Two Ways to Fix a Failing Grade

Rosalind stepped off the bus, backpack tightly strapped to her back. She had thick lipstick applied, practically drawn on, to change the shape of her lips. She applied a soft contour to her cheeks to take away from her sharp jawline. Her pockets had a couple pairs of plastic gloves, and she took several deep breaths to calm her nerves. She wore the best running shoes she had. 

There was no way she was going to fail and retake a course as pointless as Art History. It was a required class, and she couldn’t fathom why. She couldn’t care less about whether it was the Greeks or the Romans that worked with bronze or marble, or about who Michelangelo or Picasso was. All she needed was a passing grade to then move on to more interesting classes, and preferably classes in her major.

It was late, her clothes were dark, and the building only had the emergency lights on in the halls. She’d already scoped out the building during the last few weeks of the semester. Security cameras wouldn’t be able to identify her and wouldn’t catch her face. She was meticulous, with a fake tattoo on the back of her left calf exposed with her pants rolled up and a blonde ponytail wig covering her short brown hair. She felt as prepared as she could be. 

Her escape route was already planned in case she was seen. So, she walked calmly, quietly, through the halls. There were a few clubs still meeting in classrooms, but they were behind closed doors, no one paying attention outside their sphere of interest. In just a minute, most of them would be filtering out of the rooms and leaving the building.

It was easy to make it to the professor’s office. She just had to unlock the door and get in. Slipping on her plastic gloves, she tried the knob. It jiggled lightly, a bit loose, then turned. Unlocked. Her heart rate spiked and she could feel the blood rushing to her head in panic. He always locked the door when he wasn’t in the building. The lights in his office were off. After a few more deep breaths to steady herself, she pressed her ear to the door, hearing nothing.

Rosalind stepped away from the door and moved towards the bathrooms nearby as her watch buzzed to let her know it was 8pm. Clubs ended and there was movement throughout the halls as everyone left. When there was no more scuffling of shoes, she waited and watched, walking a few feet further from the professor’s room and turning her body towards a flyer hung on the wall. He still hadn’t come back yet, even after a few minutes past the hour.

For a few painful moments, the only sound she heard was from a clock. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Then, from the classroom a few doors down, she heard his voice... and that of a woman. She strained her ears and crept a little closer to the classroom.

“You’re quite beautiful,” he said, his words breaking apart, the hesitation evident. Rosalind felt her skin crawl.

A soft, girlish laugh followed his compliment, “Thank you, Professor Sanderson.”

“Gary, call me Gary,” he all but pleaded. The idea of being called Professor in this instance didn’t sit right in his stomach.

“Alright then, Gary,” she said, her voice slowly lowering from a higher innocent pitch to a lower, sultry tone.

Rosalind had heard enough. She left, the woman’s tone plaguing her ears as she returned to his office. She recognized the voice, someone from her class, maybe. But not someone she felt overly familiar with. While she was slipping into the office, the voice kept replaying in her head, and she could feel her hair standing on end as goosebumps prickled her skin at the thought of the sultry sounding words being directed towards her professor.

---

“I can’t believe you didn’t stop me sooner to talk,” Eun Ae said, laughing loftily as she gently pushed his shoulder. His eyes lit up at the touch. “I thought I was dropping hints left and right. We could’ve been having this chat so much sooner.” She placed a hand on her chest, drawing his eyes toward the cleavage on display from the low cut neckline. She fiddled with her low hanging necklace, a little more attention and focus lowered from her face. “I never thought I’d be the one to approach you.”

His mouth opened and closed like a fish, ears turning a bit red. His salt and pepper hair was a stark contrast to how red his neck was turning. “I could only dream that you would want me,” he said, eyes raising from her chest to her lips. “But I have dreamed..” he said, his voice trailing off.

She smiled, “You’re wide awake.”

The professor’s Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. Staring at her plump lipstick lined lips, he unintentionally licked his lips. His hand hesitantly reached forward and fell atop hers, which was resting on her thigh. A bold move. “I guess it can’t be a dream. You feel too real.” He squeezed her hand, and in turn, her thigh.

Leaning forward, Eun Ae whispered into his ear, “I am real.” She let her lips brush against his already red ear, and she could see the color spreading further down his neck and arms, his entire body beginning to flush. She giggled. “And once you’re no longer my professor, I can be even more real to you.”

There was the smallest frown on his face as his eyebrows scrunched. The color was starting to fade from his face, bad news falling from his mouth. “Eun Ae… your final wasn’t… it wasn’t quite a passing mark. You most likely won’t pass this class.”

Her smile dropped and she pulled away from him. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and didn’t make eye contact, saying in a small voice, “I know. I did something dumb.” She glanced up at his eyes and then away again. “When I first saw you, I thought I wanted to take your class again, no matter what.” She looked back at him and this time held his gaze with her own. “To see you more, to have you as a professor for two semesters. My degree isn’t in line with the courses you teach, so if I failed this one, I’d get to see you for at least one more semester. I never thought we would be having this conversation so late. If i’d known… I would’ve made sure I passed so that we could be something more sooner. But now, if you’re my professor again… that’ll be pushed off at least another semester.”

The alarm showed clearly on his face. The prospect of having her now had his blood rushing to his head. He could fix this. She could pass and he could have her. It wasn’t like his course was all that important to all students. It was a requirement they couldn’t avoid. He didn’t need her to love this class, he just needed her to love him.

While he was thinking through his options, where this could lead, what he could do to make it work, she could see his facial expressions changing, his thoughts racing to get to a conclusion that helped them both. 

When he next spoke, there was conviction in his voice. He’d already planned out the foreseeable future. “I’ll change your final. You’ll pass. We’ll wait two months - better than an entire year - so that it isn’t suspicious.” He began gesturing with his hands as he spoke, becoming more animated the more he sunk into his idea. “It’ll be in secret at first, but after a year, we can pretend to reconnect over something. You’ll be in your major, I won’t be able to affect any of your grades. No one will know. It’ll be something that just grew organically.”

Her face lit up. “You’d really do that for me?” she asked. “For us?”

His head bobbed vigorously, and he had a determined look on his face. “I’ll go change the score and submit it now. Shall we?” He stood from his chair and extended a hand.

She took it and was gently tugged from her chair. The clamminess of his hand only lingered against hers until they reached the door, when he let go to head into a more public space. He turned back to look at her every few steps, smiling a little as they walked. It was a short walk, but he was wholeheartedly distracted by her presence so close to him.

It was a good thing he was so distracted. Eun Ae happened to see a figure creeping out of his office one of the times he looked back at her. The two women made eye contact. Without hesitation or a second thought, she grabbed his hand and stopped him. His eyes immediately focused on their hands and then on her, away from the door of his office.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, letting go. “I just- I wanted to know what it felt like to get to hold your hand openly. I’ve been thinking about it all semester.”

His color had only just returned to normal, but now a blush crept across his cheeks and a wide smile split his face. The figure creeping out of the office made an appreciative nod and disappeared around a corner. “We get to do it a lot more in the future. For now, we just have to be careful.”

Nodding her head enthusiastically, they continued to his office where he took a seat and logged in, not hesitating to change her grade. His head was in the clouds, running down different possibilities for the future. Standing behind his chair, she watched him fix her grade and hit send. She had officially passed. With the change done, they promised to talk soon and she squeezed his shoulder before he stood. Eun Ae gave him a phone number and then she left him to pack up his office for the evening.

She walked calmly down one flight of stairs and out of the building. As soon as the door closed behind her and she was outside, she squealed. Her squeal was cut off as a voice startled her.

“Celebrating because you have the affection of your beloved professor, or is it because you just conned him into changing your grade?” asked Rosalind, causing Eun Ae to jump. She was leaning against the brick wall beside the doors, hidden in a darkened corner that shadows helped obscure. “Wait, don’t tell me - since you let me escape… you just passed the class with false promises.”

Eun Ae turned a little red, but she crossed her arms and squared her hips and shoulders. A solid defense. “As if you didn’t just change your grade in the system by breaking and entering.”

Rosalind smirked. “Fair,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. She pushed off the brick wall and leaned into Eun Ae’s personal space, hands in her back pockets. “I guess we have a secret. I’d say that makes us better than friends already. Partners in crime maybe?”

Eun Ae wouldn’t back down. She uncrossed her arms and placed them on her hips, leaning her upper body towards Rosalind’s, their faces mere inches apart. Her smile slowly shifted to match Rosalind’s, “I guess so.”

“Rosalind,” the woman in black said.

The woman in the low cut shirt replied, “Eun Ae.”

They held eye contact for a few moments longer, breaths intermingling. Then, without another word, they pulled back. Rosalind raised her hand into the air and Eun Ae gave her a solid high-five as she walked past her. They parted in different directions.

Rosalind pulled out bolt cutters from her backpack, cut the lock on a bike in full view of a camera, and rode off. Eun Ae casually strolled back to her dorm, waiting a few moments so the security camera wouldn’t catch them leaving together.

---

Spring semester started, Eun Ae walked into the required Freshman English class and took a seat near the back. She was one of the first to arrive.

A woman with short brown hair and a sharp jawline that seemed vaguely familiar took a seat beside her. They made eye contact as she sat down. The brunette spoke first.

“Rosalind.”

A small smile made its way to Eun Ae’s lips. “Eun Ae.”

Rosalind turned to face her, and with a mischievous grin asked, “Partners?”

Eun Ae nodded and said, “Partners,” a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, her heart pounding in her chest.