It was midterm season, and Sami was not taking it well. Last week, she had three exams and a paper—all of which meant she barely slept and still didn't feel confident in her scores. She knew junior year would be hard, all of her older friends in the economics department told her that the classes would kick her ass, but Sami thought she could handle it.
She was wrong. Still recovering from last week, she walked into her Econ 389 lecture expecting to get her final back, knowing it would be rough. Sami moved toward her spot—3rd row, center left. Neither of the two girls who usually sat by her were there yet, but her professor stood behind the podium scrolling through his laptop.
While studying for the midterm with her friends, at about two in the morning, Sami joked about how attractive the prof was, and her tired cohort mostly agreed with her—he was fifty with a salt and pepper beard, short black hair and a pair of black rimmed glasses. His strong jaw and prominent cheekbones would be an immediate turn-on, if he wasn't Sami's professor.
"Hey, I like that blouse! Where'd you get it from?" Sami heard over her shoulder as her two friends sat down next to her.
"I think I got it from target, I'm not sure, though," she replied. Sami liked how the purple went with her long black hair, even if she kept it up in a messy bun most of the time.
"Ooo, that's cool. Are you excited to get our grades back?" Asked Jordan, one of her friends from the class. She was shorter even than Sami was, probably only about five foot, with short blond hair and blue eyes. Jordan was on the gymnastics team and always tried to get Sami to go to the gym with her, but Sami kept finding excuses.
"Fuck that shit, I'd rather blow our prof than look at my grade, that thing fucked me up," blurted out Sami's other friend, Lydia, before Sami could respond. A decently tall girl, Lydia loved to wear dresses to show off her long legs, but still hasn't figured out what to do with her wavy ginger hair.
Sami just nodded along and kept the small talk going before it was time for class to begin. Professor Hendricks saved the exams for the end of the class, the dread visibly growing in the glass as the minutes ticked down. Finally, Hendricks began passing the exams out.
Lydia got hers first, turned it over and gave a surprised squeak. Next Jordan, who did the same. Finally Sami turned her exam over and looked at her grade—it was 48%.
Shit shit shit shit shit, I'm going to fail. Sami thought over and over again as she overheard Jordan and Lydia congratulating themselves. Sami was stuck in her own world, though, unable to move past the overwhelming thought that this was the end of her college career, her life, her future. I'm going to end up working at Walmart.
Sami made her way to professor Hendricks once he was done passing out the exams and attempted to mutter some sort of excuse before professor Hendricks got tired of her stuttering and cut her off.
"Come to my office today at four and we can talk. That way you've had time to process it and can speak more calmly," he said before moving onto the next person in line.
The next few hours were filled with self-doubt and panic for Sami as she went over again and again in her head of what to do, what to say, what were her plans. Finally, it was time to go. Taking one last look in the mirror at her petite 5' 3" frame, admiring her wide hips, C cup boobs and pale skin, she nodded to herself and went off to professor Hendricks' office.
Sami wasn't going to blubber or beg, she would explain the situation and talk calmly to try and find some sort of extra credit to get her out of the situation.
Knocking on the thick wood door, Sami heard Professor Hendricks say, "Come in!" His office wasn't particularly big, there was just enough room for an L desk with chairs on both sides, a couple of bookshelves and a view over one of the campus common areas.
"Sit down, Sami is it?" He asked. Sami nodded as she sat in one of the cheap plastic chairs across the laminate desk from him.
Sami launched into what she had prepared, explaining how many exams and papers she suffered through, that she needed this course for her major, before finally ending with a proposal, "Is there any way I could get extra credit or increase my grade in the course so I don't fail?"
"Well, in my syllabus it clearly states there are no extra credit assignments or ways to increase your scores other than by doing well. I've already curved your exam in the most fair way possible, you just didn't know the content. Why should I make an exception for you?" Professor Hendricks responded.
"Because I've worked hard, I've put hours into studying for this class, working on the materials and I know the stuff, I just can't do it on tests," Sami said, a slight quiver reaching into her voice before she tried to stuff it down. She couldn't show weakness in front of him, she wouldn't.
Instead of yielding ground, Professor Hendricks stood firm, questioning again why that made Sami special. At this point, she was at a loss of words—what could she possibly do to dig herself out of this hole? Her eyes started to fill up with tears as the silence hung heavy on the room, Sami began looking around, as if the room could give her answers. As her eyes scanned the room a faint whisper broke out in the back of her mind—where are pictures of his wife and kids, does he have any? Looking down at Professor Hendricks' hand the wedding ring was clearly there, yet nowhere in his office was there a sign of family.
Sami, as if moving on impulse, got out of her chair while Professor Hendricks looked on, confused. She moved around his desk, barely a thought going through her mind as she sat on his side of the desk, unbuttoning her blouse. She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and, in autopilot, said, "I can show you what makes me special."
Professor Hendricks, looked up into the face of his twenty-year-old student, admiring her brown eyes, following the curve of her jaw and the freckles spattered across her face. His eyes moved quickly down to peak at the cleavage right in front of him before moving back up to Sami's face. He stood up, gaining back the height so she would have to look up at him.
"Oh, well then. That might just work," he said before bringing her face up to his and passionately kissing her. He broke it off before stepping away, staring her down, "Your move."
Lost in his steel eyes, Sami nodded. She was still reeling from the kiss, not sure what was going on here, not sure what she was doing. After a few seconds her body moved in autopilot, she dropped to her knees and started undoing the front of his pants—she could feel the bulge pressing for escape.