Chapter 129

Hailey sat in business stats class and seethed as the professor belittled the young man in the back of the room.

She was already in a bad mood. She had talked to Phil the day before and it was obvious that he didn’t share her concerns about the motives of Skyler McKay and Grace Karstens. He said they had invited him out to a club after the game but he had finally convinced them he wasn’t interested.

Hailey knew what happened in the clubs around Heilman. She could only imagine what transpired in the establishments in a place as amoral as the one Phil had described to her. She was certain that either Skyler or Grace (or both) had plans to make a move on her fiancé – and she wasn’t happy that he considered the concept to be ludicrous.

The Beta Club meeting the evening before had been contentious and now she listened as Dr. Harkness cut into a guy who just sat and took it.

“This is ridiculous!” Hailey said as she stood up and gathered her books. “If you’re going to spend the class ridiculing a student instead of providing information, I’m better off sleeping in on Monday mornings.”

“Miss Warren,” Dr. Harkness said.

“Stuff it,” Hailey said. “You give him crap if he doesn’t know every single answer. Well, lady, it’s your job to impart that information. And, let me tell you, you’re not very good at that. Maybe if you kept your personal vendettas to yourself, the rest of us might actually get something out of this class. As it is, all I’ve learned from you this semester is that you don’t like that guy. Well, guess what? That isn’t going to do me a damned bit of good when the real world comes to take a bite out of my ass in a year or two. So, I’m done. I’m heading up to talk to the dean. Maybe she’ll let me know when we’re going to start having class – or when you start to show some class.”

Hailey stormed out the door with Dr. Harkness close on her heels.

“Miss Warren, I want to warn you about the steps you’re about to take,” the professor said.

“You know what?” Hailey said, spinning on her heel and closing the gap between her and the older woman. “I want to warn you about the step you’re about to take. If you threaten me or if you treat me like you do Jeff, you’ll see how little that title in front of your name means in life. Ask around, Miss Harkness, and you’ll see how little you scare me. And you’ll see how frightened you should be for being dumb enough to fuck with me. You’re a first-year professor and I’m the president of the Beta Club. I make more in my summer internship than you’ll see in a year. You think Dr. Fayez gives a shit if you’re here next week? If you do, then you’re dumber than I thought. But you can damned well bet he’ll move heaven and earth to make sure I’m still here. Consider that while you’re updating your resume.”

The professor’s face was red – with anger and embarrassment. The rest of the class had followed Hailey’s lead. As soon as she stood up and began collecting her belongings, they had done the same. Now they stood in the hallway to watch the confrontation.

“I’m heading to the dean’s office to file a complaint,” Hailey declared. “Anyone that wants to join me is welcome.”

She turned and headed for the stairs – followed by the rest of the class. Dr. Jane Harkness could only stare at her students’ backs as they hit the doorway.

Jeff Bailey pushed his way to front of the crowd headed to the 10^th floor of Clark Hall, home of the department’s dean, Victoria Andruzzi.

“Look, I appreciate you standing up for me but you don’t need to do this,” he said when he caught up to Hailey.

“The hell I don’t,” Hailey said. “I’ve sat there for two months and listened to her put you down. I’ve had enough and I’m not going to put up with it any more. It’s unfair. I should have stood up for you earlier and I’m sorry I didn’t. But my friends and I will support you even if no one else does.”

“She has her reasons,” Jeff said. “Look, stop for a minute. OK?”

Hailey stopped in the landing off the 10^th floor. The other 19 students dutifully stopped with her. Jeff looked back at the horde. He didn’t want to delve into personal details in front of a large group of people. It was bad enough he would be forced to confide in Hailey Warren – a girl he’d heard all about but hardly spoken to in his time on campus.

Hailey spotted his unease.

“Let me go in and schedule an appointment with Dr. Andruzzi,” she said. “I’m going to file a complaint about the scope of the class either way. She spends more time finding reasons to cut you down than she does introducing us to the concepts we need to learn.”

She turned to her classmates. She was amazed that they had come upstairs with her. It wasn’t a surprise that they left class as soon as they could but she hadn’t expected the entire class to follow.

“When is good for most of you?” she asked. “We might need to meet with her in separate groups if we can’t come to a consensus.”

The class members started to yell out random times but Hailey held up a hand – and they ceased.

“I think it’s important that we treat this as professionally as possible,” she decided. “It might be better to schedule an appointment instead of riding through like a mob. We might see if Dr. Andruzzi can block off 90 minutes for us this afternoon. That should let us meet with her when it’s convenient.”

“You’ll be there when we go in, won’t you?” a young woman asked.

“I’ll be there,” Hailey promised. Her afternoons were free. “I’ll see if the Beta Club vice president and a student representative to the faculty senate will join us, as well. That will give us impartial voices if we need them.”

“Good plan,” a guy said. He got nods from those around him. “Should we all go in or do you want to be the spokesman?”

“I think we’re all the spokesmen here,” Hailey told them. “This affects us all.”

“I think you should schedule the appointment,” another voice offered. “You’re the campus leader.”

At that moment, it occurred to Hailey that the group had followed her because she was a leader. It wasn’t like her freshman year when she ruled by fear and force. The students followed her because they respected her. It wasn’t like her sophomore year when she was viewed as a leader because she was at Phil’s side. She was valued on her own.

She felt a lump in her throat.

“I’ll go set the appointment,” she said. “Anyone that wants to come with me is welcome.”

This time she wasn’t surprised when the entire class walked with her to the dean’s office – unlike the poor work study student behind the desk, who was shocked beyond words at so many students arriving all at once.

Hailey sat down with her usual crew of lunch companions but with one addition. Jeff Bailey had joined Katelyn, Bob, Tiffany and Molly at the table.

Hailey performed the introductions. Katelyn was the junior class representative to the student congress. Tiffany was vice president of the Beta Club. Bob was the captain of the baseball team. Molly was an officer in the music honorary. Jeff took in the names and pedigrees with a nod at each face.

“It came to a head this morning,” Hailey informed the group. “I got fed up and walked out.”

“You were sort of bitchy at breakfast this morning,” Tiffany noted with a wink.

“This is serious,” Hailey asserted.

“It really isn’t,” Jeff chimed in. “Look, I appreciate you standing up for me. But, like I said, she has her reasons.”

“They better be damned good ones to treat you like she has,” Katelyn said firmly.

“They are aware of the situation,” Hailey informed the newcomer. “As I said, today has been brewing since the second week of school.”

“A guy on the baseball team is in the class,” Bob said. “I talked to him. He’s in if you want to make it official.”

“I’ve already discussed the protocol for filing a formal grievance,” Tiffany said.

“And I’ve alerted the faculty congress leadership that it’s coming,” Katelyn added. “There are no representatives from the business college on the senate this semester. It seems Dr. Millstone was supposed to be there and Dr. Harkness is too junior to be seated. I want to tell you, the ones I’ve spoken to find this to be appalling. She doesn’t have tenure and they won’t hesitate to ship her ass out of here.”

“I don’t want that,” Jeff said.

“Why don’t you tell us why you feel she’s justified in her actions,” Molly offered.

Like everyone else who heard Molly’s lilting Irish accent, Jeff found himself staring at her. Bob cleared his throat because he’d seen (and experienced) the effect before.

“Oh, sorry,” Jeff said. “Uh, this is sort of personal. That’s why I’m not sure I want this to go to a hearing.”

“Dr. Harkness came from Los Angeles, too,” Tiffany said. “Were you two ... fucking?”

“God, no!” Jeff said, shaking his head. “Uh ... my dad. Shit. OK, look. My dad was dean of students at UCLA. He was hired to take over here.”

“The new dean of students is a woman,” Hailey noted. The woman had spoken to the Beta Club a month earlier.

“Yeah, because my dad got an offer from Georgetown and left Heilman high and dry,” Jeff said angrily.

“After you decided to come here,” Bob finished.

“Oh, I was coming here either way,” Jeff said. “It’s complicated. Mom and Dad divorced when I was four. I lived with my mom. She got a promotion at work and she moved to West Littlefield. I didn’t want to be across the country. Maybe you think I’m a Mama’s boy but that’s fine. Heilman is a great school. I found out I could get in so it made sense.”

“Rachel Bailey,” Tiffany said.

“Yeah,” Jeff said in confusion. “That’s my mom.”

“James Grayling is my dad,” Tiffany said with a laugh. “Your mom is my dad’s boss. He said she’s great, by the way.”

“She is,” Jeff said proudly. “That’s really cool. She said one of the guys at the office had a daughter here but ... I’ve been trying to keep my head down.”

“I’m not sure I have this straight,” Bob said. “Hailey says I’m the muscle headed jock so forgive me. You came here to be close to your mom and so did your father.”

“Not my mom,” Jeff said. “He’s ... Look, I’ll just say it. My dad is an asshole. He screwed around on mom and she showed him the door. When I turned 18, I limited his contact. He wanted me to go to UCLA. I went to USC instead. When he found out I was coming here, he looked for something nearby. I don’t know what he was trying to prove. Actually, I think I do. I think he wanted me to help him line up dates. He seems to have a penchant for dating girls my age.”

“Gross,” Katelyn said.

“Really gross,” Jeff said. “He still had visitation when I was in high school. I’d catch him perving on girls I was around when I was 14 or 15. He uses the college as his private dating site, I think.”

“When he’s not screwing professors,” Hailey said. The pieces had clicked together in her head and some of the comments Dr. Harkness had made to Jeff suddenly made sense.

“Exactly,” Jeff said. “My dad pulled some strings to get her hired here. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know about her. Otherwise, well, I’d have found some other class to take. It wasn’t until after the first week when I figured it out. Dad was having an affair with Dr. Harkness – and then left her high and dry, too, when Georgetown offered him a post. I gather that he promised to marry her when they got here.”