Classes, Demons, and Dates, Oh My.

You'd blown off one day's worth of classes, but... Honestly, you couldn't justify missing a second. As it was, you were probably going to have to track down some poor TA this weekend to help you go over what you'd missed, and hope that it wasn't anything too vital. If you kept slipping further behind, catching up was going to be impossible.

With that in mind, you went back to your room. You had another class in... Two hours, and you'd not done any of the preparatory work for it. But just as you start checking the online notes for the class with your laptop, your phone starts to ring. Your corded dorm phone. Which was just some kind of weird relic that you were pretty sure they only kept for if, like, the university started burning down, and they needed to wake people up. Or if your RA wanted to pull a really weird prank.

You're pretty sure they weren't even connected to the rest of the grid. At least, the lack of spam calls suggested this had to be an isolated system.

Morbid curiosity led you to answer the phone, and a familiar, sexy voice answered.

"My precious little student, how diligent you are, answering the phone like this," Ashley purred, "Since some strange accident seems to have befallen your proper phone, I wasn't certain I'd be able to get ahold of you in time."

Immediately, you were on your guard. You were certain that nothing good could come from Ashley's attention.

"I was under the impression that I had succeeded in both of today's boons," You reply cautiously, "I mean no disrespect, but I wasn't expecting to hear from you until tomorrow."

"Yes, about that..." She replied in a careless tone, "I'm afraid a matter of some urgency has arisen, and it is unlikely that tomorrow's service would prove satisfactory to either of us. So I will be extending the deal's duration by a day, and giving you a day of rest tomorrow; the same total amount of service, simply stretched out a day."

"...But that means that it will be longer before I receive that which I am promised," You answer, tone carefully neutral, "Our agreement was based on time, rather than work; this is a meaningful change."

"Yes, which is why I need your agreement," Ashley replied, tone sharpening slightly, "But make no mistake, extending the deal rather than forcing me to pass over my boons is to your favor. Else, the remaining boons could grow quite... Distasteful. Violate Taylor, **** Wyatt, help Elizabeth learn to ****... Why, there's any number of things that could shatter your primitive little meat mind if I were to **** you to choose between your soul or the boons. You are not yet halfway through your tasks, little student; do not make the mistake of thinking you hold any cards here. Be a good little student, and I will be a good teacher."

"Of course, Mistress," You answer, seeking to sound as respectful as possible, "I merely wished to establish that my understanding was correct, not to defy you."

"Excellent," Ashley replied, appeased, "Then there is no problem here. Please, enjoy your break."

The phone hangs up before you can say anything more, but... Well, it's not like you actually had anything to say regardless. She did hold the important cards here - though she didn't have to be such a bitch about it.

But the call was important for other reasons. She claimed she needed your agreement to change the deal, but in what way? Just to make you keep going along with it, or was there some kind of, well, metaphysical reason? Was she under an actual obligation to fulfill her side of the deal at the end? You'd gone into this pretty sure that she was going to screw you over, but... Well, maybe there were more rules to this than you'd realized. Except, that didn't change the fact that she could just talk you into whatever she damned well felt like while you were in her office - if all she needed was your consent, she had that pretty readily. Unless... Maybe there was some kind of countermeasure you could take?

Which cut to the second important point; you now had an extra day to work with. You still haven't found the edges of Ashley's plans, but whatever she was doing, she had put it on "hold" for a day. If you could figure out why, maybe you'd have a clearer picture of what she was trying to do... Or, at the very least, you could use the day to advance your own plans. Yesterday had made you felt kind of hopeless, but it was too early to give up and wait for the inevitable, right? If demons had their own rules, maybe there was still a way out of this that you could seize - something between "watch Ashley's conspirators laugh at your attempts to fire her" and "****". You just needed to learn more about demons, but you were a college student, right? Research is what you did.

And... You glanced at the door for a moment. And... You had a close friend who was about to have a very important moment today; her first date, that you had set up for her after doing something pretty hurtful. You had a lot on your plate and she might not want to see you at the moment, but you should still be there for her, right? Luigi's was a pretty nice place; doubtless she'd want some help with her preparations, and someone to be excited with. You could spare an hour for her, right?

...Thinking things over, an extra day might just have been the blessing you needed. Ashley had kept you off balanced from the start, and this might be your best opportunity to reclaim the initiative.