Alba smiled. She had never felt less alone.
The rats’ system was ruthless. Every night, they emerged. They gnawed the corners of lazy footnotes. They urinated on plagiarized paragraphs. They chewed the letter ‘C’ out of every keyboard belonging to a professor who gave participation trophies. If a student submitted a truly brilliant thesis, they would leave a single sunflower seed on the windowsill as a mark of silent approval. RATOS-A- DE ACADEMIA -
“Excuse me,” Alba whispered. “Did you just grade my student’s paper?” Alba smiled
Not mice. Mice were timid, scatterbrained, and easily caught. Rats were survivors. Rats remembered. Rats held grudges. RATOS-A- DE ACADEMIA -