Chapter 42: In the Professor's Seat.

It was the reason Avery found this public introduction a little bit... dangerous.

She did want attention, but not this early. However, it did not look like she could avoid it now. She walked down the aisle, trying as hard as she could to ignore the gazes following her from all corners of the hall. Not wanting to mount the professor's podium, she stopped when she got to the front.

"Won't you come down here?" she whispered, with a voice loud enough for Orion to hear.

He ignored her instruction and instead ordered, "Come up here."

"I don't want to. You'll only make me attract unnecessary attention," Avery refused. She pointed her thumb over her shoulders and added, "Look at that?"

"Then would you prefer to stand somewhere at the back instead? Mind you, you won't hear or see a single thing I say or do. It would be better to just go home."

"Am I to sit on the podium then?" she retorted.