History

Mary did not normally look forward to history. She’d needed a couple credits, and it had sounded easy enough. Which it was, mostly…

Today, however, it was a chance to see her master. And that was always something to look forward to.

“Hi Stephen.” She bounced up to him at the doorway, hands nervous behind her back. “Come up with an idea for our presentation yet?”

“Well, the idea of doing a presentation on ‘Female roles in ancient Arab society’ came to mind, just because it’s always nice to have props, and your necklace would fit. It derivative and obvious though. Nothing people won’t already know.”

Mary thought it sounded like a splendid idea. Maybe she would get to dress up… “Relax, Stephen. This is an undergrad history course. We’re not supposed to come up with anything people don’t already know. We make it interesting, and show we know the topic, and the teacher gives us an ‘A’. If it’s obvious it’ll just mean less work. Put it down and see if the Prof. complains.”

“Ok.” He went over to do just that, before the bell rang and they had to sit down. Mary could tell he wasn’t excited about the idea, which made her uneasy. She didn’t want him to have to do anything he didn’t want to.

However, she recognized this as the necklace talking, and countered it with the thought that this way she would get to discuss being a slave with Stephen. And it was his idea, after all. It wasn’t like he was opposed to it: just that he wished he could think of something better.

She and Stephen got to their seats just before the bell rang; her one seat out from him, so she would have to look past him to look at the professor. Mostly, she didn’t look that far.