Professor Daddy (Dark Daddies 5)

Murmurs of anticipation. I catch Clara frowning slightly, but I don’t let myself linger.

“I have five names that I’ll call out now. The five of you can meet with me after class to go over the details.”

I clear my throat, open up my bag, and take out a piece of paper.

“Truth is, most of you did abysmally. It was a hard test, but I did expect more out of you all.” I glance at their faces, and I can see more than a few annoyed grimaces. “The five following people did reasonably well. Howard Moon, Parker Gray, Alan Sleight, Coop Smith, and Clara Nelson. Well done, you five. Everyone else, you’re dismissed.”

There’s a general grumbling as people get up to leave. I can spot the winners, talking with their friends, excited and grinning like mad.

Except for Clara. She’s still sitting in her seat, looking absolutely bewildered.

A few guys throw her some dirty looks. I bet they didn’t expect her to be one of the top five, but of course they were wrong.

They were incredibly wrong. Clara was one of only two people to succeed.

The other was Howard Moon. He’s a skinny guy, acne scars on his face, thin glasses shoved up his nose. He’s wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt that’s too big and baggy jeans. He’s grinning ear to ear as he comes stumbling over toward me.

The others join him, with Clara coming up last. The four guys give her looks, but nobody says anything.

Alan has tan skin, wide eyes, and a big smile. Parker is short and slight and looks nervous as hell. Coop is the biggest of the group, tall and fat.

Clara doesn’t look like she fits in at all. I can’t keep my eyes off her, although I know I need to give the other four my attention, especially Howard. He’s as promising as Clara is. The other three, well, maybe they’ll develop. Either way, they’ll be useful for a little while at least.

“Congratulations,” I say to them. “Just to be clear, this opportunity is entirely voluntary, and turning it down won’t affect your grade at all in my class. Understood?”

“Understood,” Coop drawls. “What’s the opportunity?”

I smile at him. “It’s an internship on my new project.”

All five of them buzz with excitement. Even Clara seems to smile and perk up.

“What are you working on?” Alan asks, nudging closer.

“Well, you might not be surprised to learn that it’s a virtual reality application,” I tell the group. “Right now, VR needs incredibly sophisticated hardware to run accurately, but I want to make it cheap and easily reproducible.”

“We don’t do hardware,” Howard grunts.

I glance at the kid. “Neither do I.”

He frowns, but doesn’t say anything.

“We’re doing it in software?”

I almost don’t hear her. The guys all glance back at Clara. Coop snorts derisively. “Ain’t gonna happen, right?” he says, looking at me.

I smile at him placidly. “Clara’s right. We’re doing it in software.”

All five of them stare at me. Clara smiles slightly and I nod at her.

“We’ll be using some advanced techniques, neural nets, big data, all that stuff. I have a lab at the edge of campus, I’ll email you all the address. Show up there tomorrow morning at eight. Will that work?”

They all agree and I dismiss them. They all begin to wander off, all of them except for Clara.

She lingers behind, looking at me. I frown at her as I pack up my things.

“What can I do for you, Miss Nelson?”

She grins for a second. “Clara.”

I laugh softly. “Okay, Clara. What’s up?”

“Well, I just… wanted to ask you about this.”

“About what?”

“You choosing me.”

I hesitate a second. I wonder if she knows, if she noticed me looking at her…

Women can be pretty intuitive about these things sometimes. They read body language like it’s a fucking poem. Maybe I need to be careful about her.

“What about it?” I ask.

“Did you choose me because I’m a girl?”

I stare at her for a second, surprised. “Of course not,” I finally manage to say.

“It’s just that, you mentioned it the other day, and I know it looks good to have diversity on a team, and—”

“Okay, hold on,” I interrupt her. “I don’t give a shit about diversity, okay?”

She looks surprised. I can’t tell if it’s because I cursed or what.

“Really?”

“I only care about getting the job done,” I tell her. “I chose you because you were one of the best. I wouldn’t pick someone that couldn’t handle what we’re about to do.”

She bites her lip. “Okay then. Thanks.”

“Don’t let them define you,” I say, gesturing at the guys that are receding away from the class. “Those fuckers are just insecure.”

She grins at that. “You’re not kidding. College guys are…”

“Still children,” I finish for her.

“Right. Not grown up.”

“But you are.”

“Maybe.” She laughs a little. “I don’t know.”

“You look grown-up.”

She hesitates, maybe understanding what I’m saying. I shouldn’t have said it, but it just came out.