Measure for Measure
Title: Measure for Measure
Author: athenaktt
Rating: Everyone
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Summary: Sheppard is finally fed up with his sorority groupies following him and gets back at them.
Written for: nessataleweaver
Who requested: Something where the sorority bimbos to get blasted for stalking Sheppard, or have him do something to cut down on their giggle-outside-his-office time.
Notes: Here is my entry for the auficathon. This fic was partially inspired by recently watching the play Measure for Measure and partially inspired by pirateexchange's Underground Notes in langford_U
And thanks to Melyanna for betaing.
Measure for Measure
Thirty minutes ago John had graciously kicked out the last bubbly sorority groupie out of his office. So why was their high pitched clucking still audible from the other side of his door? John had no clue, but today their voices were more grating than usual.
Another high pitched giggle permeated through the door, and John banged his head against his desktop. What did he do to deserve this torture? Furthermore, the day had only just begun! He held his hands open and looked up.
“Why?” he asked the powers beyond, and buried his head in his hands.
He brought his head up when he thought the clucking had subsided, and continued his attempt to look over his notes for the morning’s lecture. As he was looking over an equation he planned to use as an example, the sudden return of chatter only led him to more inconclusive calculations.
“Okay, I just need to concentrate,” he said to himself as if it would help motivate his concentration. He picked up a pen and scribbled down something on a piece of paper. He looked at what he wrote, scrunched his face in confusion, and furiously scratched it out.
This time a shriek followed by more giggling was heard in the hallway breaking John’s hard earned concentration.
That was it.
John pushed himself away from his chair and stalked towards his office door. He grabbed the brass doorknob, turned it, and stuck his head out.
Three fashion-conscious twenty-year-olds stood a few feet from his office door. They immediately hushed when they saw John and smiled prettily at him, trying to act innocent.
“Ladies, unless you are here to speak to another professor, please take your gossiping somewhere else, preferably outside,” John said with a bitter smile.
The girls broke into giggles from their triumph of getting their disheveled hair professor to emerge from his office to chastise them. The giggling only increase when one of the girls whispered to her friends on how incredibly sexy John looked when he was aggravated.
“Anything for you, Professor Sheppard.” Maureen, the leader of the group, stepped forward and smiled. “We’ll see you later in class.”
John felt a shiver come down his spine as the girls seductively waved at him. Girls nowadays were much too aggressive. So aggressive that it was frightening. He didn’t mind strong-minded women who were independent and knew exactly what they wanted. In fact, he preferred to be acquainted with intelligent women, and one of those women had her office just down the hall from him. If he didn’t have to prepare for his lecture, he’d probably pay her a visit.
He watched the girls sauntered away with their giggles echoing down the hall. It was a wonder to John why other faculty members had not come out earlier to scold them for their disruptive yakking.
When they were out of sight, John quickly locked himself in his office again.
Before he even had a chance to sit down and enjoy the silence, his office phone rang.
“Now what?” he muttered and grabbed the phone receiver. “Hello?”
“John, aren’t your groupies supposed to be staking you in front of your office and not mine?” Elizabeth’s voice rang clearly through the phone.
John couldn’t help but smile at the image he conjured of the irritated expression that was probably on Elizabeth’s face at the moment.
“I told them to take the gossip away from my office, and I did emphasize that preferably they took it outside and as far away as possible from here.”
“Did you actually say that, or is that the subtext you were expecting them to get?”
“Well...”
“John, they are sorority girls who stalk their Calculus professor. ‘Preferably’ isn’t enough of a hint,” Elizabeth said irritably.
“I see your having a bad day too,” John noted.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized, softening her tone. “Today is just one of those days, you know? And your girls just aren’t helping.”
“They aren’t my girls,” John retorted.
“They are in your class, aren’t they?”
John groaned. He had class in about twenty minutes, and these were the same three girls that always sat in the front row giggling and talking through most of his lectures.
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said, disappointed. “Those girls never seem to shut up!” he ranted.
“Why don’t you tell them to shut up or leave the room? They are disrupting class,” Elizabeth said.
“Usually, I ask them to be quiet. They comply for about five minutes before the giggling starts up again,” he said.
“John, these girls have been torturing you for almost a whole semester. You need to show them you’re just not another pretty face. You’re a Doctor of Mathematics. Show them you have some balls,” she said.
“Balls? You must really be having one hell of a day,” John teased. “So you really think I’m pretty?”
“I think you’re pretty fly for a math guy,” she said trying to suppress a giggle from her absurdly bad joke.
“Seriously, Elizabeth, don’t ever, ever, quit your day job.”
He heard Elizabeth chortle on the other end. He was glad he was able to get her to laugh even though she was filled with ire only moments earlier.
“I don’t plan to. Not anytime soon, that is.”
“Good, because it wouldn’t be the same without you,” he said. “So are we still up for lunch after class?”
“Sure, I’ll meet you by the dining hall near the law school.”
“Will do, bye.” John hung up the phone, looked at his watch, and sighed. It was nearly time for him to get ready and head to class.
The lecture hall today was nearly full since there was going to be an exam next week. Most of the students who usually didn’t make an appearance were present for any last minutes details they could cram for their exam. But John was sure that most of these students came with an inkling of hope that he might give them a couple hints for the exam.
As he stood at the podium waiting for the minute hand to hit the top of the hour, he eyes immediately glanced down the first row when he heard giggling. To his dismay, his banes of the semester were continuing their conversation from the front of his office. John groaned inwardly to himself and glanced at his watch one last time.
“Most of you should all be aware that next week we have an exam,” he began as the last students settled into their seats. “This shouldn’t come to you as a major surprise since this was scheduled on the syllabus that I handed out to you guys on the first day of class, and it is available on the class website. So unless you are living under a rock, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you.
“The material that I will be going over today will be on next week’s exam. So pay attention. If there is time left, I’ll leave the rest of the lecture for any questions you might have.”
After he let the news of the exam settle on the disappointed faces of his students, he turned around and started to write several equations on the blackboard. He was halfway through the second equation when he heard giggling come from the front row again.
John took a deep breath, gripped the chalk in his hand tighter, and continued writing. Then one of the girls let out a loud laugh, that she quickly contained by cupping her hand over her mouth. But it was too late, John’s patience had snapped like the chalk in his hand.
He replaced the chalk onto the blackboard rail and slowly turned to face the three girls. He found Maureen sitting in the seat between her two cronies scribbling something in her spiral bound notebook, while the other two girls were looking at her and trying to, unsuccessfully, suppress their giggles.
“Ladies,” John cleared his throat to get their attention. “I’m so glad to see you enjoying yourselves in my lectures, and I see you are helping each other take notes.”
Maureen, not expecting her handsome professor to confront her for the second time today, quickly placed her hand over her notebook to cover the scribbling on the top page.
John rubbed the excess chalk dust from his hands and walked towards the three girls.
“May I take a look at what kind of notes you have been taking? Maybe you girls have some insights that you can enlighten the rest of the class with,” John said coolly.
“There is nothing important here, professor,” Maureen quickly said, shaking her blonde head as she took the notebook and held it against her chest.
“Really?” John crossed his arms in skepticism. “I assumed that since you were generous enough to share with your girl friends it was something to do with class.” John held one hand out. “Hand it over, Miss.”
The blonde girl glanced over to her two friends unsure of what she should do.
“Either hand it over or leave the class,” John said sternly. The blonde girl started to begin collecting her things to leave the class. “But I will remind you this is the last chance you have for a review before the exam next week.”
Maureen stopped collecting her things and glared resentfully at John.
“Well?” John’s hand was still outstretched, waiting for her to hand over her notebook.
Begrudgingly, she handed him her notebook.
As John expected, the majority of the page was filled with scribbles of three distinct handwritings, and the contents of the scribbles were as far from Calculus as Pluto was as far from the Sun.
“Hm…” John looked up and saw that the rest of the class was eagerly waiting to see how this situation would unfold. “Who wants to know what these ladies found so entertaining?” he asked the class.
Several hands shot up throughout the room. Most of which were male.
“Come on, don’t be shy. Who wants to hear what these ladies were laughing about and disrupted your chance to review for your exam?” he urged again.
More hands rose this time around.
“All right.” John looked down at the gibberish before him, and started to decipher some of the things the girls had written. “There’s a lot of gibberish in here, but I’ll read you guys the highlights,” he said.
He cleared his throat and held up the notebook as he began to read. “I love this class! Exclamation point.” John stopped reading to address the class. “It’s always nice to see that some students are still interested in Calculus.” He looked at the notebook and started to read again. “Professor Sheppard is so hot! Three exclamation points. Why thank you, Maureen,” he said watching Maureen’s face go from ashen to bright crimson. Giggles were heard around the room as he continued.
He returned his attention to the notebook and picked out another phrase scribbled on by one of the three girls. “Here is something you guys will all agree on,” he said to the class. “Exams boo! Exclamation point and mad face.” More giggles emanated from the room.
“I think this one is my favorite: I love it when he writes things on the blackboard! Yeah, because it gives us a perfect view of his cute butt! Wow, five exclamation points,” he commented.
This time the whole room laughed, and the girls were not only red with embarrassment, but they looked they were about to spontaneously combust from it.
“I think you girls will do fine in next week’s midterm,” John said putting the notebook back on Maureen’s desk. “Now hopefully, everyone else will pay attention to the equations that I am writing on the board and not my ‘cute butt.’ Because I can guarantee you that the cuteness of my butt will not be on next week’s exam. But you never know. It might pop up on the final.” John rubbed his hands together and walked back to the blackboard. “Now who can tell me what this equation is?” He paused and waited for someone to answer, but like every other lecture the only answer was silence. He usually hated it when his students didn’t participate. It usually meant they hadn’t prepared for the lecture or were asleep. But today he didn’t care. Today he finally showed his stalkers that Doctor John Sheppard wasn’t just another pretty face. Elizabeth would be proud.
Elizabeth waited until the last students trickled out of the lecture hall and entered the room. She saw John standing by the podium busily gathering his things into his briefcase.
“So are you ready?” she asked and leaned against the front of the podium when she reached the front of the hall.
“Haste still makes haste and leisure answers leisure. Like doth quit like, and measure for measure,” he said as he looked at Elizabeth with a huge grin on his face.
“John, if you want to quote Shakespeare to woo a lady, Measure for Measure isn’t the ideal play to quote from,” Elizabeth said bewildered by the grin on his face. “Unless you are plotting revenged...So why are you quoting Shakespeare to me?”
“I took your advice,” he said.
“My advice?” Elizabeth furrowed her brows. “To quote Shakespeare?”
“No, to get some balls, remember?”
Elizabeth’s expression immediately changed from bewilderment to down right confusion. “John, I haven’t eaten lunch yet, and my coffee has worn off by now. So please explain.”
“I did something that will keep my stalkers from hang around my office. At least I hope what I did will keep them away from me for while. I guess you can say I got my sweet revenge,” he beamed. “Anyways, I thought we were meeting at the dining hall.”
“I let class out early, and thought I’d come by and meet you here. Now don’t change the subject. What did you do?” she asked.
“Why don’t we get out of here and talk about it over lunch?”
“Sounds great, I’m famished.” Elizabeth hooked her arm around John’s free arm and they walked towards the exit. “So what did you do?” she asked again.
“You let class out early?” he asked instead.
“John,” Elizabeth glared at him for changing the subject again.
“What? You never let class out early.”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “I did today. Now don’t change the subject.” She poked his arm. “What did you do?”
“Ow.” John rubbed the side of his arm. “I exposed their obsession for me to the entire class,” he smirked.
“Nothing like embarrassment to chase women away,” Elizabeth said. “Do you think it will keep from loitering around your office?”
“If that doesn’t, I don’t know what will,” he said.
“A restraining order?” Elizabeth said cheekily.
“You seem to be in a better mood.”
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow and looked at him for abruptly changing the subject again. “Yes, I am.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because I’m having lunch with the hottest math professor in Langford that has the cutest butt,” she said in a high pitch voice imitating his fan girls.
“Were you in my class this morning?” he asked astonished.
“No, that was what your fan girls were saying in front of my office after you chased them away from your door this morning. Not to mention, that’s what they always say,” she said, rolling her eyes.
John eyed Elizabeth suspiciously. “So why are you in such a good mood all of a sudden?” he asked again.
“Because,” she smiled slyly and unhooked her arm from his, “I found this.” She pulled out several crumpled torn notebook pages from her coat pocket.
“This look familiar,” he said, taking the papers from Elizabeth and unfolded them.
“It should.”
John furrowed his eyebrows at Elizabeth and started to decipher the writings on each page. They were the same scribbling he had read earlier in lecture from Maureen’s notebook. But this time there were additional pages.
“How did you get this?” he asked Elizabeth.
“On my way over here, I recognized your three fan girls leaving your lecture in a huff, and after some animated discussion between the trio, one of them tore out these pages from her notebook and tossed them into the trash bin. The constant icy glares I was getting from them piqued my interest,” she explained
“I can’t imagine you sifting through trash.”
“I didn’t dig through the trash like you are imagining. It was just lying there, crumpled up, waiting to be picked up. And I saw my name mentioned, so I couldn’t resist,” she added.
John’s eyebrows furrowed as he read the first crumpled page and looked up at Elizabeth. “You do not look like you’re sixty years old,” he quickly said.
“Keep reading.”
He continued reading down the page. “And you certainly do not look mannish,” he said and noticed the low neck blouse that accentuated all the womanly curves on Elizabeth’s body. He quickly averted his eyes back onto the pages in front of him when he realized he was staring.
“Thank you,” she smiled. “Read the last page.” She pointed to the bottom of the page.
“I can’t believe he just did that! I hate him! I can’t show my face in there again,” he read. Elizabeth smiled as she watched a grin creep over John’s face. “It worked.”
“Don’t be too happy, John. The semester will be ending soon. You’ll have new stalkers in no time,” she teased and stuck her hands in her coat pocket.
“You enjoying watching me suffer, don’t you?” he asked narrowing his eyes at Elizabeth.
“I must be cruel only to be kind,” she quoted.
“I guess that is a good sign,” John smirked.
“Is it?”
“Cruel to be kind means that I love you,” he explained, “at least according to Nick Lowe.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Don’t read too much into things, John.”
“Oh really?” he eyed her skeptically.
“Fine, read whatever you want out of it,” Elizabeth sighed. “Let’s go eat before my foul mood returns.”
“Yes, milady.” He tossed the notes into the trash bin, held his arm out for her to hook her arm through again, and they walked towards the dining hall together.
~Finis
Author: athenaktt
Rating: Everyone
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Summary: Sheppard is finally fed up with his sorority groupies following him and gets back at them.
Written for: nessataleweaver
Who requested: Something where the sorority bimbos to get blasted for stalking Sheppard, or have him do something to cut down on their giggle-outside-his-office time.
Notes: Here is my entry for the auficathon. This fic was partially inspired by recently watching the play Measure for Measure and partially inspired by pirateexchange's Underground Notes in langford_U
And thanks to Melyanna for betaing.
Measure for Measure
Thirty minutes ago John had graciously kicked out the last bubbly sorority groupie out of his office. So why was their high pitched clucking still audible from the other side of his door? John had no clue, but today their voices were more grating than usual.
Another high pitched giggle permeated through the door, and John banged his head against his desktop. What did he do to deserve this torture? Furthermore, the day had only just begun! He held his hands open and looked up.
“Why?” he asked the powers beyond, and buried his head in his hands.
He brought his head up when he thought the clucking had subsided, and continued his attempt to look over his notes for the morning’s lecture. As he was looking over an equation he planned to use as an example, the sudden return of chatter only led him to more inconclusive calculations.
“Okay, I just need to concentrate,” he said to himself as if it would help motivate his concentration. He picked up a pen and scribbled down something on a piece of paper. He looked at what he wrote, scrunched his face in confusion, and furiously scratched it out.
This time a shriek followed by more giggling was heard in the hallway breaking John’s hard earned concentration.
That was it.
John pushed himself away from his chair and stalked towards his office door. He grabbed the brass doorknob, turned it, and stuck his head out.
Three fashion-conscious twenty-year-olds stood a few feet from his office door. They immediately hushed when they saw John and smiled prettily at him, trying to act innocent.
“Ladies, unless you are here to speak to another professor, please take your gossiping somewhere else, preferably outside,” John said with a bitter smile.
The girls broke into giggles from their triumph of getting their disheveled hair professor to emerge from his office to chastise them. The giggling only increase when one of the girls whispered to her friends on how incredibly sexy John looked when he was aggravated.
“Anything for you, Professor Sheppard.” Maureen, the leader of the group, stepped forward and smiled. “We’ll see you later in class.”
John felt a shiver come down his spine as the girls seductively waved at him. Girls nowadays were much too aggressive. So aggressive that it was frightening. He didn’t mind strong-minded women who were independent and knew exactly what they wanted. In fact, he preferred to be acquainted with intelligent women, and one of those women had her office just down the hall from him. If he didn’t have to prepare for his lecture, he’d probably pay her a visit.
He watched the girls sauntered away with their giggles echoing down the hall. It was a wonder to John why other faculty members had not come out earlier to scold them for their disruptive yakking.
When they were out of sight, John quickly locked himself in his office again.
Before he even had a chance to sit down and enjoy the silence, his office phone rang.
“Now what?” he muttered and grabbed the phone receiver. “Hello?”
“John, aren’t your groupies supposed to be staking you in front of your office and not mine?” Elizabeth’s voice rang clearly through the phone.
John couldn’t help but smile at the image he conjured of the irritated expression that was probably on Elizabeth’s face at the moment.
“I told them to take the gossip away from my office, and I did emphasize that preferably they took it outside and as far away as possible from here.”
“Did you actually say that, or is that the subtext you were expecting them to get?”
“Well...”
“John, they are sorority girls who stalk their Calculus professor. ‘Preferably’ isn’t enough of a hint,” Elizabeth said irritably.
“I see your having a bad day too,” John noted.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized, softening her tone. “Today is just one of those days, you know? And your girls just aren’t helping.”
“They aren’t my girls,” John retorted.
“They are in your class, aren’t they?”
John groaned. He had class in about twenty minutes, and these were the same three girls that always sat in the front row giggling and talking through most of his lectures.
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said, disappointed. “Those girls never seem to shut up!” he ranted.
“Why don’t you tell them to shut up or leave the room? They are disrupting class,” Elizabeth said.
“Usually, I ask them to be quiet. They comply for about five minutes before the giggling starts up again,” he said.
“John, these girls have been torturing you for almost a whole semester. You need to show them you’re just not another pretty face. You’re a Doctor of Mathematics. Show them you have some balls,” she said.
“Balls? You must really be having one hell of a day,” John teased. “So you really think I’m pretty?”
“I think you’re pretty fly for a math guy,” she said trying to suppress a giggle from her absurdly bad joke.
“Seriously, Elizabeth, don’t ever, ever, quit your day job.”
He heard Elizabeth chortle on the other end. He was glad he was able to get her to laugh even though she was filled with ire only moments earlier.
“I don’t plan to. Not anytime soon, that is.”
“Good, because it wouldn’t be the same without you,” he said. “So are we still up for lunch after class?”
“Sure, I’ll meet you by the dining hall near the law school.”
“Will do, bye.” John hung up the phone, looked at his watch, and sighed. It was nearly time for him to get ready and head to class.
The lecture hall today was nearly full since there was going to be an exam next week. Most of the students who usually didn’t make an appearance were present for any last minutes details they could cram for their exam. But John was sure that most of these students came with an inkling of hope that he might give them a couple hints for the exam.
As he stood at the podium waiting for the minute hand to hit the top of the hour, he eyes immediately glanced down the first row when he heard giggling. To his dismay, his banes of the semester were continuing their conversation from the front of his office. John groaned inwardly to himself and glanced at his watch one last time.
“Most of you should all be aware that next week we have an exam,” he began as the last students settled into their seats. “This shouldn’t come to you as a major surprise since this was scheduled on the syllabus that I handed out to you guys on the first day of class, and it is available on the class website. So unless you are living under a rock, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you.
“The material that I will be going over today will be on next week’s exam. So pay attention. If there is time left, I’ll leave the rest of the lecture for any questions you might have.”
After he let the news of the exam settle on the disappointed faces of his students, he turned around and started to write several equations on the blackboard. He was halfway through the second equation when he heard giggling come from the front row again.
John took a deep breath, gripped the chalk in his hand tighter, and continued writing. Then one of the girls let out a loud laugh, that she quickly contained by cupping her hand over her mouth. But it was too late, John’s patience had snapped like the chalk in his hand.
He replaced the chalk onto the blackboard rail and slowly turned to face the three girls. He found Maureen sitting in the seat between her two cronies scribbling something in her spiral bound notebook, while the other two girls were looking at her and trying to, unsuccessfully, suppress their giggles.
“Ladies,” John cleared his throat to get their attention. “I’m so glad to see you enjoying yourselves in my lectures, and I see you are helping each other take notes.”
Maureen, not expecting her handsome professor to confront her for the second time today, quickly placed her hand over her notebook to cover the scribbling on the top page.
John rubbed the excess chalk dust from his hands and walked towards the three girls.
“May I take a look at what kind of notes you have been taking? Maybe you girls have some insights that you can enlighten the rest of the class with,” John said coolly.
“There is nothing important here, professor,” Maureen quickly said, shaking her blonde head as she took the notebook and held it against her chest.
“Really?” John crossed his arms in skepticism. “I assumed that since you were generous enough to share with your girl friends it was something to do with class.” John held one hand out. “Hand it over, Miss.”
The blonde girl glanced over to her two friends unsure of what she should do.
“Either hand it over or leave the class,” John said sternly. The blonde girl started to begin collecting her things to leave the class. “But I will remind you this is the last chance you have for a review before the exam next week.”
Maureen stopped collecting her things and glared resentfully at John.
“Well?” John’s hand was still outstretched, waiting for her to hand over her notebook.
Begrudgingly, she handed him her notebook.
As John expected, the majority of the page was filled with scribbles of three distinct handwritings, and the contents of the scribbles were as far from Calculus as Pluto was as far from the Sun.
“Hm…” John looked up and saw that the rest of the class was eagerly waiting to see how this situation would unfold. “Who wants to know what these ladies found so entertaining?” he asked the class.
Several hands shot up throughout the room. Most of which were male.
“Come on, don’t be shy. Who wants to hear what these ladies were laughing about and disrupted your chance to review for your exam?” he urged again.
More hands rose this time around.
“All right.” John looked down at the gibberish before him, and started to decipher some of the things the girls had written. “There’s a lot of gibberish in here, but I’ll read you guys the highlights,” he said.
He cleared his throat and held up the notebook as he began to read. “I love this class! Exclamation point.” John stopped reading to address the class. “It’s always nice to see that some students are still interested in Calculus.” He looked at the notebook and started to read again. “Professor Sheppard is so hot! Three exclamation points. Why thank you, Maureen,” he said watching Maureen’s face go from ashen to bright crimson. Giggles were heard around the room as he continued.
He returned his attention to the notebook and picked out another phrase scribbled on by one of the three girls. “Here is something you guys will all agree on,” he said to the class. “Exams boo! Exclamation point and mad face.” More giggles emanated from the room.
“I think this one is my favorite: I love it when he writes things on the blackboard! Yeah, because it gives us a perfect view of his cute butt! Wow, five exclamation points,” he commented.
This time the whole room laughed, and the girls were not only red with embarrassment, but they looked they were about to spontaneously combust from it.
“I think you girls will do fine in next week’s midterm,” John said putting the notebook back on Maureen’s desk. “Now hopefully, everyone else will pay attention to the equations that I am writing on the board and not my ‘cute butt.’ Because I can guarantee you that the cuteness of my butt will not be on next week’s exam. But you never know. It might pop up on the final.” John rubbed his hands together and walked back to the blackboard. “Now who can tell me what this equation is?” He paused and waited for someone to answer, but like every other lecture the only answer was silence. He usually hated it when his students didn’t participate. It usually meant they hadn’t prepared for the lecture or were asleep. But today he didn’t care. Today he finally showed his stalkers that Doctor John Sheppard wasn’t just another pretty face. Elizabeth would be proud.
Elizabeth waited until the last students trickled out of the lecture hall and entered the room. She saw John standing by the podium busily gathering his things into his briefcase.
“So are you ready?” she asked and leaned against the front of the podium when she reached the front of the hall.
“Haste still makes haste and leisure answers leisure. Like doth quit like, and measure for measure,” he said as he looked at Elizabeth with a huge grin on his face.
“John, if you want to quote Shakespeare to woo a lady, Measure for Measure isn’t the ideal play to quote from,” Elizabeth said bewildered by the grin on his face. “Unless you are plotting revenged...So why are you quoting Shakespeare to me?”
“I took your advice,” he said.
“My advice?” Elizabeth furrowed her brows. “To quote Shakespeare?”
“No, to get some balls, remember?”
Elizabeth’s expression immediately changed from bewilderment to down right confusion. “John, I haven’t eaten lunch yet, and my coffee has worn off by now. So please explain.”
“I did something that will keep my stalkers from hang around my office. At least I hope what I did will keep them away from me for while. I guess you can say I got my sweet revenge,” he beamed. “Anyways, I thought we were meeting at the dining hall.”
“I let class out early, and thought I’d come by and meet you here. Now don’t change the subject. What did you do?” she asked.
“Why don’t we get out of here and talk about it over lunch?”
“Sounds great, I’m famished.” Elizabeth hooked her arm around John’s free arm and they walked towards the exit. “So what did you do?” she asked again.
“You let class out early?” he asked instead.
“John,” Elizabeth glared at him for changing the subject again.
“What? You never let class out early.”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “I did today. Now don’t change the subject.” She poked his arm. “What did you do?”
“Ow.” John rubbed the side of his arm. “I exposed their obsession for me to the entire class,” he smirked.
“Nothing like embarrassment to chase women away,” Elizabeth said. “Do you think it will keep from loitering around your office?”
“If that doesn’t, I don’t know what will,” he said.
“A restraining order?” Elizabeth said cheekily.
“You seem to be in a better mood.”
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow and looked at him for abruptly changing the subject again. “Yes, I am.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because I’m having lunch with the hottest math professor in Langford that has the cutest butt,” she said in a high pitch voice imitating his fan girls.
“Were you in my class this morning?” he asked astonished.
“No, that was what your fan girls were saying in front of my office after you chased them away from your door this morning. Not to mention, that’s what they always say,” she said, rolling her eyes.
John eyed Elizabeth suspiciously. “So why are you in such a good mood all of a sudden?” he asked again.
“Because,” she smiled slyly and unhooked her arm from his, “I found this.” She pulled out several crumpled torn notebook pages from her coat pocket.
“This look familiar,” he said, taking the papers from Elizabeth and unfolded them.
“It should.”
John furrowed his eyebrows at Elizabeth and started to decipher the writings on each page. They were the same scribbling he had read earlier in lecture from Maureen’s notebook. But this time there were additional pages.
“How did you get this?” he asked Elizabeth.
“On my way over here, I recognized your three fan girls leaving your lecture in a huff, and after some animated discussion between the trio, one of them tore out these pages from her notebook and tossed them into the trash bin. The constant icy glares I was getting from them piqued my interest,” she explained
“I can’t imagine you sifting through trash.”
“I didn’t dig through the trash like you are imagining. It was just lying there, crumpled up, waiting to be picked up. And I saw my name mentioned, so I couldn’t resist,” she added.
John’s eyebrows furrowed as he read the first crumpled page and looked up at Elizabeth. “You do not look like you’re sixty years old,” he quickly said.
“Keep reading.”
He continued reading down the page. “And you certainly do not look mannish,” he said and noticed the low neck blouse that accentuated all the womanly curves on Elizabeth’s body. He quickly averted his eyes back onto the pages in front of him when he realized he was staring.
“Thank you,” she smiled. “Read the last page.” She pointed to the bottom of the page.
“I can’t believe he just did that! I hate him! I can’t show my face in there again,” he read. Elizabeth smiled as she watched a grin creep over John’s face. “It worked.”
“Don’t be too happy, John. The semester will be ending soon. You’ll have new stalkers in no time,” she teased and stuck her hands in her coat pocket.
“You enjoying watching me suffer, don’t you?” he asked narrowing his eyes at Elizabeth.
“I must be cruel only to be kind,” she quoted.
“I guess that is a good sign,” John smirked.
“Is it?”
“Cruel to be kind means that I love you,” he explained, “at least according to Nick Lowe.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Don’t read too much into things, John.”
“Oh really?” he eyed her skeptically.
“Fine, read whatever you want out of it,” Elizabeth sighed. “Let’s go eat before my foul mood returns.”
“Yes, milady.” He tossed the notes into the trash bin, held his arm out for her to hook her arm through again, and they walked towards the dining hall together.
~Finis