Scott entered room 214 and couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Designed to hold close to four hundred people, the science lecture hall was now nearly held to capacity with students who were readying themselves for class. Scott darted his sharp mongoose eyes, looking for the familiar pattern of tiger fur that belonged to his friend Ping.
He found his Asian friend in about a minute, his large frame sitting almost directly in the middle of the room. Scott scurried over and sat down in the vacant seat directly to the left of Ping and grinned at him once he was settled.
“Well, here we are. Ready to start a new semester of boring and stretched out biology lectures. Going to be a long year.” Scott said as he took out his notebook and pen. Ping grunted and pushed his glasses up his muzzle with a thick finger. “Don’t make it sound like simple biology Scott. This is advanced Chemomolecular Biology. It’s considered the most difficult class the University offers. The reason they are allowing four hundred people to sign up, is because only twenty percent or so will remain at the end. Some cannot maintain other grades since it takes up so much time, others flunk out so badly they know staying is pointless, and most simply cannot handle it. We need these credits for our degree, so don’t slack off. This will be hard enough for me, and I certainly do not need to spend time tutoring you. Take my advice, and do not let your mind wander if you are bored.”
The mongoose chuckled at that. “Relax Stripes. I will be fine. My mind is like a steel trap. No matter how fast the professor goes, I will be able to keep up. Speaking of which, where is the teacher?” He glanced at the large clock on the wall, seeing it was exactly nine in the morning, the class should have started then. Every seat in the great room was filled by now, yet no one was at the wooden podium in the front.
Ping shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I heard Professor was a real stickler for attendance and punctuality.” As if on cue, the heavy door to the side of the room opened, with a gray figure entering into view. By the sight of the briefcase, Scott figured realized this was the Professor. The entire room went quiet as they watched the figure slowly made his way to the podium.
Scott leaned over to Ping, his eyes still on the Professor. In a hushed whisper he said, “We are in a class that meets three hours a day, three days a week, is widely considered the hardest class in the University, and our teacher is a sloth!?”
The tiger nodded softly as he pursed his lips, watching as Professor Dodson still made his way forward, taking agonizingly slow steps, now barely half the way from the door he entered, to the podium. Ping finally looked at Scott and gave a sly grin. “You were right after all. It’s going to be a long year. In fact, it’s going to be a very long, and very, very slow year.” The mongoose slumped in his chair and sighed, realizing he was absolutely right.
By, Bombur
