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20
NOAH
Within twenty minutes, all the worksheets are turned in and the lecture hall is empty. It’s not like me to leave class early, but I’ve got other things to deal with. Adam might think he’s coming for my throat, but I don’t go down without a fight, especially when it comes to my career. I hope he’s up for a battle.
I’ll grab my laptop bag and the worksheets and head back to my office downstairs. Adam is waiting outside my door leaned up against the wall.
“Sup, teach? How’s your morning going?”
“We are not to talk outside of the classroom, Adam. You know that. Your formal complaint is going under review and they will be watching our every move.”
This guy must be an idiot. Why the hell would he show up at my office the morning that he made a complaint about me? Actually, this might work to my advantage because I can bring it up to the council and they will see that he is approaching me. So, if he is accusing me of being a bully, then why is he coming to my office after class?
“Why don’t you go ahead to your next class, Adam? I’ve got things to work on,” I say, as I shut my door in his face.
I pull up my phone and bring up the text thread between Leslie and I.
Me: Sorry it’s been a shit morning. I still want to celebrate later. What do you want for dinner?
Honestly, I’m gonna eat whatever - I’m not really a picky eater. When Janet was alive and cooked for me every night I didn’t really have a choice but to eat whatever she made.
Leslie: We could always go out to dinner. We don’t have to stay around here since we’re getting out early today. We could venture out to the city.
As appealing as that sounds, I don't know if it’s the best idea. How do we know where to go and who is going to see us? And right now, with me being under a microscope, I don’t exactly need to bring any more attention to myself. But I consider it to make Leslie happy. Few students come from Dallas to Grapevine to go to college, and it’s highly unlikely that we will run into anybody, but to do so we must be very careful.
Me: I can make reservations At Landry’s for us and request to sit in the back away from everybody. That way we can at least enjoy ourselves without worrying about being spotted
Leslie: As long as I’m with you, I could get a fuck less where we go. But we should be able to enjoy a celebratory dinner without having to worry about others.
She’s right. With five months ahead of us, honestly I don’t want to keep her hidden or cooped up in the house until the semester is over. The sneaking around might be a little exhilarating now, but it’ll get old fast. And eventually, she’s going to want to go out on actual dates and go to dinner at nice restaurants and do things as a couple, but with me being her professor we have to be extremely careful about where we go.
I pull up the search bar on my phone and Google Landrys, and dial the number to secure a reservation for six. The house just put a note on our reservation that we would like to sit in the back away from everybody if possible. She said it shouldn’t be a problem.
Me: Reservation made for six. Do you want me to come pick you up from your house or you gonna meet me at mine?
I know she has classes the rest of the day, but usually the first week they let class out early and I’m the only professor that didn’t do that except for today. so there’s a chance she might be free before 4 o’clock today.
Leslie: I plan on getting some work done if classes get done early enough. But let’s say meet you at your house around five?
It’ll take us at least thirty to forty-five minutes to get to the restaurant from here, and that depends on traffic. Getting into Dallas isn’t a problem, but once you are in the city, it’s a fucking nightmare.
I sit down at my desk and open up my laptop trying to push this complaint out of my head. If Adam had a fucking problem with me, he should’ve come to me and not in the university. If he doesn’t like how I handled the situation between him and Leslie, then he could’ve talked to me as a man, not a coward.
The problem is, this isn’t my first complaint. There are many students over the years that felt like I didn’t treat them properly. And most of those students were wealthy. So, they were used to getting special treatment and I’m just not that type of professor. Unfortunately, every single incident was deemed valid by the university and only because their parents contributed substantially to the university. The complaints are in my personnel file, but they told me they wouldn't count against my tenure since they had to agree with the parents to keep the donations.
What a fucking joke. We live in a society where money does the talking, and that’s not how it should be. Sure, I get it; the university needs money and funding to continue running, but the morality of it was wrong. Do these people not have any morals? Here I am, a teacher at this university and I bust my ass to make sure that I’m fair, but tough. This complaint is not valid and I have not bullied Adam at all. And if asking him to sit in the front row and lead a discussion on a book he was supposed to read is considered bullying, then I must be way out of the loop.
A knock sound at my door and it opens with Professor Jones entering.
“So, I’ve talked with the council and they would like to speak with you if you have a moment.”
“Yeah, I let my class go early so I have about twenty- minutes until my next one is that enough?”
He nods and I follow him out the English hall doors over to the administrative offices. Honestly, I probably should be worried, but I’ve been through this so many times with ungrateful students, that I know my opinion and what I say doesn’t matter in the end. They will not listen to me, but I know I did nothing wrong.
He opens the door to the conference room and there are six men and women circling around the table.
“Good morning, Noah. We were just going over the complaint that one of your students, Adam, submitted this morning to Professor Jones. We would like to hear your side of the story.
