One Night

Chapter 44

Audrey

“Alex Wheeler?”

“Here.”

Striding forward, I handed the graded paper to the young male student with a beanie and a black t-shirt sitting at the back of the class. I flipped to the next page in the pile of papers and called out, “Melissa Williams?”

“Over here.”

The morning had been a quiet one-it was early on Wednesday, and energy was low. Just about every student’s workspace had some kind of caffeinated drink on it, and I, too, kept sipping my coffee every few moments. In fact, Edwin himself hadn’t even arrived yet.

“I’ll be running a bit late this morning,” his curt email had read earlier that day. “Pass out the graded papers and tell the students to begin reading chapter six in their textbooks.

I was relieved when Edwin had told me he would be late; I hadn’t seen or heard from him since our little incident at the museum, and I didn’t want to see or hear from him. Hell, part of me even hoped that he would magically get stuck in traffic for the entirety of class today just so I could get out of seeing him.

But of course, that was just wishful thinking.

“And… C**dra Xavier.”

“Here!”

I smiled and handed the last paper in the stack to the young girl with curly hair and glasses sitting at the front of the class. Returning to the podium, I said, “If anyone has any questions about your papers, feel free to come talk to me. Until Professor Brooks arrives, please start reading chapter six in your textbooks.”

With a chorus of murmurs and rustling papers, the students opened their textbooks. I sank down into the chair behind Edwin’s desk, keeping an eye out until he arrived-but it wasn’t long before Alex, the student with the beanie and the band shirt, approached

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me.

“I need to talk to you,” he said somewhat curtly. Before I could even answer, he was slamming his paper-on which he had received a C-on the desk.

“Is something the matter?” I asked pleasantly, leaning forward to peer at the paper.

The student pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest. “Why did you give me a C?” he barked. “I worked really hard on that paper. I deserved an A.”

Frowning, I took the paper and scanned it. I specifically remembered this student’s essay-most, but not all, of the information was factual, and the writing wasn’t the best. He had a lot of grammatical errors, which anyone could see from the red marks littered across the page, and his citations were a mess.

“I’m sorry, Alex, but you had a lot of errors,” I said, sliding the paper back toward him. “Maybe Professor Brooks will let you do some extra credit to make up for the grade, but-

“This is a fashion design class, not literature.”

The student’s short tone gave me pause. I furrowed my brows and looked up at him, taking in his pinched expression for a moment before choosing to answer as calmly as possible. “If you’re unhappy with your grade, I can let Professor Brooks know that you’d like to talk after class.”

Alex scoffed-by now, multiple students were looking at us, and many more were clearly trying not to make it obvious that they were eavesdropping.

“I don’t want to talk to Professor Brooks,” he said. “I want to talk to you. Your grading is clearly biased.”

I couldn’t contain the derisive snort that escaped my lips. “Biased?” I asked, leaning back in my chair. “What makes you think that?”

With a grimace, the student turned and pointed up toward the back of the classroom- where, of course, Gavin was sitting. “Gavin!” he called out, causing Gavin to whip his head up in confusion. “Come here.”

Gavin’s eyes lit up with worry as he glanced over at me. Shrugging, I said, “It’s alright, Gavin. Bring your paper down.”

With a nod, Gavin rose from his chair and approached the front of the class. He held

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his paper out, which Alex s**d away before I could do anything. “Aha!” Alex exclaimed a moment later, holding the paper up for everyone to see. “A+, and there’s a typo right here on the front page. Audrey is clearly playing favorites. She’s dating Gavin, and so she’s handing out perfect grades to him.

Gavin’s face paled. Even my own eyes widened as the students began to shift. uncomfortably in their chairs, and I quickly shot up from my seat. “I would never d something like that,” I said, “and besides… Gavin and I aren’t dating”

“Yeah. Right.” Alex slapped Gavin’s paper back down on the desk, causing both of us to jump. Gavin opened his mouth to say something, but I stopped him with a raised hand. Grabbing his paper with the other, I scanned the page for a moment before speaking

again.

his

“Gavin received an A+ because his information was all factual and cited correctly. He had one typo in the entire paper, which I must have missed-but other than that, grammar and spelling was excellent, and-”

“What about me?” a girl’s voice called out before I could finish. Turning, I could see C**a, the girl with curly hair and glasses, rising from her seat with her paper held up. “My citations were perfect, and I only had one misplaced comma. Is that really enough to warrant a B?”

“Yeah!” Another voice called out. “I got a B-minus, and I only messed up one citation!”

My face paled. “I can assure you, I would never-”

“What’s going on in here?”

The sound of the gruff voice caused everyone to turn. There, in the doorway, stood Edwin-his leather satchel hanging from his shoulder, a coffee cup in hand, and his tweed jacket tucked into the crook of his elbow. *ing the papers up from the table, he scanned each one quickly and snorted.

“If I didn’t think that you deserved a C, then I wouldn’t have approved the grade,” he said coldly, handing the paper back to the student. “But you did deserve a C with all of those errors-and so I did approve the grade!

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Chapter 44

Alex’s eyes turned into saucers. “But-”

“But what?” Edwin interrupted. “I decide the grades at the end of the day. So are you implying that I’m dating Gavin, too? Or are you just accusing my teaching assistant that because you think you can get away with it?”

The room fell utterly silent, save for a few **d snickers. Even Alex had lost his previous bravado, now shifting from foot to foot. Clearing his throat, he uttered a meek apology and scurried back to his seat. Edwin shook his head and planted his hands on his hips, turning to face the rest of the class.

“Does anyone else have any issues with my grading, or can we get started on today’s lecture?”

Of course, the room remained silent. All of the previous students who had been complaining were embarrassed into submission; and even Gavin had returned to his seat, sinking down with a red face.

Once it was clear that no one was going to speak, Edwin gave a curt nod and turned toward me. Before I could rush off to my own seat, he leaned in close.

“Speak with me after class.”

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