Hatav "Hattie" Bayegan is your typical overachiever, dutifully taking notes during Professor Phillip Steinberg's lecture on Human Rights In Canada. The young woman sat on the very first row in the classroom located on the fourth floor of the Tory Building at Carleton University. In a class of thirty seven students plus one instructor and his assistant, Hattie was well-known for always having her hand up.
"I'm passionate about human rights, you see, I'm a combined human rights/law major, and I'm originally from Iran, and over there, women's rights and the rights of sexual minorities aren't even a thing," Hattie told the Professor on the very first day of classes. This the spirited young woman did during the first few minutes of the first class, right after Professor Steinberg introduced himself and began talking about the course.
Professor Steinberg recalled looking at the short, slender, bronze-skinned and dark-haired young Persian woman with the lively green eyes and thinking that she was going to be a pain in the ass. Time would most definitely prove him right. Indeed, as the course rolled on, Professor Steinberg felt akin to Matthew Broderick's character in the movie Election, also starring a young Reese Witherspoon. If the twice-divorced and recently remarried Prof were honest with himself, he had a thing for a certain exotic know-it-all.
"Does anyone have any thoughts on Transgender rights in Canada?" Professor Steinberg asked, and the portly, bearded, middle-aged man took a sip of coffee as he looked around the packed classroom. It was nine o'clock in the morning and most of the students weren't fully awake. None of them, it seemed, cared to comment. Or they were doing a great job not even feigning interest in the lecture material.
This was too bad, because Transgender rights had come into the Canadian mainstream, and Professor Steinberg hoped to get a discussion going. There had been protests all over Canada about Transgender people and access to washrooms, gender identity versus gender presentation, and the like. In the City of Ottawa, Ontario, also known known as the town that fun forgot, even the Mayor had something to say about Transgender rights.
"Tough crowd," Professor Steinberg thought to himself, wondering why he let the dean talk him into teaching this morning class. On a frigging Friday no less. So the Prof turned to Little Miss Commentary, as Hattie was known, and waited for her to say something. Hattie didn't say anything, in fact, she was looking at her cell phone and smiling. This was definitely not like her, that's for damn sure...
"So, Hattie, how's my favorite booty doing this morning?" read the text message from Marcelao "Marc" Monteiro, Hattie's flirtatious and oh-so charming boyfriend. Hattie grinned as she read the text, and casually checked her reflection in the cellphone's mirrored screen. Today she had on a black leather jacket over a long-sleeved white turtleneck shirt, black Yoga pants and black leather boots that were almost knee-high. It was late February, and the Ontario winter was in full bloom, battering the Capital region of Canada with frequent snow storms.
"Thou shall not objectify thy lady friend with such comments, you lout, and for the record, my booty is spectacular in them pants," Hattie replied with a wink, and she added a smiley face to the message before clicking send. She could swear she heard Marc chuckle all the way in the Minto building, on the other side of the Carleton University campus, where he was supposed to be in Infrastructure Protection, one of his core classes in civil engineering.
