Emma Watson paused with her fingers over the keyboard as she stifled a yawn, her essay still only half completed. Looking up at the clock she thought ‘Damm, two thirty and I’m still no where near finished. The ‘Profs’ going to kill me if I don’t hand it in on time.’

Nearing the end of her first term at university, Emma was a straight ‘A’ student in the Liberal Arts and one of the subjects on the curriculum was history, and at the moment she was struggling with an essay on the origins of the American Revolution. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem; she loved history and liked nothing better than to immerse herself in books for hours on end researching a subject.

Unfortunately she was ill prepared for this assignment however, because at the suggestion of her producer of the forth coming film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, she had agreed to 
appear on the David Letterman show to promote the film, and she had spent most of the late afternoon and evening at the studio, leaving her little time for research.

As she contemplated the sparsely worded essay before her, she cursed herself for agreeing to do the show, but realised it was too late now. She’d just have to make the most of it, and recommenced typing, her hands flying over the keyboard as she raced against time to complete the work for submission to Professor Schlumberger that morning, cursing both her producer and herself for the position she found herself in.

At four O’clock she finally printed out a copy and shut the computer down with a sense of relief, hoping she’d done enough to maintain her ‘A’ rating. Climbing into bed, she set the alarm clock for eight thirty, deciding a half an hours extra sleep was more important than breakfast, silently vowing that she’d give no more interviews during term time.

Waking up the next morning to the incessant ringing of the clock, Emma groaned in dismay and hauled herself out of bed, groping her way to the shower so that its’ powerful jets could start the process of waking her. Fifteen minutes later she was towelled, dressed and walking over the campus to her first lecture, feeling slightly more human than she had done a little earlier, the essay inside her brief case ready to be handed in to Professor Schlumberger.

Emma left the lecture hall one hour later in the company of her friend Jennifer Warner, a nineteen year old freshman from the mid west who Emma had taken an instant liking to. Not only was she fun to be around, but she treated Emma as a normal girl next door, not as famous child star protégé as some of the other students did. They’d both joined the field hockey team and were playing in the first eleven, Jennifer at centre half and Emma on the wing. This was a further reason for the growing bond between them, but more importantly they felt they could confide their troubles to each other.

Sitting in the refectory drinking coffee, Jennifer looked across at her friend and asked “Is everything alright? You don’t seem your usual self today.”

Emma looked up. “I’m sorry, is it that obvious?”

“Well, you haven’t said much all morning, and you seemed a bit subdued as we left Professor Schlumberger’s lecture.”

“It’s just ….. well I was on the Davis Letterman show last night.” said Emma.

“I know; I saw you and you looked really cool in that little black dress. But I must admit I was a little surprised, as I thought you’d told your producer you’d do no interviews during term time.”

“I had, but he can be quite persuasive when he wants to be.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“It’s the essay I’ve just handed in.” answered Emma miserably. “You know I want to concentrate on my studies, which is why I didn’t want any distractions like last night. Up to now I’ve managed straight “A’s”, but because of that dammed interview I found myself short of time and ended up working until four this morning finishing the essay. Unfortunately I don’t think the ‘Prof’ is going to be too impressed with it.”

“Look, it’s not the end of the world.” said Jennifer, giving Emma what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “You might be pleasantly surprised; after all, the ‘Prof’ seems to like you and under the circumstances will probably make an allowance.”

“I hope so; it’s really important to me that I keep my marks up. I managed to do it in school while filming, and I don’t want to let myself down now, but at the moment that’s exactly how I feel.”

“Well there’s nothing you can do about it now, so you’ll just have to wait until next week to find out what he thinks. In the meantime, we’ve a match this Saturday and Megan’s called an extra practice session for this afternoon.”

“I know; she’s determined to maintain our unbeaten record this season, and Yale have traditionally been our bogey team so she’s taking no chances this year. Let’s hope we can turn the tables on them.” said Emma, brightening at the prospect of the weekend match.

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