Freedom, Flowers, Books, and the Moon

Chapter 3

"We need an assistant? How could an assistant possibly help?" Cielo questioned.

"She'll be our assistant, dumbass," Beau replied.

"Ohhhh,"

King rolled his eyes and said, "When's the next day you guys teach her?"

"Tomorrow," the other men said in unison.

"Good. Ciel, I'm assuming you have her last?"

"Unless Beau suddenly has a class after 3, yes,"

"Bring her back to your office; we'll be waiting there, and we can talk," King instructed.

The two others nodded.

"Perfect. Now I'm going home." He stood and pulled his suit jacket back on. "I'll see you there whenever you decide to leave this dump,"

Perspective Change

Aurie lay in bed that night, unblinking, staring at the ceiling. She couldn't believe her luck; three of her four professors looked like gods. "I'm not gonna learn anything," she spoke aloud in the dark room. Rolling onto her side, she closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep, dreaming of tomorrow.

The next morning, when Aurie walked into Pre-Calculus, she turned to find herself alone with her professor once more.

"Good morning, Ms. Coty,"

She smiled at him and sank into her seat. "Good morning, professor."

They both grew silent, and Aurie struggled to find a way to keep the conversation going, eventually giving up and leaving the silence to consume them. After pulling out her notebook, the girl quietly watched as the rest of the tiny class filed in. King glanced at his watch. When the clock struck 9, he stood and addressed the disciples.

"Good morning, students. "I hope you remember what we went over yesterday because we have a quick quiz to see where we all are," he said, picking up a stack of papers from his desk. "Ms. Coty,"

Aurie froze before finding her voice, "Yes sir?"

"Come pass these out for me."

"Yes, sir," she said, scurrying to the front of the room and gently taking the quizzes from her professor's grasp.

The poor girl took a sharp inhale when she realized how close they were before taking hold of herself and quickly walking away to do as the man asked of her. When she sat down in her chair once more, she glanced up to find his dark eyes locked on hers. Aurie quickly looked back down and busied herself with the quiz sitting in front of her.

When the class was finally over, she walked out of the building, deeply disappointed in herself. "I totally bombed that," she muttered.

She sat under a tree next to the sidewalk and pulled out her notebook for writing class and continued the prompt they had been given on the first day of class. 30 minutes later, Aurelia finished her assignment, tucked her things away into her tote, and stood to make her way to the cafe that had become a part of her daily routine. When she had grabbed her latte and muffin, she started making her way back to the Wagner building. Aurie walked into Professor McBride's room and slid into her seat between Harley and Holden.

"Mornin' y'all. I don't really have anything for y'all; work on the prompt I gave you on Monday," the professor said brightly as he looked around.

Aurelia groaned to herself and turned to look at Harley.

"What's up?" The girl asked her younger friend.

"I finished that thing not even an hour ago,"

Harley winced before replying, "At least you have it done and you get a free block?"