The Grad Student [themanwithtwo]
The lecture hall smelled of its wooden chairs and paneling that ran all the way up and down along the edges of the raised seating. It was large but claustrophobic just the same with no view into the outside world. Front and center of the room sat Professor River Song. She looked down through a pair of actually unnecessary but quite smart horn-rimmed eyeglasses that she'd picked up from a beaded lanyard around her neck. She had just let herself be seated at the single, long desk at the head of the hall after a lecture with slides. Her eyes were still adjusting a bit from the darkness and looking up toward her students as they were obscured into silhouettes by the blinding beam of the projector.
"I'll see you all on Wednesday," she said pleasantly, a little more easily than was her usual tone when she was out doing more exciting things. She was blending in here and it was a nice rest. She had a little life constructed and no one here suspecting anything of her except that she was a bit of a go-getter since she was faculty at a university. But it was the 1960s and the times--they were changing.
A smile played at her lips as she heard the students stand and file out as she feigned a certain professional indifference for a moment.
"If any of you have questions," she called after them pointedly, "I will be available during my regular office hours."