"Kay Samson?" She raised her hand. He saw her, and his eyes locked on her for an extra beat before he started to approach. Then, as he got closer, his eyes shifted to her legs. "Very good, Ms. Samson. You got a perfect score." He handed the test back and stood there looking at Kay for a bit too long before returning to the pile and clearly having to force himself to focus on the next student.
The math professor was staring at her? That old math professor? She had dressed up for the boys in the class, not the professor! Of course, all the boys stared too, thanks to the professor's awkwardness. Now everyone would want to do homework with her.
But what happened next really caught her by surprise. For the rest of the semester, the professor gave her special care. Not only did he call on her whenever she raised her hand, but he wrote notes of praise on her homework. And his was the only class in which she got an A+. Kay had inadvertently manipulated him with that miniskirt, and the lesson was not missed. If she really wanted to, she could spend the rest of her college career wearing short skirts and sitting in the front row of every class, guaranteeing better grades with less work.
Of course, she would never allow that to happen. The very thought of it upset her. It would demean her and diminish her accomplishments. Wasn't it bad enough that people thought beautiful women were stupid? It would be tragic to prove them right. No, Kay didn't have to work hard at all to manipulate men; they did it to themselves as soon as they saw her. In the end, Kay learned to dress more modestly in class and avoid the special treatment that she could so easily command.
Then Kay thought about her last sexual encounter, a pretty bad scene that nearly ended in rape. It happened half way through her first year of business school, when she should have known better. The guy seemed decent enough-even sincere-so she went back to his room. But as soon as they started to make out, his two roommates appeared out of nowhere and they all grabbed her at once, holding her down and announcing their intention to share her body. Kay tried to protest, but only met with further resistance. So she changed gears and disarmed them with her feminine wiles. The first boy was sent to a nearby liquor store for a bottle of whiskey-the party would be so much finer if they had a few shots first. The second boy was sent to a nonexistent dormitory room three floors away-wouldn't these boys enjoy two women instead of one? The third boy was sent the farthest. This scumbag, the one who had originally lured her to his room, was sent to the infirmary with pepper spray in his face because he allowed Kay to open her purse and fetch a fictitious stash of weed. She ran from the room scared and angry, but in retrospect, empowered.