He caught her

Matt was breathing hard when he caught up with Ms. Chadra just as she was approaching her car. He'd ran across the campus a couple of times... first to her classroom, then to the teachers' break room and finally to the faculty parking lot. His pushups might be helping with his muscle tone but apparently he needed to work on his cardio as well.

"What's up, Matt?" she asked.

"I got detention from Dr. Dyle so I missed my bus. Can I... hitch a ride from you?"

"Sure."

She popped the door locks and he climbed into the passenger seat.

"So," she said, "what happened?"

"I... I really don't know. He was mad about the streaming service and I think mad because the girls were paying attention to me and not to him. He likes it when Tanya and Natasha fawn over him."

"Are you sure that's why he gave you detention? Perhaps it's because you were distracted by the young women. I believe you've confessed your problems with your attention span to me."

"Ah, yes. I am sometimes distracted by women." He made sure to leave the 'young' part out. He was distracted by Ms. Chadra and she was probably in her late thirties or early forties.

"Sometimes, indeed. I think you may be projecting your own attitudes onto Dr. Dyle."

"Actually, I think he's projecting something onto me. He went off on a rant about low-class students and how I'm a disgrace to the fine upstanding lilly-white students of Peninsula High."

"I doubt he used the term 'lilly-white'."

"You're right. He used terms like 'future leaders,' and made it clear that people from the center city are a bunch of pregnant hoodlums."

"Did he say that?"

"Uh, no. I... maybe I sort of projected it on him. He was pretty clear that my inner-city attitudes were corrupting America's future, though."

"Well, there's one way to find out." She pulled over and picked up her phone. "Harvey? It's Usha."

"Yes, I'm talking to one of my students. I want to clear up any possible misunderstanding. Did you, by any chance, go off on a tirade about inner-city minorities and the virtues of whiteness?"

"Ah. I see. So you didn't make any claims about center-city pregnancies and--"

"Of course. I'm sure no sand-n-word would understand. Good-bye, Dr. Dyle."

She turned to Matt, fury written all over her face. "Well, that was... unpleasant."

"He called you... that?"

"He did."

"What a jerk."

"Are you still interested in having me on your stream, Matt?"

"Huh? Of course."

"Great. Schedule me for today, then."

"Solo, or do you have--"

"With you, Matt. I want to show Dyle something. Is that okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Definitely."

Oh, shit. Was this really going to happen?