What on earth is someone going to put in their roommate's ear?  A Q-tip, perhaps?  What perilous path are we about to tread upon?

And there you have it...those fateful words.  My poor student had awakened to find someone trying to place a penis in his ear.  A shock to the nervous system, to be sure.  And a shock to the reader.  When I first started writing Something to Teach I knew that I had to lead off with a good scene - something to grab the reader's attention.  Fortunately, this sort of nonsense happened all the time on the inside.  I was (and am) very lucky because I have a ton of excellent source material to draw from.  I guarantee most readers were not expecting this line...just as most listeners are not expecting the thunderous opening chords of his piano concerto.