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the group. At her classes so far, most ambled in at a minute or twountil class was supposed to start. And then there were the ones who really didn’t care and found their way to class well into the first hour of lecture.
    Jessica didn’t understand how anyone would be willing to spend the amount of money and time that it took to attend college and then have no enthusiasm whatsoever for the opportunity it provided. But then again, college was probably just the next step to these kids and a choice that had been made by their parents rather than the kids themselves. Jess had always wanted to continue her education and had been disappointed that it didn’t appear to be a possibility with the direction her life had taken. So this gift from her folks, the chance to start pursuing her teaching dream, made her truly appreciate the chance to sit right here, in the front row, and learn as much as she could.
    â€œHey,” a girl said, passing by Jessica to sit at a seat halfway back in the next row.
    â€œHi,” Jessica said and realized that it was the same girl who had spoken to her when she was talking to Chad the other night. More students came in, many of them talking about Stockville’s basketball team and how they’d fared over the weekend. Jessica hadn’t even known the college had a basketball team. And she also was out of the loop on the local band, Fly by Night, who had apparently performed on the quad over the weekend.
    It occurred to her that the majority of those around her were eighteen and nineteen, fresh out of high school with nothing to do but hang out and have a good time. At eighteen, she’d had Nathan. At nineteen, she was working a minimum of forty hours at the church day care center and spending every other minute of her timetaking care of her baby. If she’d been like all of these kids, she’d have been having a good time and playing.
    She smiled to herself knowing she’d had a good time, too. And she’d played, too…with her adorable Nathan. She wouldn’t trade one second of it for anything that these other kids were doing.
    Her instructor, an older woman with short silver hair, horn-rimmed glasses and a no-nonsense cardigan and pants set, entered the room and dropped a stack of books on the desk with a loud thud. Then she scanned the class, the same way she’d done last week, and nodded. Her attention undeniably landed on Jessica, still the sole front-row student, and a soft smile played with the corners of the woman’s wrinkled face.
    â€œNice to see that someone wants to be here,” she mumbled, barely loud enough for Jess to hear, but even so, Jessica was at once glad for her choice of seating.
    Then the class proceeded, with Ms. Smelding, the instructor, discussing tonight’s topic of writing reflectively, and Jess madly taking notes to make sure she didn’t miss anything important.
    She was so into the lecture and writing samples that Ms. Smelding provided that she hardly realized two and a half hours had passed when the older woman wrote their next assignment on the dry erase board and dismissed the class.
    Gathering her books, Jessica could feel her heart start to race, her skin tingling in anticipation. She hadn’t experienced anything like this since high school, but it hadn’t been so long that she didn’t remember the sensation. Anticipation, that’d be the word to describe the overwhelming emotion of knowing she was going to see the one she loved. Knowing she was going to see Chad.
    As if the girls exiting the classroom ahead of her knew exactly what was going through her mind, they acknowledged the object of her nervousness—who was standing outside the room.
    â€œHello, Mr. Martin,” one sang, and several others joined in.
    Jess figured that the most popular instructor on campus was the tall, sandy haired one standing outside. No doubt he was more appealing than the ones who’d apparently