Chapter 4

The next day, Monica once again sat in her office at her desk. Ever since her assignment started, she was having trouble finding the opportunity to leave it and spend time with Anna. The college wasn't too large, but she had enough students under her care who were keeping her busy. For instance, just that day she had to file ten requests to drop a class, help three students work out problems with their professors, and guide five students on how to go about applying for internships during the coming summer. While she could watch over Anna in angel form after she closed down the office, she couldn't think of a way to go to her during the day. So she went to plan B.

"Hello, Anna. Good to see you again," Monica greeted

The young woman walked into the office with her messenger bag over her shoulder. Approaching the desk, but not sitting down, Anna replied, "Hi, Monica. You said in your email that you wanted to help me apply to internships. And, while I appreciate the advice on my resume…I think I'm okay on my own."

"Then why did you come to see me? You could have easily said that in a reply email," Monica pointed out, hoping the question would lead to a meaningful answer.

Instead, Anna shrugged and answered, "I had class in this building anyway. It was no trouble for me to stop by for a minute."

So much for plan B…Monica thought. Her hope had been that emailing Anna about internships would lead to meetings where the two could talk. Well, she hasn't left yet, Monica reminded herself. There's still a chance to convince her otherwise. "But…what about sending in your work to the school literary journal? You said you'd consider it."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna do that," Anna said, offering a small frown of remorse. "I know you wanted me to, but…I'm just not ready for it. Maybe by the end of the semester."

Monica tried not to let out her disappointed sigh. It appeared that her suspicions that Anna harbored her true feelings, which she' told Andrew, were correct. Anna was trying to give off the sense that she was fine, but her lack of self-confidence and fear of disappointing others were painfully obvious just in her voice alone. No doubt she thinks she gives off a calm, cool façade, Monica thought, reviewing the few times they'd met. One of the keys to this assignment, she suspected, would be breaking through that imagined wall. Clearing her throat, she replied, "That's a shame. But I suppose I can't make you do anything you don't want to do."

"Sorry about that," Anna said, her eyes lowered. "So, uh, I guess I'll be going…"

Indicating the chair in front of her, Monica offered, "Why don't you have a seat? I have a few minutes until my next appointment comes in. Do you have to be anywhere?"

"Um, well…I-I…oh, sure, why not," Anna answered, lowering herself into the cushioned chair. She kept her shoulder bag on, her legs crossed, and her hands on her lap. Her back almost didn't touch the supporting cushion against the chair's back.

Noticing this, Monica asked, "You seem tense. Is everything alright?"

Anna's face turned bright red as she attempted to lean back against the supportive cushion. "Yeah. I just…um…didn't meet with my usual advisor much, so two appointments in one week is a little weird for me."

Or you aren't comfortable around faculty, Monica thought, remembering what Tess had told her from her experience in class. No doubt the lie was used so that Monica wouldn't be offended. "Oh, well, at least now I can get to know you a little better. With all these dropped class requests and other files, it's nice to know at least one face behind a name."

"So you aren't a professor here, if you don't know anyone," Anna asked, in a voice that was more like a statement than a question. "You're friends with Tess and Gloria, right? I don't think they said they were professors here either."

Monica shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. This is only a temporary job for me. As well as for Tess and Gloria." She had to keep herself from raising an eyebrow. Anna's remark had seemed critical rather than simply for the sake of conversation. Dismissing it, Monica said, "Now, why don't you tell me some of the internships you're thinking of applying to?"

"Uh…well, I…I-I haven't really searched for any yet. I was waiting until I got my resume fixed, and that was only two days ago," Anna answered, her eyes glued to her hands in her lap.

"That's perfectly alright," Monica assured her. She was beginning to notice that, like many humans, Anna avoided eye contact – and lowered her voice – when she wasn't telling the full truth. "You still have some time until many deadlines. Since you're a journalism major, I'm guessing that you'll be wanting to apply to newspapers."

Relieved that she hadn't been criticized, Anna became a fraction more comfortable in her seat as she replied, "Yeah. I was going to apply to the Times or Newsday."

"That's…that's good, but I would take advantage of being near a fairly large city and having access to many other newspapers. There's nothing wrong with working your way up…" Monica paused, realizing her remark could be taken as an insult. "I-I mean, you should still apply to those papers, but maybe apply to some local ones just in case."

Nodding in agreement, Anna said, "I totally understand. The Times and Newsday were only examples – I doubt I'd land an internship at either one of those huge newspapers."

"But it couldn't hurt to apply anyway. Who knows; you may get it," Monica said. "But here's an idea. There are a few websites that allow you to search for internships. I'll give you them, and then I'll search through them also. Afterwards, we can meet …Monday? And compare notes. Maybe get some application materials together."

Anna had her mouth open, about to argue. But then she changed her mind, clearly realizing there was no logical reason to decline the offer. "Okay. As long as it's not too much trouble. I know you must be busy…"

"It's no trouble at all. How about after your creative writing class?" Monica asked, and when Anna gave a sign of agreement as she got up to leave, smiled. "Great! See you Monday."

Giving Hallie a sidelong glance, Andrew asked, "You're sure he's in there, right?"

"Yeah. Definitely. I saw him go in after his class this morning," Hallie answered, staring at Jeff's closed door. "Of course, there's always the chance he could've left while I was in my room."

Andrew sighed. He'd decided to try to get Jeff's attention once again after another missed appointment, but there'd been no response for the fifteen minutes that the angel had been there. Hallie came out about five minutes ago to help, but so far Jeff hadn't made a sound. "Well," Andrew said, "I guess I could come back later."

"Nah, let me try one more time. This always works," Hallie assured him. As Andrew stepped to the side, Hallie pounded on the door and shouted, "Yo, Jeff! Get your lazy butt out here now!" Realizing that Andrew had winced, she offered him a weak smile. "Sorry. Probably should've warned you."

"Don't worry about it," Andrew assured her, though he did rub his ear as soon as she turned around.

Much to their relief, the door opened a crack. The width so small that only half his body was revealed, Jeff glared at Hallie with the one eye he allowed them to see. "You. Don't you have anything better to do than wake up sleeping neighbors?"

"At the moment? No, not really," Hallie snapped. "It's the middle of the freaking day, Jeff. Why are you sleeping?

"Can't a guy take a nap without being subjected to the third degree?" Jeff muttered.

Crossing her arms at her stomach, Hallie retorted, "When he has a drinking problem…no, he can't. Come on, let me smell it."

His glare deepening, Jeff said, "No."

"Come on…"

"No!"

"Let me smell it before I stick my nose down your throat myself!"

Before Andrew could speculate about the meaning of the argument any further, Jeff opened his mouth and blew out a small breath. The stench of alcohol wafted up both observers' nostrils, making Andrew cough.

"Wow, hangover much?" Hallie said, coughing as she waved the air in front of them. "I hope you're ashamed of yourself."

"Well, I'm not. You're not my mother – I don't have to ask your permission to take a drink or two," Jeff argued, closing his mouth tight.

Trying not to sound judgmental, Andrew said, "In all honesty, it smells like a little more than that."

Jeff whirled around to face him, as if just realizing the angel was there. "What are you doing here?"

"This guy is doing a lot for you, Jeff. You could be a little nicer to him," Hallie said. She was growing more and more frustrated, determined to force Jeff to show some remorse for his actions.

Glancing at Andrew, Jeff asked, "What are you doing for me? I'm not going to my meetings."

"Didn't you get my email?" Andrew asked, disappointed. One of the reasons he'd come to Jeff's dorm this time was because he'd hoped the email about avoiding expulsion would break the ice.

Shaking his head, Jeff explained, "I don't check my email often."

Hallie sighed. Looking him directly in the eye, she said, "You know how you're on the verge of expulsion? Andrew's been rounding up everything good you've done in this school…which I don't imagine can be much…to make a case to bring to the Dean of Disciplinary Action. Dude, he's looking out for you. Don't drive away one of the few people on this campus you've got left."

"I didn't ask him to do any of that," Jeff argued. But his harsh tone had softened a considerable level, and he now regarded both of them with less hostility than a moment before.

Trying not to look frustrated, Andrew said, "Look, Jeff, I didn't come here asking for your thanks. I just wanted to ask you to please come to a meeting. You don't even have to continue after that; all I want to know is why you stopped attending."

"I'll give you one better," Hallie added. "You give Andrew here the brush off one more time, you can say good-bye to hanging out with me and Anna. For good."

Andrew glanced at Hallie, surprised. "Hallie, you don't need to do that…"

"Fine, I'll do it," Jeff interrupted. His tone was more resigned than anything else, as if he'd say whatever they wanted if it got them to leave. "Now do me a favor and go away so I can get some sleep."

"Gladly," Hallie replied, giving him a fake smile and allowing him to slam the door. Turning to Andrew, she added, "You're welcome. If you'll excuse me, Andrew, I need a smoke."

"Thank you," Andrew said, shaking his head while the blonde walked off down the hall.

"Now that we've finally finished all your short stories," Tess said in class on that Friday, "Let's talk about what your assignment is for next week."

There was some grumbling as the class took out writing utensils and prepared to take notes. No doubt they were exhausted after a long afternoon of re-learning how to critique. They were supposed to be done with short stories last class, but with Tess' lectures and the occasional fight between Matt and Gloria, the class was a little behind schedule. Not that anyone particularly minded, though. It was better than their previous professor's style of rambling on about either his own experiences in writing or giving an extra long and harsh review of someone else's. At least they were learning something.

That was what Tess was hearing, anyway. She was getting to know a few students, and they often told her they never had a professor quite like her before. They also expressed their thanks – before, classes were getting too intense and unpleasant. About half were going to drop it come next week had the class stayed on course.

Once everyone had a pen in hand, Tess began, "For our next genre, we're going to take a quick look at the personal journal." She closed her eyes for a brief second and sighed when Matt raised his hand. It was done mockingly, no doubt, after Gloria had asked him to raise his hand when he wanted to speak up in class. "Yes, Matt?"

"On the syllabus, it says we're supposed to be doing plays next," Matt spoke up, his mouth forming a sardonic grin.

Before either professor or assistant could reply, another student, Ben Campbell, glared at Matt and snapped, "Dude, will you shut up?"

"You shut up," Matt retorted in a child-like manner.

"No, you shut up."

"You shut up!"

"Would either of you like to take that outside, because I have a class to teach," Tess interrupted, causing both boys to sit forward in their chairs and quiet down.

Gloria chose that moment to say, "Ben, while you were just trying to keep the peace, it's not nice to tell anyone to 'shut up.'"

"I know. Sorry, Gloria," Ben replied, still glaring at Matt out of the corner of his eye.

Trying to maintain some dignity, Matt said, "Yeah, Ben, way to be 'not nice.'"

"At least I'm not the one with the arguing skills of a five-year-old," Ben sulked, crossing his arms on his desk.

Tess rubbed her forehead with one hand, tapping her fingers on the podium with the other. While the majority of the students in the classroom were actually well-behaved, there were the few who liked to make trouble, with Matt as their ring leader. Ordinarily, she could take care of trouble-makers no problem, whether in angel or human form. But having Gloria there…with her naiveté, it was hard for Gloria to get any kind of respect from the class. Just about fed up with the whole group for the day, Tess asked, "Do you want me to give the 'respect in the class room' speech again?"

"No, Tess," the entire group was quick to reply.

"I thought so," Tess said. Acting as if the entire incident never happened, Tess continued from where she left off. "To prepare for the lecture on Monday, I want all of you to start a journal. But not the typical list of what you did that day. In order to help you all put more emotion in your work, you're going to write whatever you happen to feel that day and why. Including today, there should be three entries by Monday's class. Given the nature of the assignment, I'll make reading aloud voluntary."

The majority of the class let out a sigh of relief.

"But you get extra credit on the assignment for reading aloud," Tess added. "And I will be reading every entry. So if you do anything over the weekend that could get you expelled or arrested, I'd rather not read about it." As the class chuckled, she said, "Well, that's about it for today. Have a good weekend."

While Tess talked to some of the students who were on their way out, she overheard Anna go up to Gloria. "Hey, Gloria," Anna greeted.

"Hi, Anna!" Gloria replied, already standing up as she prepared to leave. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I, ah…I was wondering," Anna said with her hands clutching her messenger bag strap. "I'm not really good with journals. Can we write journal entries for a fictional character we've created?"

Gloria hesitated, then answered, "I…I'm not sure. Tess?"

Turning to them as the student she'd been talking to left, Tess said, "I'm sorry, baby, but the whole point of the assignment is to let out whatever emotions you've got bottled up inside. Writing about a fictional character is not the same as writing about yourself, is it?"

"No, I guess not. Thanks anyway," Anna replied, a disappointed frown on her face as she went out the door.

Once the classroom was almost empty, Gloria asked, "Tess, why do you think Anna isn't 'good' with journals, when she writes stories perfectly fine?"

"I don't think this has anything to do with technical ability, little angel," Tess explained. "Anna's used to being able to hide behind the characters she writes about, and even showing that to anyone scares her. In this assignment, there's nowhere to hide."