thing.

 

[Vay]

She craned her neck to try and follow hi]is gaze."Your girlfriend? You wanted to take this class with your girlfriend?" she rolled her eyes and finally let go of the empty chair and with the bang off the front legs of her chair reuniting with the floor stood and was sitting on Jackson's desk and reaching out to tug at a lock of his hair.

"I can't decide of you're going for the boyband badboy look or if you're a Sam Winchester wannabe." she said her voice refusing to lose the accent. "Either way not my type... don't be offended."

 

[Astaroth]

Jackson snorted and grinned, raising an eyebrow.

"My pride is forever wounded. I'll never recover. Is that the way you talk to all your boyfriends?" He glanced at Sarah again, who was now engaged in an animated conversation with her "boyfriend".

Meanwhile, the professor was trying to regain the attention of the class.

"The point of this," Professor French spoke up over the din, waving his hand, "is not to enact an experiment in sexual activity. Nor should your partner's gender, your sexual orientation, or your actual marital or relationship status be brought up. The point of this project is to examine relationship dynamics and the process of maintaining a successful relationship. Yes? You."

"How exactly are we being graded on this?" The girl he'd called on wanted to know. She looked dreadfully uneasy.

"You'll be keeping a journal. You are expected to spend a minimum of fourteen hours a week with your partner, not including this class period. You are also expected to write no less than one journal entry a week about what the two of you have done together. In addition," said the professor, collecting a pile of papers from his desk, "You will have a checklist of activities or goals to accomplish before the six weeks are up, which I'm about to pass out. You must also write a journal entry for each of these activities. In total, your journal should comprise at least seven pages. Single-spaced."

The checklist was passed back. Jackson took one look at his and sighed deeply.

"'My First Date'? Oh boy, I can hardly wait."

 

[Vay]

She shrugged, not moving from her perch even as the professor's gave swept over them. "Only you and old four legs would know." she said glancing at the chair. "Hey, at least I won't have to juggle two relationships though." she suck her tongue out as him and hopped back down onto the floor, and pulled her chair closer to sit on it backwards arms resting across the back as she peered over his shoulder, getting uncomfortably close as she did so.

"So you choose the first date and then we write about it? Sounds easy. I'll let you off the hook for this one and we'll get our stories strait leaving you free to do whatever with miss curly hair over there... or was it the guy next to her you were looking at?" Not even five minuted into class and she was already making plans to skip her assignments and this wasn't even a new record. It was a miracle she even made it into this college. And wish that settled she grabbed her checklist and pulled a pen from her jacket pocket. "Shall we say we went to the bistro overlooking the park? I had mushroom stuffed pancakes and a beer." On the back of the checklist she started scrawling notes that would make a doctor shudder at their legibility, humming as she did so. "What did you have?"

 

[Astaroth]

"Oh hell no," Jackson replied flatly, jabbing a finger in her face. "This is half my grade. We're not making this up. If you won't do this with me, I'll go let the Nutty Professor know why I need a new partner."

Besides, he figured Sarah was already well into the planning stages of her own "date" by now. Sarah loved making friends and meeting new people. She was going to be just as busy as he was. Maybe they could manage to schedule this bullshit for the same times, but there was no way to talk her out of it once she'd gotten going.

"Come on, it won't be that bad. As projects go, this is pretty easy. So you have to hang out with some smarmy jerk from your class," he teased her. "You're not even the guy, so you don't have to pay for anything. I've got a car, so transportation's covered too. I'm taken and it's just for a class, so sex isn't a factor. You're getting a pretty sweet deal here. Besides, I've got it on good authority that I'm an awesome boyfriend."

 

[Vay]

She quickly pushed the finger out of her face and shot him a glare leaning back and compulsively shifting a lock of her short bangs further to the side of her face. "So you're bringing gender roles into it?" she asked figuring that was as good a place to channel her frustration at being told off as any. "No, I can get there myself and can pay for myself." Pity... free food was awesome! "I'm not going to come out of this owing you anything. But fine, whatever you can get your date." She folded her arms and looked to her left, towards the front of the class. "I don't see why, it's not like we have to provide video evidence. The professor probably doesn't even realize he could ask that since we all have camera phones. But if you want to waste your time then it's not like I have anything better to do."

She moved her pen with relish crossing out the notes and then drew a circle into which she sketched a frown, adding a surprising amount of detail including skin creases as the inner edge of the eyebrows and at the corners of the lips before drawing in her pigtails and writing "Plan A cancelled due to partner being uncool." next to it and flipping the sheet back over. "What's your name anyway, or do I keep calling you Smarmy Jerk?" She would probably do that anyway, or maybe just 'Jerk'.

 

[Astaroth]

"I was just... I didn't mean it like that," he told her apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck. "You sure your funny bone isn't broken? Damn. The free food was just supposed to be compensation for having to put up with me. I'm cheap anyway, so I'll probably just cook."

Not that he looked too sorry. He reached over and snatched the checklist, flipping the page back over to check out her doodle.

"Hey, this is pretty good. I think, anyway. Art's not really my area." He tilted his head, squinting with his tongue between his teeth. "Yeah, that's a good likeness. You really captured the wrinkles on your forehead when you get mad. It's Jackson, by the way. Jackson Cooper. And since you neglected to sign your work, I guess I'll just have to ask you what yours is."

 

[Vay]

She sighed she leaned over and signed 'Anne Nonymouse' in a far more elegant script than her handwriting and ended it with another very quick sketch of a mouse before tapping the end of her pen on the paper. "There." she said with a smug grin. "I know what you're probably thinking. What's an art major doing in a class like this? But I think we'll save that or we'll have nothing to talk about on our "date" if that's what you want to call it." Her finger gestures made it clear she wouldn't want to call it that.

Her frustration was well and truly vented and she was readopting her usual detached demeanor. "So you want me to go to your dorm for this thing so you can cook?" she asked fiddling with the pen in her hands and not looking at him. "Sure, I guess. It's not like I'd let you into mine."

She almost liked the sound of something home cooked for a change. Almost. She didn't know Jackson or if he was one of those guys who'd try to charm her anyway. "But if you hit on me it's going in the paper next to a caricature that won't be flattering."

She looked towards the front of the class again, avoiding his gaze. Why did they have to talk about dates?