"Ah, Chris, you are here?" Brad asked as he saw Chris approaching them. "Yes." Chris saw them and came near their table as he replied.
"Come and sit." Brad gestured him to seat near him.
"And this is?" Chris pointed at Amelia and asked.
"That"s our new teacher. I met her just outside the college and guess what?" Brad said pointing at Amelia who was munching on the pizza.
"What?" Chris was curious.
"She is from our locality." Brad had a smug smile on his face as he answered.
"What"s your name, Mam? If you don"t mind." Chris asked humbly.
"I don"t. I"m Lisa Hadon, Professor of the Department of History. I am a guest lecturer here. So, attend those cla.s.ses." She uttered the last part strictly.
"What? Oh, yeah, I will. I am from the Department of History, but unfortunately Brad isn"t. He is from the Arts Department. Mam, do you know, he successfully won the championship this year. His paintings are awesome." Chris rambled on and on, while Amelia and Brad eyed each other.
"Congrats Brad. You never told me that." She threw an accusatory glance at him.
"Mu… Mam, we met just a while ago and it"s not good to boast, you know." He told Amelia and elbowed Chris on his arm.
"Bro, do you have cla.s.ses in the morning?" Chris asked.
"Ah, yes and I need to visit the Dean. I need to talk to him about the upcoming Arts Exhibition. By the way, did you notice that there are few people who are following us?"
"Huh? No, I haven"t noticed." Chris replied.
"Look there." Brad said.
Chris looked at that direction and saw few people recording them. "What the h.e.l.l!" Chris cursed out loud.
"I don"t know. I just find them fishy. Why would they record us all of a sudden?" Brad asked.
"Who knows? Let"s go to the cla.s.ses." Chris shrugged it off and said.
"Okay."
Brad and Olympia separated from the rest as they went towards the Dean"s office.
"Master, don"t you think something is fishy?"
"It is fishy, but we can"t do anything now. Let"s meet the Dean and speak to him."
"Sure."
Both of them chatted all along the way and then Brad knocked on the door of the Dean"s oval office.
"Come in." A hoa.r.s.e voice could be heard coming from inside the room.
"Good morning Sir."
"Good morning, Mr. Holman. To what do I owe the pleasure of having you here?"
"It"s about the upcoming exhibition, Sir."
"Ah, I see. Please take a seat." He parted his lips and uttered. The room was filled with the smell of books. Rows of books filled various shelves throughout the entire room.
"Ah, those are some wonderful books, Sir. Can I take a look?" Brad was fascinated by the book on sculptures.
"Sure Mr. Holman. But before that, please tell me whether you are fine or not. I heard that you were unwell for a while." He adjusted his spectacles over the bridge of his nose and said.
"Ah yes, Sir. I"m fine now.�� Brad looked at the fat middle-aged man sitting behind the desk. He paused a while before he asked again, "Sir, can we speak about the exhibition then?"
"About the exhibition, Mr. Holman, I"m afraid, they are putting pressure on us to let Mr. Tyson enter. I don"t know how they got intimidated, and why. I heard some rumors, and they were nasty." Dean shook his head and said.
"Like?" Brad"s voice was a bit chilly to hear.
"Like you were beaten up by someone for doing some nasty deeds. Now now, Mr. Holman, please don"t ask me to repeat them." He swiped the beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
"So, Dean, can I just enter the exhibition?" Brad asked again, a chilly glint pa.s.sing through his eyes so quickly that it wasn"t noticed by anyone except Olympia, who was standing beside the bookshelf staring at Brad all this while.
"You have to. After all this is the prestige of our college." The dean confidently answered.
"Okay."
"Mr. Holman, if you don"t mind, I have a request for you." The dean asked in a gentle manner. No one could believe that the Dean who intimidated everyone with his presence could be this gentle.
"Yeah?"
"Umm… Could you join the History Department too? For a while, I mean. Umm, it might help you in the upcoming exhibition too. I mean, look, the topic is somewhat historical too, right? So, could you please join?" The Dean constantly fiddled with his fingers as he asked. It was a huge pressure of him to ask the son of a Mayor to do him a favor. The new teacher who came to the College was also from an influential background and she specifically asked for people from the Arts Department to attend her cla.s.ses. Although he could have rejected her, he could not bring himself to. It was hard to bring her as the guest lecturer in this college. He was extremely nervous.
Brad smiled and thought, "So, this is what she is up to now!" But he did not let those emotions show on his face, as he replied, "Sure, No problem Dean. I"ll attend the cla.s.ses. After all, you arranged for it for my welfare."
The Dean was dumbfounded. He thought that Brad might go against it. He was prepared to convince him till his last breath, but he easily got convinced. "Ah! This isn"t following the script." He though furiously.
"Do you mind if I take this with me? I"ll return it, I promise." Brad shook the book he took in front of the Dean"s eyes as he asked.
"No problem, Mr. Holman." The Dean eyed the Book in Brad"s hands.
"Okay then."
"Sure." The Dean replied politely and thought, "At least that monster is taking a book, unlike the first time he did." The thought of their first confrontation gave him gooseb.u.mps. "Who said that the devil is good? Hmph! He"ll teach them a lesson. He is a monster in the guise of a human." Obviously he won"t say that out loud, lest that monster hears it and decides to give him trouble. He wiped the non-existent perspiration from his forehead and took the gla.s.s of water lying on the table and gulped it in a go.
As soon as Brad left, he heard another knock at his door. "Come in." He answered praying that the monster isn"t back.
A blonde lady entered the cubicle and said, "So, Mr. Collen, did you manage to persuade him?"
"Ms. Hadon, he didn"t need persuading. I just requested him and he agreed to it." The Dean started sweating again. "Small monster went away and a big monster came." He thought.
"No fun." She commented. She left the Dean"s office, her high heels clicking against the floor and echoing through the empty halls.
The Dean sat there dumbfounded mulling over her statement.
"What isn"t fun?" He asked himself but got no answer.