Reagan's first class at Caldwell College was Introduction to Sociology. Room 214, Whitmore Hall, Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 9:00 to 10:30.
She got there early, as she did for everything, and took a seat in the third row, slightly to the left. Good sight line to the board. Not the front row, which was too visible. Not the back, which was too easy to disappear in.
The room filled up around her.
Then Shane Whitfield walked in with Pierce and Derek.
Reagan watched them find seats. Back right corner, which made sense for people who preferred to watch a room rather than participate in it.
Shane glanced at Reagan as he passed. A small glance. Measuring.
Reagan looked at her notebook.
The professor came in at exactly 9:00.
She was a woman in her mid-60s, compact, silver hair cut short and practical. She wore reading glasses on a chain around her neck, which she put on and took off with great frequency throughout the class, as though the world was constantly shifting between two focal lengths.
Her name, written on the board in no-nonsense block letters, was Dr. Norma Gale.
She did not do a lot of warm-up.
"Sociology," she said, dropping a stack of syllabi on the front desk without breaking stride, "is the study of why people do what they do when they're around other people. Which sounds simple. It is not simple. It is, in fact, the most complicated thing there is, because most people, when they're around other people, have absolutely no idea why they're doing what they're doing."
"They think they do. They would bet money on it. They are almost always wrong."
She looked around the room.
"By the end of this semester, you will be a little harder to fool. That includes being harder to fool by yourself. That part tends to make people uncomfortable. That's fine. Discomfort is where learning lies."
She picked up the syllabi and started distributing them.
Reagan liked her immediately.
The class was good. Dense, but good. Dr. Gale had a way of moving between theory and example that kept you engaged. She'd reference a sociological concept and then immediately ground it in something so specific and recognizable that you forgot you were in a classroom for a moment.
Shane and his friends were quiet during class. Present but not engaged. The kind of students who were there because the credit was required, not because they wanted to be.
At 10:30, Dr. Gale said, "That's time. Read chapter one before Thursday. Bring questions. Real ones, not the kind designed to show me you read it."
Students gathered their things and filed out.
Reagan was just putting her notebook into her bag when she heard her name.
"Miss Holloway."
She looked up.
Dr. Gale was standing at the front of the room, putting her own notes away with methodical efficiency. She hadn't looked up.
"A moment, if you don't mind."
Reagan waited as the room emptied. Shane and his friends left without looking back.