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"Then tellwith her hands on her hips "If it’s not like that, then tell uy is"

"I can’t tell you, Victoria! If I could, I would have told you already!" Liz cried

"Seriously, I don’t get it Why is it such a big deal?" Victoria demanded "Can you at least tellher hands into her hair

"Ridiculous What kind of guy forces you to keep secrets fro

"I can’t explain it But I don’t want to keep secrets anymore I want to be out in the open I hatever we have to be all the tiain "I hate to be pessimistic about this, Liz I want you to be happy, but this sounds like a recipe for disaster"

Liz sighed heavily It did sound like a recipe for disaster Before, when it had just been about the sex, none of thisher and stringing her along and it had been okay, because she was doing the sa Now that wasn’t what she wanted anymore She wanted a relationship with Brady, which had its own set of proble her hand under her eyes to wipe away the last reuess I’ll have to talk to hi back down finally "I’s worse I didn’t mean to"

"It’s okay"

"You’re sure you can’t tell ht make me understand…"

"Vic," Liz interrupted, "I can’t tell you"

"Okay," she said with a shrug "Talk to this guy and tell him what you told lanced up into Victoria’s face

"You didn’t do anything wrong by kissing Hayden Don’t let anyone else convince you otherwise, all right?"

Liz sighed and nodded If she hadn’t done anything wrong, then why did she still feel so bad?

The next day, Liz trudged onto carade from her journalism professor She hadn’t sleptfor Brady to call her He knehen she was coht, but he didn’t She would have to wait for Brady, as difficult as that was

She walked through the journalis until she found Professor Mires’s office The door was open and a student was already inside talking to her Liz took a seat in a chair outside of the room and waited

She hoped that she looked okay, because she hadn’t taken any time with her appearance Yesterday’s makeup still covered her face, and she had thrown her hair into a messy bun on the top of her head She was run-down froinable scenario with Brady

"Yes, thank you for stopping by," Professor Mires said as the student who had been in her office exited "Miss Dougherty, how are you?"

Liz stood and stifled a yawn "Hello, Professor Mires"

"You’re here for your grade, I presume?"

"I know you said in class that we could stop by on Monday and you should have our papers finalized"

"In fact, I do Co for Liz to follow her

Liz took the seat in front of the professor’s desk Professor Mires wore her typical librarian glasses Her brown hair was a curly mess, which explained why she alore it in a bun She had on a long blue skirt that dragged the floor, and a cream linen blouse She took a seat in front of Liz and folded her hands in her lap

"What are your plans for the next two years, Liz?" Professor Mires asked "You are an upco at the question "I’ to finish ree in journalism and work on the paper"

"I understand that you’re a Morehead scholar and that your senior year, you must have an internship with a coht about what you are going to do for this?" Professor Mires prodded

"I had given soh newspaper and co withof school to discuss possibilities," Liz told her

"Hh a stack of papers on her desk She extracted one from the pile and handed it across the table to Liz

Liz took her paper eagerly She flipped to the back page and saw the page filled top to bottom with red ink and a small A+ circled at the bottom Liz inhaled sharply, unable to believe what she saw She ski review of the article she had written

"Thank you," Lizyou an A in the class," Professor Mires told her "I know your perfor, but I’ believer in ied you, and you accepted the challenge with fervor Each week you got better, but this"--she pointed at the paper--"this shohat you are really capable of You’ve done a great job at changing your perspective, broadening your scope, and re objective You should hold on to these skills They’ll take you far"

"Oh," Liz said, "thank you"

The one paper Brady had given her the idea for was the paper that her professor thought had changed her She had worked hard all su her perspective and working tohat Professor Mires wanted from her But she knew that Brady had helped with that He had shown her politics from a different perspective entirely She had been able to take what she had learned from him and layer it hat she already knew about the world, and that had helped her relate to her audience

That man will be the death of me

"Well, you convinced me to believe in your ith that last paper It showed me that you can improve…and drastically in a short period of ti for someone like that to help withresearch with several universities around the country and working directly with the Washington Post Part of the funds will go toward putting together a colloquiu political journalism, and most of the North Carolina state papers as well as Wash Po, New York Tined on to participate I know that you are working on the university paper, and if you continue on the path with politics, then you will surely have your hands full, but I do hope you consider taking the tin off on your internship credit"