Saving Professor (Part 15)

Petra came back that night tired and annoyed.
“That Alexander guy is so weird!” she exclaimed, slumping into the couch. “So weird!”
“Yeah,” Collier replied. “Just have to get used to it.”
“What do you know? You’ve only been there one time.”
“Well, I had to get used to it. You know, Petra, we’re going to have to act the same. We’re pretty close already, but we’ll have to be like the same person.”
“Do you seriously think that Alexander guy’s going to notice?”
Professor walked into the room.
“Petra, you need to stop referring to him as ‘that Alexander guy.’ He was a very highly acclaimed student back at the boarding school, and you should respect him.” Professor glanced at Collier over his glasses. “You, too, Collier. You both have to respect him.”
Petra looked at Collier and sighed. Her mind was still stuck on having to act the same way as him.
“Well, anyways, it’s time for dinner,” Professor announced, before walking out of the room.
“Do I have to go? I’m really tired,” Petra whined to Collier.
“Petra. You know that dinnertime is the only time we have together.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like Professor’s our dad. He’s acting like he is.”
“Well, technically, he’s our guardian. For now. He got the papers signed today.”
Petra sat upright.
“What? So now he’s our dad?”
“No, I said he’s our guardian. He didn’t adopt us!”
“Why don’t I ever know any of this stuff?”
Collier shrugged.
“I didn’t know, either, until today. Hey, you know what’s weird?”
“Alexander?”
“Petra! No! Well… yes, Alexander is weird, but that’s not what I was going to say.”
“Okay, then what?”
“Professor has kids.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Kids.”
“How would you know?”
“I saw one today. He came to the office.”
“Again, another thing I don’t know!”
“Calm down, I only found out today, too!”
“Big day for us, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Hey, Petra, let’s go get some dinner. I bet Professor’s waiting.”
“Even you’re talking about him like he’s our dad,” Petra grumbled. Even so, she followed him out.

Early the next morning, Petra woke up long after Collier had left. In fact, she had woken up so late that she found Mr. Murphy standing at the door.
Jumping out of bed, she quickly began to apologize.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Murphy, I was staying up late reading last night, and I lost track of time and I fell asleep way too late, and I didn’t notice Collier leave this morning and—“
“It’s fine, Petra, really. I got here early. We actually start in fifteen minutes.” Then, with a hopeful look, he suggested, “Or we could start now.”
Petra could see his excitement, so she shrugged.
“Sure. Will do.”
“Which subject first? History?”
“Whatever you like.”
“You know, it really doesn’t matter. What do you want to do first?”
“I don’t know, but you seem to want to do History—“
“Oh, no, no, no, it’s okay if you want to do something else!”
“No! Seriously, Mr. Murphy, we can start with History.”
Mr. Murphy grinned.
“Okay!”
Petra pulled out her history book and flipped to the page where they left off. She took her white satin ribbon bookmark out of the book and began to stroke it.
As Mr. Murphy went off in a detailed description about the Battle of Bunker Hill, Petra compared him with Asher Alexander.
They were both kind of strange, but they looked nothing alike. They both had an extreme passion for what they did, but they showed it in different ways.
There were a lot of things in common about Alexander and Mr. Murphy, but for some reason, Petra just liked Mr. Murphy a lot better.