Off Camera

The hot transfer student

"Are you f*****g kidding me." Hori said, squeezing her face like I just said something offensive. "You really don't expect me to be a good fit with Chad…CHAD HENDERSON…Oh c'mon connie."

"Well…I mean, he's hot though." I smirked playfully in an attempt to convince her since she was a crazy fan of hot guys but then Chad had a track record and apparently she was seriously keeping it.

"He corrects every single lecturer that walks up the podium. I mean—"

"He's never wrong though." I lolled my eyes to the side, convinced I had just made a solid point, a slight smile tugging at my lips.

"That's not the point." She turned in her seat to face me properly, which usually meant that she was about to get serious with the conversation. "He's a nerd. A full, committed, walking Wikipedia article nerd. It's just not possible."

"You don't even know him like that." I continued stubbornly. "You've only spoken to him, what?

Like twice."

"Exactly. Twice was enough." She picked up her highlighter, clicked it open and clicked it shut without even using it. "Why are you so obsessed with this?"

"I'm not obsessed, I just think—"

"You're obsessed."

"There's a first time for everything," I said, and she laughed sarcastically, dropping her head into her hand like I'd physically exhausted her.

The hall was just the way it usually was everyday before lecture. It was loud, with conversations layered over each other in a way that you could hear the noise and loud whispers without hearing any actual words.

I noticed the sound of chairs scraping, someone's phone going off twice in a row then a group of boys that filled up the back seats laughing about something on a screen.

“Hori—”

The professor walked in.

The hall went quiet gradually, the sound of people adjusting, suddenly remembering where they were, phones disappearing, the laughter from the back row dropping, everything happening within just three seconds.

Adler stood at the front of the hall staring at us for a moment without actually saying anything.

He shook his head, his face contracting into a frown—the specific look of disappointment I had become used to seeing since I joined this class.

"Last semester," he said, setting his folder down without opening it, "some of you turned in work that I can only describe as a sincere and very baffling commitment to missing the point." His voice was calm, despite the heat that was coming up from him at the moment.

"I have been teaching for nineteen years.” He paused, his gaze settling on each and every single column one after the other. “And I have never, ever, in nineteen years, read an essay that managed to use eight hundred words to say absolutely nothing until November."

He paused again, his fist clenched and his face screaming anger even more. "You know who you are."

Hori leaned toward me. "He's been like this since November" she whispered.

“I know right,” I murmured back. “It's sincerely unsettling.”

Adler looked up, his gaze meeting ours. We straightened up immediately and he continued.

"Before we begin." He glanced down at his folder and finally opened it. "We have a transfer student joining the mix today." He looked toward the door, a smile crossing his face for the first time since he walked in. "Mr. Maddox. Come in."

The door opened and my jaw dropped. I must say, I was genuinely swept off my feet.

He was tall, that was the first thing I noticed before anything else, before the broad shoulders and the athletic build. And his face was—

Dark eyes, chiseled set of jaws, the complete and total absence of any expression that suggested that he was happy to be here.

He stood at the front of the hall and looked straight down without looking at anything in particular.

"Kyrian Maddox," Adler said, still maintaining his warm smile. "He'll be joining you guys as of today. Find a seat, Mr. Maddox."

He walked up to where I was and took a seat next to me.

I felt Hori look over from my left but I did not look back at her since I already knew what her face would look like—she'd probably be wearing the biggest grin ever.

"Miss Reid." Adler called out, his gaze shifting to me. "Given your apparent talent for the social workings of this campus, I'll leave it to you to help Mr. Maddox find his footing."

"Of course," I said, a small smile tugging at my lips.

"Perhaps you'll even find him a match." Adler said, somehow amused, which was actually a rare thing from him.

Everyone in the hall burst out laughing. "Maybe I'll find one for you too, Professor." I shot at him playfully.

The hall erupted louder and Adler pointed at me with his pen—a small smile tugging at his lips—and turned to the board.

I turned to Kyrian.

"Hey." I said, keeping it light and easy with a conversational tone. "I'm Connie Reid. In case the introduction wasn't clear."

He kept staring at the board without paying even the slightest attention to me.

I waited a while before speaking again.

"If you need someone to walk you around after class, I can—"

He turned, shot me a disgusted look that communicated everything I needed to know.

"Leave me the f**k alone," he said and turned back to the board.

My eyes went wide with shock as I silently prayed that no one heard or even saw that.

"Miss Connie Reid, please report to the boardroom."

The speaker crackled then went quiet.

I looked at the ceiling, then at the side of Kyrian Maddox's face, which had not moved.

Lucky guy.

I picked up my bag and left.

I had the whole walk to the boardroom to think about why my brain had registered his face the way it did at first. On second thought, he wasn't the slightest bit attractive, he was an ass, yeah that's what he was, a f*****g ass.

He'd told me to leave him alone, I was going to leave him alone. I was going to leave him so alone he'd forget I existed, which given that he'd barely acknowledged I existed to begin with, shouldn't be difficult.

I smoothed my jacket, knocked on the door twice then went in.

Dean Harlow sat at the head of the table with two other people flanking him on each side.

"Miss Reid." Harlow gestured at the chair across from him, a smile tugging at his lips. "Sit, we won't keep you long."

I sat down and smiled back even though I didn't exactly feel like smiling at the moment.

"We'll get right to it," Harlow said, and in my mental note of things I had learnt about adults, those statements mean they simply and indeed wouldn't get right to it.

Just like I thought, there were several minutes of warm-up first—my academic standing, my campus presence and what seemed like thirty minutes had already passed.

"We've been hearing things," the woman to Harlow's left said. Dr. Prentiss, I noted mentally, thanks to the huge metal plaque with her name inscripted on it sitting on her desk. "About a particular skill set of yours."

I knew what she was talking about, as a matter of fact, every living, breathing organism on this campus knew."The matchmaking," I said, my gaze focused on the huge plaque on the desk.

"Yes, that," she confirmed, looking pleased that I didn't feign ignorance. "Six students, three couples. All of them are still together at the close of semester. That's—"

"Remarkable," Harlow completed.

"I was going to say impressive," Prentiss said, chuckling.

"Same thing," Harlow said, and looked back at me. "You have a gift for reading people, Miss Reid. Connecting them. We've been paying attention."

"I appreciate that," I said, a small smile tugging at my lips. "Genuinely."

"We'd like to make use of it."

There it was. I kept my face still without any expression at all. I wondered why they had called me in but I wouldn't have guessed it was for this.

Harlow leaned forward slightly. "Crestfield is entering a period of heightened media visibility this semester. Hockey season, primarily.

There are students whose public perception will affect the university's reputation directly." He paused for a moment, letting all he had said settle. "One student in particular."

My stomach made a loud grumble sound, but thankfully no one heard it or at least I hoped they didn't.

"We need someone to manage the social side of things, someone who understands people and can build a genuine connection." He folded his hands. "You'd be compensated, of course and the university would consider it a significant—"

"Which student," I interrupted, my gaze focused on him.

He exchanged a quick glance with Prentiss then shifted his gaze back to me.

"We need you to match someone with Kyrian Maddox.”