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Something told me that this was not a good time to dig any deeper. It was obvious that Julie was carrying something around with her. Probably pressure and fear for her baby. Because I couldn't imagine that she would give the child away without further ado. Otherwise, she would have had it removed from the beginning. Especially with all the weight that was placed on her shoulders with the decision to give birth.

Showdown

Chrystopher Tyng

The massive double doors at the top of the wide staircase creaked shut. There was a loud bang, then the steady click-clack of block heels.

I didn't have to turn around to know that another red-haired devil had entered the hall and was now on her way to her podium in her brown-beige leopard-print pencil skirt, beige blouse, and briefcase, stepping on one of the paper airplanes.

Those students who weren't staring hurried to their seats and quickly stowed away their phones, tablets and laptops, because they all knew that Harlow didn't just confiscate technology, but – in violation of the law and through convoluted university clauses – made sure it disappeared forever.

When Harlow – without so much as changing her deeply relaxed, self-satisfied bitch face – snatched a phone from the hand of a student who hadn't even noticed her and now flinched, and slipped it into her briefcase, I raised both eyebrows.

“You can't just...”

“One more word, Mr. Longley, and I'll expel you from the entire module.”

The young man with the green Vanderwood baseball cap raised his arms in indignation, but his friends urged him to stay calm.

“And take that ridiculous thing off your head if you want to keep it.”

Harlow didn't even glance at the man as she gracefully circled the professor table, carefully unpacked her briefcase, and neatly arranged her things, making sure the corners and edges of each file were aligned parallel to one another.

I didn't even want to know how serious the brain damage was in this woman.

The white crystal around her neck stood out prominently.

“Ugh,” I whispered. “Just seeing this woman gives me stomach pains.”

Trappin Adam’s Hearing

Mr. Kamera

An uncomfortable silence fell over the hall, as if everyone present was afraid that Harlow might suspend them for making even a single sound. It probably was because this shrew forbade anyone from talking in her lectures. You weren't even allowed to ask questions. Only in her colleagues' seminars.

On top of that, there were mile-long lists of rules from the last century that she handed out at the beginning of each of her modules, along with warnings to those who didn't follow them. Not to mention the ridiculous punishments she imposed so often that the Vanderwood's garden staff had no work left to do.

I had the indescribable misfortune of ending up in her seminar out of all twenty economics seminars. Unfortunately, I couldn't switch, which had been possible before her directorship.

Well, now I was one of the fifteen lucky ones who got to sit around in her seminar on Friday mornings and remain silent. The only good thing was that her seminar wouldn't start for another month.

I already knew this woman would express her disdain for me in the form of miserable grades.

Harlow adjusted her leopard-print glasses and cleared her throat much too loudly into the microphone on her blouse.

It was quiet. Only one young man was still laughing at another guy's joke. It was Cody.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Harlow began, fixing her gaze on the Copelands at the top of the hall.

I spotted Adrian and Miles at the other end and avoided Adrian's withering glare, which was most likely directed at me for not following Bastien's rules.

“I demand your attention.” Harlow sounded impatient, still staring at Cody, who was laughing loudly again about something. “Don't forget rule fifty-three! Mr. Kaheel!”

I rolled my eyes in Julie's direction.

What was it with this woman and these rules? It was bad enough that she had already had a 650-page rulebook printed for all Vanderwood students, which weighed as much as one of Miles's law books and which no one here had read.

“Got it,” Cody muttered in annoyance. “No talking during the lecture.”