Surviving my Scholarship

Pisco Sour

        Eugene, a professor at the school I currently work at as a part time librarian aide, greets me with open arms. He looks out of place with his tweed bowtie, but it doesn't stop quite the crowd from forming around him. Most of them were young, too. He gestures to the group as he pulls me into the circle.

        "Violet, how pleased I am to see you. I am overjoyed to hear that you are trying for the Galloway Scholarship. It will be nice to have a student I actually will enjoy teaching. I have already personally vouched for you and you have my full support," he rambled on with a grin plastered on his face. I smiled at his encouragement.

        "I appreciate it, Eugene," I replied. The group gasped at my comment and I looked around the appalled faces in confusion. They started whispering to each other like school children and I looked to Eugene for answers. He had continued talking about the scholarship paying no attention to the fuse. When he finally noticed, he burst into a stomach shaking laugh.

        "Pay them no attention. They are used to the name Professor Hughes. I believe you have put them in shock by treating me as a commoner and not a beloved and respected educator," he patted me on the back sympathetically. It is then I noticed the cold stare from Pierce within the group. "Now about that research you wanted to talk about, did you bring your notes?"

        Before I could answer there was a hand on my elbow leading me away from the group. I turned and called out to Eugene that Mr. Galloway had it and he nodded saying not to worry we would talk later. When Pierce was satisfied that we were alone, he stopped. I pulled my arm away from him, angered at his behavior.

        "What is wrong with you," I protested turning to head back to Eugene. Pierce placed an arm in my path to block me.

        "What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you," he objected. "How are you on a first name basis with Professor Hughes?" He looked at me like his father had, but it wasn't as penetrating and I simply smirked it off. A server walked by with a tray of blue drinks. He glanced quickly before moving on.   

        "Why do you care," I coaxed.

        "You are supposed to be my date," he said.                        

        "Some date you are," I asserted. "You just abandon me at the bottom of the stairs!"

        "Abandon? Abandon," he shouted. He lowered his voice to a stage whisper when another server passed. "Are you kidding me? I went to put my mother's present down on the table! I was coming right back for you." He looked around before he pushed me up against the wall with his free hand and glared into my eyes. "When I got back to the stairs, you had vanished. Next thing I know, Angel is telling me some wild story about taming you and I see you talking to my professor. Now, how do you know him?"

     "Angel? I met him after meeting Grammy. Now she is quite a character! Anyway, I left him speechless after he kissed me," I started, knowing what was going to play out.

        "What, no, Prof..... wait..... kissed you," he growled. His hand on the wall balled into a fist.

        He let go of me briefly and I took the opportunity to slip into the server's entrance hiding behind the door. The servers inside stared at me briefly before continuing their work as if this happened often. One coughed and I looked over as he pointed to another door. I thanked him. I scurried over and threw open the door to a stairwell. Great.

        "Stairs huh," came a rough voice behind me. I sighed as I turned around to surrender to Pierce. "Don't let me stop you, by all means," he gestured towards the steep death traps. If only I could smack that smirk off his face.

        "I work in the library," I confessed. He was unsure about my statement so I pushed on. "The library on your college campus, the one that holds all the books you don't read. I work there."

        "I know what a library is," he burst out. "What does that have to do with anything?"

        "That is where I met Eugene. He caught me one day trying to solve an equation in a book and well we slowly became friends after that," I looked away at the end. It wasn't anything to be embarrassed about, but I felt like it doesn't happen often.

        "That's it," he complained. "You weren't secret lovers or something?" I nearly choked on my own spit.

        "What were you looking for gossip," I argued back.

        "Not gossip, worm. I figured there was something more to it than a math equation. God I've even done those," he fought back.

        "Again with the insults," I pushed him slightly knocking him into a server who had some type of tart on the tray. Had being the key word, they were now all over the floor. One landed nicely on Pierce's head. I turned to head back into the ballroom planning on spending the rest of my shortened time there with Grammy. As soon as Mr. Galloway and Mrs. Galloway made their appearance I would be leaving by taxi if need be.

        As I burst through the door, I nearly missed running into Mr. Galloway. He turned running his hand through his hair. He smiled down at me as recognition kicked in and he pulled me aside so the cake could come out. The massive delicious looking four layer cake that probably weighed the size of me. Each layer was decorated in the lightest frosting this planet has ever seen. I actually whimpered as it passed by me without even a small morsel of a taste.

        "Have you seen Pierce," he shook me out of my cake fantasies. I couldn't help but glare up at him.

        "He's in there with the rest of the tarts," I grumbled. "Don't like things usually stick together."

        He smiled down at me before turning and pushing into the server's station. I turned and headed back out to Grammy hoping to get a small bite of cake if the dress allowed. Sweet, delicious cake here I come. As I neared Grammy, I couldn't help but smile. She somehow had all these men around her fetching her various things. She waved to me as I approached.

        "Just in time for some cake," she turned to a golden blonde man who nodded before running off after cake. "Slower than other guys but an eligible bachelor none the less." She winked at me.  I looked down at her in concern.

        "How did you get ALL these guys to wait on you," I reluctantly questioned.

        "I told them I would introduce you," she replied as if it was no big deal. I groaned as I took a seat next to her. "Miles, Maxx, Game, Nickolette, and Wes, this is Violet. Violet this is Miles, Game, Nickolette, and Wes."

        "You forgot me," one red eyed older one whined. "I'm Maxx." He winked at me with a dashing smile.

        "Violet, where did you run off to," came a voice overhead. "Meet me by the cake. I know you can't resist it." I blushed as I made my way through the crowd towards the looming cake in the middle and back to Pierce. How is it possible that he can make me hate the idea of cake?