4

“I’ll be providing you your previous essays which have been marked by me. Mind you, not by Mrs. Drake.”

Silence dripped in the atmosphere.

Linda nervously gulped. She looked at Rosella and grabbed her hand.

Rosella softly smiled at her and gave her a reassuring grip, silently conveying the words 'it will be alright'.

One by one he started to call out the names.

Some of the students had a depressed look on there faces whilst only some out of the majority looked happy including Linda. She had secured an 83 in her essay.

“Whoever gets below 45 is out.” His thick dense Italian accent ringed around the classroom.

Almost ten of the students left the class with there heads hung low in shame and sadness.

Soon moments after Rosella's name was called.

She walked towards the desk where the hot specimen sat on the chair, more like his very own throne. His eyes scanned her paper before looking up the timid girl who stood infront of her with her hands folded at the front.

Her palms went sweaty all of a sudden as he clutched her wrist tightly.

“Ms. Dankworth?” He rasped out quietly.

Rosella gave him a timid nod. His eyebrow quirked and immediately she remembered the rule, verbal communication. “Yes, sir.” She hastily said.

He handed her paper and went back to what he was doing. His inked fingers writing her marks down on the register.

Her eyes landed on the paper. The red color mocking her back with disgust. Her fingers tightened around the paper almost scrunching it.

The number 48 starring at her.

Rosella had always aced her subjects. She was the one who always studied hard. Books were always her number one priority.

48 sarcastically laughed at her.

She was livid yet sad.

But she wasn't gonna cry over this petty paper. Never.

She knew how much her scholarship was important to her. If her father knew all about this, he would be so heartbroken and she wasn't going to wipe that smile off his face.

Rosella looked up from the paper and her hard glare rested on his face.

Sensing her gaze, Dr. Serafino looked back at her. “Is there a problem Ms. Dankworth?"

“48? Are you even damn serious with me?” She was fuming with anger.

She had gave her best. Even she had spent half of her savings just to research about the so called brain and its stupid functions merged with technology.

“I’d prefer if you’d show some respect Ms. Dankworth.” He stated slowly. His back was now pressed against the leather chair and his hands folded on his lap.

“How could you give me a 48?” Her thoughts were still stuck on the number.

Her reputation was at stake. She was the acer of her batch. Everyone knew she was the girl who got several medals.

“Be grateful I gave you a 48, otherwise you’d fail since your essay was totally off the topic and irrelevant.” He calmly spoke.

The class suddenly became quiet. They were quite interested that Rosella the acer got a very low passing grade.

“It was perfectly fine until you decided to do your stupid grading.” She replied harshly, not caring about the surroundings. If it was Mrs. Drake she would have secured a full.

His jaw clenched.

The professor clasped his hands tighter, itching too slap the little girls face and knock some sense into her.

“Don't be such a brat and accept your flaws. Now go back if you don't want yourself to get kicked out.” He seethed out, his tone was dangerous.

A shiver ran through her spine but she wasn't gonna back out. “No, I wont accept these marks.” She dropped the paper and slammed her hands on the table.

She was angry at herself but more at him.

The atmosphere became suddenly dense as pin drop silence dripped from every corner.

Some students even gasped at her outburst.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, his demeanor changing with every passing minute. This was the first time someone showed such attitude towards him and it was not acceptable.

Bringing the tip of index towards his glasses, he fixed them.

Talking a red marker from the pen holder he snatched the paper from beneath her hands not caring if it got ripped.

She smirked thinking he had finally given in, but what she saw next drained the blood out of her veins.

“Deduction of 40 credit hours from every subject.”

He finally stood up to his full height.

She stumbled back, tears gathering in her eyes. Her heart thumped in her rib cage.

He took his brand new iPhone out of the pocket of his slacks and took a picture of the paper, immediately calling the committee of credit hours, narrating everything to them.

Rosella was gonna cry at any minute. Her hands getting shaky by every passing second.

Ending the call with a stone cold face, his silvery grey orbs starred back at her with blankness. “I hope this will teach you a good lesson of not disrespecting a teacher.” He hissed, venom entangled within the sentence making her shrink back further.

“And if anyone does the same thing, more like question me for my doings, you’ll receive a very harsh punishment. Worse than this.” His orbs flickered back and forth in the class. His posture promising that he was very much serious about all of this.

She took the paper quietly and walked back towards her seat. Linda immediately gave her a sad smile. She didn't expect that Rose was going to burst out like that.

The students gave Rosella mocking glares whilst some snickered and were happy that she finally understood the pain of students who couldn’t pass because she was always too confident. Sometimes she even degraded the people who couldn’t secure more.

“Deserves her right.” One of the girl mocked in a hushed manner making Rose close her eyes in irritation.

She sat on her seat.

Linda placed her hand on hers and gave her a gentle squeeze to which she gave her a half sided smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Her head was hung low. She thought about her father who couldn’t afford a prestigious university. He couldn’t provide the money to her but after she got the scholarship to her dream place in USA, she was determined to leave everything behind, even if it meant her father. Sometimes she was selfish for her own self.

But now she regretted.

The last minutes of the class went by smoothly after the drama.

The bell rang, Rosella hastily packed up her bag, not waiting for Linda, she ran away from the class as tears leaked out of her eyes.

She was disappointed in everything.

But mostly in herself.