Chapter 29: Innuendo
It was a week before Prelim exams and Ariadne was at her full-blown panic mode. She had been trying to bring herself to study a week in advance, but her mastery in procrastination wouldn't let her do so. What troubled her even more was the nine-page reflection paper which she had to write, and she also had to prepare for the oral quiz that would come up some time that week.
She often described her writing style as concise and straightforward. Even though she was good at writing fluff to a certain extent, the reflection paper somewhat through her off of her game. She understood the three books well, and because of her total comprehension of them she would be able to come up with a one-sentence theme for each of them. But no, somehow she had to sprinkle her paper with her colorful vocabulary and she would have to go around the bush until her brain was sucked dry of ideas.
She managed to finish five pages of it. After one of Sir Levitt's condescending lectures, she caught up to him and handed the product of her blood, sweat and tears.
"Sir, I hope you won't mind critiquing my work. I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. "
He skimmed through her paper while she cracked her knuckles nervously.
"Did you write this?"
At first she felt offended because he somewhat implied that she wasn't capable of writing a decent paper. What he didn't know was that Ariadne was very fond of writing, so she has acquired a high level of proficiency in writing.
"Yes, sir. I did. I mean it's just a draft, so I'm really open to changes."
"Alright, thank you Ariadne. It's good to see some of my students take the initiative. Good bye."
"Good bye, sir."
Ariadne felt a surge of pride within her, knowing that her work would somehow exceed his expectations. She knew many of her classmates would resort to copy-paste when it came to lengthly papers. But in her case, writing was just a natural thing for her. She had a passion for it, and this fueled her motivation to produce an awesome paper.
She was waiting outside the Philosophy department faculty room. She was rehearsing what she was going to say to him.
"Pull yourself together, Ariadne. Just get in there and ask for him. If he's not there, it means you're not meant to get back your paper, yet. Yikes, hopefully he's not there."
She was pacing back and forth and was talking to herself like an idiot. It was one of her strange habits when she was perturbed with anxiety.
"Here goes nothing. Just get your business done." She knocked and turned the doorknob. She glided into the room and walked towards Professor Miles. When he looked up, she spoke with utmost confidence in a voice which was barely audible.
"Good afternoon, sir. Is Sir Arthur around?" Her heart began to pound.
"Arthur!" Miles's voice boomed throughout the room. At the corner of her eye, she saw him, sitting at his desk, perusing some document.
"Shit," she thought, "I've caught him in the middle of something." But her legs had a mind of their own. She quickly walked towards his desk and made eye contact. Her voice almost sounded demanding, but with a sense of modesty.
"Hi sir, are you finished critiquing my paper?"
"No I haven't."
Ariadne was a little bit disappointed, but when Arthur pulled a chair beside him, she instinctively sat down and listened attentively.
"It is comprehensive, but somehow it turned out to be a literary piece instead of a reflection paper. I want to see more of you in it."
He was looking at her intently, but her awkwardness caused her to look down most of the time. She did her best to look at him and converse like a normal person.
"Alright, sir. It's just that I'm straightforward and I'm having trouble expanding."
"I can see that. Anyway, just work on expounding. You've got some heavy stuff in your piece and I like how you've put your own personal experiences. It's good, but I know you can make it better."
"Thank you, sir." She stood up as gracefully as she can and made it to the door as quickly as she could.
Before she left, he shouted, "Too bad Sir Dom isn't here. He would've had some good insight."
She laughed her nervous laugh and flashed him an awkward but polite smile. She was walking through the hallway and she heaved a sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding furiously within her chest because she was struggling to keep her body language professional. She didn't want her attraction to him to be a dead give away. To her surprise, his aura of being an impertinent asshole was gone. While she was talking to him, she found a nice attractive guy who didn't have the tendency to degrade other people. It was like all her prejudices disappeared during those few minutes. She made it to the canteen and sat where her friends were. She effortlessly joined their conversation but in the back of her mind, all she could think of was his deep brown eyes that simply drove her insane.
It wasn't easy to control himself while she was sitting only a few feet from him. He sensed her discomfort but he couldn't help but look at her for the whole time she was there. When he had read her paper, he was astounded. Indeed she was a good writer but her paper somehow lacked the emotional substance that he was looking for. But this time he knew without a doubt that her intelligence was tantamount to her beauty. She had shown that underneath her lovely appearance lies a soul yearning for knowledge. For the entire time when he was looking at her, he tried to figure out the paradoxes which made Ariadne her own being. He wanted to ask her so many questions; he wanted to talk to her, get to know her better and find the diamond behind the walls of professionalism and reservations. Arthur had a great amount of self-control, but it was only a matter of time before he would be able to stop himself from taking her as his own.
