Chapter 04

Thursday

No one has any classes until after lunch today so they don’t set the alarm and they wake up at nine in the morning. Lyn grins when he sees he has Joan behind him while Margaret is on the other side of Nancy. So he thinks, Well, that answers my question of having room for four in the bed. He soon wakes the others and they’re quick to dress for breakfast. A fast one at the cafeteria because they stop serving breakfast at nine thirty.

Back in the room Lyn shows them where the notebook computers are stored under the desks, because they all have a special built-in pocket to keep them out of the way. He enjoys the looks on their faces when he rotates the screen to fold it back on top of the keyboard so it can be used as a touch screen tablet to make it easier to use in lectures and tutorials.

Lyn looks up as he asks, “Let’s shop and I’ll buy you a Christmas present each. That way I’ll know it’s something you’ll like.” Naturally the idea of shopping with someone else’s money excites all three of the girls. So it’s down to the garage and into the pick-up. They do wonder what’s up when Lyn takes his notebook with him, so he says, “I need to do some research when I’m waiting while you check out the clothes.”

The girls grin wider when he leads them into Victoria’s Secret and asks for Bethany. The size of his last purchase is known to the other staff now, and they’re not happy with him wanting to be served by her. In a few minutes they’re in one of the special showing rooms while Lyn says, “I need to get the girls a Christmas present each. I was thinking a pair of nice matching diaphanous teddy and gown sets for them to wear while studying at night.” Which earns him a mild beating from the girls. They end up agreeing on two nice bath robes plus a sheer teddy set for each of the girls while also getting another five full day to day outfits and two more good casual wear evening sets for Nancy.

Both Joan and Margaret get a bit embarrassed when Bethany insists they just strip in front of Lyn so she can measure them, and then she has them model the outfits. All this time Lyn is sitting in a chair with his notebook open on his lap in the fold over mode while checking things on the Internet by using the browser in touch-screen mode.

Nancy has Bethany bring in two robes plus some tracksuits for Lyn to try on. While he strips Bethany says, “With three girls changing in the room I’m very surprised you’re looking at your notebook so much.”

Lyn strips to his underwear to try the robes on. They fit well so he adds them to the pile. All of the robes they get are the same style that falls to the ankle, but are in two shades of different colours for each owner.

Once they’re dressed again they go to the cash register and Lyn pays for it all. While the girls pack the bags, with Joan and Margaret being sure they have theirs, Lyn activates an icon on the notebook to show Bethany the video of the clothing session he recorded on the built-in very high quality camera. She laughs when she sees it.

Back to the dorm to put the new clothes away, an early lunch, and off to classes for Joan and Margaret. Because Nancy’s only class today is in the evening Lyn and Nancy head off to do more shopping.

When they reach the site of their next shopping they can’t park near it so Lyn parks a little down the street and they walk back. While they walk Lyn says, “Nancy, I want to check things out without me being bothered by the sales staff, so you take the lead. We need a nice town car you’ll like for us to use about the campus and the city.” She nods yes to him.

They enter a large car dealership near the city centre and look at the small cars. Nancy is looking them over for what she’d like. Lyn acts bored while he watches the sales staff. No one comes near them, but the only female in the sales team looks up from her desk and she glances at another salesman. After doing this a few times she stands to walk over to him, after a few words she talks to the next salesman. Several minutes later she’s spoken to all six salesmen and the last is still on the phone to a client, then she’s slowly shaking her head while she walks to them.

While approaching Nancy the young woman says, “Sorry about the delay. How may I help you today?”

Before Nancy can reply Lyn says, “I saw you talk to the others. Is there a pecking order and you have to get their permission before you can approach us direct?”

She glances about and nods, “Yes. It’s based on seniority of being here. The longest serving salesman gets the first client, unless he thinks they aren’t worth his time to serve them.”

“Yeah. Two college kids looking at small cars. I bet they think it’s a no sale or basic car only sale and they can’t be bothered. Right?”

“Umm, yeah. You’re right. Also, they can see you’re wearing cheap sweats, but they never saw the quality of your friend’s dress. I’m the newest so I get last place, but first I have to check I’m not poaching.”

“Right. First thing. Is the dealership owner on site at the moment?” She nods yes as she points to a man out in the yard. “Good, take us to him and tell him all that’s happened.”

She gulps and leads the way. A few minutes later the owner is not happy with learning of the delay in serving a customer, regardless of if it’s a big sale or not. He’s about to storm off when Lyn stops him.

Lyn says, “I gather you didn’t know about the Boys’ Club Rules!“ He gets an agreement with that. “We were on the floor in there for over ten minutes before this young lady was allowed to talk to us. I was about ready to walk out the door, and I’m sure you’ve lost other sales due to this. You need to replace those morons with real sales staff.”

“I’m sorry about that. I’ll go and deal with this right now. Sarah will look after you right, and I’ll talk to you again after I see the sales staff.”

The man walks off as Lyn nods for Nancy to explain what she wants. The two ladies talk for a little while, then Sarah leads them to a slightly larger four cylinder car than the one they’d been looking at. More talk about it, and Nancy is soon at the wheel for a test drive with Lyn in the back seat. While they drive for a few blocks they discuss accessories. On their return they write out an order for the next quality model of that car with all of the accessories Nancy or Lyn think they need. Sarah soon has the sheet ready and costs the car, but the dealership owner returns before she can discuss purchase options like discounts and loans.

While doing the paperwork they’re aware of loud voices in one of the enclosed officers. The door opens and five of the salesmen storm out. The sixth follows while slowly shaking his head. The five angry ones sit down and start writing while the sixth walks over to apologise. Just behind him is the owner, smiling at the apology.

The owner says, “I’ve had this dealership for only a year or so and those men came with it. They do not like me telling them how to do their job. But you’re right, Steve here confirms people have left because they were fed up with waiting. He saw it happen while he and Sarah were busy with other customers. Those five think their time is too valuable to sell the less expensive cars. I just told them I’m changing the payment system to be a much lower retainer with a higher commission. That caused all the yelling you must have heard. Now I have to go and write the memo stating that and giving them a month’s notice of the change.”

Lyn glances over at the others then he says, “By the look of what they’re up to I suspect you’ll only need to get Steve and Sarah to sign to agree with the new system.” They all turn to look at the five men who are writing on notepads while on the phone. “Let’s stand here and talk for a moment. We’ve sorted out the car for Nancy and Sarah has the order sheet. Now we need to sort out a car for me. Despite how I look I’m an eighteen year old boy who’s just moved to Atlanta to live here for several years, if not the rest of my life. I don’t like pick-ups and I want a car I can go off-road in. So I want a vehicle to impress the local teen red-necks which has a bench seat for the front seat because I like to have my girl snuggle up close to me.” The rest laugh at the last requirement.

Steve says, “Sarah, you should show him that done up Yukon SLE we have.” He turns to Lyn, “We had a client order a special package GMC Yukon with every factory fit accessory available. However, soon after we ordered it the police decided to interfere with his cocaine sales and he won’t be driving anywhere for many years. So we’ve got a truck that’s dearer than most people want to pay for in that model due to all of the accessories on it pushing the price up. The ones who want the extras usually go for the higher end models.”

Lyn grins and replies, “Sounds like it might be just the job for me.”

Just when they turn to head out to the yard the other salesmen leave their offices to approach the owner. The oldest asks, “Jim, are you going to go ahead with this absurd change in payment?”

“I sure am. It seems it’s the only way I can get you to pay attention to walk-in clients instead of only your fishing and hunting buddies.”

The man hands over a handwritten note. “Well, I’m going to work over at Dave’s. You can send my owing to me at home.” The other four say something similar while they hand over notes. They all watch the men go through the offices removing their personal property then hand their keys to the secretary in the office at the back before walking out.

Lyn shakes his head, “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. I’m sure you can do better. If you want to do up a notice I’ll see it gets good coverage up at the college. The least you’ll get is a lot of casual staff to work short hours.” He starts to laugh, and the others give him odd looks, so he adds, “This all started because they chose to ignore me due to my preference to wear sloppy clothes. Let’s go look at this Yukon and then talk about what a good deal you can give us on both cars paid for in cash, since I can do a bank transfer as soon as we agree on a figure.”

Steve speaks for them all when he says, “Hell! You want to pay cash for about ninety grand of cars. They’ll shit when they hear about that.”

They leave Steve to look after the showroom while Jim goes to write his memo, and the rest continue to laugh while they walk out into the yard to look at the Yukon. Both Lyn and Nancy love it at first sight. It’s ebony black with all of the extras anyone could want, plus dark tinted windows for the summer heat, a sunroof, and the optional black wheels.

Lyn says, “Gramps will love seeing me drive this. But he’ll want to mount a fifty cal on the roof, just for show.” They laugh as they go back.

In another twenty minutes they’ve got all of the paperwork done at an agreed on a price. The mechanics are sprucing the Yukon up while one of them is off to have the registration done for them as Lyn calls Jason to make the payment as well as to organise the insurance.

Half an hour after first seeing the Yukon it’s right to go and Lyn is sitting in it ready to drive off as soon as the mechanic finishes putting the plates on for him. They don’t have the car Nancy wants in stock, but it will be in for her to collect by this time next week, so they soon leave.

Lyn drives up to drop Nancy at the old pick-up and they both go to Stockbridge to return Dave’s pick-up to him so he can have it for the weekend. Lyn parks in front of the house and Nancy stops in the drive. Dave comes out to see who’s parked in front of his house, and he’s very surprised to see Lyn get out of the new SUV. He turns to watch Nancy walk over from his pick-up. She hands him the keys while the three of them walk into the apartment on the side of the house.

Handling the Inheritance

When they sit down to have a drink and snack Dave asks, “Why the new car? You know you can always borrow one of mine!”

Lyn replies, “I wanted one that can carry a few more people than yours, and I’ve always hated the way pick-ups handled in the wet. Also, you’ve now got a spare for Mary-Jo to use. They’ve been without a car since her Uncle Bubba stole and crashed the car mother bought them.” Dave nods his understanding as he didn’t know about the car crash. “About what you said the other day,” his voice gets very rough at the end, so Nancy takes his hand in hers and he squeezes it. “I was thinking it best if you distribute most of the assets now. If the house is in my name with it looking like a sale then Bubba won’t associate it with you or them if he comes down looking for them. Giving Auntie Dorie the investments now will also make it look like there isn’t much in the estate. I think old Bubba will be checking out what you leave when you die, then he’ll try to get hold of part of it if there’s enough to make it worth the trip for him.”

“Yeah, that thieving old bugger will, won’t he! Hell, he’d turn up here to force his way in to rob the place bare before the will was read, if he can organise it. I’ll do it tomorrow because it’s all simple to do.”

“And please pass on or sell your gun collection while you can still get about. I don’t want to take the risk of being arrested for the unlicensed possession of firearms.”

“Dorie already spoke to me about that. I’ve a few of the better ones in a long-term rental safe down at the gun-club. You can go down there to legally use them under supervision. I’ve already sold most of the rest, and I shipped a few out as gifts too. All I’ve got left are the ones I carry on me and I’ve made arrangements with John for him to collect them as soon as he can, afterwards.” He laughs, “I rang Gunny at the gun-club, he was stunned when I had him come out to collect all of my ammo to take to the club with a request to sell all except a little for the few guns I’m having kept there for you to keep up your practice.”

Lyn laughs, “Yeah, how many of the members ask him to move a few tons of assorted ammunition and gunsmith tools at once. With the current shortages of ammo he’ll have no trouble selling it.”

Dave grins, “As soon as he saw the list he made a few calls and he sold off the fifty cal and its ammo before we started packing the rest. One of the members drove over so fast he skidded past the house when he hit the brakes. We spent all day, yesterday, loading it up and shipping it out, and most of it was sold before we got it out of the armoury. Old Bob will be happy because the club gets a five percent handling fee and what they’re getting off this will pay for all of those upgrades he wants done. I told them to send Dorie the money from the sales. That way it’s on the records as a sale of her personal assets and not taxed in any way.”

Handing over Jason’s card Lyn says, “This is my accountant, I think you know him. Give his address and contact name for what you give me because he’ll have the stuff put in the trust he created for me. Bubba and company won’t easily associate that with you or me. It also makes the rental income easier to handle as a business transaction.”

“Right, I’ll do that in the morning. Saturday morning I’m going to collect Mary-Jo, will you be coming along?”

Nancy says, “Please go, Sensei, that’ll give me enough time to do some shopping for you without having to worry if you’ll see me do it.”

Lyn gives a slow head shake, “Already she’s telling me what to do, and she’s supposed to be my slave!” All can tell he’s joking, and laugh.

Nancy and Lyn leave after talking for another half hour or so. They soon reach the campus and park the SUV in the garage. They head out for an early dinner, then Nancy goes off to class from the cafeteria.

When Lyn returns to the room he finds Joan and Margaret are in their new sleepwear while they show it off to a few friends. Lyn grins on seeing them. He smiles and says, “You do look great in that gear,” then he grabs a change of clothes, a robe, towel, and wash gear before heading out to have a shower. From the way they blushed when he spoke he figures they’ll be happier with him not in the room for a little while, and showering is an easy excuse for him to leave the room right now.

He takes his time to enjoy a long hot shower, returning about twenty minutes later. When he walks in the door this time the girls have on their new bathrobes to show them off, and they smile at Lyn while they do.

One of their friends turns to Lyn to ask, “You’ve only just met Joan and Margaret, why’d you buy them such nice VS gear for Christmas?”

Lyn grins, “I had to get them something as a Christmas present, so I decided to get something to earn me serious brownie points for when they get to know me real well. If I’m on their good side they’ll cut me more slack when they come in to find me with books spread out over half of the lounge room while I study for an assignment, or the like.”

They all laugh until Joan says, in a serious tone, “Hell, I think you’re serious! Are you that much of a nerd?”

“Already joined the Nook. Joined Mensa at fourteen, I was top of the class doing all the advanced stuff I could in high school, so what do you expect me to be like here at college? Run about and party all of the time!”

Margaret groans, “Oh shit! You’ll be on our backs about getting the work done and in on time, won’t you?”

“Of course! That’s what friends do for each other.” The others laugh at their banter because they know Joan and Margaret are top students.

They all sit around chatting while having drinks and nibblers for about another hour, only breaking up when Nancy arrives back from her class. During the chatting Lyn learns how well Joan and Margaret are doing in class, so he wonders why they aren’t doing graduate work.

When Nancy puts her books away and gets set to make notes on the computer Lyn gets her a drink and some nuts to nibble, then sits down and asks, “Joan, Margaret, why aren’t you doing any graduate work?”

Joan replies, “We’ve been offered scholarships covering course fees and books to do graduate work, but we can’t swing a higher student loan and our families can’t afford the cost of the housing for us to stay here. So we’ve no choice and we have to go.”

“I see. Did Doctor Grey tell you about the long term housing set up here?” He gets two replies of no. “In order to control the environment I’m in as much as possible I’ve prepaid for the use of these rooms for all three of the semesters for five years, starting this Summer Semester. That way Doctor Grey can vet who will share this room. That’s housing and food components all paid for. So, if you want to stay on and do graduate work that side is already covered. Just talk to Doctor Grey and Mary Heinman at Housing. But you need to organise for your evening and weekend personal spending money. If you stay on I suspect we’ll often end up going out as a group and I’ll pick up the tab those times.”

The two are stunned for a moment, then both race over to hug him prior to getting on the phone to talk to their parents about staying on and if their parents can afford to keep paying them some ‘fun times’ money if they do stay on for post graduate studies. A little later their squeals of joy make it clear their parents can help some, they’ll just have to find some part-time work or be very careful with their spending.

After they hang up Lyn says, “I happen to know someone is talking to the college about organising some scholarships for students from poor backgrounds who aren’t brilliant but get good marks due to hard work. When they asked my advice that’s what I suggested they do. So if you know of anyone who might qualify you should tell Doctor Grey about them as well.” The two girls smile while they nod yes as they grab their phones again to make more calls; to friends or family, Lyn suspects.

Lyn turns to his computer to bring up a college website showing all of the subject courses with their place in the path of the various degrees while listing their prerequisites along with other requirements, plus the information on teachers and class times for the next three semesters. He starts the planning of the subjects he wants to study over the next two semesters since he has a third of a course load for the coming semester he can still fill, and he still has a whole Summer Semester to sort out.

A couple of hours later Nancy goes for her shower while Lyn saves his work and he heads to bed while leaving Joan and Margaret chatting on-line.

Nancy soon joins Lyn and they cuddle up while they go to sleep. Just before she falls asleep Nancy wonders why Lyn hasn’t made any overt sexual moves with her yet, but she’s glad he hasn’t; and she’s very happy to let things go at this pace.

Friday

The usual wake up, shower, dress, and eat at the cafeteria. What is a bit different is the number of people who comment to Nancy on how well dressed she is today in her new clothes. Which makes both Nancy and Lyn smile. When Nancy goes to today’s class, a two hour lecture plus an hour long tutorial class, Lyn heads off to check out a few more lecturers to help him with deciding whose lectures to attend next semester.

After quietly popping in and out of half a dozen lectures, listening to about fifteen minutes of each one, he’s sitting in a large lecture room in the Mathematics Building while looking intently at an equation on a side board and listening to the professor talking. He doesn’t know why, but there’s something about the very long equation that catches Lyn’s eye and his mind can’t seem to leave it alone. For twenty minutes he sits there going over the equation, again and again. Part of his problem is the full equation takes several lines on the narrow whiteboard to the side of the main board, so it’s very crammed to fit it in and that makes it hard for Lyn to keep it all straight in his mind. He didn’t bring a pen and notepad or his computer notebook with him. He makes a mental note to never leave the room for a class or lecture without them from now on.

Lyn continues to sit and stare while the students file out after the lecture is over. When the aisles are empty Lyn walks down to the front and onto the lecture area via the stairs to the side. The lecturer saw Lyn sitting there while the rest are leaving and he doesn’t recognise him, so he waits around to see what Lyn is up to. The lecturer covers this up by taking his time to pack up his gear.

Turning to the professor Lyn asks, “Excuse me, Sir, do you have a printed copy of this equation I can have. I’m having trouble keeping it straight in my mind due to the way it wraps on the board, and I wish to set it out in a long line on my computer to study it.”

Professor Samuels replies, “Sure, I can do that. But first let me put it on the main board, and you can tell me what you know or think about it once you can see it in a line.” He gets a sheet of paper out of his basket and he picks up a marker from the board rail to start writing the equation out near the top of the main board.

Lyn steps back a bit to read it easily. After the equation is up in full he slowly goes over it several times before saying, “Look, I may be missing something here because I’ve not yet studied all of this stuff. But are there any unusual assumptions being used or odd meanings, since it has some symbols I’m not familiar with? In short, do the usual rules hold for this equation? And what is it you’re trying to isolate with it?”

Samuels says, “No special meanings or assumptions, standard rules, and we’d like to isolate G, if you can. It’s a special challenge equation and we’re told G can be isolated. What you have to do is show us how you get to the answer with G isolated on one side. Who are you?” He doesn’t explain the rest of the symbols or say anything more about it.

“I’m Lyn Davies.” After a little more study Lyn asks, “Are there any component groups that can’t be split out and rationalised?” Samuels shakes his head no. So Lyn picks up a couple of markers and he waves at the board, “May I?” He gets a nod yes to proceed, so he does.

Going to the board Lyn underlines four sections in different coloured markers and then he breaks them out one at a time by using the colours to group them while placing the work under each area. After breaking them out he takes the first two groups to recombine them in a different way, then does the same to the last two groups. He copies the one small segment in the middle he hasn’t worked on down to this line, then he looks at it all again while switching between the first and last lines.

While watching Lyn work Samuels types on the computer at the lecture desk to send an email asking another staff member to have the secretary arrange for the room to be free for the rest of the day and for the person to bring their cameras to the lecture room. A few minutes later Samuels notices a door at the back of the room open when several staff walk in. Most quietly take seats and one walks halfway down to set up a camera in the middle of the room. All sit to watch Lyn work as he’s only halfway through his splitting out of the sections when they arrive.

After a while Lyn walks to the board to circle a multiplication sign in part of the section he hasn’t worked on. He writes above it ‘wrong.’

Lyn turns to Samuels and says, “That’s why it was bugging me, that symbol has to be wrong as it should be a division there for it to balance on both sides of the equals sign.”

“OK! If you’re sure, change it and finish it,” and introduces himself.

Lyn turns back to the board to change the symbol. He breaks out the section, combines it with the bit after it, reworks it by adding his work before it, and he comes up with a new line of work before marking that up to write down a new equation with G isolated on one side.

Samuels says, “Sign your name, print your name, and write the date and time by the work, please.” Lyn does all that. “What year are you in and who’s your professor?”

With a shy grin Lyn says, “Actually, I start next semester. I finished high school in October and I’ve still got to complete my course list for the new semester, so I’m visiting a few lectures to see what the teachers giving them are like.”

“Why check out the lecturers?”

“Sit in on a full lecture by Professor Delling and you’ll know why. If we can bottle his style we’d make a fortune selling it as a sedative. I don’t know the material, but I can present it better.”

Samuels laughs, “I’ve had that misfortune.” He raises his voice, “I’m sorry, Joe, but the kid is right, you are a very boring lecturer.” Lyn turns to look into the lecture hall. He’s stunned to see a dozen people sitting at the back of the room. One is advancing down the middle by walking on the chairs and taking photos while waving Lyn and Samuels to the side. Samuels turns back to Lyn and adds, “If you don’t mind, we’ll send this off to a few people to look at. If they agree, you win a full support scholarship in mathematics or physics, which do you want?”

“Ah, if you don’t mind, I can afford to pay my way. Will you please give the scholarship to a hard working student who can’t afford to go to college but isn’t quite smart enough to win a high marks scholarship?”

“I’ll talk to the committee to see what we can do.”

One of the others walks down and says, “Pete, now the kid has pointed it out I’m sure she’s right about the error. I’ll copy Stephen on this today, I don’t think he’ll be happy to see this.” He turns to Lyn, “What level of math did you say you’ve done?”

“I did the highest level of maths my high school had, but that was in Sydney, Australia, so it’s a bit different to here.”

Samuels grins while saying, “Dean, please try and get Stephen on a video conference before you send it to him as I’d like to see the video of his face while he goes over it.”

The man responds, “I think I’ll do that. It’ll be good. An Australian high school student solved it, and found the error. That’ll upset him.”

They’re interrupted by Dr Grey and the College President walking in while Dr Grey calls out, “Lyn, what the hell have you done, now? As you know, I’ve got your file flagged, and now half the math staff are at it.”

Samuels turns and says, “Counsellor Grey, don’t be worried! We’ve a big interest in Lyn at the moment because it looks like she’s solved the challenge equation put out by Stephen Hawking.” Lyn notices both Dr Grey and President Mason laugh at the pronoun used, so the President must now be fully in the know.

Mrs Mason laughs, “OK, Lyn. Who’s next on your list to shake up and change their world? You’ve hit Admissions, Housing, Maintenance with your room changes, the Scholarship Committee, my admin staff, the people down at College Computers, and now you’ve got the Math and Physics Departments about to go head to head over getting you in their courses. Who are you planning to hit next? So I can warn them.”

This gets a few interested looks from the others present, but Lyn only slowly shakes his head as he says, “Well, none of that was intentional or my fault, apart from the decision about the furniture. However, you can warn out the Athletics Department they’re going to have some coaches with big problems in the new year.”