Wild Thing

In the morning I had a my Research, Writing, and Advocacy lecture class. Denver met me outside of my classroom and held my hand as we walked to our Law and Ethics class. It was a lecture hall and fairly modern looking, half the seats already filled with students. We took a seat at the second row near the center of the classroom. I could only wonder who the professor was as I gazed at all of the students around me. A man with dark, curly hair and glasses stood from the back of the class and offered his seat to the last student to enter the classroom. He walked down the center aisle past me and down to the front. There was the obvious sound of girls scuffling to lean forward and adjusting their seats.

“Good afternoon everyone; I’m Hamilton Alexander and I’ll be teaching you about law and ethics this semester. If you are in the wrong class, you can leave now and I won’t be offended.”

He earned a few chuckles from the class. Producing a black marker from his pocket, he scrawled “law and ethics” across the whiteboard. Turning around he smiled and I got a good look at him. He wore a pair of black quarter oxfords, skinny grey corduroy pants, white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up neatly to his elbows, a black vest and grey bow tie. His face seemed kind, but his eyes were serious and that made me nervous.

“There’s a sheet being passed around and if you’d all write your names down in clear print, that’d be ideal. Now usually professors in law school introduce themselves and boringly talk about their life achievements. I’m not one of them. I’m twenty-five. I just graduated from law school a year ago and that’s not enough for life achievements. Some of you are just twenty, twenty-one walking into this room, but despite our narrow age differences I do expect respect. Remember, those who decide the final grades make the rules.”

More chuckles. He paced across the room, taking a good look at all of us. As his eyes landed on me, I frowned, leaning back into my seat. As he looked at me, a smirk slowly appeared on his face before his gaze left me. I released the breath of air I’d been holding and busied myself with putting my hair in a quick and messy French twist.

“Can anyone tell me what ethics are?”

The room was silent, wondering if it was a trick question or something. I heard Denver sigh from beside me as he raised his pen-clutched hand in the air. “Morality.”

I smiled at hearing him speak up.

“Good…”

“Denver Irving, sir.”

“Denver Irving. You’re off to a great start. Now can anyone expand that for us.”

I felt a nudge in my side from Denver, making me sigh as I raised my hand up.

“Yes.” Damn. I’d been called on.

“Ethics is a moral philosophy that questions morality with concepts like right and wrong, and justice, and under ethics there are several other branches, like meta, normative, applied, and if I’m not mistaken, descriptive ethics. In modernity, consequentialism and deontology are two approaches we use.”

“And who is this ‘we’ you speak of?”

“We…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say. He’d caught me off guard by asking that question. I just expected him to tell me I was starting the year off right, not another question.

“Cat’s got your tongue I see. I guess not everyone has quick wit.”

Laughter. This guy was a dick if there ever was one. I felt a nudge to my side; Denver passed me the sign-in sheet and I was tempted, with my blue ink pen, to sign my name as The Girl with Slow Wit, but was unprofessional. Instead I printed Audrey Tate in the best handwriting I could before passing it to the boy behind me. He gave me a mocking smile, which made me angrier. Slamming my hand upon the table, I caught everyone’s attention.

“The we I refer to, would be the people, philosopher; the person seeking the answer through those two means of consequentialism and deontology.”

“Very nicely done, though I would prefer it if you kept the dramatics to nonexistence in my class.”

He continued the lecture and it was fifteen minutes before class ended that he ran out of things to say. This guy, he was smart, but he was still immature, no matter what his role in the classroom was.

“Now everyone, I have a quote to end the class with. If anyone can guess who the speaker is, you can leave early. Someone once said: A promise must never be broken.”

Pulling out a black marker, he wrote the quote across the board under his previously scrawled, “law and ethics.” Everyone was silent as we thought about the answer. He sat on the desk, his legs crossed and his arms folded neatly across his chest. He smiled and looked around as if he had won. I looked over to Denver who seemed to be racking his brain. I glanced at Hamilton, as he preferred over Professor, Sir, or Mister. We caught each other’s eyes and I immediately wanted to throw a shoe at his smug face. It was as if through his look he was trying to tell me I did not know the answer. I knew it though and I was waiting to say it.

I spoke up, my voice ringing throughout the room. I wanted him to know I was serious and he could not poke fun at me any longer. “I believe the entire quote was, “For a promise must never be broken; and I never will make you one which I will not fulfill as far I am able.” Alexander Hamilton, 1791.”

He sat there silent for a moment, his lips pursed in a thin line. Slowly, his lips curled into a condescending smile. “You’re the first to answer correctly. Class dismissed.”

Sighing, I leaned back in my seat. I felt a pair of lips make contact with my temple. Turning, I saw Denver smiling widely at me. I barely puckered my lips, asking for an actual kiss to which he complied. We pulled apart when someone approached us. Of course, it was Hamilton.

“Denver, again good job today; I guess this is your girlfriend?”

Denver stuck out his hand and shook Hamilton’s. “Yes, this is Audrey Tate.”

“Well, Miss Tate, I’m sure you’ll bring some spirit into this class.” His eyes were mocking and his ear piercing was obnoxiously shiny from the classroom lights.

I kept myself from biting his head off. Instead, I smiled. “You do enough of that without me.”

“Do you two have any other classes after this?” Hamilton walked to the front of the class and packed his things away in a vintage black box briefcase.

Denver looked at me, silently asking if we had another class. I shook my head no and Denver grinned. “Not at all.”

“I have another class to teach, but would you both like to get a drink at five? I have something I would like to discuss with you two. I think you’d both be interested.”

“We’d be happy to join you.” Dammit, Denver, why?

“I’m sure you two have heard of Moondog’s. I’ll see you there then.” Hamilton walked out, leaving Denver and I alone in the classroom.

I groaned and sank back into the seat I had previously occupied. “Denver, why did you say yes?”

“This guy’s got a connection with lawyers, law firms, who knows what Audrey. He could be our step up. This is what law school’s for. Let’s get home and work on conversation.” Denver rambled on and on about what witty, paradoxical, satirical, professional jokes he could use.

We made it to the apartment by three and I went ahead and took a shower before changing my clothes to a strapless blue leopard print jumper and white peep toe flats. I sat on the couch and watched Denver run around asking which outfit looked casual yet impressive. Rolling my eyes, I took a nap. I wasn’t looking forward to Moondogs.