Your POV
For our final year, everyone was required to take language as a secondary course. Me being the last minute ass that I am, left it to the last minute to decide and input my choice. Everyone had filled up the popular languages such as French, Spanish, German and Latin, leaving only one choice for me, Russian.
In the beginning when Russian was first introduced in school, everyone swamped to attend because of how hot the teacher was. Slowly, when they realised she was strict and gave no leniency, the participation rate dropped. The only remaining few either already knew Russian or were absolute nerds.
Before I entered college, the seniors I knew told me to be aware of her and that she's not one to be messed with. There were a lot of rumours circulating around her. She was notorious for making your life a living hell just because of one small mistake. She was like the predator who never let go of her prey's tail once she bit onto it.
"I did remind you to choose early." Wanda, who was my roommate, said. She managed to get into the French course which everyone wanted to get into. They had pre-admission exercises to complete before they were allowed to enter.
"I know... I know..." I was busy playing Call of Duty to care about the application deadline. It was easy to get into the Russian course since there were only a few applicants. It was probably time to buck up since I don't know a single Russian word and it would be good if the teacher was this strict.
"You better go to sleep. Your class starts in the morning." Wanda advised. She has always been organised and I'm glad she's my roommate, the amount of times I have avoided being late thanks to her was uncountable.
"Got it..." I was finishing up my last round of COD in bed.
—
"Wake up!" I felt someone shaking me. "You're late. You should have been out by now!"
"Huh? What? I didn't hear the alarm!" I got up in shock. I quickly washed myself and scrambled for my things and placed them in my bag before dashing out.
I opened the lecture hall and everyone looked at me. Before I was able to say anything. "Y/N is it? Stay back after class." Professor Hill was standing at the bottom of the theatre. Great, this is going well.
"Yes, Professor Hill." I silently took my seat and took out my textbook, data analytics
First day, first class of the semester and it's already going downhill. It's like a foreshadowing.
At the end of the class, I went to the front of the lecture theatre to meet Professor Hill. "Since you're late today, you'll be presenting this set of data tomorrow." She showed me the raw data on her laptop that needed to be sorted and analyzed into graphs and give a conclusion.
"Got it Professor Hill, sorry for being late." She nodded towards the door, signalling for me to leave to allow the next batch of class to enter.
I let out a sigh as I left the lecture hall, why do I feel this is going to be a tough semester ahead? I looked at my timetable that I set as my lockscreen. "Shit! I'm late for my next class." I groaned before starting to run again.
The whole day is filled with me running for my next class, whose great idea was it to build language in the next building? I was panting when I reached the Russian classroom. It was not a lecture hall due to its class size and it was located at the far end of the hall.
I ran into the room that was half filled, making an entrance once again. I pushed my messy hair back and kept bowing until I took a seat. "You're having detention after class." She spoke in a strict teacher's voice. There it was, the terror strikes on me. I am the chosen one for this year.
"Yes Professor Romanoff." I was still struggling to get my breath back from the intense running. It was probably time to get back to exercising. It was then that I thought about her words again... detention? I'm- I'm getting detention?
I was looking at Professor Romanoff with my mouth ajar when she spoke to me again. "Do you want extra detention? Do I have to remind you to get your books out?"
I shook my head hastily. "Sorry Professor."
Like I said earlier, the class is filled with people actually knowing Russian or smart enough to learn Russian in a matter of seconds. The books don't help if I can't find what I'm supposed to read. It's filled with weird symbols that I don't understand.
She started her lesson and I furrowed my eyebrow trying to listen to what she was saying. It was very demotivating not understanding a single word and not being able to get any help. The lesson progressed and she started calling students to answer questions that were on the workbook.
Students answered one by one as I was busy counting which one I was going to have to answer. My workbook was still empty, not being able to answer a single question and not having the time to copy down the answers presented.
"Y/N, question 21."
I counted the question correctly but I had only managed to translate a few letters. "R- rain... rainbow? Raining?" Guessing the letters at the back.
She slammed the whiteboard before dropping her hands to the side. "It seems like you need one-on-one lessons."
Oh no... Being in class is already bad enough, being alone with her is going to be worse. Someone please save me...
---
Everyone left the classroom and it was only the Professor and I in the classroom. Since it was detention, I continued doing my work, I had lots to catch up from the lesson earlier. I just remembered I needed to text Wanda and tell her that I'll be back late. She invited me for lunch but it seems like it's not happening today.
"You're getting another detention tomorrow."
I looked up at her in shock. "What?"
"For using your phone during detention."
I huffed and rolled my eyes. So this was what they meant by making your life a living hell. It's only the first day and I have two detentions. I muttered a string of curse words under my breath as I returned to my work.
Suddenly a stack of papers appeared on my desk. I looked at her before looking back at the papers. Oh no...
"To be completed by tomorrow before your detention begins. You can leave now."
There it is... The never ending stream of her work to be done. I screamed internally before returning a smile to her. "Got it Professor Romanoff."
---
Once I got back to the dorm room, I dropped my bags and books on the table before screaming at the top of my lungs. Wanda, who was taking a shower in the bathroom, rushed out thinking I was in danger.
"What? What?" She looked around the room and saw no sign of danger, only me, who was glaring at her. "Stepped off with the wrong foot?"
"I don't want to talk about it. How did yours go?"
"It was good. Fun and interactive."
"The only things I got out of mine were detentions and extra work." I sighed and started taking out my laptop to get ready to work.
"You know anything about data analytics?" I ran the analysis app as I asked Wanda.
"Don't ask me. You're under the business course, I'm under the humanities course. I know nothing about it."
I roughly created the graph and jotted down a couple of sentences about what I can infer from it, the trend, forecast and overall outlook. Professor Hill should be okay with it, afterall, it was only the first lesson. Don't expect anything fancy out of me. Not even if I was already graduating.
Time to tackle Russian. I looked over at Wanda, she shrugged her shoulders before getting to bed. Lucky her, finishing her homework in a breeze. I sighed and turned on the desk lamp before starting to translate the stack of paper.
My brain was shutting down as I was halfway done. I groaned and ruffled my hair as I felt like giving up. I wanted to slam my hands on the table, but not wishing to wake Wanda up. I glanced at the clock, 3.32am. I better go to sleep, else I'll be in deeper shit tomorrow morning in Mr Roger's gym class.
After his class, it was data analytics again before it was Russian. Data analytics was still alright, there were mistakes where Professor Hill pointed out, but overall, there weren't any major problems.
Russian, on the other hand, there was definitely work to be done. Unfortunately for me, this was her and my last lesson so I was stuck with her without a breather. It got me thinking, who was her target last year and how many days in a row did they have to suffer with her?
In her one-on-one lesson, she was going through how to identify the alphabets, vocabs and grammar but she's sitting way too close to me. Why can't she teach at the whiteboard?
"это не то, как ты это делаешь, котенок."
What? What did she just say?
"Subject verb agreement, it works in Russian too." I just nod, not truly understanding how Russian works yet. She went through the papers I managed to finish and gave it back to me after. I have to say, I was surprised at the speed she marked my papers.
"Don't just use google translate. They are not accurate." She returned my papers filled with red crosses.
"Finish the rest and see me tomorrow." Professor Romanoff dismissed me. I quickly packed my things and left, not wanting to give her a chance to hold me back further.
---
"Wanda.... I can't do this anymore... Surely this is abuse...." I cried on Wanda's shoulders. This has been going on for weeks and I have been forced to see her everyday, where has my college life gone?
"Just skip tomorrow then." Wanda suggested.
"No!" I lifted my head from her shoulder. "It's going to pile up and it's going to give her an excuse to add more. I can't do it anymore."
I sighed and got back to my desk, all the loose papers were for Russian class, I'm just so tired and I don't want to continue anymore.
"Don't stress yourself." Wanda placed a comforting hand on my shoulders before turning off the lights. I started being able to recognise a few Russian words but I was still unable to form the sentence she said in our first one-on-one lesson.
Stretching from my horrendous posture, it came to my attention that it was already morning. I shot up from my desk and packed my books. "Wanda! Why didn't you tell me it was morning!"
"I did! You made some noise so I thought you finally took my advice and was going to skip class."
"Hell no!" I rushed out of the dorm to class.
Surprisingly, Professor Romanoff didn't mention anything as I took my seat. Sleep, however, was knocking on my door as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I just need to get through this, I told myself, I can't fall asleep in her class, anyone's class but hers.
I took long, deep breaths as sleep creeped towards me. Doodling on the book was the only method keeping me awake.
"Y/N, are you okay?" She asked when class ended and we were packing to leave.
"Yes Professor Romanoff, I'll see you at the end of school."
In data analytics class, I chose the seat at the back, hoping that my laptop is able to cover the fact that I was closing my eyes. I placed my phone on record so I could check back later, but I was really struggling keeping my head up.
I took whatever chance I got to rest my eyes, in between class, break and even recess. The more I rested, the more tired I felt. You could see the bruise marks on my arms and thighs as I pinched myself trying to stay awake.
Natasha POV
Y/N was off the entire lesson, her eyes were not paying attention. I didn't say anything but I was going to ask her again after school.
"Professor Romanoff?" I lifted my head thinking it was her but it was another student coming to ask for help on the recent work.
"Come in." I was going through the method of answering the comprehension when Y/N came into the room, seeing that I was tending to another student, she sat on one of the tables quietly. He asked another question, grabbing my attention once again. He asked a few more questions before being satisfied with his queries.
My eyes drifted to Y/N after seeing him leave. She had her head down with her arms crossed. I lifted her arms slightly to get the papers from underneath and went through them. She is improving but it's really not enough to meet the passing mark of the class, granted it is a tough subject to learn.
"Took you long enough." I said when Y/N finally sat up.
"What?"
"Here, I marked them while you were sleeping, you still need to buck up."
"I have enough of this! I'm just so fucking tired attending your lessons and having to go for extra class everyday. I barely have any time to sleep and my other grades are suffering because of your class." She suddenly snapped.
"I know you like to pick on students, but you're not going to succeed with me!" She took her bag and left, leaving the papers behind.
I may have gone too far with my approach.
Your POV
I couldn't stand it anymore and shouted at her, I never felt this boost in confidence before, probably due to the lack of sleep.
"Wanda! Wanda!" I shouted for her as soon as I entered the dorm room even though I could see her right there. "You won't believe what just happened."
She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. "I just told her off! I told her I couldn't stand it anymore. And- and I didn't even bring back the papers." I said everything quickly.
"You should have done that earlier."
"Yeah I was being a pussy. I never went against anyone before."
"Well, go to sleep. You look like you need it."
"Yeah." I said yawning, adrenaline draining off.
The next morning, Wanda woke me up with a surprising news. "What?" I rubbed my eyes, not ready to wake up yet since I didn't have any more class.
"The announcement board says Professor Romanoff is going to cancel her class for a week due to personal reasons."
I took a second to process it. "WHat?" I sat up fully awake now. "T-that's great. No need to stress out about her now."
"I wonder what it could be about?" Wanda asked, Professor Romanoff was also very famous for being fastidious about her job.
Written on 25 Nov 2021
Posted on 28 May 2022