Professor, Professor || BWAM

the fourth.

Neruda University School of Law

Jurisprudence and Legal Theory 201

Room A17 - Dr. Zaain Kazem

10:20 am

1st day of class - 17 weeks of the semester remaining

I could've filled an encyclopedia-sized book with all the notes I've taken in the past hour. Kazem is definitely a talker. I don't know how in the world he expects his students to ingest all of this information on the first day. It also doesn't help that the whirring A/C never shuts off, making the room hospital-cold.

"Can anyone tell me who the father of jurisprudence is?" Kazem looks around the room expectantly.

A girl who had her strawberry blonde hair scraped back into a high ponytail raised her hand high, "John Austin." she said with a pleased grin.

Even though I couldn't see Kazem's full face, I could still tell that he scowled under his mask, "Hmm. And what's your name, young lady?"

"Destiny. Destiny Maddock, sir."

"Good god," he huffed, rubbing his tired eyes between his thumb and index finger, "If you're not capable of reading the material in full beforehand, I suggest that you drop this class or a passing grade will not be your destiny. Anyone else?"

He turned to scan the room for any brave souls, but no one seemed to have a degradation kink or the gall to raise their hand.

And even if they did say the correct answer, Kazem never seemed to be fully satisfied.

He blew out a disappointed breath, "No one? Wow, what a promising group I have this year. Moving on to chapter fif-"

"Bentham." The name hopped out of my mouth before I could even think to part my lips.

Everyone's eyes snapped to me, especially Kazem's.

Might as well continue now, I've already said it.

I looked over to Destiny, "John Austin was his student and furthered his studies, so I see where you were coming from. However, Bentham is the father of jurisprudence."

"Right..." Kazem groaned, "thank you Miss Grad Student but how about we let the people who paid thousands to be here answer, hmm?" his voice lowered as he glared down at me, "Besides, kissing ass won't get you a letter of recommendation nor will it insure your position. Chapter fifteen, everyone!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Kazem?" A man with a smattering of discordant freckles splattering his face raised his hand.

"Doctor Kazem." Kazem corrected.

"Sorry. Dr. Kazem, I have a question."

"Sure, interrupt my instruction. I didn't feel like teaching today anyway."

Freckles continued with caution, "Sorry, it's just...can you re-explain parliamentary sovereignty again? It wasn't quite clear when you-"

"No." Kazem said flatly, "So, in chapter fifteen we begin to talk about-"

"Parliamentary sovereignty is when the state has absolute power and the rulings of parliament cannot be challenged against by any norm of justice, ethics or even morality. So they basically can do whatever they want and their citizens must abide by it and quite literally nothing can stop them."

Freckles thanked me and several people started jotting in their notebooks.

Dr. Kazem turns to me, "Maybe instead of applying to be a teacher's assistant, you should've just applied to be a teacher, since you seem to want to take my place so badly."

"Maybe. I mean, someone has to do your job." I said louder than intended.

He chuckled pompously, "I beg your pardon?"

"How do you expect anyone to learn when you're racing through a semester's worth of information on the first day of class?"

A tiny spark of shock flashed in his eyes like he didn't actually expect me to double down.

He thought that the confrontation combined with his booming voice would make me cower into my notebook. Where do these men get this type of audacity? Is it Amazon?

Hmm. It's okay. He'll soon learn who I am.

He stepped towards my desk, "If you have a problem with how I teach, why don't you just quit? Save us both the headache, hmm?"

Oookay. I see what you're trying to do. I did not travel all these waters and make all of these sacrifices to be disposed of that easily. Hmm, this man thinks he's smart. I'll show him that he's a fool.

"I'm not going anywhere. Your students clearly need a lot of help and quite frankly, so do you, academically and psychologically."

His eyes narrowed, "I am a professor at one of the most prestigious law schools in the world, the school that you work for free at! I don't need help from anyone outside of the philosophers in our textbook, much less from you. Few students have a problem navigating my course, and the ones that do, simply drop. I have some of the highest student retention percentages that this school has ever seen."

"Hmm, okay," I stood up, "Who here is confused about what was discussed today?"

Hands started to awkwardly push up in the air, the more fearful of the bunch could barely manage to lift their elbows off of their desks.

I turned to see Dr. Kazem's reaction as he reluctantly scans his classroom.

I gestured to the class, "Look around! Everyone's half asleep, their notebooks are damn-near empty because you jump from topic to topic like a monkey jumps from vine to vine. I mean, even when one student asks for clarity you embarrass them, is it by force? And you consider yourself a distinguished professor?"

"I don't appreciate being talked to like that in my own classroom, young lady. If you have such an issue with my teaching style, why don't you leave and take it up with the dean?"

"Oh, don't worry, I will," I retake my seat, "after class."

Author's Note

Sooo, what are our thoughts about this chapter?

What do you think of Adeola?

How about Dr. Kazem?

By the way, the face claim for Ilya has been added to the 'characters' chapter so go take a look at that and tell me what you think?

Thank you for reading and don't forget to vote!