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"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, andsadly enoughit 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 forgottenshe, by virtue of her age alone, was also one of the so-called millennials.
"It's that they've forgotten how the Church still perceives suicide as one of the mortal sins. People must be reminded of this crucial fact as well as eternal damnation being its inevitable consequence."
The whole class seemed to wait in bated breath for the professor's reaction, and when he finally spoke, it was exactly what Diana haddreadedexpected.
"While I would caution you against further limiting your scope than what's required—-" The professor's lips curved ever so faintly. "Your approach is commendably novel, and since that's what this class is designed for - well done again, Ms. Lowell."
Breaths were expelled when the curve of his lips remained, the sight transforming the professor's cruel beauty into one of slightly more approachable but no less appealing proportions.
If she didn't think it so daft, she could've even sworn that the professor's smile had the hearts of every girl in the room skipping a beat. It was that split second of tingling silence following a stolen glimpse of perfection, and the more she thought about this, the more she became convinced of a reality that should've been glaringly obvious from the start.
Every girl in this room wanted him, too.
A second student was called, but Diana's attempt to listen to her proposal was futile, her mind and heart both distracted by the strange, stifling sensation gripping her chest. It took her several moments to recognize what the feeling was, and a few more to accept it was real.
She had always been an easily contented person, never having felt the need to covet what another person had. She had readily accepted she would never be as interesting or vivacious as other girls, had never thought to ask God when it would be her turn to fall or why she couldn't even have a mother's love.
She had never felt jealous before until—-
"Ms. Leventis?"
Diana started in her seat, and when she lifted her head, it was to find everyone staring at her.Again.And by the looks of it, this wasn't the first time the professor had called her name.
Oh, Saint M, pray for me.
"If it is not too much to ask," the professor asked in a glacial voice, "would you care to put your daydreams on pause for the rest of the class?"
Diana felt her eyes sting in mortification and fought hard to keep her composure. "I...I..."