Wonderfall

Opia

Lauren's POV

Opia (n.): the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can make you feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.

It was absolutely amazing how unpredictable life was, how everything changed in the blink of an eye. In a moment, you looked around you and perceived things in a way, but you wouldn't need more than a heartbeat to realize that everything you had seen seconds ago had already changed completely.

"I wanted to jump off my seat when you told her that," Normani said with all the excitement of the world as we walked to The Village. "Girl, you should've seen Cabello's face! You didn't even see it, did you?" She asked, holding my arm and almost shaking me.

"But I did!" Keana showed up out of nowhere, interfering in our conversation. "Man, she was a total bitch."

"Who was a bitch?" Drew joined us, wrapping his arm around Normani's shoulder, the girl holding herself back not to faint. "Wait, let me guess... Camila Cabello?"

"Bingo!" Normani said, her tone a mixture of indignation for our professor's attitude and excitement for Drew's presence. "You really did warn us."

"Indeed," Drew nodded, sure of himself. "What did Frozen do this time?"

"Frozen?" I finally spoke, but I scolded myself inwardly for asking something related to her.

"That's what she's called around here. Frozen. Harvard's coldest woman," The blonde boy explained as he ran his fingers through his hair. "What did she do to you anyway?"

Harvard's coldest woman? On one hand, the adjective seemed to perfectly describe my professor, the woman who half an hour ago had humiliated me in front of the entire class. On the other hand, that didn't make any sense regarding the woman who had been absolutely polite and charming a week ago. I didn't know what bothered me the most: the fact that she was completely paradoxical or the fact that this bipolar behavior of hers was leaving me deeply distressed. After all, she was just a professor with an odd attitude.

"Oh, nothing," I replied, trying to change the subject, but Normani wouldn't let go.

"Nothing? Are you for real?!" Normani eyed me with exasperation. "She humiliated Lauren out of the blue in the middle of the class. She said her lines were terrible. Your straight lines look like curves and your curves look like worms," Normani repeated what Camila had said, trying to imitate the annoying sound of her voice but ending up sounding more outraged than anything else.

I would have preferred she hadn't done it. The simple mention of it made me feel all the awkwardness and humiliation I had felt in class. I felt frustrated by the exaggerated loop of the subject. I knew she was a bitch who treated her students poorly after being so sweet a week before and...

"Holy shit!" Drew exclaimed. "She ONLY did that to Lauren?" He asked, seemingly surprised for the first time.

"That's right. No one knew why. Lauren's drawing was the best, I saw everybody else's. I don't get why she did it, but Lauren came out on top. I almost gave her a standing ovation," Keana said, getting excited.

Neither did I, I thought.

"She's always rude to everyone. But to one student in particular? That's new," Drew spoke, using a mysterious tone.

"Let me tell you from the beginning..."

For the next five minutes, Normani told him absolutely everything that had happened and I just wanted to pick up my pace to arrive at The Village so I could eat and go to the next class. But the quicker I wanted to walk, the more interested they seemed to be in the subject and the less they wanted to hurry up.