“I’m just… trying so hard, professor.”
“Mm,” replied Peter, putting on his most thoughtful expression. Honestly, he was sort of at a loss. The student sitting across the desk from him was in tears, and he felt for her, but she came to him with a problem that sounded pretty convoluted. Something about someone acting like they didn’t like her, but she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not. He’d seen these two girls interact in his class before and it looked more like this girl was just nervous — maybe paranoid? — and the other girl was just acting the way she always did.
“Ever since Halloween she’s been so cold to me,” sniffed the girl. The worst of the crying had subsided, but she pushed the hem of her sleeve across her cheek to catch a stray tear. He felt for her, he really did, but this wasn’t something he could really fix for her.
Peter had been trained about this sort of thing. Don’t look too closed off, don’t ask any intrusive questions, be kind without inviting yourself directly into their problems. This kind of attitude was everywhere — this petty infighting — and he had always tried to keep out of it, but now that was literally half of his job. Some of the other faculty were genuinely surprised that it had taken him this long to have a conversation with a student. What had it been, a year? Maybe that lack of experience explained why this was so uncomfortable for him. Still, he was at least a master of his expressions. That was no new development. He kept his back straight, kept his expression attentive, watched her with a calm gaze that didn’t border on pity. She didn’t need pity, she needed a solution.
He had been told to keep his distance from students. It wasn’t too irregular for young professors to take an interest in some of their pupils, and while it wasn’t an unheard of thing for some to run off with their elder students, it was still frowned upon in a professional environment to do it. Everyone approached this kind of problem with caution. Infatuation went both ways in a lot of those cases. He felt nothing for this girl. She had watched him in concern for weeks. He had to stay unemotional. He had to stay impartial.
But he also had to tell her something because clearly this was disrupting her regular life, her friendships, and her academic work.
“I don’t know,” she was talking again. He’d paused for too long. “I just thought I could trust her, but I don’t think I can.” The professor straightened slightly when he caught himself about to lean forward. The answer was on his mind, but it wasn’t on his tongue yet, thankfully.
“Have you tried to talk to her about it?”
“I did! And she just brushed it off like it was nothing!” The sudden shout forced a response, which Peter only noticed when one brow was firmly arched over his left eye. He used the hand on the same side to push his glasses up his nose and used the second to search the woodgrains of his desk. This was just painful.
“Elise—“ he started. She was crying again.
“Like she won’t even acknowledge that there’s a problem! I thought we were friends, but she won’t even take the time to listen!” Elise threw her arms into the air, gesturing with her hands as she ranted from her seat. The answer could be so easy, but he had to remain professional. He told himself this as she continued to sob and wail for a couple more minutes. He didn’t doubt her pain, and that was the worst part. She needed an answer that he had, but it wasn’t a gentle promise that everything would be okay and it wasn’t going to come from throwing his support into her camp over her friend’s. In fact, the person in question had approached him after their last class session and expressed her concerns over this. Elise was definitely more obviously emotional about it, but this was putting a rift between them that clearly wasn’t imagined.
This couldn’t keep going on this way, not for any of them. Pete was trying hard not to imagine how easy it would be to just pack up and head back to Gatare now. But he knew his Kiswahili had suffered in the last year back in the UK, and drama between two girls would not drive him out. There was an answer. God be damned if he would keep it from her.
“I think you’re overthinking it,” he sighed. As soon as the words left his mouth, he brought a scarred, tattooed hand to cover his lips. He held steady, eyes leveled on her. Elise paused and stared at him as if he had just said something foul, then her expression fell. She stared hard at his desk.
“That’s what she said too,” she said dejectedly. Pete stood and rounded his desk to sit on the edge a foot or so away from her chair.
“You’re an incredibly thoughtful friend,” he said. “But staying in your own mind too long can make problems that are impossible to solve.” He watched her expression go slack as realization slowly broke away her worry. He didn’t know if she would listen, but he at least felt better for having stated the obvious for her. Who hadn’t been in her shoes before? People put a lot of faith in their friends, and it that made it alarming when some small detail changed. The truth was that her friend was under a lot of stress. She had problems staying focused in class for the same reason. What she needed in that moment was a friend who would support her. That Elise was instead fussing and crying over this friend’s lack of attentiveness only complicated the issue. It wasn’t something either of them really wanted to deal with.
He hoped in time she would understand that.
She at least looked like she had calmed down some.
“It’s getting late,” he said after a long silence. “Why don’t you go find her at dinner? You can tell her about the five points I’m giving to the both of you for making up.”
“…What?”
“Er, yeah,” grumbled Pete, trying hard not to stumble over his own words. She was reasonably concerned. He didn’t usually award points outside of academic achievement, and it just sort of came out, but he did intend to follow through. Her sudden serious expression pinned him to the spot until he explained further. “I mean, you’ll only get them if you start talking again, but… yeah.”
“Professor, that seems extremely arbitrary.”
“To a reasonable degree, everything is arbitrary. Now are you going to go or should I just…?”
“No no no,” said Elise quickly, suddenly standing. Five points was a paltry sum, but it was more than she had expected and any gain was good at this point in the school year. “I’ll go find her now!” She had her bag on her shoulder and was hurrying toward the door in the same breath.
“Good! Good,” he said. “Come find me in the Great Hall in a little while then, both of you.” The girl left without another word. Peter slouched when he was sure she was gone and let out a long sigh. Ravenclaw would suffer in standing for those points, but at least that was suddenly his biggest concern.
Good. Gatare was always too wet in the spring anyway.
View User's Journal
Meditations and Developments
A collection of thoughts on characters from various roleplays.
 |
Chai High Tuba
Community Member |
