Walt Disney Academy ✔

Chapter 22

Esmeralda slapped her head in frustration. She had been reading the same chapters over and over again that her jottings looked more like the text book. Day and night, she'd been studying non stop, daily trips to the library, so much so that the librarians had gotten used to her.

And all for Professor Frollo.

After declining his 'suggestion' on how to ace his course, she'd been noticing a slight downfall in her grades. It wasn't as if she was being too lazy to study or to busy either, but Frollo knew exactly why she wasn't passing the tests.

She had even broken up with Phoebus, cut ties with the dance group, with almost everyone. In utter dejection. And all that was done to pass the stupid course.

Her eyes snapped up to her laptop tiredly and scrolled down on the history of Notre Dame, France.

"You're the first in your class to do that assignment." A cool voice came from behind her. Esmeralda almost jumped out of her skin in surprise. She turned around to see Pocahontas,  a final year Law student and an ex dancer.

"Poca. What are you doing here?"

Pocahontas smiled as she took a seat opposite Esmeralda. "What do you mean? This is a library. I'm simply here to do what every one else does in a library."

Esmeralda slowly put down the lid of her laptop. "Oh."

"Are you OK, Esme?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Pocahontas brought out her own laptop from her bag. "People have kind of started noticing your change in behaviour."

"My change..."

"From the bubbly dancing girl to this moody, dull nerd kind of girl."

Esmeralda sighed. "I'm OK. Thanks for the concern. But I don't really need people worrying about me. I'm cool. I just need to catch up on some school work."

"Really?" Pocahontas smirked. "The Talent Show is coming up in four days. You know you would have loved to do a dance number with the team. Why aren't you interested this year?"

"I'm really too busy this year to do anything..."

"You don't need to lie to me. I know what's up." Pocahontas suddenly turned serious. She leaned closer to Esmeralda. "Your behaviour began the moment you got caught dancing in class by Judge Frollo, am I right?"

Esmeralda's eyes widened. "What are you saying?"

The Indian pulled away and leaned further into the back of her chair, her head turning left and right to ensure that no extra ears were around. When she ensured that they were I deed secure, she leaned back to her course mate. "He asked you to sleep with him didn't he?"

Esmeralda felt herself go pale, even her tongue was numb. "I...I..."

"I knew it." Pocahontas frowned. "And now he's failing you because you refused?" She didn't even wait for a response thus time. "I am right. And now you're shutting yourself out from the world because you feel like you can pass this on your own?"

"Poca, stop this. I am not failing. The professor didn't ask me for anything. I read because I have to."

"Why are you pretending. I expected you to be stronger than this. Don't tell me that you're going to go gloomy without a fight."

"Oh God. Look, Poca..."

"Esmeralda. You aren't the only one here. That bastard has made a move on almost every girl that has ever crossed this Law Department. Ask Jasmine. Jas just got lucky because of her father. That man is such a paedophile!"

Esmeralda breathed. Her shoulders slumped. "Well, now you know. But nothing can be done. I've been failing all my quizzes with him. No matter how hard I try. I'm just so confused..." she looked up. Suddenly, she remembered that Pocahontas was in her final level but was still offering a second level course.
"Pocahontas? Were you also a victim of Frollo?"

"I still am." She huffed. "That man doesn't quit. Even after three years."

"Why don't you report him then?"

"The same reason why you're not reporting him. That man is highly influential. Mr. Mickey will never believe us. To get rid of him, we need to gather up enough girls who had been victims for witnesses." Pocahontas sadly shook her head.
"But just like you, many of them are to scared to come out clean. It's not so easy to identify them."

"But, most of them will have to be taking his course. He harasses only his students. Am I right?"

"Wrong. It's just that his students have no other option because he handles our results. Those days, it was poor Anastasia Romanov, then there was Vanessa Urchin. I hear that he's now on to Megara, that Grecian girl. He's just awful."

"Well, those students are enough to be witnesses."

"How many of them do to u think care? It's only two of us, Esme."

Esmeralda opened her mouth to speak but what seemed.like saliva choked her throat. Before she knew, tears were strolling down her cheeks. "I'm just tired. I really am. I can't handle this anymore. It's super frustrating."

Pocahontas reached out a hand touched her coursemate's. "No need to cry. At least you finally admitted to what has been eating you. We will work this out together. We'll gather up all the poor girls who were put in this terrible condition. Alright?"

Esmeralda nodded, trying to wipe her face with her purple scarf. "Thank you. Thank you very much. I needed someone to confide in."

"No worries. OK? Now. Let's get done with this his stupid assignment. We'll surely fail but at least it's worth a shot."

Esmeralda laughed at that, feeling good that at least, she could smile.