by Jared Stone
“Excuse me?” he said to the strange girl.
“Professor Schuntz,” she replied in the same listless manner as her first comment. “He’s an ass.”
“Oh,” said Lucian, not quite sure how to respond to this unrequested information. “That’s too bad….”
“You’re cute,” the girl continued bluntly, slowly scanning him with her dark, scrutinizing eyes. This shocked Lucian momentarily, and he suddenly felt himself blushing. “Probably means you like boys,” she concluded flippantly.
“Umm…, I…,” Lucian stammered uncomfortably. He looked down at his desk for a second, then up at the podium, then back at the girl.
“It’s fine; I don’t care,” she insisted before Lucian could think of how he should answer. Her face remained absolutely serious, without even a smile, and this made Lucian squirm a bit in his seat.
“What’s your name?” she inquired with a slight nod of her head in his direction.
“Lucian,” he responded, pleased by the change in subject. “Yours?” he added, so as not to seem rude.
“My parents named me Ophelia,” the girl stated, showing almost a glimmer of disgust on her face as she said it. “But my pagan name is Willow.”
“Your what?” responded Lucian, realizing how rudely he had said it only after it had escaped from his mouth.
“My pagan name,” Willow repeated, seemingly not phased in the slightest by the boy’s reaction. “It’s how I was baptized when I entered my coven.”
Saying “I see….” with a head nod was all Lucian could think to do in response. He had heard of covens before: groups of witches who would gather together to practice magic, cast spells, and even conjure up curses. Clearly, this girl is not right in the head, he thought to himself.
“Alright, everyone, quiet down,” said a command-ing older gentleman loudly as he entered the room from the back of the stage and walked up to the podium. Lucian breathed a sigh of relief as he once again adjusted himself to face toward the front and away from the disturbed girl beside him.
“I am Professor Schuntz,” the man at the podium said, addressing the class. “I will be instructing you in Comparative Religion this semester.”
Lucian looked at the professor standing on the stage before them. He was a tall and skinny older man who looked to be in his late 70’s, with pale white skin and gray hair that wrapped around his head on the sides but had completely deserted the front and top of his scalp. His intense eyes stared out into the audience through wire-rimmed glasses with thick, rectangular lenses, and he was dressed very well for a professor, wearing an expensive-looking gray suit over a crisp, white button-down shirt. He stood with perfectly straight posture, and Lucian felt that he over-annunciated his words. The man’s face looked harsh, and deep lines in his brow and around his eyes revealed many more years of scowling than laughing.
“Now, if you all open your syllabi,” the professor continued very directly, without any apparent desire to connect with the students in his class, “I will review the expectations of the course.”
Lucian reached into his bag and pulled out the syllabus that he had printed out in the library the night before. He had already had a chance to look it over and was a little nervous about the number of papers they were expected to write over the course of the semester – nearly one every week. Now that he had seen the professor’s terse style of interacting with his class, he was even more worried.
“As you see on the first page,” Professor Schuntz said, “I very adamantly and literally apply the terms of the code of conduct to every assignment. Any instance of plagiarism will be punished to the fullest extent of my power. I have zero tolerance for lying, cheating, and stealing.”
There was a cold silence throughout the room as Professor Schuntz glared out at the students frozen in their seats. Lucian sat there in disbelief of the severity of the man in front of them.
“Additionally,” the professor began again, “I will not accept any late assignments. Most students are naturally lazy and selfish and will cut corners and procrastinate if allowed to do so. There will be no such behavior permitted in my class. In accordance with this regulation, any assignment turned in after the specified due date will be given zero points.”
Lucian glanced over at his dark female classmate, who simply looked back at him and raised her eye-brows as if to say, “I told you so.” Her face revealed no other signs of surprise or sympathy, however, so Lucian turned back toward the professor.
“Over the years, I have been told by some that my system of rules and regulations is too harsh,” stated Schuntz, almost mockingly. “However, it is my opinion that, without these parameters, this class would fall victim to the self-serving aspirations of its misguided participants and devolve into chaos. It is necessary for me to place stringent expectations upon my students in order to ensure a productive environment in which they may learn and grow. If this is not your preferred style of instruction, you may leave the classroom now.”
After this, the professor remained silent and looked about the room. No one dared to move as Schuntz’s steely gaze swept over them. Though his statement had been worded as an offer, it was interpreted by all as a challenge; one which no student was brave enough to take, least of all Lucian.
“Very well, then,” stated Schuntz, finally breaking the silence which had seemed to stretch on for an eternity. “If that is the case, I will be expecting superior work and effort from all of you. Now, the rest of the course material and expectations have been outlined quite sufficiently in the syllabi. I will waste no further time going over them here. Open your textbooks to the first chapter.”
With this, the professor reached into his bag and pulled out his teaching edition. Placing it on the podium before him, he flipped open the cover. “I will pretend that all of you have read the assignment for today, though I assume that none of you has.”
Lucian could feel himself sliding down in his seat self-consciously. He hadn’t thought that a reading assignment would actually be necessary for the first class period, so he hadn’t bothered to read anything for that day. By the terrified look of several other students around him, however, he was not the only one.
“The first chapter speaks of the myriad religious traditions extant in the world today,” said Schuntz, looking down casually at the textbook before him. “Many scholars, such as the author of this book, will make the argument that religions around the world arose from the deep, spiritual experiences of their first practitioners. I, however, take the position that religious traditions and ceremonies have arisen to curb the inherent nature of mankind. When left in his natural state, man will be overcome by selfish desires, unbridled anger, and destructive ignorance. Religion was created to suppress these tendencies, teach man propriety through rites and rituals, and ensure a harmonious society.”
Following this, the professor went on to give brief synopses of all the world’s religions, from Islam to Buddhism to Christianity to Sikhism. With every one, Schuntz would take a characteristically cynical position on the rationale behind their tenets and founding, and Lucian found himself feeling almost sorry for the jaded professor who had clearly lost the splendor and serenity of the religions which he described. After listening to Schuntz’s thoughts for over an hour, Lucian was very relieved when the class period finally ended.
“That is all for today, class,” said the professor as he closed his book on the podium. “We will resume on Thursday with Chapter 2, which will delve deeper into Christianity.” All the students around Lucian could be heard fumbling through their things and swinging up their desk flaps, trying to rush out of the lecture hall door as fast as they possibly could. Probably to run back to their rooms to drop this class, thought Lucian to himself.
“What a total ass,” mumbled Willow next to him. Lucian turned to her once again.
“I mean, he’s completely misinterpreted the purpose of religion: to connect us on a deeper level with the spirit world and allow us to achieve our i
nnate potential as divine beings,” she continued. Lucian just stared at her, not knowing exactly what to say.
“Yeah, he seems a little pessimistic about the whole thing,” he finally asserted as he packed away his book and syllabus into his bag. Willow also grabbed her stuff and stood up, swinging her black shoulder sack over her head. Lucian could see, now that she was standing, that Willow was of an average height and could not have been over five foot six.
“Oh well,” said the girl without a hint of inflection in her voice. “It’s been real, Lucian.” Lucian stood up with his bag in his hand and looked at her, expecting a hand shake, though there was nothing.
“See you Thursday,” she concluded blandly before turning and walking toward the exit.
What a peculiar person…, thought Lucian as he paused for a moment in order to avoid the very awkward occurrence of walking out of the building with her and either needing to think of what to say or continuing on in silence: neither of which seemed very appealing. After waiting a few minutes, Lucian also walked out the exit and back to his dorm to catch up on the reading he had missed.
2 - Harmony
Thursday, September 11th
It was Thursday morning, which meant that Lucian once again found himself sitting uncomfortably in one of the many fold-down chairs of his Religion class. He had chosen the same spot as last time, for Lucian often identified his seat within a room and would not stray from that decision for the remainder of the semester. He wasn’t superstitious or obsessed over it, but it still gave him a sense of comfort to eliminate uncertainty and settle knowingly into the familiarity of an unchanging space. He reasoned that this was just human nature.
Wednesday’s classes had been alright, but not filled with anything of particular interest. World History and Algebra seemed as though they would be less labor-intensive than Lucian had originally feared, which was a relief, as he would need all the time and energy available to him devoted solely to the ridiculous amount of work required by Schuntz. As he pulled out his books to prepare for the arrival of the professor, he heard a flat female voice say, “Hey again, Golden Boy.”
Turning around, he saw Willow sitting casually in the chair directly behind his. She was dressed in a similar manner to the last time he had seen her, with a black sweater and tight black jeans; but her flash of color had changed since Tuesday, from green to blue. This color pallet stretched from the streak in her hair to her eye shadow to even her eyes, which Lucian now reasoned must be colored contacts. The jewelry accents had remained the same, however, and Lucian found himself admiring the shining black feathers hanging from her ears.
“What did you call me?” he said, confused but also smiling a little.
“Golden Boy,” she responded bluntly. “You just seem like a Golden Boy to me. With the blond hair and the nice clothes and the brand new notebook and everything.” This statement was accompanied by a flippant sweep of her hand to indicate Lucian’s general appearance.
Lucian chuckled awkwardly. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult,” he admitted to her.
“Yeah,” was all she offered in response.
Lucian sat there for a second waiting for a follow-up comment, but there was none. “I like your color choice today,” he eventually said, trying to be social and continue the conversation that she had started.
“Yeah, I was having a blue day,” Willow explained.
“Oh, alright,” said Lucian back to her, unsure of exactly what that meant. “Why are you sitting back there today?” he continued, thinking that, generally, most other people followed his method of choosing a place in which to set roots and stay.
“Just like to switch it up a bit,” she responded with a shrug. “Some people get so set in their ways, they never throw in a little variety to mess everything up.” She accentuated this last point with a grin that looked very odd on her otherwise emotionless face. Lucian thought she might be poking fun at him, and he sank down a little in his seat.
“So, what are you doing this weekend?” she then inquired. Her tone made it seem as if she didn’t actually care, but Lucian considered that perhaps she was simply trying to change the subject so he wouldn’t feel self-conscious. Though, on the other hand, she seemed to thrive on making him feel self-conscious….
“I’m going home to see my parents!” said Lucian with excitement. “They only live a couple of hours from here.”
“How cute,” Willow responded, this time so dryly that Lucian was certain she was mocking him.
“How about you?” the boy countered. He imagined, considering her fanciful flights from reality, that her weekend plans would surely be very amusing to hear, even if they were entirely fabricated.
“Oh, just some coven stuff,” said Willow, feigning apathy as she looked down at her black fingernails. It was as if she was trying to impress him, while at the same time acting as though it was no big deal. Lucian so desperately wanted to roll his eyes, but he refrained from doing so.
“Mmmm, I see,” he stated in return. “So, that’s like, what? Magic and stuff?” He didn’t want to just let the topic drop, as it was far too entertaining for him.
“That’s right,” she said, looking up from her nails and staring into his eyes. “We do all sorts of things. Casting spells and enchantments, even curses if we so choose.” She was being deadly serious about all this, and Lucian didn’t dare laugh…, though he wanted to.
“Sounds cool,” he said with a light smile before turning around again. Lucian was pleased to see that Schuntz had already entered the classroom and now stood at the podium ready to begin so he wouldn’t have to continue this inane conversation with the delusional girl behind him. Opening his notebook and taking out a pen, the class then launched into an excruciatingly long lecture on Christianity and how its many rites and rituals and codes of ethics worked to curb the naturally evil tendencies inherent to all of mankind.
* * *
Thursday, September 18th
Lucian didn’t go back home the previous weekend like he had originally planned. Because classes had now started up, he had been so engulfed with trying to keep track of multiple homework assignments and papers to write and where to go for class and what time to get there and where to eat and how to participate in clubs and….
Lucian was feeling overwhelmed again. He had just come from Schuntz’s Comparative Religion class, in which he had already been expected to turn in a ten page paper on Christianity and its influence on human society. Lucian found himself grappling with the dilemma of choosing between writing what he believed to be true and writing what he thought the professor wanted to read, and it had been utterly exhausting. In the end, he decided that it would best to cater to the professor’s twisted perceptions and sacrifice his own integrity for a good grade. Still, the guilt of that decision weighed heavily on him.
He paused for a moment in his brisk walk across campus, hugging a stack of books to his chest, and took the opportunity to take a deep breath. He kept telling himself it would get easier, once he knew what each different professor expected and once he understood the layout of the campus buildings and how best to get to each. He only had one class this afternoon, and he had already done the reading for it, which was very easy. He barely even had to show up for the lecture!
Wait…, thought Lucian. Why do I need to show up for lecture? The thought had never occurred to him before. This wasn’t high school any longer. No one cared if he went to class with the hundred other students. No one was taking attendance. No one would call his parents and ask them where he had been. He was on his own now. And it felt good.
“Screw it!” exclaimed Lucian out loud, suddenly feeling like a heavy weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. A hunched-over freshman girl wearing a heavy sweater and black, skin-tight leggings with furry boots eyed him quizzically as she scuttled past this strange, screaming boy. But Lucian didn’t care. With no Friday classes, he was free. Free for the whole weekend! Well, not the whole weekend; he was
still inundated with numerous assignments and papers that needed to be completed before Monday. But he was free for the rest of the day, at least. It suddenly dawned on him that he should use this opportunity to get into the city.
I haven’t gone into the city as an adult before! thought Lucian excitedly as he turned around and hurried back toward his dorm room to drop off his books. As he traversed the campus, he could already sense the laid-back attitude typical of the weekends. College students sauntered around, merrily chatting about their plans for the upcoming few days free of classes and who would be having what party where. Lucian was a little envious of their vivacious social life when compared with his own – or lack thereof. But he had to remind himself that he was still very new to the school, and there would be plenty of time to make friends and be social once the whirl-wind of starting the semester had subsided.
As he entered his room and dropped his books down on his desk with a THUD, he looked over at the bare mattress next to his for a moment. Blake had never returned to their room, and, a couple of days ago, Lucian was called into Student Services to chat with some police officers. He was asked questions and shown pictures of Blake and two other missing boys from the school. Lucian didn’t have much to say on the matter, having just arrived the day after Blake went missing, and the officers let him go after only very minimal interrogation; done more as a required formality, it seemed, than anything serious. Yesterday, Blake’s parents had come to the room and packed up their son’s things, his mother crying the entire time while his father solemnly placed each item delicately in a big box. Lucian left the room shortly after they arrived, as the situation seemed awkward and crushingly sad. When Lucian returned later that night, everything was packed up and gone.
