Despite the cool accent, he was boring her. Couldn’t he simply quote some Shakespeare at them? At least she could tune that out. Calista could see why Piper had never been into him when she was in his class. He had a jawline worth looking at, though. Not that genetically fortunate bone structure mattered.
Skill mattered, as did dedication and ambition, like how Ronan had been traded from a top Washington team to the underperforming Austin Snowers. Had that made him pause? Nope. Ronan had shifted into high gear and propelled the Snowers to the top of the league. For the first time in her life, her local team had a shot at the Cup all due to the leadership skills of one man, Ronan. Who was also very handsome and the total package. Sigh.
Professor Terrence pulled up their names on the board. “Let’s start with Olivia Hammond, JD, LLM. Aiming to finish her Doctor of Juridical Sciences degree.”
Olivia got to her feet and held out her arms in one of her lawyer stances. “Career choice is critical for everyone. One wrong move takes years to recover from, decades even. To that end, I researched the professors here to see how you all got to Sage Hill, this top tier university, in the great state of Texas.”
Olivia wasn’t kidding about sucking up. Calista herself didn’t need to. Piper had aced Professor Terrence’s class. She’d ask her sister for the inside scoop. Did he love regurgitated lectures or scholarly rebuttals? Piper would know. Her sister peopled well, and Piper would share her knowledge. Though if Professor Terrence brought in that communal water cooler he’d spoken of, that would not go down well. Olivia was finicky, and Artie was definitely the type who shoved his water bottle all over the spout, not that she’d seen him use a communal cooler. Ronan could lift a water cooler with one arm.
Professor Terrence straightened his posture.
“I did research also,” Vivien jumped in. “In fact, I looked you up personally.” Vivien lifted her laptop in both hands, so they understood she meant online. The mermaid on the screen opened her mouth and released an audible spray of bubbles. Vivien shoved the lid down. “I poked at the school’s Human Resources database, but when I landed on the payroll platform, I backed out, realizing that looking would be…”
“Wrong?” Calista asked, realizing she needed conversation points too.
“Illegal?” Olivia suggested.
“Disheartening,” Vivien said. “Teachers should make so much more money than they do.”
Wow, thought she’d said she didn’t look.
“Kissing-up was my idea,” Olivia hissed in a whispered aside to Vivien.
Vivien shrugged. “Compared to what professional hockey players make…” Vivien whistled loud and low. “Professors should get food stamps.”
Professor Terrence drew back in a British rejection-of-other-humans stance. “Your name?”
“Vivien Durand.”
“Vivien Durand, who would like a bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences from Sage Hill University, also the youngest of the group, I see. Thank you, Vivien. Moving on. Calista Amvehl, dual doctorates in mechanics and innovations, your turn to update the group, please.”