Jeanie’s Unorthodox Weekly Reminder

Chapter 1: Jeanie Starts the New Semester

Jeanie Goodwin was very popular in high school. Everyone liked Jeanie because she was a friend to everyone. Her short, cropped, brunette hair framed her beautiful face and her blue eyes were always bright with curiosity and kindness while her lips perpetually curved up with her signature smile.

For three years in high school, Jeanie was a cheerleader and in her senior year she was the captain of the team. She was known for her wit, her wisdom, her brains, and her wicked sense of humor.

Jeanie always dated older boys in high school because she felt the boys her own age were, as she put it, “just too childish.” As a freshman, she dated juniors. As a sophomore, she dated seniors. As a junior and senior, she dated boys who had already graduated from high school or were attending college. Truthfully, she really was attracted to men who were even older—much older. When she thought of marriage, she envisioned marrying a man who was 15 to 20 years her senior.

Quite a few people knew that Jeanie had a perfect 4.0 grade point average (out of 4.0) in high school and college. However, besides Jeanie, only two people knew about the uncommon and unconventional reminders behind her perfect grades. Those two other people were her parents, Earl and Katie Goodwin.

In her first two years at college, Jeanie completed the required general education classes plus two classes that applied toward her major in early childhood education. Now, 20 years old and starting her third year, Jeanie was looking forward to taking more of the classes that were specific to her major.

On Monday, the first day of the new semester, she was excited to attend her “Assessment and Classroom Management” class to learn how to “track student progress and create supportive learning environments.” The class was held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:00 a.m. Not wanting to be late on her first day, she was seated on the front row at 7:50 a.m. In the next 10 minutes, she watched as several other girls sat on the front row.

“You got a front-row seat, too,” the girl to her left exclaimed gleefully. “You must have heard Professor Williams is easy on the eyes and you want to see… and be seen.”

“Mm hmm,” mumbled Jeanie even though she had no clue what the girl was babbling about. Jeanie didn’t even know who the instructor was, much less what he looked like. If he did turn out to be good looking that would be a nice bonus, but Jeanie was really there for only one thing: to learn—or so she thought.

Just then, Professor Edward Williams strode confidently into the lecture hall and took his place up front. With his hazel green eyes and thick, curly, brown hair combed straight back, Professor Williams was not just easy on the eyes, Jeanie thought, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen… and he looked to be in his mid-thirties! He was perfect! Jeanie could hardly breathe. She could feel her heart pounding out of her chest and she worried that anyone looking at her would see it beating right through her blouse.

Professor Williams looked at the front row – all 18 seats filled with girls. As he looked around at the rest of the 307 students in the lecture hall, he quickly opened a bottle of filtered water and took a sip and then several gulps. He cleared his throat and drank a little more water. His hands were trembling and he hoped no one noticed. To the students who were paying close attention, and there were only a handful of which Jeanie was one, he appeared to be nervous, which they thought unusual for a faculty member with tenure. Professor Williams took another sip of water, cleared his throat again, and finally began to speak.

For the next 50 minutes, Jeanie took notes, but her mind kept drifting from what the professor was saying to what she would like to be doing with the professor… in his office… or better yet, at his home.. long after class and office hours were over.

At the end of the third day of class on Friday, several girls, including Jeanie, accosted Professor Williams at the front of the lecture hall. The girls smiled and introduced themselves and then peppered Professor Williams with questions that sounded general in nature, but were really designed to obtain personal information about him.

"How long ago did you get your PhD, Professor Williams?" asked Mary Beth.

"Let’s see,” calculated Professor Williams,” that would be 14 years ago in April."

"Oh,” guessed Gwen, “so that makes you about 40 years old now."

"Actually, I'm 37. I was on an accelerated program."

“Well, then, that means you're extra smart,” observed Sarah. “Your wife must be very proud of you.”

“She’s not, but you can’t really blame her… because she doesn’t exist. Actually, I've never been married.”

Jeanie’s heart skipped a beat with the thought that Professor Williams was single--he was available.

“A handsome man like you, still single?” blurted Emily. “Why on Earth haven’t you gotten married, Professor Williams?”

“I guess I haven’t met the right girl. I’m waiting for ‘the one’ to come along. If you’ve seen The Godfather, or better yet read the book, you know Michael Corleone was metaphorically hit by a ‘thunderbolt ‘ when he first saw Apollonia. It was love at first sight and she was all he could think about until he married the girl.”

“So you’ve been waiting now…” suggested Mary Beth with a wry smile and a raised eyebrow as she completed the calculation, “close to two decades for a thunderbolt?”

“Well, yes, I suppose I have,” he replied. He paused for dramatic effect and then leaned forward slightly. “But would you ladies like to know a little secret?”

“Of course,” the girls gushed in unison.

“Just recently,” Eddie whispered. “I was struck by a thunderbolt.”

Jeanie, who moments before was giddy with excitement over Professor William’s single status, now was crestfallen, but she tried not to let it show on her face. She had indeed seen The Godfather so she knew that the thunderbolt meant Professor Williams was head-over-heals in love with his Apollonia so he definitely was off the market.

“How exciting!” gushed Emily. “Does ‘Apollonia’ know yet?”

Eddie’s made eye contact with each of the four girls individually, but lingered a little longer on one.

“No,” he said, winking at Jeanie. “Not yet.”

“What do you know about her?”

“I know her name.”

Did he just wink at me, thought Jeanie. Or was that sort of meant for all of us collectively, and he just happened to be looking longer at me for just the blink of an eye, literally. Either way, she could feel her heart hammering away in her chest again because she was looking at this handsome professor and he had looked… at her.

Again on Wednesday morning and Friday morning that week, when she saw him enter the lecture hall, Jeanie noticed her breathing and heart rate were affected, especially when he made eye contact with her.

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