*Bianca*
I jumped when the professor slamd the paper down on my desk, facedown. I gritted my teeth and picked up the sheet, gripping it firmly to my chest and shutting my eyes, exhaling deeply to prepare myself.
It took another minute to actually convince myself to flip it over so I could read the letter that was scrawled in angry red pen at the top.
My heart plumted to my toes and tears pricked at the back of my eyes.
A D .
It wasn’t an F but it was still far from the grade that I wanted. And at this rate, with my last failed test, my final grade was looking pretty dark.
I stood abruptly from my seat and tightened my fingers against the sheet of paper before stalking out of the room quickly. One cursory glance around confird that a lot of students didn’t do so hot. Many of them were groaning and running their hands through their hair, their expressions stressed and frustrated.
It didn’t exactly make feel better that my fellow classmates did poorly as well but it was a bit comforting to know that I wasn’t alone in this struggle.
I could have ran ho and locked myself in my room but I wasn’t going to do that this ti. I was going to face this head on. I know I studied thoroughly for this exam. I wasn’t going to just stand aside anymore while I was wrongly mistreated.
A handful of guys from my class were standing in the hallway to my great fortune. They were standing in a loose circle, their tests in their hands. I could tell by their confident stances that they had all done at last fairly well.
I took a calming breath before approaching them. “Hey, guys,” I said sweetly.
They all turned their heads, their eyes widening upon seeing . I got a couple of them giving a hungry look up and down.
I smirked inwardly. I had heard from both Isabella and Amara that I was getting so attention from multiple guys at this school but I had ignored the comnts, assuring them that I wasn’t that pretty and that the guys weren’t actually looking at . I could see it now though. For so reason, I was attracting them to .
I decided that it was mostly harmless for to use that to my advantage this ti. I cringed to think how Leo would respond if he knew. He might go into a blind rage and try to send to an all female college.
It took zero convincing to have the guys follow to a private study room in the library so that we could compare test answers. Just as I suspected, my answers were marked way down even though I had co up with the right answers for almost all of the questions.
After so quick calculating, I realized that my grade on this test should have been an A minus.
I didn’t show this to the guys. I gave them a grateful smile. “Thank you for taking the ti to let look at your tests,” I told them.
“Anyti,” one said and his voice was low, seductive.
“If you need anyone to help you study,” another said, waggling his eyebrows. “I’ll always be availale to you, baby.”
I cringed but did my best to hide my disgust as I turned and headed out of the library.
I shuddered with discomfort, amazed that those guys were willing to openly flirt with like that when I was very clearly pregnant.
Guys were so gross.I shook the thought off and went to go find my friends. I ant what I said before. I wasn’t going to just put up with this anymore.
“Hey,” I said into my phone. “Could you co over for a bit? I need your life.”
About an hour later, Isabella and Taylor were sitting in my living room, each of them peering over my shoulder at my laptop.
“This isn’t good,” I said with a heavy sigh. “At this rate, I am definitely going to fail this class. Even if I do well on the final, which I doubt Professor Krar would let that happen anyway, I’m still going to have a D.”
Isabella patted my arm. “We’ll think of sothing,” she tried to comfort . She pressed her lips together in thought and then her eyes lit up. “What if you transfer classes?”
“It’s a little late in the sester for her to transfer,” Taylor pointed out. “And even if it wasn’t, there aren’t any other online professors for this course.” He falls silent and pulls out his own laptop, his eyes intense as he starts typing away and his gaze narrows on sothing he found.
“What are you doing?” Isabella asked him after a few silent monts, echoing my thoughts.
He didn’t answer for another few seconds but then he turned the screen so that the two of us could see.
I quirked an eyebrow at the house and address he was showing us. “What?” I asked after a long second. “Are you trying to beco a real estate agent or sothing?”
Taylor rolled his eyes but then tapped on the screen. “This is Professor Krar’s house,” he said, his tone low and dangerous. “I say we march over there so that I can give him a piece of my mind.”
My jaw dropped and then I shook my head slowly. “That wouldn’t exactly be helpful,” I told him, biting back the urge to roll my eyes at one of my oldest friends.
“It’s stupid and reckless,” Isabella added.
Taylor gave us both stunned look. “How is it stupid and reckless?” he demanded. “We could just drive over there and I could threaten him a little bit. I wouldn’t beat him up or anything. I’ll even let you two watch if you don’t trust .”
“I believe you, Taylor,” I said, amazed that we were even having this conversation. I leveled him with a serious look. “I don’t want to do anything drastic.”
“This bastard deserves drastic after what he did to you,” Taylor muttered but he relented, setting his laptop down on the coffee table and crossing his arms in defeat.
“He might actually be right though, Bianca,” Isabella said.
I gave her a wide-eyed look. “Not you too!” I complained. “Guys, we can’t just drive over to a professor’s house and-”
“No, no, not about going over there to threaten the asshole,” Isabella said, waving her arms around. “I just ant that maybe this guy does deserve to pay for what he did.”
I looked between my two friends and realized that they were both right. I had to face the fact that I coudn’t just handle this on my own.
I could still handle this diplomatically however.
“I know that look,” Taylor said and he looked excited. “What are you thinking?”
I opened a new tab on my laptop. “I’m going to take this directly to the headmaster,” I announced.
“Good for you!” Isabella cheered, pumping her fist above her head excitedly.
Taylor grinned widely at . “It’s about ti soone did sothing to put this guy in his place,” he said. “I hope the bastard gets fired for it.”
Even though Professor Krar was a definite jerk, I still didn’t care to see him actually punished. I just wanted to get graded fairly for the work I was doing. It was pretty sad that that was sothing that I had to fight for.
The headmaster didn’t have any openings until a few days later but I waited patiently those next few days, just doing my best in my classes, especially in Krar’s class. Plus, the few days gave ti to gather my evidence and to form my argunts.
“The headmaster will see you now,” the secretary told , popping her head around the corner to smile kindly at .
That tiny, warm smile was just what I needed at the mont to gather my last bit of courage to stand up, clutch my notes in my shaking hands and stride into the headmaster’s office.
The headmaster looked up at from over his glasses and gestured to the chair across from his large wooden desk. “Please have a seat, Miss Bianca,” he said.
“Thank you, sir,” I said, doing as he said and sitting across from him.
This was my first ti speaking to the headmaster. He seed like a kind old man, with wispy white hair and kind blue eyes.
I took a breath and then began the speech that I had prepared in my head. “Well, sir, I hate to be the one to deliver this disturbing news to you but I have reason to believe that Professor Krar has been grading his students unfairly. More specifically, his female students.” I started to open the folder that I brought with with my graded papers and pictures of the tests of my male classmates when the headmaster put his hand up.
“I’m going to have to stop you right there, Miss,” he said sternly, his voice hard.
My stomach dropped. “Sir?”
The headmaster shook his head, his eyes darkening and the sides of his mouth drawn down in obvious disappointnt. “You aren’t the first young woman to co to with this tireso complaint,” he said. “And while I understand that Professor Krar can be one of the stricter professors, I don’t believe that that calls for this kind of childish whining.”
My jaw dropped. I shook my head, taking a mont to collect myself. “I can assure you that this complaint is a sound one,” I said, pulling my notes fully out of the folder and setting them in front of him. “Please, if you’ll just look at the evidence I’ve brought you-”
“That is quite enough,” the headmaster said, not even bothering to look at the papers. He reached under his desk and pulled out a form. “Now, I’ll have you fill this out so you can make a formal inquiry but I’m afraid that there isn’t anything you’re going to be able to do aside from that.”
I gritted my teeth but grabbed the pen the headmaster held out to so I could fill out the page, frustrated that he wasn’t even hearing out. I could barely breathe, I was so angry. I shoved the form across the table at him.
He looked unfazed by my anger, even a little amused. “If I may make a suggestion,” he said. “Perhaps Professor Krar’s course is too difficult for you. It might benefit you to drop out and change your major to one that is more fitting for a woman like yourself. Perhaps English Literature?”
I stared at him in completely disbelief, my blood simring from his sexist words. I stood abruptly from my chair, nearly causing the piece of furniture to fall backward. I snatched my notes off of the desk and stord out, slamming the door behind .
I was too pissed off to drive so I just sat in my car, fuming like a tea kettle. I was beginning to realize why Leo and the other Valentinos chose to go above the law at tis.
Sotis, that was the only way to get things done.
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