"Miss Katy, I see you decided to join us for another week." Dan crossed his arms and watched his reluctant student stop at the threshold of the small lecture hall. She crossed her arms to match his, and stared back at him. He couldn't help notice she had on that same plaid Catholic school skirt she wore so often to class, rolled up, a v-neck baby tee on top, barely covering her, and a paper shopping bag dangling from her right wrist. She's not even wearing a backpack this time, ugh. Even from the front of the room, he could tell Katy was rolling her eyes.
Dan scanned the rest of the classroom, the other students sitting at attention while Katy held the class hostage. He sighed, deeply. "How fortunate we are to be graced by your presence."
There was always at least one student like this, he knew, but this particular semester, he was finding it really hard to handle.
Maybe that's because he'd already had Katy as a student twice before. And it wasn't getting any easier to take her attitude... or general presence in his classes.
Maybe it was because he remembered teaching her older sister, Sandra. Now, she was a respectful student. Polite. Curious. Obedient.
In the doorway, Katy smacked her gum before entering the room. Dan stood still while staring her down. Surrounded by her fellow students in their seats, he hoped this would cause her some discomfort at arriving late and disrupting the 40-person class, again. It was the fourth week of this behavior, in the third semester he'd known her. And even considering his theory on the semesterly obnoxious student quota, this was already too much for Dan.
Did any of this actually make Katy uncomfortable? Dan couldn't tell, but he guessed not based on past experience... and the fact that she still managed to walk down the aisle with that swagger. But he smirked when he realized the only available seat was in the front row, directly in front of the lectern. Well, now you'll have to pay attention, won't you?
"Ooook guys. Let's get back to Forensic Psychology." He glanced at the clock in the back. Thirty five minutes to go.
And despite being pleased at her lone seat option, Dan found he couldn't in good conscious look down at the front row for the entire duration.
------------
He's so fucking lame... is there really no one in his life to tell him this? At her desk, Katy made a show of arranging a pen and a crumpled sheet of paper she had pulled out of the waistband of her skirt.
Katy took psychology courses because she enjoyed the topic, and since she had to choose a major, it would probably be this, but also... torturing Professor Dan was electrifying. Something about him... He tried, sure he did. His signature wardrobe choice of 'I don't try to think about what I wear too much but clearly I also do', with his dark jeans, button down shirts, rolled up sleeves hinting that he works out juuust enough to pull off the cool, youngish professor vibe... It made Katy roll her eyes just thinking about it.
Even the fact he makes us call him by his first name... what a dork.
Her sister had been obsessed with him. Sandra would tell Katy about the cute psych professor who was soooo insightful, soooo easy to listen to. She had even confided she had considered making a move, for fuck's sake!
And what good had all that gushing done Sandra, anyway? She had majored in Psych and ended up some media slave at a corporate office downtown. If anything, Katy expected to do something with her diploma, otherwise, why the fuck get one?
So the trick was to actually earn one, with as little work as possible. Lame, lame, lame.
From her seat, Katy couldn't see the clock in the back of the class without fully turning around, so she decided to play her favorite game: Stare at Professor Dan intently until it made him visibly uncomfortable. She had spent her first semester in his class ignoring him; her second one, inventing and perfecting this game. The best part of teasing this guy was that Katy aced every exam and paper - the best Dan could do was knock off some points here and there for tardiness, or not showing up at all. So Katy managed Bs at best, but it was enough to afford her the luxury of fucking around.
Leaning forward with her elbows on her desk, her face in her hands, she made her eyes big and stared up at her professor. His focus was on the back of the room, and Katy couldn't help feel he was doing it on purpose. She wiggled in her seat a bit, batted her eyelashes. Dan kept his gaze across the hall, but looked tense. Katy pushed her arms closer together to make her cleavage pop out from her low neckline. Finally, she caught Dan glance down - a split second - and look back up, his eyebrows knitted indicating his frustration at his slip. Katy smiled and glanced across at his jeans, directly at his crotch. Game on.
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Back in his office, Dan was furious at how distracted he was as he attempted paper grading. What the fuck is her problem anyway? She's in university, for fuck's sake, and a fairly expensive one. His mind kept shifting back to Katy's front row shenanigans an hour earlier.
She's clearly managing good grades without trying. So why is she such a... Dan sighed to himself. That... bitch... had been trying to give him an erection in front of the whole goddam class. Sadistic! Too far! He shifted in his seat, just thinking about her purposeful position in the front row. No, no, no. You can't think about students that way. Even if they're clearly fucking with you.
Dan picked up the next assignment in the pile. Katy's. He set it to the side. It would be good enough, he already knew. He wouldn't have the opportunity to fail her yet.
"Professor Dan?" Dan jumped in his seat as he looked up. Oh right. Office hours.
"Hey Kenny, come in."
Dan really did enjoy teaching. And meeting with the students was usually a great aspect of it, getting to really discuss the material one-on-one was where he saw most students shine. Everyone knew Professor Dan held more office hours than most other professors, and his psych classes were pretty popular. To be honest, he reveled in it. Teaching... was his life. He just didn't have time - or, well, made himself not have time - for anything outside it. And teaching three separate courses a semester - a total of 80 students, give or take - was how he managed to make that happen.
But now, he half-heartedly watched Kenny take a seat in front of his desk. As Kenny droned on about his mid-semester research project, Dan found himself looking past Kenny at his door.
What if she shows up to office hours? In two semesters of taking his courses, she'd never done it. They'd never communicated outside class. That's how for granted she took all of it. That in itself was maddening, but if she showed up here... Dan wasn't sure how much of that he could actually take.
He realized Kenny had stopped talking. "Uh, yes, Kenny - I really like the idea, you should go for it. Listen, I gotta get to a meeting - um - a Zoom meeting - so I need you to go, but I love the enthusiasm..." Dan started to stand, to indicate to Kenny it was time to go, but thought better of it. Kenny looked back at him confused, but thankfully took the hint and made his way out the door.
Dan closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Fuck. This is next-level obnoxious student quota.
He opened his eyes, half expecting to see Katy at his door. When she wasn't, he sighed in relief, his mind combatting the vision of her in that skirt in the office door frame, a vision both terrifying and electrifying.
---
"Dude, that was too far." Mika strode up to Katy in the hall and gently slapped her ass. "You can't keep doing that to Profesor Dan, it's cruel." Katy looked at her friend and the pair burst out laughing.
"Oh my god, Mika, he is so fucking pathetic. It's too easy."
"Katy... c'mon. He's a nice guy. Find some upperclassman to torture within your age range."
"Yeah, yeah. I guess I should pick on people my own size, right?"
Mika gave her a thumbs up and disappeared into her next class. Katy realized she had an hour before hers. Mika is right, I'm being kind of a dick. She wondered why she was such an asshole sometimes. Boredom? Katy continued down the hall and realized she was a few doors away from the Psych department. Dan's office was next door to her favorite psych professor, Professor Silver, the one she actually wanted to study with but hadn't made the cut into her course this semester. Her classes were always packed, waiting lists after registration week. It was the one course, the one professor Katy really wanted to take on before graduation, and she hadn't managed to make it in her previous four semesters at the university.
Katy sighed. Ok, ok.
She stepped forward to Professor Dan's door and nudged it ajar. She saw through the crack that he was at his desk, grading papers. He looked focused, and for a second Katy felt bad about disturbing him in this context. She'd never visited him in office hours before; she'd never even spoken to him one on one before or after class or anywhere not surrounded by fellow students. Suddenly, she felt a little self conscious. Maybe she had been too much of a bully with this guy. To satisfy her boredom? Instinctively, she snapped her gum; Dan looked up.
"Yes? It's open."
Katy cursed under her breath.
"Um. Hi." She gingerly opened the door, but stayed over the threshold.
"Oh. Katy." She watched him look up and slowly close his laptop. "There are no other students here and we're not in a lecture hall. So I'm a bit confused - how exactly can I help you?"
