Chapter 4

We were back to Harvard in the morning, but I was spending all day with Carl since I had five exams scheduled. I was promised the full three hours for each of them, but Carl suspected that I’d be through them all in no time.

I met the next candidate on our list. He was Carl’s pick. It didn’t take long before his professional ego got in the way of his usefulness as a researcher. He talked a lot about changing things when he “took over” as he put it.

“What sorts of things did you think needed to change?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral.

“Nothing that concerns you,” he said. “You just keep doing what you’re doing and by the end of the study, you’ll understand.”

I tried to get him to talk about himself and his interests and he casually rebuked all my attempts to get him to open up to me, returning to his grandiose plans for the study.

Another hour of that while I was writing two exams at once and I’d heard enough. He kept talking about his ambitions for the project and how he envisioned things working. He stressed getting me out of high school and into the lab full-time.

“Don’t worry about it though. We’ll get you someone you can spend time with.”

“Did you seriously just tell me you’d hire me a babysitter?” I asked flatly, looking up from my papers.

“Well, I wouldn’t have put it like that, but you’re so young to be wandering around campus by yourself. Think of it more like a campus guide.”

“I’m smarter than you are,” I told him. “If you can find your way from place to place and go potty on your own, I should be able to manage.”

“I’m sure you’re quite clever,” he said condescendingly, “but wandering around campus can be dangerous for a kid your age. After all, there are a lot of students here. We can’t swear that you won’t get picked on if you wander off alone.”

I stood up and took off my shirt awkwardly, showing off my surgery scars. “I got these from a home invasion last month. My attacker fired twelve bullets at me. In response, I caved in the front of his skull and decapitated him, dumping his severed head on my front lawn,” I said irritably. “You think I’m too small and feeble to look after myself? Really?” I put my shirt on and sat back down, returning my attention to the exams.

That killed the conversation for the rest of the morning. When I was done, I slid the papers over to Carl. “For the record, that man is no longer a candidate,” I said, not bothering to wait until he’d left to discuss it.

“I hardly think that’s your decision to make,” he interjected hotly. “I was asked by Dr. Saddler to be here.”

I turned to look at him and shook my head. “Doctor, on paper, your qualifications are impeccable. However your conduct here this morning proves that you’re not right for the program. For starters, you’re not ‘taking over’ under any circumstances. We’re grooming someone to come on board and carry the torch for Dr. Saddler when his illness advances to the point he can no longer continue. You would be working in partnership with the rest of the research team, Dr. Spencer and myself. You’ve been openly critical of the work that’s already been done, dismissive of me and disrespectful of one of the primary goals of the study which is to nurture the abilities of the gifted while maintaining social development with their native peer group. Did you even read any of the related materials?”

“You’re just a test subject,” he scoffed. “This is advanced research. You’re not qualified to understand it. Just do what you’re supposed to and leave the decisions in the hands of the PhDs.”

I looked at Carl and shrugged. “Carl, I won’t put myself or Victoria through four years of this jackass. Can we meet with the next candidate this afternoon or will it be tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Let’s go to lunch and I’ll introduce you there. I know where he usually eats on Monday.”

“Let me text Emma to meet us and we can go,” I said lightly.

“Wait a minute! Carl, are you seriously letting this kid dictate the decisions you make for your study?” he blurted out angrily.

“When I’m gone, he’s the one that has to work with you,” Carl said to him. “If he leaves the project because you can’t treat him with respect then the study dies. I’m afraid you’re not going to be a good fit for the research conditions. Thank you for coming this morning, but yes, he gets some say in who he works with.”

“So if I’d come in and buttered him up with gifts and flattery and promised him pretty girls, we’d all be going to lunch together as pals?” he sneered.

“You can’t afford me,” I said bluntly. “I have so much money right now that I don’t know what I’ll do with it all. What gift do you think you can afford that’ll impress me? And you REALLY didn’t do any of the assigned reading if you think you can reel me in with promise of pretty girls. You saw Emma when she dropped me off. I sleep in two king-sized beds pushed together because there just isn’t enough room in one bed for all of us. Sorry, doctor. You’re an empty toolbox. You’ve got nothing to work with.”

We were about to leave when Emma let herself into the lab. “Hey, Slugger!” she said. “Ready to go to lunch?”

“Sure. Carl wants us to go meet the next candidate if we can catch him for lunch.”

A few of the research assistants were working over lunch, so we didn’t need to lock up, but we did wait for the other doctor to gather his things and leave.

“He seems pissed,” Emma observed.

“He failed his job interview,” I said lightly.

“How bad?” she asked with a grin.

“Offered me a babysitter and told me the adults would make the decisions,” I told her, making her laugh.

“You should have taken him up on the babysitter, so long as she was hot and kinky,” she teased.

“He didn’t strike me as knowing precisely how to locate women that were hot and kinky except through the Yellow Pages,” I said dryly, making Carl laugh.

We went to lunch and had a pleasant time. The third doctor we talked to was a better choice but Dr. Nichols was still way out in front. We returned to the lab in the afternoon to finish out the other three exams without interruption and Carl and I chatted quietly while I wrote.

We agreed that Dr. Nichols was the candidate that had come the closest to what we were looking for in a research partner. We’d review the other three over the course of the rest of the week and meet on Monday to discuss them one more time.

I pushed through the two engineering papers quickly and spent most of the afternoon on the programming exam, finishing about twenty minutes after Emma came in from her afternoon exam.

“Half done!” she said with a grin on the way home.

“Not me. I’ve still got twelve to go,” I said with a chuckle.

“How many tomorrow?” she asked me again, confused.

“Four tomorrow,” I reminded her. “Then four on Wednesday and two each on Thursday and Friday. Both of Friday’s are in the morning so I’ll be done by noon.”

“I have two on Wednesday and then one on Thursday afternoon,” she said. “I can use Friday to help Zoe clean up the room for the end of term inspection.”

I nodded. “How’s she doing? She wasn’t at the party Saturday.”

“She’s okay, I guess,” she said. “She said she had too much studying to do to be there. I think she just didn’t want to be reminded that she’d screwed up with us.”

“Yeah. I guess the clean break is best,” I said with only a touch of sadness. I’d made peace with the situation, but it still hurt.

The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activity. Between exams and passing in high school assignments through Lana and Beck, I had little time for much of anything else. Patty and Mom were shopping a lot for Christmas and getting everything decorated. We had our final guest-list for Christmas settled. It was me, Lilly, Mom, Dad, Patty and Dan, Lana and Beck, Collie and Tabby, Tricia and Frank, Victoria and Carl. Gina’s extended family did a big feast for Christmas so she was locked into doing that, but she promised that she’d show up later if she could get away early enough. I’d invited Samantha, but she begged off, saying she had family to visit for the holidays. The best news of the week was that all the tests had come back negative. All the girls were clean. Lana and Beck were still waiting another few weeks to get their final check, but with Vance’s autopsy results being negative and the tests I’d taken in the hospital, I was confident they were safe.

Finally, Friday arrived. I was writing two that morning with Carl. I’d decided today that I was recovered enough (or stubborn enough) to use the cane instead of the chair as an experiment.

Dr. Nichols joined us again this morning and was surprised to see me walking.

“You’re healing quickly,” she commented, pulling out a chair for me.

“Thanks,” I said with a smile. I dropped into the chair and looked forward to having it for a couple of hours at least. “I’m mostly just too stubborn to sit in the chair any longer,” I confessed, rubbing my leg gently.

As it turned out, my exams were simple. I looked them both over twice before looking up at the two doctors watching me. “Is this a joke?” I asked. “True-or-false, multiple choice, fill in the blank and a couple of short answer questions? I got out of bed for this?”

That made them laugh. “In some classes, there are hundreds of students. Marking essay questions would take forever,” Carl pointed out.

“Fair enough,” I said, “but I thought that’s what Teaching Assistants were for.”

“Some people use Teaching Assistants as babysitters,” he said with a chuckle. He told Dr. Nichols about Monday morning’s debacle.

We discussed that as I zipped through both papers. It wasn’t even 10:00 and I was done. I shook my head and decided that I should go see how Emma and Zoe were getting along. I was sure that things would be awkward, but I could always go to the dorm lounge and read or something.

By the time I got to the dorm, I was regretting my decision about the chair. There was a girl leaving as I was coming in and she held the door for me with a smile. I thanked her and went to the elevator, taking it upstairs.

I limped down the hall to their door and opened it without knocking. I figured they’d be in the middle of cleaning, but they were sitting on the beds facing each other and chatting quietly.

I blinked in surprise. “Hi,” I said to both of them. “I figured you’d still be at it.”

Zoe smiled a little although I could tell she was feeling uncomfortable. “I sort of picked at it through the last couple of weeks,” she explained.

“Cool,” I said. “I just wanted to let you know I was done with my exams. The last two were kind of a joke. I’ll let you two talk though. I’ll be in the lounge when you’re ready to go. Good seeing you again Zoe. Have a good Christmas.”

Emma bounded up off the bed and said she was ready to go. She took my hand and pulled me out of the room, saying goodbye over her shoulder.

“I am SO glad you’re here,” she said when we were on our way to the elevator.

“Things were weird?” I asked gently.

“She had the room cleaned up ahead of time, thinking that she could talk me into fooling around with her for the morning,” she said irritably.

“I wouldn’t have been bent out of shape if you had,” I told her delicately.

She stopped and looked at me. “What?” she asked, confused.

I shrugged. “If you’ll recall, I was okay with you seeing her after she decided that she didn’t want to be with me. I couldn’t exactly get mad at you for being with someone else considering that our bed is big enough to sleep seven with room for more. Besides, I’m out of commission. You don’t exactly stop getting horny just because I’d die from sex at this point. So long as you tell me about it and you protect yourself, I’m not gonna blow my stack about it.”

She looked at me, surprised. “You really mean that?” she asked, not sure she believed it.

I started walking again, drawing her along with me. “Why not?” I asked. “Obviously, we need to be intelligent about it, but you told me you were planning on drowning me in pussy when we got to California. It seems kind of childish to whine that you’re getting some too. I don’t think I approve of Zoe though. Not because she broke up with me though. Jeremy proves that she makes bad decisions and her trying to seduce you this morning seems a bit sneaky. You think she was hoping to pull you away and maybe make the two of you a couple?”

We were back at the car by this point and I got in with a sigh, wishing the car wasn’t quite so low to the ground.

When I was settled, she answered me. “I dunno. Maybe she was hoping I’d come back, be her roommate and we’d be lovers. We didn’t really get that far. I just told her I wasn’t interested in picking up with her again. I explained to her that we did things as a group and that if one of us wasn’t welcome, none of us were. That’s what we were talking about when you arrived.”

“So that’s why she looked so uncomfortable? I assumed she was still in the same mood that kept her from coming to the party Saturday.” I paused and shrugged. “Maybe she was, for all I know.”

“She’s a bitch,” Emma said dismissively. “If I WERE interested in picking up someone, she’d be low on the list. I think we should talk about this little idea you have about looking outside the Sorority though. What’s that all about?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I’m not gonna be able to make love to you like you deserve for a while and Hanna’s not around much through the week. If there’s a cute girl that you’re interested in nibbling on and having nibble on you, I think you should be able to grab onto that opportunity and not feel guilty about it.”

“You’re serious?” she asked, surprised. “What if it’s a guy?”

I shrugged. “I love you enough to want you to have whatever your heart desires. If it’s a guy, I don’t particularly want to know more than I have to about it. If it’s something that you want to pursue, then tell me about it before hand and we’ll figure out what’s fair to both of us and him. If it sneaks up on you, then tell me about it after the fact as soon as possible and we’ll figure out how to handle it.”

“Handling it doesn’t sound like you’re enthusiastic about the prospect,” she said dryly.

I laughed. “Well, I’m not particularly, but I’m okay with it. I just meant that in that situation, things can go in a crazy direction in a hurry. You could find out afterwards that he was a virgin or that he’s fallen in love with you. Either of those could lead to him building it up into something more than fun between friends. Or you could both enjoy it and want to do it again. Same complications for if you hooked up with a girl. Does she think it’s a relationship? A one-time thing? Something in between?”

“I guess,” she said uncertainly. “How would you see something like that working?” she asked.

“If it’s someone I object to for a reason, I tell you the reason,” I said. “Other than that, no one outside the Sorority comes back to the house. Protect yourself and if someone looks like they’re building a relationship around it, then we talk it out and decide what to do about it together. I’m sure we’ll both think of other things that make sense as we go, but that seems like a good start.”