Chapter 10
Quill
Fitzek Junior
Playing Mr. Ganz
Carlos Rafael Rivera
If one were to believe Professor Fitzek's words, the next three years would turn into a kind of competition between slaves to the republic for those who took this high achiever nightmare seriously and sold their entire souls to the devil of law, with only ten percent of them graduating in the end.
Although I was willing to make my research as realistic as possible, I lacked, first, the appropriate intelligence quotient and, second, the stamina for this fever dream. Third, the way this professor had kept staring at me had made me realize that I would not survive here for long.
After he had finished his speech about the virtues of young male students, the good old 50s, and a number of organizational topics, I had quickly rushed out of the lecture hall, determined not to attend a single one of his lectures.
This man had an influence on the consistency of my bone marrow.
If he were to find out that I was writing a psychological thriller or reading erotic novels in his lecture, he would turn my life into a psychological thriller.
A miracle that he hadn't been present at the literature lecture a week ago.
Paranoid that this man could expose me and get me kicked out of university, I slid into the seat beside Lucas and Zach in the next, less crowded lecture in the much smaller lecture hall and took a deep breath.
I was pretty sure the day couldn't get any worse.
Originally, I hadn't planned on joining them, but Lucas hadn't left my side and Zach had followed us both.
“Why didn't you take business law last year?”
I looked between the two of them.
Lucas grinned slyly.
“I failed the exam and Zach was taking other courses.”
Oh... okay? Did that mean I should avoid this lecture too, or maybe even stick with the two of them?
If I didn't keep my distance, I wouldn't be able to write or take notes unnoticed, but the insider information I got from Lucas piqued my curiosity about student life in law school.
I often caught myself imagining what it would be like to actually study here, wondering if I would be a good lawyer. The answer was clear. No.
I would never be more than an author, and yet that was the greatest I could ever have aspired to be.
“One thing you should know. This course is pretty tough, especially for newbies like you.” Lucas leaned back and put his legs over the back of the chair in front of him, causing the boy sitting there to immediately change seats.
“Fitzek Junior fills the students’ calendars with mountains of extra work and only lets twenty percent of the course pass. The rest fail completely.”
“Fitzek Junior?”
Wait a minute... Hadn't I already met this guy?
“That's what everyone here calls him,” Lucas laughed, playing with his tie. “But not too loudly, of course, unless you want to line up for one of his weekend punishments.”
Oh. Great. I had already gotten into a lot of trouble with teachers like that in school.
Since I couldn't stand small talk, I leaned back and watched my fellow students' behavior until Lucas leaned over to me.
“A question, pretty judge's daughter.” I swallowed the feeling of discomfort and turned my head toward him.
“Don't you feel a little... dominated here among all these men?” Unenthusiastically, I raised both eyebrows, regretting a little that I had sat down with the two of them. “Or does it maybe turn you on?”
Suddenly, Zach's gaze was on me too, watching, unreadable.
I was neither quick-witted nor experienced in dealing with men my age, which is why it suited me perfectly when the double doors swung open and the man my brother's age entered the small hall with a black briefcase and his suit jacket folded over his arm.
Professor Umbridge
Nicholas Hooper
His short brown hair, like his black tie, sat far too neatly. He wore a white shirt with a black vest over it, black suit pants, and shiny patent leather shoes of the same color.
His gaze, like his father’s, was that of a bird of prey – only he looked like one that had had its claws stepped on and its prey stolen.
At the door, he turned around, closed it, and pulled out a key.
An astonished murmur rippled through the rows.
Was he seriously locking the lecture hall door?
Three students arrived behind the glass pane and knocked on the door, but the professor ignored them and energetically drew the curtain of the small window in the door closed, not without allowing himself a satisfied smile.
I noticed that although he had five-day stubble, he had more hair above his lips, so that this area almost resembled a mustache.
“Professor, there are students who want to come in,” remarked a guy sitting nearby.
The professor turned away from the door and strode over to the tables in front of the blackboard, where he set down his briefcase with a thud.
“Then they should have come earlier.”
What the…
So that was the colleague of my brother who locked his students in the lecture halls... Now I understood what Anthony had meant.
Lucas next to me grinned, while Zach stared at the man as if he were completely irritated by his behaviour.
The grumpy-looking professor neatly opened his briefcase and went through his papers before turning around and writing something on the blackboard in a passive-aggressive manner.
I raised both eyebrows.
Professor Fitzek
“That is the only name you will use to address me.” He spun around and raised his index finger with a warning look. “The only one!”
Without really looking around the room, he spun back around and began writing numbered bullet points on the blackboard and reading them aloud energetically.
“Rule number one. The doors will be closed at quarter past and reopened ninety minutes later, at exactly three-quarters past.”
It seemed that the day could actually get worse.
“Rule number two. Attendance is mandatory. If you miss this lecture or the accompanying tutorial once, you will be removed from the list.”
He really seemed to be serious about this...
“What if you're sick?” shouted a guy with horn-rimmed glasses and braces.
The professor didn't even turn around.
“Sickness is an excuse you can't use in court when a client is waiting to be defended. So, find a way to get to the lecture, or your expulsion from this institution will find its way into your mailbox.”
I suppressed a sound of bewilderment.
How was I supposed to force myself to go to university on those days when I was stuck under a warm shower for an hour or lay on the bathroom floor staring at the ceiling, desperately searching for reasons to continue existing?
“Rule number three. Anyone who doesn't hang their jacket on the hooks provided outside will have it confiscated.” He laughed as if there was something amusing about it. “You are then welcome to watch it burn in my office in a fireplace that is older than any of you will ever be.”
The students exchanged confused glances, as if they, like me, were wondering if this man was joking.
A student who appeared to be in a higher semester cleared his throat.
“That's theft and property damage.”
The professor spun around and glared at the young man until his Adam's apple moved.
“As long as you study at Maplecrest, you are the property of those who teach you.”
I strongly doubted that.
Professor Fitzek Junior spun back around to the blackboard.
“Rule number four. No phones.” He strode over to the table and picked up the phone before looking around and, luckily, not spotting me.
“If I hear even one call…” He held his thumb and index finger together so that there was only a small gap between them, while narrowing his eyes.
“...the slightest sound, I will confiscate the phone and send it to your parents as proof of your unwillingness to graduate from law school with top grades.”
That self-satisfied smile again...
Lucas leaned over to my ear. “The worst part is that we have to take the basic, advanced, and in-depth modules with him.”
It was a good thing I wouldn't be staying here long, because I was already suppressing the urge to give this professor a proper tongue-lashing.
He wrote a whole ten more rules on the blackboard. From chewing gum to a ban on jeans, we weren't even allowed to take a sip of water. Anyone who coughed received a tally mark on a tally sheet he kept for each student. Ten tally marks was a warning. Twenty meant you were kicked out of the course.
Who had stepped on this man's toes that he had to take it out on the students like this?
He spun around, wiped the chalk off his hands with a rag, and simply threw it aside, where it hit a student directly on the head.
Half the room giggled, which the professor immediately stifled with devastating glances.
A young blond man raised his hand while Professor Fitzek Junior popped a white mint candy into his mouth, which we – mind you – were not allowed to do.
“Professor.” He waved his hand as the professor walked over to his papers and sorted them neatly. “I have a question.”
“Which I will not answer.” Again, the professor did not look up.
“Questions prove that you don't know much and should rather stick your nose back in the book.” He shook his head with a dismissive expression as the young man lowered his hand.
“If I answered all your questions, I wouldn't have much of my lecture time left.”
That was the moment my patience snapped and I broke my fourth and final rule.
“Looks like someone didn't get a lollipop from Daddy.”
For the first time, the professor looked up and seemed taken aback when he spotted me among all the male students.
Admittedly, I played the card of knowing too much about this man through my brother. Anthony had told me that Troy always tried to please his ignorant father and took it out on anyone who breathed the same air as him.
A few students began to whisper and grin gleefully, though I didn't know if they were happy that I was picking a fight with this snob or that said snob would probably argue me into the ground with his lawyer skills.
“And who are you, if I may ask?”