FRIENDS PALS COUNTRYMEN

I DID IT [plus: a Hera interlude]

i DID it!!!!!! art thieves draft is done and now out of my hands. thank you all so much for your patience while i figured it out. one day i hope you guys will be able to read it. i mean, you will, either because i just post it online or because someone somewhere agrees to buy it and sell it for real. but until then: CHILLIAD.

INTERLUDE: HERA JOVE-JUNO

Hera sighed in disappointment when Heffner showed up at her door, leaning against the open frame and crossing his arms over his chest. She liked Heffner; as graduate students went, he was easy, always willing to help with grading and timely with turning his written work. He had some frankly unhinged ideas about political science, but she supposed that was a natural outcome of having grown up a millennial. All of them were annoying. It wasn’t their fault.

Heffner’s main problem, in Hera’s opinion, was that he was too soft. He let himself get sucked into his undergraduate girlfriend’s problems. 

“If this is about not wanting to grade the exams, I am not open to negotiations,” she warned him, not looking up from her computer. “You’ll put in your time reading garbage just like I did.”

Heffner sunk into the chair across her desk and straightened the pen cup she had balanced somewhat precariously on the edge. “It’s not about the exams. I don’t mind grading them.”

At that, Hera did look up. “That can’t be right.”

Heffner laughed and then shifted in the chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “I’ve got a favor to ask,” he admitted. “It’s kind of personal.”