Maybe not impressive in the usual way, but impressive to Scott. She’d done a lot of conservation work all over the world, and while Scott just wanted a quiet life, he liked the idea of taking a working holiday or two that involved taking care of elephants or dolphins or tigers or something.
He should have been paying attention. Then maybe he’d have some idea of what to say.
“Are you okay?” she asked once everyone else had left, adjusting one of the pins on her headscarf.
“Uh, yeah.” Scott scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I kinda zoned out today. I, uh… I was just thinking about some personal stuff.”
That made him sound like he was in the middle of some kind of crisis, which wasn’t at all what he’d intended.
“Nothing serious, I hope?”
Scott shook his head. Itwasserious, but it wasn’tbadserious. It definitely wasn’t something he wanted to tell the professor.
“Well, good. I actually wanted to talk to you about your last assignment.”
Scott’s stomach sank again. Had he screwed it up? Accidentally plagiarized something?
He didn’t think there’d been anything wrong with it, but a hundred different scenarios were suddenly running through his head.
“Hey, relax,” Professor Malik put a hand on his arm. She was tiny compared to him, a full ten inches or so shorter. She was so smart and so accomplished that she’d seemed a lot bigger. “It was good. You showed a lot of insight I don’t usually expect from first-year students.”
“Oh.” Scott blushed, feeling stupid now for worrying.
“I just wanted to congratulate you and encourage you to stick with this. You’ll breeze through it.” She smiled at him. “You love dogs, huh?”
Scott nodded. He knew how he’d given that away. All his examples were about dogs.
He knew them, so it seemed like the obvious thing.
“I grew up with them,” he explained. “And I foster shelter dogs, so I’ve always got a few around. I actually just adopted a puppy.”
Scott knew he was babbling, but people didn’t normally take an interest in him. At least, they hadn’t until he moved to Hope Springs. Now, suddenly, he felt as though everyone cared.
Maybe that explained Charlie. Charlie was just part of the whole process of self-discovery he’d had going on for the last six months or so, when he’d first decided to apply for college here.
He was still surprised anyone wanted him. Academically or otherwise.
“That explains it. Horses are my weakness,” Professor Malik said. “I’ve had a couple of rescue horses myself. Ponies that were bought for birthdays before mom and dad realized how much work they were and what the ongoing expenses are like.”
“That’s sad,” Scott said, imagining what it must have been like for a horse to be so loved to begin with and then slowly neglected. He’d seen a lot of dogs like that. Pets weren’t for everyone, and he really wished people thought about whether or not they wanted the responsibility before they got them.
“Most of them went to nice places eventually. I only have one now,” Professor Malik said. “But I’m getting off track, and I bet you have better things to do than talk to me about horses all day. What I wanted to say was, I know you’re doing this part time and I know how hard that can be when you’re not seeing progress as fast as you might like. But you should stick with it. The fact that you care shines through, and I want to see people who care graduating.”
Scott blushed, his face heating up so quickly it felt like a furnace had been opened in front of it. Professor Malik seemed to have faith in him, faith he wasn’t sure he’d earned yet.
“I mean it,” she continued. “I want this for you. I wanna see you standing up and crossing that stage, when you’re ready.”
“T-thank you,” Scott stammered, not sure what else he could say.
Professor Malik smiled at him. “Go do whatever it is kids do when they’re not in class. And come to me if you need help or more time on an assignment or anything like that. Anytime. My door is always open, I check my emails all the time.”
“Thanks,” Scott repeated, more confident this time. He never expected support. Not like this. He’d only been in Professor Malik’s class for a handful of weeks.
It was nice, though. He finally felt like he was finding his place in Hope Springs.
He waved goodbye to the professor and headed out into the sunshine. With the leaves turning and the air starting to cool, he had to make the most of it while it lasted. Fall was well and truly here, and that meant winter was just around the corner.
Scott took his phone out of his pocket before he could change his mind, opening up a new text to Charlie. He’d gotten his number last week in a surge of confidence, but he’d never used it before now.
