The Artist and the Professor

For several years, as she taught various freshman university classes, the first day of school was always a combination of fear, dread, curiosity, hopefulness, and hopelessness. And these were just for her. She knew her students felt the same way.

This year, of course, was no different as she watched the young adults shuffle into her classroom.

Each year, she would try to pick out the ones who would do great without any help, the ones who would do great with a bit of nudging, the ones who would work hard but not do that great, the ones who practically needed their hands held, the heads, the constant skippers, and the troublemakers.

That is not to say that there were no categories in between. However, most students usually fall into those categories. After all these years, she became pretty good at this guessing game, to the point now that she was rarely wrong.

And, each year, she would pick out a student who, in her mind, needed exceptional watching, whether for good or for bad.

One of the girls immediately caught her eye for some reason.

When the girl entered the classroom, she looked as though she wished she were invisible - and dressed that way. Wearing all black, she wore a button-down shirt that was five sizes too big for her, along with a pair of work pants of the same size, held together by a black belt. A black knit winter hat was pulled down tight on her head, covering all of her forehead and forcing her dark hair over her eyes.

The girl did not sit in the corner, but instead chose a spot near the back, near the side, so she was somewhat surrounded yet alone. One of the desks beside her remained unoccupied.

Her eyes downcast, the girl took her seat, quickly opening her notebook and doodling in it as the other students filed in.

On the roll call, Ms. Phillips found her name to be Janine. On answering her name, she did it with hesitation and very quietly, but loud enough for her answer not to be repeated. Cindy Phillips was not at all surprised that Janine did not raise her hand once during class, though she did spend a lot of time taking notes.

For the first three weeks, things went relatively smoothly. Yes, there were a couple of troublemakers - but Ms. Phillips proved quite apt at handling them immediately, many times to the extent that trouble never came from those students again. She was never violent or mean with them; she was stern enough to cause fear.

Never once did Janine raise her hand to ask a question or answer; most of the time, she focused on writing in her notebook. When she was called upon, her answers were always quiet and correct.

A couple of early school-year quizzes proved to Ms. Phillips that Janine was no dummy. She had not thought so. Most of the time, she was the first to put her pencil down after the quiz, then to focus again on her notebook.

During quizzes, Ms. Phillips tended to pace the room, rather than sit at her desk. This not only helped her get her daily step goals, but also helped her make sure there was no cheating going on.

Finally, one day, her curiosity got the best of her, so she timed her walk past Janine's test after Janine had finished the quiz, once again being one of the first students done.

Cindy's eyes quickly fluttered over the notebook page, which she saw was covered with elaborate drawings, detailed, semi-realistic in some areas, very realistic in others, some even grotesque.

Unknowingly, she had paused beside Janine's drawings, gawking at them, when she heard the girl softly clear her desk and move to close the notebook, muttering a "sorry."

When Cindy graded Janine's quiz - another perfect score - she wrote at the bottom, "Your art is quite good. Keep at it!"

A soft, shy smile appeared on Janine's face when she got the quiz and read the note, her face visibly reddening.

But, seconds later, she was back at it.

After a week, some of the artwork began appearing on Janine's homework and quizzes. Cindy continued posting positive comments on her artwork.

Still more curious, Cindy decided to take a step she rarely had taken before: she checked out Janine's social media page in hopes of seeing more of her artwork.

She was not disappointed with numerous artworks featured on all her social media pages. Rarely did Janine post anything about herself or the world around her, mainly focusing on her artwork.

Again, the works were beautiful and sometimes grotesque, but always fascinating. Creatures impossible to imagine were thrown into nightmarish landscapes, where human figures fought them or were consumed.

One day, she came across an age verification page, controlled by one of Janine's aliases. With her curiosity at its best, Cindy paid the fee and took a look at the page.

To her surprise, here the artwork was more exotic, more erotic. Scantily clad women felt monsters only Janine could imagine. Some of the artworks were even more lewd, with the creatures sexually molesting the women, and the women enjoying the attention.

Cindy Phillips, despite herself, found herself becoming very aroused at the artwork. As she looked further, she found some straight-up erotic works, as women pleasured themselves or two women would pleasure each other.

Cindy found an air of familiarity around the characters, recognizing some resemblance to other girls in class, as well as a strong resemblance to Janine herself.

At another point, she came across a drawing showing a character who looked a whole lot like Janine fingering another character to what appeared to be orgasm. Cindy let out a small breath, realizing the other character drew a strong resemblance to herself.

She had already given thumbs up to several of the more erotic drawings. This time, she fought herself for a while before posting "Simply lovely" and leaving it at that.

When Janine sneaked into the classroom the next day, her eyes quickly darted to Cindy Phillips at her desk, a small, shy smile spreading across her face before it turned deep red as she took her seat.

When class ended that day, Janine nervously approached the desk.

"Thank you for the comment on my page," she said quickly and quietly, before spinning on her heels to walk away.

Before Janine had a chance to dart away the next day, Cindy softly put her hand on her shoulder. "If you ever need any help, in any way, please let me know. You are incredibly talented and have the chance to become very successful at this."

Janine smiled, reddened, then quickly exited the classroom.

Cindy hoped she had not crossed a line but found her fears unfounded when Janine put two large notebooks on her desk the next day.

"I did these, there is a story in them, I hope you like them," she said quickly and quietly before leaving the room.

It was the weekend, so Cindy had the opportunity to review the notebooks thoroughly.

The story was terrific, imaginative, and energetic. It told the story of two warrior women who fought side by side, defeating creatures of unimaginable horror in landscapes beyond the imagination of many. Cindy was engrossed in the story, slowly turning each page to take in the beauty of the artwork, while also wanting to turn the pages quickly to catch up on the story.

Once again, she noticed a strong resemblance to herself and Janine in those two main characters. And, of course, neither of the women wore much clothing during their adventures.

A ribbon, a note attached, bound the second notebook: "Please, do not be offended by these next pictures. They are fantasies of mine, but I would never do anything in real life to purposely hurt anyone. I hope you will enjoy them, though, from the comments you've left on my page, I believe you already do. These are explicit and are from the heart