fandomhigh | Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

"Well," Max began without preamble. "This past week has certainly been interesting."

Apparently Max was pretty good with understatement. "And while I'm not exactly looking forward to a repeat anytime soon, recent events do present us with an interesting opportunity." Max paused to survey his students thoughtfully. "It turns out that you can learn a lot about the people you know, and about yourself, in stressful situations. We've spent this semester discussing ways to deal with difficult women, and some of you have been, to various degrees, dubious of the usefulness of such skills."

"It is possible that during this week, you've changed your mind. Perhaps you had to deal with a difficult woman out there in the fog. Or perhaps one helped you out and you've begun to realize why simple avoidance is a poor choice when it comes to dealing with them. It is, of course, possible that your stance on things hasn't changed at all, of course, but certainly some of you have had to rethink some of your positions."

"So today we're going to share those stories." He cocked his head slightly to one side as he eyed his students. "And don't think that just because you haven't changed your opinions that you get to avoid sharing. If you didn't learn anything particularly new during the week, then you'll need to talk about what you did and speculate about what the impact that adding a difficult woman to the situation might have had for you."

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"You like being smacked by difficult women?" Leia asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I've become accustomed to being smacked," Mat said, "and I've decided there's very little use in whining about it."

"You could try not being so incorrigible," Leia suggested, "and maybe you won't get smacked as much. But then you wouldn't be you."

"Precisely," Mat replied, winking. "And then they'd be concerned I'd fallen ill."

"You could use that to get girls to fawn all over you to find out what was wrong," Leia pointed out. Not that he needed help making that happen anyway, but.

Mat made a face. "And drink all manner of medicine. No thank you."

"Better than someone trying to stitch your skin with a needle and thread," Leia said, wrinkling her nose. She was not mentioning that near miss to her father. No, the other one.

"No, that I'm used to," Mat said with a laugh. "Better than having the bloody Power used on me."

"Power?" Leia said. She could totally sense the capital P. "Is that anything like the Force?"

"I don't know," Mat said. "What's the Force?"

"It's what gives Jedi their power," Leia said. "You'd be better off asking my father or Jaina that question. I don't have any training to use it." But she had potential! She and Kennedy could form a club!

"Oh, I think I'll stay very far away from both of them," Mat laughed. "I can't think I'm their favorite man."

"And why is that?" Leia said coyly, grinning as she played with her hair.

"Because I enjoy your company, and Jaina, at least, has made it quite clear she doesn't appreciate that."

"I enjoy your company as well, but you already knew that," Leia said. She didn't want to deliberately upset Jaina, but she knew her life was going to get Very Serious very soon, so enjoying herself a little wasn't a bad thing.

Mat winked. "Oh, I'm not going to run away when I see you coming. I am heading home too soon to ignore the attentions of a pretty girl."

"Are you graduating this year?" Leia asked. Aww, sad, she'd miss him and his shameless flirting.

"I am," Mat said, nodding. "If I don't go home soon, I fear that Rand will come after me."

He ignored the swirl of colors in his mind when he mentioned Rand's name.

"Are you staying for the summer at least?" Leia asked. "Or are you leaving after graduation?"

"Right after graduation," Mat said. "Assuming the woman who managed to get here to annoy me for visitors' weekend makes the trip back for graduation. I have no idea how I'd get home otherwise."

"Because it would be such a shame if you couldn't leave," Leia said.

Mat didn't like to speak the language of duty and obligation, but he shook his head sadly. "There's a part I must play at home," he said. "I don't know what would happen if I stayed here, but I wager it's nothing good."

"Then you had best not leave without a proper goodbye," Leia said, trying to lighten the mood. "You wouldn't want to disappoint me, would you?"

Mat gave her a mocking smile and an even more mocking half-bow. "I haven't yet, have I?"

"Not yet," Leia grinned. "So don't start now."

Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

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