Page 11 of The Casanova Complex

That breath stutters out of me in a woosh.

No.

That’s not… No.

Shaking my head, I drag the cursor over the words, highlighting them as I read them again, because I’ve obviously read them wrong.

No. No. No.

Absolutely the fuck not.

You and your partner are to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and write a dual, alternating point of view novella following the story’s theme. This is not necessarily a retelling, but more so your own spin on the classic. Please follow the attached rubric.

Partner 1: Merritt St. Pierre

Partner 2: Bennett Legros

Reminder: Your novella must be a minimum of 30,000 total words and must be fully edited and proofread by your turn-in date. As a reminder, AI should not be used in any capacity for this assignment, and if it is flagged that you have, you will both receive a zero.

This assignment will reflect 50% of your final grade this semester.

There will be no individual grades given. Each partner will have to write at least one POV themselves, with the entire manuscript working together as one fluid piece. Each partner will need to submit their own individual contributions, but only one grade will be given for the totality of the work.

In layman’s terms… work together to receive a passing grade.

Good luck.

Professor Hart

This cannot actually be happening right now.

It’s not possible.

There’s no way that the universe is this cruel. That my karma is so fucked-up as to be something this horrible.

Not only is this worth half of our grade for the entire semester, but it’s one grade. I’m not going to be graded only on my portion, but also on the work of the fucking idiot who literally doesn’t even show up to class half the time. Of course this would happen in the one class where I need to make sure I get a good grade to maintain my GPA for my law school application.

And of course, out of everyone who I could’ve been paired with in this class, it’s…

Bennett Legros?

He doesn’t even need the grade, or even to pass the class, to chase a puck around in a circle!

I’m not even sure he knows how to read.

Let alone a fucking classic novel written in the 1800s.

I slam my laptop shut and drop my forehead down onto the top of it with a groan.

I’m doomed. Seriously, I’m beyond fucked, actually. This is the worst-case scenario.

I’m going to fail this class, and I can kiss my acceptance into law school goodbye.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

What the hell am I going to do?

I ask myself that question, but tragically, logically, I already know the answer.