Jafar rubbed his eyes and sighed as he mentally prepared himself for another class. Night classes were his least favorite. He buttoned up his white dress shirt and straightened into place his new red silk tie. He looked down at his watch; he was already 10 minutes late. He sighed again, he couldn't remember why he became a teacher. Grabbing his briefcase, he headed into the classroom. He placed the briefcase down on the chair and headed to the chalkboard. He reached out his long bony fingers to grab a piece of chalk as he quickly wrote Professor Jafar across the board.
He turned around and crossed his arms. "Hello. I am your Professor, Jafar. As you are quite aware, this is a Marine Biology course. Could you all please introduce yourselves?" He raised his finger and pointed at a woman with bright red hair. "Let's start with you."
Now that Hayden didn't need Ariel's attention 24/7, and Melody was back to school, Ariel decided to take some night classes at a local college. She didn't have any plans to pursue a career, but since she loved learning, she figured it would be nice to take some sort of professional education. When she had looked at the list of classes to take, she knew immediately that Marine Biology was the one for her. Pft, this class would be easy. No other students had lived in the ocean for 16 years. That was a guarantee.
On the first day, Ariel arrived early and found a seat close to the front of the room, though not in the very front. As she waited for the professor to arrive, she pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and texted Eric, letting him know what was going on. Almost as soon as she had finished, a tall, skinny man walked into the room with a briefcase. This must be the professor.
Sure enough, the man introduced himself as Professor Jafar. But what Ariel hadn't been expecting was for him to choose her as the first person to introduce herself. Nevertheless, the redhead cleared her throat and said casually, "My name is Ariel. I'm a princess of Denmark and I have two children." Feeling all eyes on her, she shrugged and slumped down in her seat a bit.
After hearing the girl's unexpected answer, he furrowed his brows in confusion. "Yes, quite an imagination." He muttered to himself as the rest of the class calmly stated their names and such. Jafar really didn't care to hear what the students had to say, but it was protocol. Jafar didn't even want to teach Marine Biology, but he was the only one available.
After the introductions that took much longer than anticipated, Jafar sighed and spoke in a deep voice. "Yes, very interesting." His voice was cloaked in sarcasm that mirrored his boredom. He let out a quiet sigh and started his class. "Now, students. It has come to my attention that the class today is based around fish." He rolled his eyes in hatred of the subject. Jafar didn't care or know anything about Marine Biology, or even fish for that matter.
Jafar reached his arm up to bring down the projection screen. After a lot of unnecessary struggling, it stayed in place. He reached into his pocket to retrieve a remote to the power point. With a click of the button, it began. The first image was of a flounder fish.
"This is the flounder. The average summer flounder weighs between 3 to 6 pounds and is 15 to 22 inches long. Can any of you tell me more about the flounder fish?" His eyebrows were raised, but his eyes were hardly open. He didn't have a care to give.
Ariel heard the professor's mumbled response to her answer, and she rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms over her chest. Well, this is going to be a long class. What fun was learning about something if the professor was totally uninterested in the subject itself?
However, at the mention of the "flounder fish," Ariel's mood brightened. She knew so much about Flounder! They had grown up together! But.. he wasn't referring to Flounder Flounder, he was referring to flounders as a whole. And frankly, Ariel wasn't sure exactly what to say. Flounder had always been a bit of an outcast among the other fish like him. That's why he and Ariel got along so well.
Nevertheless, Ariel straightened up in her seat and raised her hand, uncaring as to what Professor Jafar's opinion was of her. "Flounders are found in coastal waters, and they can be yellow with blue stripes," she started. "They eat other small fish and crustaceans and they're a type of flatfish," the redhead finished, trying to recall everything Flounder had once told her about fish like him.
Jafar pointed at the girl as she raised her hand. He listened to her answer and was surprised to hear what she said. "Well, yes. That is all correct. Very good." His mood brightened a little bit. When he first stepped into the class, he had no hope for any of the students, especially from her after her introduction story. She showed him otherwise, though. Her answer rang true and he was astonished that someone could actually care to know about flounder fish. He looked at her and a half smile crept onto his face.
"Where did you learn that?" Jafar asked. His curiosity was genuine, and his posture relaxed.
Ariel smirked proudly at seeing Professor Jafar's positive response to her answer. There. Take that. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a brief nod, obviously pleased with herself. First day of class and she had already impressed the professor.
But what she hadn't been expecting was for him to ask her where she had learned all that. Great. Now what was she supposed to say? "Oh, my friend told me! He's a flounder fish. He's my best friend. I was a mermaid for 16 years." Yeah, that would go over perfectly. She had just got on his good side. Saying that would make him think she was full of barnacles.
"I, uh.. I've just been really interested in the ocean for a long time.." she said awkwardly, trying to seem relaxed and content.
Jafar kind of nodded as he turned back to the presentation. He wasn't really sure what he had expected to hear from her, but her answer seemed totally fine. He clicked the button on the remote with his long and bony thumb. The screen changed from a picture of a flounder to a picture of a crab, then an octopus, and so on through the creatures of the sea. For every slide, Jafar had at least one fact, but he wasn't droning through them anymore. Seeing some interest spark in one of his students made him realize that the class really wasn't so awful, even if it wasn't his subject and no one else in the class seemed to care.
This one girl in particular though. She seemed very interested in the ocean and marine life. It made him curious. Not much later after the presentation, the dismissal bell chimed loudly, causing Jafar to wince slightly. He absolutely despised the echoing ring it made. While students were picking up their materials and beginning to leave, he looked to Ariel.
After clearing his throat, he spoke quietly in his deep voice. "Excuse me. Might I have a word with you?"
Not realizing she had been holding her breath, Ariel exhaled when Professor Jafar seemed to accept her response. For the rest of the class, she stayed interested but chose not to participate, even though she knew the answer to almost every question. But she knew that if she had the answer to everything, the professor would most certainly realize there was something fishy going on.
As the class continued, Professor Jafar talked about many different animals, all of which Ariel knew about. He talked about octopi (Ollie), crabs (Sebastian), & orcas (Spot). Next to each entry in her book, Ariel drew a picture of each of her friends.
The class ended for the night, and once the bell rang, Ariel stood and gathered her things, preparing to go home and go right to bed. Who knew that going to school could be so tiring? However, when she heard Professor Jafar call her over, she felt her heart leap to her throat.
"Uh.. Yeah, yeah. Of course," she said, avoiding eye contact as she walked up to him, holding her book against her chest. "Is, um, is there a problem?"
Jafar looked down at the girl since he was much taller. "No, no, no. There is no problem." He smiled and moved his hand up to his goatee. "I was just noticing that you have a very strong interest in my class…. and an artistic talent." he teased. As a teacher, he was aware of her doodling. He didn't see what, but he wasn't upset enough to make a big point of it.
"I called you over because I was curious about you. You hardly seem like the type to be interested in Marine Life." He paused for a moment and placed his hand in his pocket. Remembering the beginning of class, he added, "And what was that bit about you earlier…?" He furrowed his brow, struggling to remember. "Oh yes! The part about you being Princess of Denmark?" he added accusingly.
Ariel repositioned her bag on her shoulder before responding, "Well, um, yes. Yeah, I am." She shrugged, feeling quite awkward. "My husband is Prince Eric. I wasn't making anything up," she scowled.
She took a bit of offense to his first-judgment of her not being the "type" to enjoy the ocean. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him, but instead gave him a small, brief smile. "Like I said, I just really like the sea," she shrugged, refusing to give him any information about her mermaid past.
Jafar could see that she would be stubborn before he had called her up. He also knew that there must be more too her story, he had excellent intuition. "Well, I believe that apologies are in order… Princess." The word sounded weird on his tongue. He didn't quite believe her, but he wasn't about to refute the idea.
Being all that he wanted to say, he looked to her before adding, "That is all. Thank you for your participation." He muttered with a half-smile. His curiosity was beaming, but he surrendered to the fact that she told him all she would, and he began to pack up his things into a small, black briefcase.
"No problem, Professor," she curtly replied with the briefest of smiles. She could tell Professor Jafar was still skeptical of her, but Ariel wasn't going to give away so much information on her first day of class. "You're welcome. I look forward to it." She paused and saw him going over to his own bag. "So, um, I guess I'll see you next time.." she said, taking a step back. She assumed he meant for her to leave.
Jafar looked up from his briefcase and smiled. "Yes. Farewell." He nodded to her and resumed picking up his belongings. Jafar finished packing and held the case tightly in his hand. He walked out of the classroom and shut off the lights. Grabbing the key from his pocket, he locked the door and closed it tightly, replacing the key to where it belonged in his clothes. Jafar walked toward his car and thought about the day as a smile crept onto his face. What a peculiar girl. He thought with a grin.