Part Four of this assignment:

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“Ah, Miss Henry! Happy to see you come to office hours again. I’ve missed your presence.”

“What is this?”

“Your quiz?”

“Yes, my quiz.”

“What about it?”

“A zero?”

“Oh, that. It was an absolutely terrible response. Honestly, it’s nowhere near the quality of the rest of your work.”

“How so?”

“You didn’t even begin to the address the subtleties of their works.”

“That isn’t what this is about, is it?”

“What do you mean. Can you really look me in the face and say that quiz was one of your better response for this class? Or any other class that you’ve had with me? No, Miss Henry, I’m being tough because that is what you need to reach your full potential.

“Don’t lie. I know this is paypack.”

“Payback?”

“You know, for what you tried to do to me Friday night.”

“And what was that?”

“You tried to bed me.”

“I did not do any such thing.”

“How… how can you say that?”

“Why don’t you describe what I did?

“No. It’s disgusting.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Why?”

“It’s…”

“It’s what?”

“It’s filthy.”

“What makes you say that? It’s completely natural.”

“It’s wrong.”

“Hahaha. Wrong? Wrong according to whom?”

“My parents.”

“You really can’t keep falling back onto that answer, Juliana. You write of them as if they’ve done and seen everything that the world has to offer, but there’s nothing there. You can’t let your parents live your life for you.”

“Why are you trying to put a wedge between me and them? You were doing the same thing during dinner.”

“The wedge was already there, Juliana. I’m just making you aware of it.”

“That’s not true.”

“I’m surprised you can say that with a straight face. I can see the conflict in your words, your tone—your writings. They raised you to be the good little girl that goes of to college to meet a man and get married, but that’s not who you are and you know it. You’re smart, and as much as you try to tell yourself otherwise, you actually want to use it for something.”

“But that isn’t for you to decide.”

“I can’t decide anything for you, or for anybody else. Sure, I may push you in the right direction, but so what? Everything you do is your decision.”

“My decisions? You’re not giving me much to deal with. A zero?”

“Like I said, you got the grade you deserved.”

“I’ll go to the dean with this.”

“You wouldn’t be the first girl to get pissy over a bad grade. He’ll tell you to go home and stop bothering him.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“My offer still stands, Juliana.”

“I have to go.”

“See you on Wednesday.”