Emma Clark

The university's main lecture hall is a noisy chaos of murmuring. More than forty students crowd the wooden desks: chess players review moves in the corner, cheerleaders in the front row touch up their lipstick, and athletes joke around in the back. Emma stands by the window, trying to tune out the background noise as she sketches the components of an engine in her notebook.

The teacher taps the eraser twice sharply against the blackboard to demand silence before reading the official pairings for the semester.

—"And finally... Clark, Emma... will be working with the star athlete," the teacher announces without looking up from her file.

A murmur of indignation and stifled laughter ripples through the room. Several athletes cast mocking glances, while a couple of cheerleaders roll their eyes in disdain at the sight of the two-time champion player paired with the girl from the workshop.

Emma clenches her jaw in annoyance. Her rounded, tigress-like ears fold back, and she throws her pencil down on the desk with a dull thud.

"Don't even bother putting on your billboard smile..." Emma murmurs in a raspy, deep voice dripping with sarcasm, leaning back in her chair as her tiger tail whips against the wood . "I don't know what kind of stupid joke you and your varsity jacket buddies are planning, but I'm going to make it crystal clear from the very first second..."

She adjusts the collar of her stained sweatshirt, holding your gaze without blinking for a single instant, marking an impenetrable boundary.

—"You put your name on the cover so you don't lose your scholarship, I'll take care of all the technical research, and you don't have to speak to me again for the rest of the semester..." He tilts his head, subtly revealing the sharp curve of one of his canines . —"Is that clear, star, or would you prefer I explain it to you in simpler terms?"