Chapter Thirty-Three

"Wait, what did you say?" Alice asked him. "I didn't catch that. What did you say?"

Keanu inhaled deeply, then straightened his back. "Nothing. I didn't say anything."

"No, you did," she said. "What did you say?"

"I didn't."

"Tell me."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Alice. I didn't say anything."

"But - "

"I think we're done here," Keanu said, heading towards the pantry door and leaving. She put everything in the sink before she left herself.

When she returned to her cubicle, she sat down for a while and got to work, picking up her red marker and grading the essays. She finished up quickly and stacked them together, then got up from her seat. She walked out of the office and headed towards the lecture hall where she would be teaching her class.

At the lecture hall, she put on a serious expression and relayed to the entire class what she had promised Keanu she would say. The class listened closely, sending quick glances at one another to see who were the guilty couples. She ended with a warning to everyone, but when she stopped talking, one student cracked a sexual joke out loud and everyone laughed afterwards. She sighed. This was exactly the kind of response that told her that her students were not going to take her seriously.

So, she ignored them and passed out the graded essays. Many students gawked at their grades and she announced to them frankly that their work was disappointing. She spent the rest of the class highlighting the various mistakes they made in their work, and when she was done, she dismissed the class.

Just as she was packing up, Jeremy approached her table and stopped before it, smiling at her.

"Yes, Jeremy?" she said. He was the one student who scored a distinction for the essay.

He pointed at her tumbler. "A Central Perk tumbler. You like the show too?"

"Friends? Oh, I'm obsessed with it! I've watched that sitcom 5 whole times."

"No way! All seasons?"

"Yes, from the first episode of the first season, to the last episode of the last season."

"I think I've watched it as many times too," Jeremy laughed. "What other show do you like?"

"The Office."

"Oh, yes! I love that too," he said. "Big Bang Theory?"

"Yes!"

"We have good taste, prof."

"Yes, we do," she said with a bright smile. "Great essay by the way. I like how you think. You're smart."

He shrugged. "I don't think so. But thank you," he said and right then, a loud pinging noise came from his phone, followed by a second ping, then a third. "I'd love to one day reach your level of expertise. Your papers keep me up at night."

"Thanks," she said. Another loud ping. "Aren't you going to get that?"

"It's alright," Jeremy said. "I'll check it out later."

"Well, I'm really honoured you think so highly of my papers."

"Are you going to write another? I've read all your papers."

"Another paper? I want to, but I've been so busy lately. I'm always procrastinating. I can never get anything done, it's a wonder I managed to write all those papers!"

"But you did, and that's wonderful!"

"I could've written a lot more, but I like to write them on journals, and I always lose them. But I'm too stubborn, I refuse to use any writing software until I have the entire thing down on paper."

"If you look at it another way, you're actually a person of devotion, aren't you?"

She tilted her head to the side. "I guess so? I don't know."

"I know you are."

She stood up, slinging her bag on her shoulder. Then she collected her textbooks into her hands. "Is there anything else? I need to get going."

"There is one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Since you watch all those sitcoms, you must have the best sense of humour. Tell me your best joke."

She winced. "I'm sorry. I'm not a funny person."

He laughed. "That's alright," he said, smiling widely.

"What's yours?"

"Someone got hit in the head by a can of coke. Thank god it was a soft drink."

She stared at him, not smiling, not laughing.

"That's my best joke," he said.

She forced herself to laugh. "Great!"

He laughed. "No, silly! I was just joking. If that was my best joke, I'd be a dad."

She chuckled. "You got me there, Jeremy."

"Right?"

"Okay, I got to go now, there's something I have to do," she said, side stepping to the door.

"Let me," he said, reaching first. He held the door open for her. "There you go."

She stepped out. "Thanks."

He closed the door behind her. "Bye!"

"Bye!" she said, walking down the hallways. It was dark since she was just at last period, and she was alone. She made a beeline directly towards the school pool. She had to make sure somehow that none of her students were there having "fun". She knew there would be some students who took her scolding as a challenge.

Pushing the door to the school pool open, she walked past the long edge of the swimming pool. It appeared empty, but she wanted to make sure nobody was there. She entered the pool toilets and opened every cubicle, and fortunately, nobody was there. Happy, she left the toilets and walked towards the exit.

"Keanu? Why are you here?" Alice said, watching him approach her.

"I was checking if any students were misusing the pool," he said. "You're here to check too, right?"

"Yeah," she said. "The toilets are clear."

"Great, I was just at the locker room," he said. "It's clear. I think we can leave."

"Let's go," she said.

He turned around to the exit. Stopping before the door, he put one hand on the handle and pushed down on it. But it did not budge.

"Huh, weird," he said.

He gave it another push. Nothing. He shook it hard. No effect.

"Crap," he said, staring at Alice in horror. "We've been locked in."