Very few people were as volatile as Mary Valeria at Remus, which is saying something when comparing her to the other egos on campus. Dr. Valeria was an accomplished person in the fine arts and came to Remus a year after my arrival. Initially, she had a few things going for her to cement her career with the institution. She managed to revive the school choir and began taking them on tour. This helped generate revenue through donations for the school. However, it would not be long before her diva demeanor would surface and make life miserable for many students and faculty.

I completely understand wanting to keep a standard for your students to follow. It helps them grow accustomed to certain expectations. When a violation occurs, there will be consequences. However, Valeria’s practices were the stuff of legend. If a student was late, they were immediately suspended from the choir. Durations varied, but the punishment did not seem to fit the crime. This sanction was not always equally distributed. On more than one occasion, students reported being late by five minutes and getting kicked out of the group for months. Meanwhile, favored students were dismissed for a rehearsal or two after nearly missing half of practice. I will not deny that every professor has favorites, but there has to be seemingly equal dissemination of punitive actions.

As time passed, Valeria began to drop her strict nature in favor of a dictatorial grip on the music department. She constantly bragged about her leadership skills and how she could efficiently recruit more students if given a chance. However, when opportunities would emerge to show us her administrative ability, she would be absent or complain that she had too much on her plate to take the position. While most boastful people shirk responsibility when more demands are made, Valeria ducked out of the way.

Rumors were swirling about campus shortly after Valeria’s arrival. While all of the faculty was aware of Valeria’s talent in getting the most out of the music students, something about her felt off to her colleagues. There were many speculations, but there were two prominent rumors about Valeria and why she came to Remus. The first theory centered on the idea that Valeria was on the run from something nefarious of her own design. Some believed she was involved in some legally questionable actions before her arrival. So to escape prosecution, she fled to another state. Nobody was sure, but her highly defensive attitude towards any critique against her gave off a vibe of guilt. Sometimes it was like watching Lady Macbeth trying to get that “damned spot” out. As if her overcompensation would somehow deflect from the issue at hand. However, it never did.

The second theory followed similar lines of logic, except that she was believed to be involved in the witness protection program. This notion gained traction after she repeatedly refused to talk about her past in any way. Even though she made uproarious claims about possessing superior leadership skills, when asked about qualifications or past experiences, Valeria would never divulge anything about her history before arriving at Remus. Nobody could tell if she was making up stories or actually had the skills she claimed to have had. What made it even more frustrating was that both rumors felt plausible. Her behavior would constantly fluctuate between villain and victim so often that most faculty would avoid unnecessary contact with her. There was just so much to unpack with Valeria that it might be better that I let sleeping dogs lie.