Excerpt

"How do you put up with professors like Dr. Puttering?" Kallista threw the papers she was holding to the side and barely held on to them. Rowan was already inside the common room, playing with a pet hedgehog on the far wall. She decided to listen to Kallista and Lachlan with one ear, and continue to listen to the hedgehog with the other. Any conversation about how manipulative (or non-manipulative, according to some people) Dr. Puttering was, was worth listening to.

"You just...do, I guess," Lachlan stated, slightly confused.

"I mean, I know you've have good experiences with her, but Rowan and I haven't, and I don't know about Gwyneira. You give her waht she wants and have no problem with it. When you disagree with her, you're persuasive enough to let her give you an A. I can never get top grades if I don't give her exactly what she wants, even if it goes against my beliefs and she gives us instructions to 'write our own opinion'!"

"I didn't realize you were so studious and such a people-pleaser!" Lachlan playfully mocked.

Kallista took a step backward. Her eyes bore straight through his. She focused only on him and on the hand behind her where she had just brewed a small thundercloud nearly ready to be released. "Never call me a--a people-pleaser again. Never."

Rowan watched Kallista spring up to her room. She thought she caught a glimpse of a silent tear, but with Lachlan facing the other direction and no one else paying attention, she couldn't be sure.

"What do you think, Esquire?" She whispered to her hedgehog. He squeaked back; she lumped in her chair and sighed. "Of course you would say that."

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Afterscene: Excerpt 2

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Professor Millicent Gessamine Puttering

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