Chasing Gold

1

Right now, I'm sitting in my first class of the day-- English. I'm Ashley Gold, 20 years old and attending NYU. You may be thinking, isn't NYC hard to get into, she must be super smart. Although I consider myself to be very smart, the main reason why I got accepted into this university becuase my Dad probably owns half of it. He is a big sucsessful business man and super rich. He said he'd pay for all of my tuition but only if I attended NYU... Now back to the current day.

Like I mentioned before, unfortuanally, I'm in English class. All through my years of school I have loved English so I decided to minor in it. Well, I've loved it until this year. I got lucky enough to have the strictest and most boring teacher ever- Mr. Creed. He's a middle aged man and I have no clue why he was ever hired. If you do not see a topic in his point of view, he will always call you out and embaress you. Which is why I always dread coming to English class.

I try to take notes and listen to what Mr. Creed is saying, but I didn't get much sleep last night and feel my eyelids getting heavier. Maybe I can just close them for a few seconds and then open them again? What's the harm in that?

BAM. I'm startled awake by a fist slamming on the table infront of me. I notice that I was sleeping and my head was faced up towards the celing. I'm going to have a nasty kink in my neck from that.

"Oh I'm sorry Ms. Gold, is my lesson boring you?" He said with sarcasm in his voice. I could feel myself start to blush. I looked around and all fifty students were staring at us.

"No, I'm really sorry Mr. Creed." I mean his lesson was boring, but I'm not going to say that and get myself into more trouble.

"Well you were surely implying that with your snoring while I was trying to teach," I could feel my cheeks heat up more after finding out that I had been snoring, "Maybe I might become so bored with your paper that I will fall asleep next time I'm grading yours" Okay, that was a little rude, I work really hard on my papers.

"Mr. Creed I said I was sorry and it won't happen again."

"You're right it won't happen again, I want you kicked out of my class-"

"What why," I yell while cutting him off midsentance, "that's not even logical, I just dozed off for fifteen minutes and I apologized." No way is this happeneing, everyone has fallen asleep in class at one point and faced no reprecucions.

"Ms. Gold I'm not going to sugar coat this. You're disrespectful to authority, show that you are not intrested in what I have to say and you do not possess the talents of a writer. Please visit your dean immediatly and know that I will call him the second you walk out of this class so he will be waiting for your arrival. If you decide not to visit him immediatly, then you may be expelled from this campus." I was trying to fight back tears, this didn't make sense and his words hurt me. I may not have liked him as a teacher but he was still a skilled writer and knew what he was talking about.

"Please Mr. Creed can you-"

"Ms. Gold I suggest you leave now or you may face harsher punishments."

Feeling defeted, I stood up and shoved my laptop and binder into my bag. I rolled back my shoulders and confidently walked out of the room, trying to show the other students that Mr. Creed had no effect on me.

Once I was out of sight of the class I slowed my pace and started towards the dean's office. What even just happened? I didn't know college kids got sent to their deans, that was so high school. I began to get angry because Mr. Creed had no right to say those things to me and say that I was kicked out of his class. When I get to my dean I'll just explain how unrational Mr. Creed was being and tell them the truth.

Although I didn't even know who my dean was. I use to have Mrs. Winters, who was the nicest woman and reminded me of my Grandma. Mrs. Winters had to retire to take care of her elder husband who has recently been diagnost with lung cancer. It was a very tragic time and I sent her a condolence card, even though that probably meant nothing to her in her current situation.

All I knew about my new dean is that he is a man. I got an e-mail about the recent change of dean's, but being a second semester senior, I just deleted the message not thinking I'd ever have to visit him.

Too soon, I made it to the doors to the office. I've never been in trouble before where I got yelled at by a higher authority so I was nervous. Actually nervous might be an understatement. I was scared out of my mind. What if my dean sides with Mr. Creed and decided to expell me from NYU? My parents would be so dissapointed and that would be so humiliating.

Taking a deep breath, I open the office door. When I do there are two middle aged women sitting behind desks and looking at me.

The woman with the brown hair says, "are you Ashley Gold?" I am too nervous to speak so I just nod my head, "Okay, Mr. Avery is waiting for you in his office. It's the door on the left and if you would like some advice- be very polite because I hear you are in a lot of trouble."

Again, I nod my head and walk to the door. I open it and keep my eyes on the door until I shut it again behind me. I take another deep breath and look towards the man sitting behing the desk. Our eyes meet and I almost forget how to breath.

"Ash? What the hell are you doing here?"