Not Leaving It Like That

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Let's be clear, as long as the class was not related to his dream career of being a lawyer, Akeem had little interest in it. He was, however, smart enough to understand that a grade lower than his objective might make his admission to the law school of his choice harder. So while he might listen less in those classes, skipping them even at times, he always made sure for his papers to be delivered in time and to have good enough grades. Well, maybe except this time.

He should have convinced someone to write it for him. The truth was that he totally forgot about this one he had to hand over. As a result, he wrote it down super fast at the last minute, not taking the time to really make sure it 1) had not too many spelling and grammatical errors and 2) fit the topic they were supposed to write it about. The result was the one expected, a grade that, if your goal was to finish college, would satisfy you but when you had higher goals in life than this little piece of paper to end up serving burgers at the nearest McDonald’s was totally unacceptable. He wouldn’t even eat at the nearest McDonald’s, he would rather die than work there. There was only one way to fix this. Talk to the teacher.

He had means to get a much higher grade. But he also knew he did something similar before and it was what landed him back to Bellefonte. He had to be careful with this as he didn’t want it to play against him. He bet the school was able to prevent him from going to a good law school if they wanted to. They were able to make even the bad law school not take him. And that was not going to happen. For this one, he’ll have to be smooth enough for the teacher to think it was her idea to give him a higher grade or, if he couldn’t get that without risk, at least be able to redo it.

He waited for the class to be dismissed to approach her. “Professor Connelly? Can I have a word?” For now, no pheromone. It was premature. He’ll see if his charm alone worked. If not, there would still be time for them.

[Bell Connelly]

If Bell was asked to describe herself as a teacher she would have to say she was firm but fair when all was said and done, sure she wasn’t exactly the strictest person in the school but she wasn’t exactly a soft touch when it came to her job. Her role as a teacher would be severely compromised if she just decided to just hand out A’s

She would have been fired a thousand times over.

All she had asked was for her students to do their bests, nothing more nothing less and Bell gave them ample opportunity to do so

At the end of class Bell was busy collecting her books when Akeem approached her, and she greeted him with her customary warm smile “Of course you can Akeem. For the record I’m not a professor , you can just call me Miss. Connelly, or even just Bell if you’re feeling adventurous”

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

This grade might be fair considering the amount of time Akeem spent on it but that did not mean he would satisfy himself of only this. He was not some low-brain jock hoping to get to a better college through a sport scholarship. He didn’t want a grade, even for something that probably wouldn’t affect his final one at the end of the year, to justify he didn’t go exactly where he wanted to. He cared little about the school and the extra classes of no interest to him but if said classes caused a risk for his ambitions not to be fulfilled, then he would suddenly take an interest. At least until he got what he wanted from them.

Bell knew him. It was weird to see her smile like this when she just gave him a grade he simply could not accept. She probably thought he was but an average student. This was unacceptable. But her smile could also mean she was a warm-hearted person and those tended to give more chances than people deserve. Just what he might need.

“Right, Miss...” he said, stopping himself at the last second to add whatever, as the way he should call her was irrelevant to him. “I wanted to talk about the work we gave in. Or more like the grade I got.” Was she the kind to discuss what she gave you? He was not sure, but he had to try. Anyway, he knew he should not be too worried as he could easily make her listen.

[Bell Connelly]

Oh no, Akeem was not an idiot. Quite the contrary in fact. Bell found him to be a very bright student. Ok, maybe he put far too much pressure on himself and maybe at times he did seem to tunnel vision on his grades, but besides those qualities he was a good students. He like so many others before him just took life far too serious for his own good. It couldn’t be helped really.

Bell quirked an eyebrow at Akeem’s words looking up from collecting her books and folding her arms a small forming on her face “Ah-ha I think I see there this is going…” She nodded “You’re hardly the first student to come to me wanting to talk about grades Akeem-You don’t mind if I call you that do you?- “I see nothing wrong with that grade. Personally I think it’s a perfectly acceptable grade. You should be happy with that”

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

If Akeem had any idea what his teacher was thinking about him right now, he would not believe it. If he was being serious about his grades, it was to make sure it would get him to his goal. But, in reality, unless he knew it was important for him to put real effort into it, he seldom did. Why bother with some random, useless work when he could convince someone to do it in his stead with the batting of his eyelashes. Granted, he needed a little more than that. But it was easy. Very easy. Provided he did not forget he had to do said work.

She was right however to think he was ambitious and serious in anything that could get him to this goal. And right now, she was in the way. He could not have that. Well, it was not directed at her in particular, it was her class and the grades he had that was the problem. You say potato...

She was already smiling and acting like it was no big deal however. “I should be happy with that C-?” Oh sure, it was not a D or anything lower. But it was not good. It was far from good. “I know I get aim for straight As in everything. I don’t. But I had my head so full of another work I had to hand over that I couldn’t give proper attention to this one.” Now seemed like a good time to release some pheromones to get her to trust him and like him a little more. He knew. It was the reason why he was back to Bellefonte, because he did that to his teachers from time to time. Some lessons just never stick. “I know it’s no excuse but I just wanted to try and see if there wasn’t anything I could do.” And cue puppy, hopeful eyes.

[Bell Connelly]

To be perfectly honest if Bell was pushed she would say that she didn’t agree with the whole grade system in general, she didn’t look for results persay just effort and in this particular assignment Bell was afraid that she didn’t see the required effort from Akeem on this particular assignment that merited a better grade, She knew that she was a tad bit on the soft side but when it came to her students but when it comes to grades she tried to be strict as possible when it came to results. After all how can they push themselves to do better if she just went ahead and handed them everything that she could.

Not everything can be a success, failure was just apart of life, that’s just something that she needed to accept

Even though she should probably cut Akeem a little slack, he was a great student, almost an A in everything he put in was A worthy, this was really just a blip for him and if he said he ran out of time Bell had no reason to doubt her

Bell leaned forward a little in her chair towards Akeem hoping that her face was twisted in an expression of sympathy and kindness “I understand believe me I do, but I’m sorry I can’t just grade you more kindly then any other student because of these kinds of circumstances, if there was something actively preventing you from doing your work like an illness, that’ll be difference but I can’t really grade you any difference from the others, it wouldn’t be fair. Maybe you should manage your time better…”

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Akeem should not care. This was not likely to affect his final grades at the end of the year. Unless he showed as little efforts for the remainder of the year, and let’s be honest it was likely to happen. Therefore, he had to maintain good enough grades at all time. Maybe not the best in the class, he definitely was not a brainiac enough for that, but he had to keep his score high enough. Anything under B- was like a failure to him. So, of course, when he was so close to a D, it made sense he didn’t like that. At all.

She looked very sympathetic. But he bet the man sending the cattle to the slaughterhouse looked at them like that too. As expected, she tried to kindly tell him there was nothing that could be done. But there has to be. There was always something that could be done. Oh, he wished he could just make people forget what he had done to them really. He then could have made her change his grade without her having any memory of it. Instead, he had to make her do so on her own and in such a way that she would not second guess her decision too much in the future, at least not enough for her to wonder if he didn’t do anything to her for it to happen.

He couldn’t pretend he was ill. He attended his classes, gave his papers on time for the others and even went out with friends. He couldn’t seriously make anyone believe he had been sick this whole week. Obviously that woman had high moral standards to fight against his pheromones. But he was not giving up yet. “Isn’t there anything I could do to prove I’m better than this grade? A little test now maybe or some extra work?” Akeem asked as he leaned a little closer, just to make sure she soaked in enough of his pheromones. He didn’t like the idea of having an extra work to produce, but if that allowed this to go away, he would do it. Or more like make someone do it. Or copy something from internet and change just enough words for it to sound genuine.

[Bell Connelly]

Bell honestly couldn't see the big problem was. Akeem was a wonderful student and if he kept working in the way that he was she was sure that Akeen would recover from this ever so minor blip in no time and recover graduating with honors, it wasn't like he was the first student to stumble just a little and pick themselves up as long as he took the lessons this taught him to heart he will be more then fine.

....and yes, Bell was sympathetic to Akeem's plight, like she was to most people's plights but at the same time she couldn't hand out free passes to everyone with a sob story as much as she might want to. She had responsibilities and she needed to stick to them...

...but at the same time maybe given this was a first time offence, Bell should give him a little slack...After all she would so hate to take down his over grade for something so minor; Bell tilted her head a little and took a deep breath before opening a draw in her desk and taking out a piece of paper "I shouldn't really be doing this but, I do have these exceptional circumstances tests for those that couldn't do the test for whatever reason. I suppose you could take one, but I'm meant to have these all graded and handed in a few hours so you'd have to do it right now...

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

This could be a lesson to learn, that he would not always be number one, or number two. But it was also a lesson Akeem did not want to learn, not like this. Not when it could hurt his future. Maybe he was exaggerating but he knew he would never put that much effort in Bell’s class and he didn’t want her to notice now that it would be so. She might not be as kind as to give him a C- next time.

He was counting on his pheromones to make him appear even more sympathetic to her eyes. Pheromones worked great for that but he also needed to know how to deal with this, how to make someone go his way when they wouldn’t on their own. He couldn’t just tell her to give him an A, it was more complex than that. Plus she would remember she let herself be manipulated and would be more on her guard in the future. Might even bother checking his ability, suspect something. He had to play it well if he wanted this grade not to appear anywhere in his file.

He smiled as she searched her drawer, doing his best to hide his satisfaction anytime she looked his way and give her only the face of a boy expecting an answer that might just save him. An exceptional circumstance test seemed like a good idea and he nodded to it before he realised it meant he had to write it now. “Now?” he even could not help himself to say out loud. This would not do. How could he cheat? Well... the pheromones had just started to work. They normally stayed on for ten minutes. Then it could take over to thirty before the person was out of it and by that time, he might actually be able to throw some more at her, just to be sure. He could do it. Right? Provided he stayed near. Sadly, the desks were a little too far. The chances for her to still be affected, and for the right amount of time, were playing against him.

“Sure, no problem. Thank you, Miss,”he said, getting back his confidence even if he was not a hundred percent sure he had it. How hard could an English test be? He’ll find something.

[Bell Connelly]

"Yes. now" Bell repeated back calmly but also quite firmly. To make it clear that this was as far as Bell was willing to go. Well it was as far as she could possibly go. This was the best offer Akeem would get and really this was the closest she could get to doing her test for him. She had a little time in between classes so she could over see Akeem's test and thereby take it for him, but Akeem didn't really have all day to do it

She recognized that this was hardly an ideal situation for him, but sometimes one must make the best out of a situation that was hardly ideal.

"I should tell you, that the questions aren't the same given on the actual test, they've been randomized so students can't just get away with just memorizing the answers. So it's probably a little different. You can sit wherever you want considering there's no one else here...and I'll give you..." Bell pursed her lips looking at her desk side clock "An hour? Yes an hour should be more then enough. Let me know when you're ready and I can start timing you"

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

An hour. None of his pheromones could last this long. He could keep dousing her but he didn’t know how much he could produce and how long it would take him. He wished he could just have her answer all of the questions for him. With the right dose, she should like him enough to let herself be manipulated into that. Sadly, she would remember it, remember that she worked with a student on a test. She would know he was that student and even if she may not think about looking up his ability, something he doubted she would not do, she would not trust him anymore. Might even write something down in his file, get him in trouble.

His brain worked at extra speed, trying to find a solution. And he did. His whole behaviour changed, the lost confidence coming back to him. It was a gamble but everything with his power was. If that didn’t work, he could still try to get someone good at computers to hack into the system and change his grade. But it would work. First rule in life: always go for it with confidence.

He nodded as she tried to... discourage him? He expected the questions would be different or at the very least scrambled to avoid cheating. Made sense. His cheating would happen after anyway, and she wouldn’t see it coming. He sat at the desk right in front of hers. “I’ll start now then, if that’s okay with you?” Even if it was not, he would. He just hoped she would not leave the room for he needed her around for his little plan.