“Do I sense some bitterness here?” Sandra replied.

“No, no…no bitterness on my half…I’m just oozing with happiness and joy. Can’t you see me oozing?”

The door slowly opened and Ashley entered the now quiet room. She saw about 7 new faces staring at her waiting for her to begin.

“Good morning. For those of you who don’t already know, my name is Ashley Davies. President Michaels has brought me on board to help our program become well-known throughout the country. I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work and won’t happen over night but I think it’s possible.”

Ashley could sense the tension in the air and could see some contempt in the eyes of a few male professors. ‘Men…never want to be told what to do by a woman.’ She noticed a few friendly faces amongst the crowd and continued. “First order of business that I thought we should address is adding more classes to the schedule. I want students to be able to take a wide variety of classes that interest them. Every student is unique but if we don’t try to nurture their own musical identities it could be very hard to keep them focused and interested.”

Jonathan raised his hand slightly before speaking. “Excuse me…Ms. Davies…I think that adding more classes is not the solution here. The problem we face is that no one at this school really cares about anything more than getting credits to get by. Even our own Music majors feel this need to do as little as possible. I just don’t see how us babying them will help create positive buzz for this program.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name. You are?”

“Jonathan Mueller. I teach the beginner’s courses in classical, modern jazz, and music appreciation.”

“Music Appreciation? I see…well how much do you actually appreciate music?”

“I don’t believe I understand the question.”

“I just wonder if your judgment affects the students. I mean if you have pretty much given up on their talents; then why would they actually try more than what you require of them? Are you sure your perspective on how these students perform is not biased in any way by your cynical look on the improvements that should have been made at the beginning of this program?”

“Cynical? I’m sorry but I don’t see how a ‘pop star’ can come in here and tell me, a professor who has taught for more than 20 years, that my view of the students is what is handicapping this program. Have you even stepped foot in a classroom since you left High School, Ms. Davies?”

“You know…I can see that you and I won’t be bonding anytime soon so let me make some things clear. I am not here to put on a show for people to make a laughing stock of this program. I am also not going to tolerate people like you telling me that my past experience means absolutely nothing. So this will be the last time I say this; I have full faith in this program and I’ll be damned if someone tries to keep this program from reaching its full potential. Am I clear?” Ashley said staring fiercely at Jonathan.

“Crystal.” He replied giving just as fierce a look back at the musician.

Sandra smiled as she saw her fellow arrogant colleague back down to the younger woman. ‘I love this girl!’

“So…let’s continue shall we?” Ashley said as she continued on with the improvements she wanted to make to the program to get the ball rolling. She couldn’t help but smile at the way she handled her new defiant coworker who she could tell was going to be giving her constant headaches throughout her stay. She loved a challenge and this was one fight she was not going to back down from any time soon. ‘This is going to be so much fun.’