Targeted Advances

Aayla pushed through the crowds away from the Central Administration building. She had rushed to meet her remaining two professors today. She had to turn in all of her overdue assignments today to not receive a penalty, but Aayla had no idea if they were in their offices or how long they would stay.

Due to the trip to the Havrevel River, Aayla was a couple of weeks behind in all of her classes. In the case of her basic linguistics course, everyone was behind since they had a substitute professor. Their permanent replacement just started today.

Coincidentally, the first exams also started today. When Aayla had arrived at her basic linguistics class that morning, she nearly had a heart attack. Aayla had forgotten all about the first spring exams over the trip. A student's worst nightmare came to life.

Her face had turned various shades of blue and white as the professor announced the exam. Of course, she had mostly completed her homework and reviewed her books a little bit, but between travelling, working and just surviving she didn't really have that much free time.

By the Celestial's grace Aayla had studied the journal and spent most of her time pouring over her linguistics textbooks. Today was the new professor's first day, so she used former Professor Rosewall's exam.

The substitute was clearly not as good as Rosewall. The other students were in tears, but Aayla felt like she could at least pull off a solid B. If she had any luck then an A was entirely possible. After submitting her exam and her due assignments, a sense of relief washed over her. Surviving was still possible.

Her delicate hope was quickly shattered. The new professor promptly assigned triple the homework for the next week to catch up with the original schedule. She was brought in from CNU, and obviously had more than a little disdain for the Nafriton students.

"It's just a little extra work, so I'm sure that you Nafriton students can handle it~" she said.

The smugness and mockery dripped from her voice. How Aayla despised that voice. Aayla fiddled with the tip of her ponytail. How were the students supposed to learn from a professor like that? Would she properly teach at all?

Aayla dreaded her history class later that day. That class would surely have an exam. She had taken a class taught by the same professor last semester, and he had very high expectations of her. A knot formed in her stomach just thinking about his future disappointment.

She desperately crammed in the library over the hours between her classes, with only a light break for lunch and a couple of breaks for short walks to clear her head. Surrounded by her fellow crammers, Aayla felt a bit relieved that she wasn't the only idiot who didn't study.

That hour was one of the longest in her life. Aayla thanked her lucky stars that all of the questions were some form of multiple choice. She had many ways of dealing with those types of questions. Her score should be high enough to pass.

After that last exam, Aayla didn't have a moment to spare. She had to quickly find her last two professors to turn in her last assignments then rush back to her room to study. Professor Cole, the geography professor, was easy to find. He taught during the last class of the day and he only taught in class building number one.

However, the magical creatures professor, Professor Valverde, seemed nearly impossible to find. She checked all of the classrooms and nearby offices without any luck. The only thing that people seemed to know was that Professor Valverde wasn't there.

Aayla would absolutely not check the professors' apartment buildings. That would be a bit too creepy, and would probably anger many of them if a student invaded the professors' space. She did not need to know about their private lives.

As a last resort, Aayla checked the Central Administration Building. Many professors had their offices there. By sheer luck Aayla found one of the teaching assistants as they were leaving. At the end of a very long day, Aayla finally managed to turn in every assignment that was due that day.

She only had several hours of work and studying to go.

**********

Aayla wasn't the only one who had a long day. Daren had rarely been without Chris by his side in public for years. Just as Chris's dad was always prepared to aid his lord, Chris was always prepared to help Daren. For the first time in a long while Daren had to do some things for himself. Like remembering to eat or refusing others.

Daren was not good with handling others in general, especially not persistent, shameless people who didn't take 'no' for an answer. Now he was thrown to those wolves without Chris to fend them off. When he stepped into his first class of the day, Daren knew that he something was wrong.

Two of the top people on his 'classmates to avoid' list were in the classroom: Vanessa Landrienne and Marc Lupton. Vanessa was that young lady well known to be an arrogant bully and a jealous cow constantly claiming to be Daren's fiancé. She had been one of his childhood playmates arranged by his parents before his uncle took custody of Daren.

Unknown to most others, Marc was actually one of those childhood playmates as well. His parents had intended for Marc to be one of Daren's aides. The Luptons were a very wealthy and very young noble family that rose from a merchant background. They had paid handsomely for their intelligent son to become a future aide of the young Forolan heir.

In some ways, he was worse than Vanessa. Marc was already an excellent manipulator with grand ambitions as a young child. He easily wormed his way to the top position among the aides. While Vanessa would throw horrendous tantrums to get what she wanted, Marc's methods were more hidden and insidious.

He enjoyed breaking people and turning them into his puppets. To Marc, Daren was always just a stupid, rich young master and a perfect tool to advance his own power. Daren had been worn down into an emotionless doll by his parents, Vanessa, Marc and others.

After Chris reported about Daren's condition to the former City Lord, Marc lost that position and the Luptons were forced out of Halcyon. The Lupton family lost their wealth and their status, becoming one of the lowest vassals of the Landrienne family.

To this day, Daren could feel the hostility in Marc's gaze whenever Chris was present, like Chris had stolen his rightful place. Despite Marc's open friendliness and now perfect façade, Daren could also feel the sense of insidious confidence in Marc's gaze whenever Marc looked at him.

Marc Lupton and Vanessa Landrienne were two people that he never wanted to see again. The Forolan family's influence had kept them mostly out of his life until today. Daren ignored them and all of his other classmates. They weren't as bad as the two main offenders, but they all had their own issues.

Daren never wanted to be associated with the conservative faction that his parents belonged to. Unfortunately, they wanted to be associated with him. Vanessa and Marc basically latched on to him for the entire day. If one wasn't around, then the other was.

There was never a moment of peace around them. If Daren went to get food or read in the library, then he would somehow find himself surrounded as soon as he sat down. If he tried to talk with others, the conservatives would either drive them away or block them.

No matter how many times Daren politely hinted for them to leave, they never seemed to get the message. A suffocated feeling rose in Daren's heart. For some reason, he couldn't directly tell them to leave.

He had never been able to tell them 'no' as a child, and he still couldn't do that today. It was a wall that he couldn't seem to break no matter how hard he tried. His family knew that. Chris knew that. They knew that. And they were using that fact to their advantage.

The professors were of no use. As conservative professors, they encouraged Daren to get along with his childhood playmates. Actually, they forced him to. In each class at least one group project was assigned. Group members were obviously picked by the professors and just as obviously Vanessa and Marc were always in his group.

So, Daren just ignored them and struggled to find excuses to reject them. You want to sit next to me? Fine, I can't stop you. However, don't disturb my reading. You want to start working on the projects? Sorry, I'm too busy. I'll work on my part myself so don't bother me.

They even followed him back to the residence hall. He had never been so grateful to Dormi who blocked the non-residents outside. When Vanessa shamelessly tried to force her way into the Men's Wing to 'discuss their projects', Vanessa's skirt mysteriously tore itself to pieces before Dormi threw her out.

Her screams attracted everyone to the lounge. Once again rumors would fly about Vanessa's latest indecent feat. Marc hastily dragged Vanessa away and started damage control. A small smile crept up Daren's face as he patted the wall. He clearly owed Dormi for that one.