A knock on her office door made her release her bottom lip from its captivity. Melanie looked up to see a head peeking through the cracked door. For a second, Melanie wondered if it was a student dropping by despite it not being office hours, which happened from time to time despite her warning her students that she would only speak to them during those hours. But when the door creaked open, revealing a redhead woman, Melanie realized it wasn't any of her students, but her co-worker, Jessica.
“You’re not too busy are you?” Jessica asked, hesitantly standing at the door, her eyes roving over Melanie's desk to see if Melanie had any important work. Melanie closed her journal and dropped it in her drawer, relieved not to see her failures anymore.
"No, I'm not," Melanie assured her, and she watched as Jessica smiled brightly, bouncing into her office. Jessica was a student advisor who Melanie talked to from time to time. She had bright red hair that matched her fiery personality that usually helped the students to get excited about the upcoming semester. It was often during her downtime that she came to visit Melanie whenever she had the chance to avoid boredom. Melanie didn’t mind it too much. Sometimes, it was good to have company, especially since the other professors in her department around this time were either busy grading work or lecturing.
“What are you up to?” Jessica asked as she grabbed a peppermint from the bowl of candy on Melanie’s desk before plopping down in the chair across from her desk.
“Nothing much," Melanie said as slid the stack of quizzes that had been on the edge of her desk near her. "Just grading some tests."
She decided it would be best not to mention her life plan list, one that she had made when she first entered high school to keep her on the right course in life and to accomplish all her goals.
“Poor kid,” Jessica said, pointedly looking at the big fat D that was written in bright red ink on top of the stack of quizzes.
The sight of the bad grade did not evoke the same sympathy in Melanie as it did for Jessica. Melanie gave her students all the tools they needed to pass her course with flying colors. But, of course, there were those who did not take her class seriously and wound up with grades like these. There was nothing she could do about their lack of ambition.
"I wouldn't say,'poor kid'," Melanie mimicked. "He's just another student who thinks that because Intro to Psychology is a prerequisite that they can half-ass everything. Not on my watch."
"You know you're known to the students as being the hard professor, right?"
“Let me guess,” Melanie said laughing, not at all surprised by the complaints against her. She had gotten those same complaints at her previous schools. “They told you how hard I was and that they didn’t like me.”
"You have some students coming to me crying, Melanie. They beg me to take them out of your class even though the drop period is over. I feel bad sometimes, but the only thing I can tell them is either they can lose the money they spent, or try to study harder."
“Every semester I give them a syllabus detailing everything that will happen in the class, and it’s as if they don’t believe me. They think it's a joke when I tell them there will be pop quizzes, homework, essays, and deadlines.” Melanie shook her head. Another school, another semester, the same students.
When she had chosen to work at Weston University, a part of her thought it would be different, considering the acceptance rate and how much the Dean had raved to her about the students there when they first recruited her. But she should have known, no matter the reputation of the university, the students would always be the same.
"Forget about my slacker students," Melanie said dismissively, and Jessica laughed. "What are you up to? You were practically skipping in here.”
"It was nothing. I'm just glad to be on break. Oh! I am excited about hockey season coming up though. Actually, the whole town is excited. In a few weeks, every bar on every corner will have nothing but hockey on.”
“I’ve never been to a hockey game,” Melanie said, and Jessica’s eyes widened like balloons.
“Seriously, Melanie?”
Melanie nodded, and Jessica shook her head.
“You're missing out. Hockey is so fun! I wasn’t lying when I said the whole town is excited about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the hockey players were in your class. What are you like a basketball or football fan?”
“I’m a basketball fan,” Melanie said, smiling. “Blame my father. Our whole family only watches basketball.”
“Basketball is okay,” Jessica said, waving her off, and Melanie laughed before taking a sip of her coffee. Sports wars were always too much for her. If her best friend Abigail was here, she would surely be ganging up on Melanie with Jessica. She was a super hockey fan and would always tell her that hockey was better than basketball. “But hockey is great. When they’re skating across the ice, and you’re trying to see which way the puck will go”—Jessica shivered— “it’s nothing like it."
"You must love advising some of these great hockey players."
The smile on her face wiped instantly, and Melanie arched a brow. Or not.
"Don't get me wrong. I love hockey. But those darn hockey players make my job harder than it needs to be. They always have excuses about why they aren't passing their courses, and why they need to change their courses so they won't fail them or mess up their routines. And then exceptions always have to be made for them. Last year was a nightmare. I had to change a few of their courses mid-semester, and some of the professors weren't happy about it."
“I could imagine,” Melanie said, shaking her head. If someone told her she had to suddenly bring a new student halfway in after they missed most of the semester, she would tell them no. There was no way a student could catch up after missing so much work, and Melanie wouldn’t go easy on them because it would be unfair to the other students who worked hard since the beginning of the semester.
“They won’t be able to do that for much longer though,” Jessica said, and then lowered her voice, glancing over her shoulder as if someone else were in the room. Melanie ignored her friend's dramatics, waiting for Jessica to tell her whatever secrets she knew. It was Melanie's first year here, so she wasn't as privy to gossip as Jessica was who had been working at Weston for three years. “Many of the professors complained last year because,apparently, the coaches asked them to give the hockey players passing grades."
Melanie blinked, surprised, though she shouldn't have been. Many players got the privilege of attending colleges they weren't qualified for simply because of their athleticism. It always bothered Melanie to think about the many kids who worked hard to attend a school like Weston only not to get in because those spots were given to some athlete who didn't plan on staying in college any longer than two years with the hopes of being drafted.
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Jessica confirmed. "And some of the professors did it because they were hockey fans. It got out, and it nearly caused an uproar with the students and their parents. People were livid, and protests happened. Now, the players can't get any of the privileges they had before. Well, at least, that's what they'resaying."
