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so he was as close to my back as he could get. I gulped when I felt the heat radiating from his body.
    “Good afternoon, Sunshine,” he whispered to me.
    I did my best to ignore him but my body betrayed me as his words sent chills right through me.
    I heard him chuckle as he leaned back into his seat and I e xhaled the breath I had been holding since he walked by. 
    The instructor’s eyes were glued to Aaron. “Mr. Donovan, if you’re settled in, I assume we can begin class.”
    There were a few stifled laughs in the back of the room. Aaron said, “Please, Dr. Griffin, I’m ready whenever you are.”
    I found it odd that the instructor knew Aaron. He had been so nonchalant about taking an art class and acted like he didn’t care anything about it.
    Dr. Griffin introduced herself and told us about her background and credentials. She had a Master’s degree in Art History from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Yale. I was immediately impressed. Those were elite programs. Programs for which I hoped to one day be considered. I vowed to do everything within my power to impress Dr. Griffin and get an A in her class. Maybe then she would consider writing a letter of recommendation for me for graduate studies.
    As Dr. Griffin walked us through the syllabus for the class, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I tried to ignore Aaron but he was insistent and continued tapping me. The last thing I wanted to do was show disrespect for Dr. Griffin while she was speaking but I got the distinct impression that Aaron was not going to stop until I acknowledged him.
    I turned my head ever so slightly toward him. I could see he has trying to hand me something, so I grabbed it and quickly turned back around to face the teacher. I breathed a sigh of relief that she was still looking down at the syllabus and hadn’t noticed the exchange between me and Aaron.
    I glanced down to see what he had handed me and it was a round sticker about the size of a tangerine. It was a sunshine image with words around the outside. The words read: Sunshine can brighten any Rainy Dey.
    I had to smile. The sticker had obviously been custom made with my name on it. It was a touching gesture. I carefully placed the sticker in the middle of my text book, where it wouldn’t get lost.
    After she finished reviewing the syllabus, Dr. Griffin told us that she was going to assign us partners and that we would be working with them the entire term on a final project worth 40 percent of our grade. I silently said a prayer to whoever was listening to pair me with an excellent student as devoted as I was to the class.
    “I want to work with Aaron,” one of the girls from the back of the room blurted.
    “Who doesn’t,” another girl said.
    When I turned to sneak a peek at Aaron, his eyes were dan cing and it looked like he was trying to stifle a grin. I wondered why he had given me the sticker. There was no way he liked me. I certainly couldn’t compete with the pretty girls in the back of the room.
    When I turned back around, Dr. Griffin said, “Okay, enough with the crushes on Aaron. I’m assigning everyone alphabetically to be fair. And no trading. You stick with your assigned partner. When you graduate and enter the workforce, you’ll be asked to work on projects with all kinds of people. This will be good practice.”
    She read off the first two names, “Brett Adams and Monica Bellsworth.”
    One of the pretty girls huffed when she looked across the room and saw a very large guy ogling her. If he was Brett, she had her work cut out for her. He obviously had more on his mind than the final project.
    Dr. Griffin continued, “Rainy Dey.” She stopped when she said my name aloud as if she was caught off guard by it. It was a common reaction. People were usually surprised by my given name. When a few students in the back chuckled, Dr. Griffin frowned and made a point of saying, “That’s a beautiful name.” She was officially my favorite teacher.
    “Rainy, you’ll be