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He was enjoying himself for the most part, as he always did in Professor Oh-So-His-Alabaster's class. The only downside was that he refused to lecture for the majority of the class, which often let Clader memorize his voice and watch him come and go as he went up and down the aisles of desks. No. He was denied even this pleasure this week, and he felt his heart sink with disappointment. It was already a miserable time for him due to many recent events and he had been hoping this one class would make it at least bearable.

Frowning, he forward, setting his head upon his hands, elbows propped on the table, as he sighed at the fact he would be wasting an entire class period with some other student to occupy his time. Still, any opportunity to impress his one and only was at least something. It did help that with the professor writing on the chalkboard, he got a nice display of his backside. Front Row was the best.

It was while checking the merchandise that he didn't first register who he was paired with until he eyes slowly moved up and noticed the name beside his. The one name he didn’t want anywhere NEAR his name.

Eyes wide, his arms nearly let go from under him and almost sent his head smacking the table. – Almost. Instead, he jerked to attention and opened his mouth, just about to protest, but clamped it shut. This was the one class he did not cause a commotion. The one class he was very aware of his actions, because this one class was the one he wanted to shine and make only the best impressions. It was why being paired up with purple-squishy-face Riley would be the hardest on him. OH, he HATED her, but he would never question Alabaster's decisions. NEVER! His beloved was always right, and if it meant suffering through what was suppose d to be the one class he was looking forward to, then so be it.

Rising up, he took his paper and looked around for something purple and annoying. Spotting the ghoul, his ears dropped back and he went over, finding a now vacant seat in front of her, turning it around, and sitting down. "Well….let's get this done quickly." He said with at little enthusiasm as he could muster. When he looked at his paper compared to hers, he suddenly felt a creeping dread that she might have written a better paper, but then tossed that idea out the window. HAH! As if she could. He flicked his paper on her desk and snatched her paper from her desk. He then read the title out loud. "The Rise of Trap-o-lion Boil…" He paused a moment, then continued, not wanting to seem like an idiot but finding the name a bit difficult. "..aparte - by Ghouuuulllbert Gasprey." He hated these complicated named. Of course she had to be annoying enough to pick the worst title and aurthor. He then looked up at the ghoul. "By Little Miss Riley."

He leaned back, looking over the paper and glaring daggers back at her. "I hate when you talk in my head. Stay in your own brain." He said, looking back at the paper. That was right. She couldn't talk. Hah! He was going to abuse his abilty to speak with a MOUTH right in front of her to spite her. "Your name is simple, like you. That’s why it's easy, like you." He smiled at how cleaver he was, and decided he'd just start getting to the task. Well, he needed to come prepared after all.

Smiling, he reached down and popped open his sporran, reaching in and pulling out a pen. Not his green pen he wrote everything in or the pink one he wrote love notes and stories in. He pulled out a nice red done, and then set the paper down, smiling.

" This book is the first in a series of fiction written around a wonderful character whose name is featured in the title."

He frowned, before sighing. "Wow. Great introduction." He said with sarcasm and jotted a little note. "Weak. I'm already taking a nap here." He said, smiling and continuing on.

" The books are rumored to be loosely based on actual history, but I am hard pressed to believe this is the case simply because of the tragic and unfair ending to our main pro –" He paused a moment, and then continued. ..protagonist. "

It seemed he would be further annoyed by her essay, but he tried to quickly recover and to spite her, wrote a comment. "Lacking." He said, and added a frowny face before looking up at her. "You are doing really bad." He 'tsksed', shaking his head.

It was her silent that bothered him, and his ears twitched at her lack of a mental response. Instead, she took out her own red pen and started to ruin his paper. HIS PERFECT PAPER! That paper was to only be marked by Alabaster so he could put it on his wall with all the other written notes he had from him. How was he supposed to admire any of Alabaster's writing when her ugly pen scratches were on it? Worse yet, Alabaster would SEE her bad marks on it and think less of him. She was RUINING THEIR RELATIONSHIP!

The pen almost snapped in his hand as he watched her write and write and write, and he went back to writing, this time shutting up as he decided to write his own commentary. It wasn't as wordy as her of course, but that didn't mean he wasn't littering the margins and making marks. "Too Wordy." "Loosing interest of the reader." "Alludes to other books and not the book we are talking about – She should only talk about this one and not a whole bunch of other stories." "Feels emotionless." "Don't see it." He wrote near the end when it came to intelligence. He then decided, for the sake of it, to just start underlining the entire paragraph just to add more red, and then he felt the paper move. Oh….maybe he could..

There was the sound of tearing paper as a little bit of the side was torn. Calder placed a hand on his mouth and made a fake "Oh!" of surprise as he then looked at her. "Sorry. It was an accident. Let me fix that." He then pressed the paper and then. "Oops!" The paper crumpled a bit. "Now don't worry. I'll smooth it out." He pressed on the paper, smoothing out the wrinkles. "I'm sure it doesn't matter. It's the essay that counts after all." He said, looking back up to her with a smile.

That's what she got for messing with the one class he had with his man.

Riley watched Calder defile her paper, and her vision went red. She looked down at the pen in her hand, and looked as though she was about to aim it so that it would slide effortlessly between his eyes to kill him. Instead, the pen came slamming down on his paper, and she began writing more notes. Very hard, heavy handed notes. Notes that were pressing down on the paper so hard, the pen was ripping through it. She ended one note with a flourish, and the paper found itself with a jagged edge across it.

Oops.

Ah, so she was to be paired up with another student! looking at the board, she saw she would be paired up with...Ren? Looking around she saw the gryphon move towards her. It was the guy who had kissed gabrian. "Hello again!" She said to him brightly, then looked at the paper he had given her. "Thanks, and here is mine. Don't worry, it's not very long either" she handed her own essay over to Ren, and then pick up his so she could begin to read it. "Hmmm...."

She had not realized how this task would be, as she 'hmm'ed and 'umm'ed and re-read his essay. It seemed simple enough, but now she was supposed to say if it was a good essay or a bad one. And he would have to do the same for hers to. Perhaps she should have spent a little more time writing it...

"Well..I think it's a good essay.." She started, one of her feelers grabbing a pencil on her desk while she picked up another piece of paper. "It answers the question, and it's nice and precise; no waffling on about things. Plus the grammar is good too..I think. The only problem I see is it might be a little short" She didn't write down anything just yet, still trying to figure out what else she could say about the essay. She didn't want to rip apart the essay, but she had to give a honest answer otherwise she would be marked down.

Ah - that's right! Now that it saw Elizabeth - Lizzy - it did remember her, vaguely. Malodore opened its beak in a smile, pleased. "Grazie - I am glad I was able to help. I don't believe I ever caught your name, back there."

For a moment, it was vaguely distracted by - oh dear, what were Riley and Calder doing...? The plague doctor quickly decided the best thing to do was to pretend it didn't know either of them. At least for now. Instead, it focused on Lizzy, holding its own essay out towards her. "Shall we swap, then? I've never done this type of review before. I hope I can give your work a fair assessment."

He reached over his desk and took her hand, staring her right in the eyes. Are you crazy?! Put it down! Put it down! I'll give you a perfect score so stop! He more than yelled at her mind at this and even his thoughts were angry and panicked. He knew that holding her arm down was not a good idea, and he released to let her do so on her own, before leaning back. "Sorry Professor. My pen just broke." He called out, and sat back in his seat, looking back at her with narrowing eyes. A deal. He started, thinking now that he could surely get in trouble for what he was purposing, but not as bad and with damage to his relationship with Alabaster if he didn't. That was his priority, and as much as he was sick to even make a deal with Riley, he knew he couldn't rip, tear, ruin, and destroy every new essay she wrote out. There was also the fact he didn't memorize his paper. Ripping his apart and writing a new one was impossible for him. He didn't memorize the paper. He barely ever did. Sometimes he forgot what he even wrote at times. No. He couldn't win this. Now this time, but he could do damage control.

He glanced at the professor before looking back at her. You don't cause a scene, and I grade your damn paper as if it was the best piece of artistic genius I ever read. You get a good grade in the end and you don't cause a commotion with the professor. Deal? He watched her, taking the parts of his pen and putting it back together before putting it away, and then wiping his hands on the end of his scarf. He again glanced to check if Alabaster would still scold him, and then looked back at her.

The class was important. More than he would ever tell her, and he snatched the paper from her with a heavy glare and a simple, Yeah. Yeah. I heard ya. You act as if I never lied before.. He reached back and found a green pen, of course not needing a red one for the stellar performance he was about to give in saying how wonderful and marvelous her paper was. He set the paper down and glanced at the professor, as if to check if he was coming, and also to remind himself why he was going to swallow this big pill of pride and write GOOD things on the one paper he wanted to shred to pieces.

He started to write in a mock voice in his head, guessing that if it wasn't aimed at Riley, she wouldn't hear it. It was just to comfort himself anyways. "Great introduction. It really grabs my attention." "Very thought out and nicely written." "Flows nicely and doesn't have unnecessary clutter." "Keeps on track and addresses all points of the assignment." Calder was dieing. He swore he could feel an organ flat line somewhere inside his body. "Overall, an insightful paper with a unique writing style." By the end, his pen was shaking and he had to keep it from carving into the paper. His body was revolting against writing these things, but it was done. He wrote it. It was there. His handwriting, and worst of all, he was lying to his one and only professor. The added thought that he was also, possibly, impressing his professor to somewhat like Riley also turned his stomach, and he felt miserable for it.

He looked away, tossing the paper at her. "There. Choke on it." He said, setting his head in his hand, elbow propped on the desk top, and looking across the room as if he was bored and disinterested. Instead, he was just watching Alabaster and feeling knives in his gut for what he just did. If the were-unicorn so much as read his paper and felt anything for Riley, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.