Only Mine

Chapter 8

I was filled with dread as I walked into my Accounting class. Professor Karl was one of those teachers who called upon unsuspecting students and then subtly ridiculed them when they couldn't answer his unreasonably tricky questions. I had already gotten off on the wrong foot with him on my first day and the past few weeks had done nothing to elevate my image in his eyes. I tended to sit in the last bench with Adam, safely out of his direct line of vision, but lately he had been hounding the back-benchers to the point where sitting anywhere in that lecture hall did not make you immune to the barrage of questions.

I hurriedly made my way to the centre of the classroom and sat down beside Adam and Cheryl. Cheryl was from London and was also on a semester abroad program from the London School of Economics. She had a thick British accent that made it hard to understand her at times and she terribly missed the unpredictable rainy weather of her home town. She had taken on Accounting as an added bonus to her heavy course load to earn a degree in Economics. She was level-headed and ambitious and aimed to sit one day on the Board of Directors of the World Bank. The three of us had unintentionally formed a trio due to the fact that none of us were from Paris and had not managed to mingle much with the natives.

Cheryl made her  way towards me and Adam and reluctantly sat down on the seat next to me. 

"Ella, sitting with you is never a good idea," Cheryl said.

 

"Why?" I asked.

"Professor Karl has a particular tendency of picking on you. After playing russian roulette with you, he tends to target me next. Or Adam," she said.

I laughed at that logic but unfortunately conceded to her line of reasoning. I had been picked numerous times to answer questions over the past several weeks, most of which I had failed to answer accurately. After a precisely aimed condescending remark, he generally moved on to victims in my vicinity. I had gotten used to being the class piñata when it came to this particular lecture, but Cheryl was still coming to terms with a professor not favoring her.  

"Okay. But you always seem to have the right answers. So, does it really matter?" I said.

Cheryl turned to look at me directly with her bloodshot eyes. She looked exhausted with heavy bags and dark circles lining her eyes. "I am an Economics student yet I seem to be spending more time studying Accounting, which ironically adds absolutely nothing to my overall GPA," Cheryl said.

 

"You could just . . . not study," Adam piped in, as if the solution was so easy. 

"I have an insatiable need to overachieve. If I could find a way to stop this, don't you think I would have by now," Cheryl huffed.

Adam discreetly rolled his eyes at her dramatic response while Cheryl frantically arranged her comprehensive notes and multi-colored highlighters over her table. I contained my laughter at having two seemingly polar opposite people as friends. The three of us sat quietly with our heads firmly down to avoid detection and paid attention to the staccato voice of Professor Karl.