That night I did, in fact, sleep on his couch. From that day on, I'd lived in his house, gone with him to school, and basically everywhere else I needed to go. I ended up singing on the street corner with a guitar I found in his storage closet. Though, as soon as I got enough money, I bought my books. A lot of rumors spread throughout our class, then most of the university, being that I got a ride from the professor every day. To add to that, I was getting the best grades of the class. Many people accused me of cheating or something close to it. It was relieving as time neared the end of the school year. I passed my exams very easily and graduated his class. The last day before vacation was one to remember, unfortunately.

I was sitting under my favorite tree outside of the university, waiting for Dr. Jones to finish up. I tossed a ball up and caught it. I keep repeating the movement out of boredom. I tossed the ball again, but it didn't come down, so I looked up.

"Excuse me, Ms. Markus," it was that snotty little girl that 'shared' her books with me the first day, "I just have a question, before I never have to see you again. Are you happy about cheating your way through your first year of college?"

"Cheating?" I repeated as if I didn't hear her correctly.

"Yes, cheating," she said, "I heard you live with the professor. I bet he did all your work for you." She had a look on her face that showed pure hate.

"Look," I said impatiently, "It's not my fault I live with Dr. Jones. Hell, I sleep on the couch. Every assignment he has given me I've done completely on my own. The closest thing to help he's given me was letting me borrow a book, before I bought mine."

"Yeah, sure," she said, "You just happen to get perfect scores on everything and Dr. Jones does nothing to help you." I have never liked high-pitched sarcasm.

"Yes," I said, "Now will you please give me my ball back. The damn thing cost me five dollars." I stood up and reached for my ball.

She pulled the ball out of my reach. "I doubt you sleep on the couch," she said accusingly, "I bet you sleep with him."

"Oh, is that what your problem is?" I asked, "Lord…how old are you?"

"Nineteen," she said quietly.

"Oh my goodness," I muttered, shaking my head, "He's a bit old for you, Hun. Now, please give me my ball back." I didn't reach for it, I just held out my hand.

"You didn't deny it," she said. She held up my ball in front of my face. "You want it, go get it, bitch." She threw it a full ten feet away.

I sighed and turned to go get it. I wasn't in the mood to fight with her. I wasn't the type to start fights anyway. "I didn't sleep him," I said tiredly.

As soon as I passed her, she yanked my head back by my long ponytail and I slammed against the tree. I fell down, clutching my head, with my back against the trunk. I looked up at her, but she made no other move to harm me.

"Please leave me alone," I said, "I have nothing good to say about this country yet, and you're just making it worse." I stood again, one hand to the back of my throbbing head.

She looked confused at first. "Why don't you fight back?" she asked, her tone was still insulting.

I went to retrieve my ball. "I don't think that violence ever solves much," I said, "and I don't pick fights with kids especially."

She made some noise that said she was insulted. "Clark!" she called, I guess it was her boyfriend, "Come over here for a second."

I turned around just in time to see a large boy run up to her. I didn't want to stick around for tea and cookies. I doubted that was what this was about. I ran for the university, stuffing my ball in my pocket.

Space in time…dun dun duh!

I never understood the glares I got on my first day. Maybe it was that I never wore a skirt, always pants. Maybe it was that I looked darker than everyone else did. Maybe it was the fact that I was new by itself. I never knew. I did know that the glares became more frequent, and for that, I knew why. Every girl in that class that had thoughts in their head about some relationship with the teacher was jealous that I got to live with him. I realized that after that little encounter. I realized that actually after I woke up in the school's dumpster.

My head hurt badly, and I realized soon after waking that my lip was bleeding. "Son of a bitch," I muttered, remembering that guy…Clark, was his name? If I ever see that bastard again, he's in for it. So much for non-violence. This made another thought pass through my head. Did Dr. Jones leave already? How long had I been out?
I tried to get out of the dumpster too quickly. The thing almost fell over, so I fell back in. "Damn," I muttered under my breath. How did a kid do this to me? I slowly pushed myself up and out of the trash can. "Now, to find my teacher," I said to myself.

I made my way to the parking lot, still holding my head. The sky was quite a bit darker than when I last remembered it. I saw his car was still in its place as before. I gave a sigh of relief and went to go into the school building.

"Al?" I heard from a distance. Some one was looking for me, and I guessed it was the professor. "Alexandria!"

"Jones!" I called and ran in the direction of his voice. "Dr. Jones?"

Soon I saw him come around a corner behind me. He was again wearing his fedora, having forsaken his reading glasses. He heaved a relieved sigh when he saw me. "I've been looking all over for you," he said, "Are you okay?"

"So much concern?" I asked, "Were you really that worried about me?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "You're bleeding," he observed, "Where were you?"

"If you had been looking everywhere, and it had included the trash cans, you'd have found me," I replied, wiping the blood off my mouth, "Hey can I call you Indiana, now that school's out?"

"Do what you want," he said, "I'm not your dad. Come on, let's go home."

Space in time…dun dun duh!

I had gotten quite comfortable with sleeping on the couch. Indiana had put a blanket out for me, and a pillow. I always slept on top of the blanket, though. And I always sleep with my knees pulled up to my chest an my arms wrapped around them. I was always happy to come home and know that I had a bed there. It just made me feel wanted. The only other place I had been wanted was in the attic of the library back in Cairo. Anyway, I still had my bed there before I took a shower. Indy and I came to an instant agreement that the smell of a dumpster was not one that would stay in the house.

I took a freezing cold shower in the small bathroom of the house. Damn the lack of a water heater. Well, it was better than nothing. One more annoyance I found when I got out. I reached for my face cream. What? It's not there! I got dressed angrily and went to the living room still drying my hair.

"Indiana, where the hell's my face cream," I said as I walked down the hall. I was silenced when I got to the living room. There was more than one man in the room. One man had a snake, one man a knife, both were threatening Indy. "Oh, shit," I muttered as all three looked up at me.