Chapter 247
WILLA
My student supervisor could have literally been anybody other than Lucian. There had to be like hundreds of other students in Lucian's year. So why him?
I thought of how he had looked at me that day in the woods like I was poop on his shoes and my heart sank a little more.
I couldn't do this. Not with Lucian.
I would take anyone instead. Even if there were no more student supervisors available, I would be content even with the most difficult and demanding lecturer.
"What was that?" the dean was asking while he looked at me curiously. "I believe you said not again. You just got into Worchmount. Surely you haven't done a semester assignment before."
"What I meant to say is I would please like another supervisor."
"What-"
"Anyone but Lucian," I said desperately and felt the paper crumple in my fist.
The words were torn out of me.
I saw the dean's eyes light up with curiousity. I saw he was about to ask me why. Then he stopped himself.
"I'm afraid that's not possible," he said.
Now it was my turn to ask why.
"You see, Ms Wallace, the list of first years and their supervisors were chosen by the computer at random a week before school resumed for the session. By the computer, mind. We don't do the assignation ourselves-"
"But-"
The dean held up one slightly ink stained finger for silence. "Almost all students in your year have already been here and have been given supervisors. In fact you're one of the very few left."
"Maybe I could swap with one of the others."
His head moved from side to side. "No can do. That would disrupt our records on a large scale, put us through a lot of inconvenience, you see."
"Please," I begged. "I'm sure that as the dean there must be something, anything you can do."
Dean Freeman didn't answer. With pursed lips, he opened a drawer, selected a file and held it out to me. He shook it impatiently when I didn't take it.
"That is your attendance register," he said as I reluctantly took it. "Lucian's job is to tick that every week you show up at the botany lab to work. Make sure you don't miss more than five appointments in a semester. Doing that can affect your GPA badly. In the first page of the file is a form. Meet Lucian as soon as possible to sign it. We need that first for record purposes before you proceed."
I stared down blankly at the file, my stomach in knots. Top question on my mind was what on earth was I going to do now?
I felt like an animal with a trap closing all around it. I looked up at Dean Freeman's fleshy face.
I wanted to make one last appeal, maybe for him to switch my project to something more animal related. Hell! I was more than ready to muck out the smelly cages of the lab animals if that was it took. But I could see I wouldn't get any help from him.
He had had his say. Besides I was not one of the 'top ranking' students he could maybe bend a few rules for.
"Now Ms Wallace," he said. A stern note had crept into his voice. "We have spent more than enough time discussing this, haven't we?"
He glanced pointedly at his little desk clock. I got slowly to my feet, feeling a lot like a patient did after getting a scary diagnosis from the doctor.
The file in my hand felt like it weighed a ton as I set out to look for Lucian. I found him at the football pitch sitting on the bleachers with Naomi on his lap.
He was watching some of his friends kicking a ball around and from time to time yelled stuff like, "Kick it harder! Damn, you run like a girl!"
Naomi wasn't paying the least bit attention to the football game or Lucian's friends sitting around them. She kept moving in Lucian's lap, playing with his hair. All the things a girl would do to 'mark her territory.'
No one had to tell me that this was the worst time to go anywhere near Lucian. If Naomi even spotted me-
With that sudden animal quickness he had, Lucian's head suddenly whipped around. I darted around a group of students hurrying past. Their bodies hid me from view seconds before Lucian glanced at the spot where I had been standing.
I walked on and thought of Theron. There was no way I going to get the form signed by myself. No way I was risk getting sneered at again.
I would ask Theron to help me. He had to help me.
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