Habibet Albi (Incomplete)

Chapter 15: Pinky Promise

"Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little" - Holley Gerth"

PHOENIX HAD NEVER received a grade lower than an eighty in her entire life. When she saw the C plus written in red ink her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach. A loud involuntary gasp escaped her lips; consequently she earned many stares. Some tossed disdainful looks over their shoulders to which she shot them the most formidable glare she could produce. As expected they were daunted by it and shifted their attention back to the front of the room. She never understood why other people jumped at the opportunity to judge someone they didn't even know.

Glancing back at the embarrassingly low grade, she tried to understand what she could have done wrong to get such a subpar grade. English had always been one of her strengths, which came as naturally to her as breathing. Beside each paragraph there were small scribbles of writing, it looked like her professor had wrote it with his foot rather than his hand. Each comment felt like individual blows to the stomach. On the last page he wrote that she had a "passive voice" and the story was "excruciatingly derivative". That was not what she wanted to read. Her essay could not have possibly been that terrible. Throughout all of middle and high school she had been commended by her teachers for her "exceptional" as most said, writing abilities. All of the indisputable confidence she had in her writing had melted like snow, as she tried desperately to grasp it as it slipped through her fingers.

The man who until this moment she knew as Professor Franco, she now preferred to call him Professor Fuckface. She knew how immature that was to aim animosity towards someone who was probably giving her constructive criticism, but in that moment she didn't care. As he spoke, he used many hand gestures and she wondered if he was Italian but his last name was Portuguese. Why did she care what ethnicity the asshole was?

Look at him with that stupid smug expression permanently etched into his chiseled face. I bet he thinks he's all that just because he has a doctorate in literature... what an astronomic douchebag. He has the audacity to call my writing derivative when he's just another loser with too much mousse in his hair, who surreptitiously sleeps with his students. Professor Thotumus Prime, you are the quintessential archetype. Just mad that I am one of the few female students he hasn't nailed yet. Misogynistic bastard.

"What was that, Ms. Espinosa?" Professor Fran-Douchebag asked in feigned attentive regard. The twitch of his lips betrayed him. The girls in the row in front of her giggled.

Shit! I said that aloud. Phoenix had an overwhelming urge to slap that damn smirk off his face. He wasn't worth the aggravated assault charges and lifetime of unemployment. Being the mature adult she had to be, she suppressed her newly birthed aggression. She straightened her slouched back and pressed her lips together, curling them into a strained smile that dripped with artificiality. She could feel the prying scrutiny return on her, singeing her skin. Suddenly, the faux leather jacket she wore that she purchased on sale at Marshall's, felt like it was composed of flames. Profusely, sweat poured from her armpits, a physiological reaction to anxiety she loathed.

Loudly, she cleared her throat and licked her dry lips. "Nothing just coughed." She lied, her stomach bunched and heart race accelerated whenever she did.

A patronizing smile curved his thin-lipped mouth. "I thought so. With your recent grade I highly recommend you withhold any snide remarks. If you have concerns or comments express them to me at the end of class." He smugly suggested, the insolent tone of his voice were like nails being hammered into her skull.

Phoenix thought her hostility towards him had reached its maximum capacity. She felt like she was on the verge of having smoke billow out of her ears like a cartoon character. How dare he humiliate her in class before all her peers. He did not have to like her, but she deserved respect. Once class concluded she was going to give him a piece of her mind. His position of authority had lost its significance the instant he said that. If she had to she would switch her professor. Worst case scenario she would transfer schools.