Chapter 1: week 2 (part 1)

The clock ticked ever closer to the end of class. Having noticed her students’ waning attention, Professor Annie Keller sighed and finished her notes on the board.

Ms. Keller had a style - dark clothes with pleasant-colored cardigans. Floral hues. Lilac. Apricot. And If not that then shades of blue or magenta. Her long socks often matched her chromatic outerwear, providing a stark contrast to the stout buckled black heels, shapely black blouse and skirt.

She was by all accounts very professorly, and by most standards attractive. Her pretty face was accentuated by dark brown hair swept over one shoulder, deep blue eyes, and dark lipstick to match. But as was the case with any social group, there were those that disagreed. The other women under her tutelage just wouldn’t leave her alone. They joked that their Professor was thick. Their choice of words was almost kind. But the honest truth was that she was chubby, and not in ways that people talked about kindly.

Did that bother Ian Williams, a college student in his late twenties? No. Actually, he’d had a crush on her since the start of the previous semester. It was the way her stomach stretched her skirt’s waistband, and how her thick arms tested the sleeves of her smaller cardigans. The softness that the others teased about was what drove him wild. And when she pressed one hand on her waist while writing on the chalkboard, the way her softness yielded between her fingers was enough to make him crave so much more.

The class was chattering and sliding their books off the blacktops into their bookbags. Professor Keller wiped her forehead and addressed the distracted class. “Make sure that you get your signed syllabi turned in to me. They’re important. Really. All the assignments and lab reports you'll have to do for the semester are listed there. You have until the end of the week to turn them in. And it’s important that you… get them… done.”

Some of the class took note, but most just grabbed their things and wove past the chemistry workbenches to freedom, ignoring her warnings.

With a heavy sigh and shake of her head she clacked into her office at the front of the classroom carrying her lesson notes and a stack of plastic chemical representations.

Ian pulled out the signed syllabus from his bag and followed her into her office.

Without noticing him, she rushed around the room, putting her things away. Her cardigan and skirt swished as she changed directions. The lesson binder went on a shelf and then the chemical diagram representing a sugar molecule went onto the window overlooking the science building’s courtyard. Ian imagined the other chemical diagrams there, water and serotonin, were happy to have their friend back.

“Excuse me, Ms. Keller? I mean Professor Keller. Sorry. And sorry to bother you, but here is the signed syllabus. Like you asked.”

With a kind smile, she stopped in place and looked back at him.

That curl of her lips could warm his heart in the worst winter storm. It was useful as the start of the semester was one of the coldest he remembered.

Ms. Keller turned and stood up straight. Teacherly. If he were shorter, her upturned nose would have looked snooty. Instead, her upward glance at him was merely pleased. “You’re a lot of things Mr. Williams, but a bother is not one of them. Never. And Ms. Keller is fine. Fewer syllables and formal enough. Could you wait a moment though? Just a couple things to put away still.”

Ian let her get back to her task and used the opportunity to look around her office. Nothing in it was particularly strange or out of place. Chemistry posters. Chemistry books. A nerdy calendar with jokes about Rutherford and Schrodinger. Classroom stuff. What caught his interest was the framed photographs displayed on her desk.

Two of them in particular caught his attention. One pictured a significantly fatter and widely smiling Professor Keller, stirring a big bowl atop a very round belly with a large wooden spoon. In the other, a revealing vacation photograph, she was even fatter than in the last. She lounged on a beach chair, chubby arms stretched around her protruding belly, wide legs spreading out across the slats. The look on her face as she peered at the camera from over her mountainous belly was infectious. His smile became just as wide.

The heat made him adjust his collar. To anyone else the pictures would earn an awkward glance and not much more. But that belly was big and beautiful. For Ian, they just reinforced his crush. They added to a suspicion of his - one he’d had for months.

Why were those pictures in particular there? Was their presence just to rouse memories of the moments? Were they just a harsh reminder to stick to a diet? Maybe she was oblivious to the context he’d conjured in his head. All were reasonable options, even though he hoped for something more.

But then he looked at them again - at how her fingers gripped and pressed into her soft flesh - at just how thrilled she was while smiling for the camera from behind her ball of a belly. Her fat was the focus of the beach picture. As much as other people might protest, large women wore bikinis too. But those other women didn’t draw attention to their size. And there the photo sat, with the professor posing playfully with her belly. Making it the center of attention. Maybe it meant something more.

On the desk, next to the frames, she had an open day planner. What he could read from it elicited a similar reinforcement of his growing suspicion. The pages had dozens of notes in red ink, chastising herself for failing to stick to designated calorie goals and meal portions. She wasn’t kind to herself about the failures. ‘You can do better than that’ and ‘You have to suck it up. No more cookies’.The harsh words didn’t seem to be helping. But it did give a new perspective on her weight fluctuations through the weeks.

The professor turned back to him with a heavy breath, unaware of his prying eyes. “Alright. Done. Now, I can guess why you’re here Ian. But go ahead and ask. I don’t want to be presumptive,” she said, the enthusiasm and warmth draining from her face a bit.

Ian smirked. All his planning vanished as his purpose was revealed. It was that obvious. And he knew it. “I was wondering what I can do to improve my grade this semester. By improve, I mean pass, of course.”

Ms. Keller shook her head, straining her face in thought. “It’s a 100 level chemistry class. It’s not that hard. And I know you can do better than you did last semester, Ian. You’re not a bad student. Your problem is that you just don’t turn in your work. Or when you do it’s only half done.”

Ian made an exasperated sound. Not a protestation - an acknowledgment of his fate.

“Ian, you’re a great student, actually,” she said, walking around her desk closer toward him. “You have better lab procedure than I do. Your actual chemistry work is impeccable. The problem is the other assignments. Note keeping. The readings and the questions that go with them. Written tests.”

Ian looked down at the desk like a shamed dog. “I’m good with measures and procedures, not so much math and theory. Give me a set of instructions to follow and I’m golden, but whenever I sit down to do it all, my brain just turns to mush.”

“Listen Ian. I really like you,” she said, leaning back and half sitting on her desk, “But you have to put in the effort. It’s better to work hard on the parts you have difficulty with now than when you’ll really need them years from now. I don’t just mean chemistry. I mean homework skills. Study skills. College skills.”

Ian let out a disappointed sigh.

“I know you didn’t come here to get lectured. The fact that you came for help at all is commendable! You don’t have to do this alone. I’ll be happy to help. I have office hours after class that no one ever makes use of. Stop by. At the very least you can do your assigned work here, and if you have any difficulties, I’ll be around to answer any questions.”

Ian took another glance at the pictures and the planner, then gave her a nod. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

Ms. Keller gave a warm parting smile as he walked out.

***

Ian took a hot tray out of the oven and scooped chocolate chunk cookies onto a wire cooling rack. Everything she said was right. He definitely planned on working harder, but he had another scheme involving a few dozen cookies. A supplementary plan to studying harder.

The red marks in her planner showed it; her diet was already in shambles. Maybe, just maybe, a few dozen well-made cookies might be the little push needed to break it, and at the same time make her more sympathetic to him. A softer teacher and a better grade. That was the plan. He felt a little guilty about it because who would honestly want their student to sabotage their diet, but he had a hunch that maybe she wouldn’t be as upset about it as her planner let on. At the very least, a failure in her diet might help her realise the flaw in her method. That’s how he justified it to himself anyway.

The scent of the cookies attracted his jock roommate, Keith. Ian smacked his hand with a hot spatula as the jock reached for the key component of the plan to ruin his professor’s diet.

“What the fuck dude!” Keith yelped as he yanked his hand back.

“These are to bribe my Chemistry professor with,” Ian said, hiding the true attachment to his task. “Unless you are in control of that grade, they’re not for you.” He threatened Keith again with a shake of the spatula.

“Really? Lame! What’s next? An apple? Are you gonna tattle when students slack off as well?”

“I’m only concerned with what happens between me, my grade, and her. I started college years later than you, and I need all the advantages I can get.”


(continued)