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Supplementary: September Affirmation (Don't Be Afraid) by Keaton St. James
CHAPTER FOUR —
TRIANGLES
Sierra, who wants to be a lawyer—like Judas—is studying Criminology and Criminal Justice. When the tabloids got a hold of this information, they didn't know what to do with it. They expected Sierra to be doing something decorative like an arts degree or something boring, like business. When she announced she'd be withdrawing from modelling during semesters, the Vogue interviewer asked her what she intended to do with her now free time.
Crime, she said, thinking herself a comedian. Studying it, I mean.
Her statement did not make the spread. Who would've thought? She was very pretty, and criminology could not even begin to approach her beauty. In fact, it goes the other way, into horror, gore. Sierra liked that—wounds, and how they're made. Besides, she spoke six languages other than English: Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Spanish, French, Mandarin. Why would she bother with something as inane as arts or business?
The Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice was a special degree, offered only at Gotham-U. It was selective too, not as much as medicine or pre-law, but Sierra had been surprised at the entry requirements. Then again, Sierra had never had to worry about entry requirements, not once in her entire life—aesthetically, or academically. Her transcript was impressive, her IB score even more so. She had been on the cover of almost every major magazine, she was practically a household name. And, if it had come down to it, she could have done a Judas and played the nepotism card—added the -Wayne to her name, hyphenated and everything.
Luckily, that wasn't necessary. She got her acceptance letter straight from the Gotham-U Centre for Criminology. (Though she did have to wonder whether her celebrity status played a part, even a small one, in her acceptance into the BCrimJus program.)
Sierra was timetabled for five courses this semester. Four of them were for her degree: Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice; Developing Professionally; Homicide; and Victimology. One of them was an elective, for her—Shakespeare and the World. She knew Jason would be studying Shakespeare during his first year, albeit briefly; even if she was barely dipping her foot into the pond of the literary canon, she wanted to at least be able to hold her own in a conversation with him.
Should he ever talk to her again, of course—a possibility that seemed to dwindle more and more by every passing day. What would she even say if he called her back, if he responded to her text messages? If he even read them to begin with?
Romeo and Juliet—not a very happy ending, huh?
God. She can picture it. Jason, clever and quick, Ivy League-educated and having read books Sierra couldn't even dream of, let alone comprehend. Sierra, fumbling, bumbling, stupid and obtuse. The idiot model who can't do anything but stand there and look pretty, be unloveable. I've read Macbeth, she says, bargaining. Everyone has, Jason says back, and laughs. Then he goes back to his school, and his studies, and he leaves Sierra behind. Again.
