Forget You ( jenlisa ) (gip)

9

L

One week later...

"Ladies and gentlemen!" My Econ IV professor stood at the front of the classroom. "I want to personally welcome you to a special class called Hell on Earth."

Everyone in class laughed as he hit the lights.

"I'm not joking," he said, his voice terse. The laughter dissolved into silence, and everyone opened their notebooks as he wrote a few words on the whiteboard.

"Hey." The girl on my left cleared her throat, making me look at her.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

She smiled and just stared at me. Then she snapped a picture and left the room.

I held back a laugh.

Definitely a freshman...

"My name is Professor Hughes," my teacher continued. "For the next semester, you need to be prepared to be pushed like never before. My job is to weed out the people who won't make it in business school from the people who might survive a week or two in business school."

He began passing out his syllabus as the screen behind him lit up. The words on the screen read You have until next week to drop my class without penalty. When he reached my desk, he raised his eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"If you want to pass this class, you will need to eat, breathe, and sleep economics. You will have a test every other Thursday, an analysis paper due every Tuesday, and you're responsible for presenting a fifteen-page thesis paper on a topic that I must approve by the fifth of next month. Are there any questions?"

A few people raised their hands.

"None at all?"

More hands flew into the air.

"Very well, then." He smiled and hit the lights. "Class dismissed."

A few students tried to approach him with questions, but he only said, "Class dismissed" repeatedly until they walked away.

I shut my notebook and stood to my feet.

"Ms. Manoban?" He said looking at me. "Can you join me down at the podium for a few minutes?"

"Sure." I made my way down, and he waited until no one else was left in the classroom.

"Ms. Manoban, why are you taking my class this semester?"

"Because I need it to graduate."

"You took the more advanced Econ V last year, and it pained me to give you my first A in six years," he said, smiling. "You'll more than likely breeze through Econ IV, and I'll be forced to give you another one." He tapped his chin. "That might affect my reputation around here as the 'C-plus B-minus professor, and I'm not sure how I feel about that."

I blinked. I could never tell if he was joking or being serious.

"Aren't you double majoring in Creative Writing? Can't you take one of those classes instead of this one for the semester?"

"I've already completed all the required courses for that major," I said, somewhat upset that the rest of my classes for my senior year would be devoid of any writing.

"Tell you what, Ms. Manoban," he said, clapping his hands together. "I'm going to give you an S-grade for this course, which means you don't have to show up, but it comes with two conditions."

"I'd really prefer an A."

"Let me finish. Condition number one: I'm always in charge of overseeing the final logistics of annual senior lodge trip, and I've never once worried about the students who were voted to be in charge of it. This year is the first year that I'm concerned."