A profound, cold satisfaction settled into my chest. I have put them in their place, I thought, keeping my face a flat, candy-smooth mask as I walked right past them without slowing down by a single fraction of a meter. They could look at me with all the bitter, resentful glares they wanted, but they were no longer a threat to my operational peace. Their leverage was gone.
"Look at them," Candice whispered with a quiet, triumphant giggle as we left them behind. "They look like they've seen a ghost."
"They have simply met an unyielding variable," I replied.
Ten minutes later, I stood outside the private study chambers of the advanced economics department. The pleasant triumph of the corridor dissolved, replaced by the immediate, high-priority mandate of my 8:00 AM deadline.
I took a dee
