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Emely

You’re Loved & I’m Hated

Christopher Tyng

I was pleased that I had arrived on time for the lecture and had even managed to get a seat that wasn't right at the back, where the professors always had trouble hearing my questions.

Law was easier for me than I had expected, and today the tests from last time would be handed back.

But before the lecture began, The Eye made a brief announcement, launching a new competition. This time, the students were to decorate the lanterns on campus, hoist the old Vanderwood banners, and hang up signs demanding their claims from the future student council and university administration. The prize money was the same as last time.

I wanted to curse that rich jerk, but this idea wasn't bad, even if it would only provoke Harlow further unnecessarily, and I was already wondering what crazy ideas the students, fueled by The Eye, would confront the future student council with.

Some students immediately stormed out, but Mrs. Hudgington warned the hall that she, like other professors, would be handing out punishments. And even though I considered such pedagogical measures at universities to be idiotic, I could understand it. This was her workplace, and this hacker was literally turning Vanderwood into a full-blown chaotic arena.

Apart from that, Mrs. Hudgington was in a particularly good mood today, which unfortunately was not due to outstanding test results, as she had informed us. Almost half of the students had failed, and now fear gnawed at me more than anything else.

She called people up from a list, and I wondered what strange system the names were arranged in. Once again, despite my alphabetically favorable last name, I had to wait.

Transfixed, I watched Vivienna's face fill with relief when she held her paper in her hands. She beamed at one of her Quatura friends before returning to her seat.

Annoyed, I rolled my eyes.

If she had passed with good results, why shouldn't I be able to do the same?

The lecture hall door swung open and I, the idiot I was, immediately turned around.

What had I expected? A flying dragon? That these crazy students would obediently return to their lecture?

Damn, I had seen right away that he hadn't been there yet. Everything in me had been searching for him. Especially after what he had said to me in the law library.

The moment was still stuck in my head, like gum on the underside of a table that you couldn't get off and kept touching by accident.

Couldn't he be outside with all the other idiots?

“You're late, Mr. DeLoughrey.”

Mr. DeLoughrey.

I saw him smile at the professor as if he were the sweetest sunshine, and my heart made an unwanted leap.

I truly was an idiot.

“My deepest apologies, Mrs. Hudgington. My new classmate needed a tour.”

Behind him appeared the red-haired beauty with corkscrew curls. The black Vanderwood uniform fit her like a glove, adorned with the DeLoughrey crest, as had actually been forbidden, and she smiled apologetically at the professor before looking back at Miles.

I couldn't help but feel a strange sensation mingling with all the other stressful feelings.

“Such a gentleman.”

Stunned, I looked at the professor, who smiled back at him.

She took me apart, and he was a fucking gentleman?

If she only knew how much of a gentleman he really was...

“I recommend you never do that again, unless you want me to hold metal against your skin as well.”