Untitled Story (ptP 2)

Penny arrived to class about 5 minutes early and sat in the same row and seat as she had the previous class.  She opened her backpack and pulled out her textbook and her notebook.  She couldn't help
but glance around the room to watch the other students make attempts to sit near the same seat they previously had.  About 2 minutes later, the same girl who sat to her left arrived.  Her name was Jamie.  Jamie never understood that even though there were several variations to her name, nobody ever guessed hers correctly the first time.  It was always Jaime or Jami before they got to the way she spelled it.  Jamie was also a freshman, but was already rushing a sorority and was likely going to be accepted.  She was on scholarship for the cheer team and had years of prior experience and training in both high school and middle school.  She was blonde, athletic, and outgoing.  Everybody she met appeared to be friendly towards her.

As class began to fill there were the usual late arrivals which found any seat they could slip into without making too much of a scene.  The young man who had previously sat to Penny's right had not shown up yet.  Instead, another young man had rushed to the seat he was in.  Sure enough as fate would have it, the young man who had sat two seats away arrived and noticed his seat was occupied.  He wanted to avoid being noticed as a late arrival by the professor, so opted to not move to the forward rows.  The back was overly full, likely due to the number of late arrivals today.  He moved toward his previous seat despite it being occupied.  He noticed Penny and the seat between him and where he had sat before.  He figured if he sat there just once, he could easily move back to the seat he had before provided he arrive on time.  That would be a big if he thought.

"Excuse me." he whispered as he moved behind other students on his way to the open seat.

"Hey, how's it going." he asked Penny as he slipped into his seat.

Penny glanced over, looked up at him, and looked back towards the professor.

The young man's name was Christian, but he often went by Chris for brevity purposes.  Plus he just felt it sounded more common and informal.  To him, his given name sounded too professional for the happy-go-lucky personality he exuded.  Chris was a sophomore, played soccer for the university, and was known to have a good time.  He had a large circle of friends and knew Jamie from their days at high school.  They had a similar circle of friends and maintained an acquaintance on the platonic level.  Chris found Jamie attractive, but wasn't interested in her in that department.

"What did I miss?" Chris asked Penny.

Penny did not look at Christ directly but just whispered, "He's just prefacing the documentary video selection we are about to watch."

"Oh, anything interesting."

"Tribal and familial interactions in the South American rainforest."

Penny looked over at Chris as he was pulling out his notebook.  Chris looked up, smiled, and introduced himself.

"I'm Chris."

"Penny."

"Penny?  That's a name you don't hear everyday.  Pleasure sitting next to you Miss Penny."

Penny turned her eyes forward again.  Then she glanced back over at Chris.  Chris took notice and smiled.  Penny let out a small, almost half smile before looking back towards the presentation.

Penny thought he was cute.  He took care of himself and seemed to have a nice personality.  Being friendly seemed to be hit or miss with a good number of people these days, she thought, and welcomed the idea of somebody who was nice.

Upon conclusion of the video presentation, the professor had a few questions.

"So can anyone explain to me the typical familial system which was present within this area?  How does it differ from our daily lives?"

A female student in the second row raised her hand and was called upon to answer.

"The tribes in this area represent a blend of hunter gatherers and agrarian society."

Penny snickered to herself.  That wasn't the answer he was looking for.  She was more than likely one of those students who attempted to answer questions without thought because they believed they were mentally superior to others.

"Well, that maybe true, but it isn't necessarily representative of the family living conditions.  Anyone else?  Anyone?"

Penny thought to herself:  the extended family system which differs from the North American nuclear family system.  This involves more people per 'household' which provides more daily challenges.  Of course I'm not going to raise my hand.  Penny snickered to herself.  Chris noticed this and looked slightly confused.

"The tribes incorporate their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all under the same roof.  This allows more work to be accomplished throughout the day, but there are more mouths to feed, greater hunting and harvesting responsibilities, and more social and political interaction with the other families due to marriages and disputes."

Ha!  That response is killing the girl who answered incorrectly.  Yes.  My suspicions of her attempting to assert her intellectual dominance this early in the semester have thus far been proven correctly.  I will hopefully avoid interacting with her because I'm sure she will not like me very much.

Chris leaned over to Penny and whispered, "I had that girl in a few of my other classes.  She is very upset when she gets shown up like that in front of others.  See her fuming over there?"

Penny chuckled at Chris' statement because it was true and she was able to spot her type as soon as she spoke.  Penny locked eyes with Chris briefly, then pressed her glasses back against her face and rejoined the lecture.

Following class dismissal, Penny followed Chris out of the auditorium.  She couldn't help but give him a good once over.  He looked good to her.  Granted, she didn't really know his personality but so far he seemed friendly.  And funny.  Well at least he was receptive to what the girl in the front row was attempting to accomplish.  Hmmm.  No.  I doubt he even remembers my name.  Chris and Jamie started up a conversation on their way out.  Figures.

Later that night, Penny was finishing her reading assignments for her course load and started looking over the flyers she had collected from the various sorority representatives on campus.  An amalgamation of Greek letters, accomplishments, and scheduled events.  Penny had no idea where to start with these.  She had been informed by a friend that these sorts of people don't appreciate it very much if you are applying to several.  Anything more than two is really out of the question and is frowned upon.  Maybe Penny would ask Jamie during the next class.  Penny filed her flyers into her pack with her books and figured she could use that as an icebreaker as she had no other way to bring anything up to the socially active Jamie.  Then she thought about Chris.  Was he in a fraternity?  Maybe he could giver her advice on which house to rush from his previous year at the university.  At the very least he could provide a guy's perspective on the houses.