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“I’d like to make one other thing clear, for the express purpose of keeping any of us from wasting each other’s time.”
The deep timbre of his words was more than enough to threaten her equilibrium, and her chest rose and fell at a more rapid fashion as staying calm remained an uphill battle.
Overcome existing and preconceived boundaries…inhibit creative or divergent thinking…impede the potential for growth and advancement…
She strove to concentrate on the professor’s words, but they kept going over her head.
Speak and explore ideas freely…no place for snowflakes…won’t get anything done if all of us have to waste time tiptoeing…worrying about verbally fragile egos…
Diana noticed a couple of students stiffening in their seats and wondered if she had missed something rather important.
For those inclined to stay in this class, what I can promise you…we will all be bound to observe rules of civility and common courtesy…anyone found guilty of bullying…dealt accordingly.”
The sudden sound of clapping around her startled Diana, and she unthinkingly lifted her head in bemusement, all thoughts of clear and present danger forgotten until it was too late.
No, no, no—
But what was done was done, and what she had been avoiding had happened.
Leonine eyes collided with her gaze, and they were as cold and furious as she dreaded. But more than that was the ruthless contempt which questioned her very existence in the room—
YOU DON’T FUCKING LEARN, DO YOU?
A choking sound escaped Diana, and silence fell in the room as all eyes turned to her.
Together
The professor was, once again, reduced to cursing the girl in his mind.
Damn her for coming here, thinking she could escape unscathed, and damn him, for letting the sight of her big scared eyes get to him.
“Do you have something to say, Ms. Leventis?” he asked icily.
“No.” The answer was barely audible.
“Then I can only surmise your unreasonable interruption is either due to your vanity or brain needing attending to. Whichever the case may be, I’d strongly advise against making the same mistake.”
Not waiting for an answer, the professor went straight back to addressing the rest of the class, leaving the other students to follow suit, albeit reluctantly and with not a small amount of confusion. From what they knew of T-PILF, he was not the type to let go of such infractions lightly. Perhaps the professor was in an unusually good mood today?
The students had their answer to this a minute later, with the professor dropping a bombshell of an announcement on them. They were to propose a novel therapy for the prevention and/or treatment of suicide – keeping in mind their target demographic – and joy of joys, they had fifteen minutes to work on this.
Clearly, if the professor had any kind of mood today, then it was the sadistic type, and more than a handful seemed to blame her for this. They threw dirty looks in her direction, and Pepper, unsurprisingly, was the worst of the lot. “Great going, idiot,” the redhead sniped under her breath. “If you hadn’t pissed the professor off, we wouldn’t find ourselves in this shithole.”
Diana was taken aback at the venom in the other girl’s voice. “I didn’t mean…” But there was no point continuing, with Pepper having already turned her back on Diana in an intentional snub.
A sandy-haired TA named Bernie came in a short while later, distributing reading materials they were given permission to use for related literature.
This form of extra service seemed more fitting for a university chancellor, and Diana’s brows furrowed as she absently thought of the other little things that made the professor’s tenure exceptionally well-compensated. His office was spacious and luxuriously decorated, and he even had his own secretary. Wasn’t that unheard of for someone who only taught a single class?
The whole thing smacked of mystery and intrigue, but because it was also a distraction she could ill afford, Diana managed to set this aside and try once more to concentrate on the problem at hand.
Let’s do this, Di.
But time continued to tick past, and Diana’s nerves started to fray again when her mind remained a blank. By the time all fifteen minutes were up, her anxiety had hit the panic button, and she was a trembling, paranoid mess in her seat.
It’s just going to get worse from here.
An admittedly fatalistic thought, but she couldn’t help feeling increasingly jittery when the professor reached for his clipboard. The class was supposed to share their proposals one at a time, and as soon as the professor finished speaking, Pepper quickly raised her hand, volunteering to be first.
“Very well,” the professor murmured.
Seeing the redhead make another hair flip, Diana tried her hardest not to wish for the other girl’s proposal to go horribly, and sadly enough it didn’t.
“It seems to me that the problem of these millennials—”
Brows shot up at the reference, with many wondering if Pepper had perhaps forgotten she, by virtue of her age alone, was also one of the so-called millennials.
