Chapter 95: Prof's Degree Bombshell

Friday, April 22, 2005 (Continued)

On the way to the shower, Pat asked, "How come Julia has three robes in her closet?"

For a panic-filled second I thought Carol's and my incest had been caught through circumstantial evidence, but then I realized we were safe. Phew. I answered, "This one's mine, and you two are wearing Julia's and Carol's. Julia's is the short one, of course."

"Oh, does Carol sleep here sometimes too?"

There'd been a comment that I'd nearly made earlier, but had decided it wasn't worth the bother. I thought I'd trot it out now to change the subject. "Sure. Even more often than I do I think, although I've never bothered keeping track. Carol needed a lot more support at the beginning of her relationship with Julia, so she was here quite often. Can I change the subject, please Pat?" I didn't wait for consent, instead carrying straight on with, "Your question reminded me about your boyfriend. You said he'd soon be your ex-boyfriend. I feel a bit guilty about that because I don't know when I'll be able to spend time with you again. You don't have to get rid of him. I'm not asking you to, and I don't mind if you have a boyfriend, because there's no commitment between us yet."

Pat answered, "I've lost interest in him. After you - not just your lovemaking, but everything about you - my boyfriend seems pathetic. He didn't seem all that great even before last night, and I've lost interest in him now. Me and my ass will wait for you."

"Haha. Thanks for the little reminder."

We were in the bathroom now, even though two out of the three of us had insisted on walking quite slowly. We shucked the robes and proceeded to have a very enjoyable shower. Four breasts needed a considerable amount of washing, and Pat clearly expected me to make an issue out of her ass, so I did. Both girls took flagrant liberties with my body too, which was also a lot of fun. I had to cut it short unfortunately. I wanted to talk with Prof over breakfast - both of those issues being important ("talk with Prof" and "breakfast") - and I was also worried about The Boys being locked out of the bathroom for too long. The number of toothbrushes and the shaving gear indicating that they didn't have their own bathroom somewhere else in the house that I hadn't seen yet.

I hurried the girls back to the bedroom, at their slow, cautious pace. It was time to get dressed, and I had a dilemma. On the one hand, I definitely had to keep my back to the girls while I put on my "pull forward and lift" underwear, then quickly follow them with pants, before the embarrassing absurdity of my underwear was noticed. But on the other hand, I wanted to watch the girls get dressed, because that's sexy. I chose to minimize my embarrassment. Notice that I wrote "minimize". From what would have been horrific, down to merely horrible. I was particularly appalled by the cut-off shirt. There was an embarrassingly large amount of my midriff exposed. I felt like, and no doubt looked like, a total fool. Either that or a homosexual male prostitute. I was hoping for "total fool".

I'd laid my clothes out in a corner of the room away from the girls, keeping the underwear hidden. They didn't look suspicious when off, but why take the risk that the design was recognized. The girls were chatting away happily about clothes somewhere behind me, when I shucked my robe, extracted and pulled on the underwear, and followed them immediately with the pants, which I noticed already had the 'correct' belt in the hoops. I put my socks and shoes on next, because I'd rather go entirely without a shirt than wear this blatantly egotistical one. Eventually I had no choice, as I knew I'd be in big trouble with Julia if I wore some other shirt instead of it, so I put it on then turned to face the ridicule.

Pat and Lily were talking about clothes, so were deeply engrossed and probably wouldn't have noticed a bomb going off next to them. They'd have noticed a girl walking past with a mismatched sweater, but anything less important, such as an exploding bomb, would've gone unobserved.

I stood there facing them, for several seconds, feeling like an idiot, because:

• I was dressed like an idiot, and

• I was standing still, facing them and not moving, which made me feel like an idiot. The sooner they noticed I was dressed like an idiot, the sooner I could stop feel like an idiot for standing there waiting for them to notice that I was an idiot.

Eventually Lily noticed. Her talk stopped mid-word and her mouth fell open. Pat noticed the sudden stop in their interesting conversation about clothes, so she turned to look at whatever Lily was looking at.

I like Pat, and her words about my coming on like I was 'God's gift to women' were ringing in my memory as an imminent source of embarrassment, so as she turned I said, "I'm sorry for these clothes. Julia's making me wear them."

The girls didn't laugh, probably because they'd stopped breathing in shock. Eventually they remembered that air is really useful stuff, and started inhaling it again. The next five minutes were very embarrassing, which is what I'd expected, but it was in ways I'd not expected. The girls were gobsmacked. When they recovered from that, they were effusive in their declarations that I was the sexiest thing they'd ever seen. Apparently I get sexier when my naked body is covered, "covered" referring mainly to my pants, as the shirt covered very little. Pat and Lily, especially Pat, and especially Lily too, were rocked by my clothes. During the ensuing gushing, Brad Pitt was told to eat his heart out, the two girls repeatedly told each other that they'd never seen anyone look this hot (I presume they meant guys, because I'd seen plenty of girls looking hotter than me, i.e., most girls). The Brad Pitt comment was especially stupid (all their comments were stupid, but that one especially). After the symmetric photos exercise I'm forced to admit that I have become less unattractive - even somewhat handsome - but Brad Pitt was safe from any competition from me. The girls' comments were wrong, doubtless because their brains were running off hormones rather than logic. One issue that came up was Pat asking, "You're wearing those clothes to school?"

I was frazzled enough that I nearly said, "No, I dress this way just for breakfast," but I caught myself in time. Instead I said, "Unfortunately yes."

"We're going to walk into the school, next to you, dressed like that?"

"I'd rather you walked immediately ahead of me so I could hide behind you, but I'm afraid so, yes."

"And into our class like that?"

Having established that I was going to walk into school dressed like this, I thought it was fairly unlikely that I'd stop somewhere mid-school to get changed, before walking into our class. I answered accordingly, "Yes."

"Wow. They're going to FLIP! Can I hold your hand when you walk in?"

That was one question I was happy answering, "Of course you can, Pat. I like you."

"Wow. He likes me!" I'd just spent several hours making love to her while I was naked (in case you'd missed that nuance), and now Pat was getting all weak-kneed about holding my hand when I was half dressed. Clothes do funny things to female's brains.

Lily suddenly remembered her cellphone had a camera. So my new look was recorded for posterity. From several angles. With and without Pat and/or Lily. Then they realized that if they positioned me in front of a mirror properly, they could get photos that captured multiple angles in the one shot, so the whole process restarted with that important addition.

I eventually said, "I'm sorry girls, but I have to cut this short because I need to talk with Julia's father about my college courses." I was lying, because I wasn't the tiniest bit sorry.

The girls were only half-dressed, something I hadn't been in the mood to notice. They quickly threw on whatever they needed to throw, and then I led them downstairs. They didn't like stairs very much, wincing as they descended and being very happy when they reached the bottom.

I'll spare you the description of the ruckus my clothes caused at the breakfast table. You'd be the only person spared, because the Williamses certainly didn't spare me.

I introduced the girls, "Lily, who's one of the Liaisons, so she'll be coming here regularly when the weekly meetings get going. And Pat, who's the first of the," I had a momentary pause, while I rejected "bottom-tier girls", and "ordinary girls", before I settled on, "non-Liaison girls that I've dated." The word "date" needed some work too.

The girls were welcomed, and places were already set for us, so we settled in quickly. Or I settled in quickly; they were a significantly slower. Vanessa chuckled at them, saying, "I see Mark did a thorough job on you two?"

Pat concentrated on getting to her seat. Leaving Lily to answer, "Yes. Very good job. Please no one say funny things."

Talking to Prof was important, but loading up my plate came first. Something that Pat and Lily both commented on.

Andrew jokingly inquired, "What can you possibly do that burns off so much energy?"

Both girls blushed slightly and started chuckling before they cut it off to groan.

I asked, "Prof, did Vanessa pass on my message about my doubled studying speed?"

"Yes. That's great news."

"Except that I should've realized it before I started the first day, but never mind that now. Last night's rate, extrapolated, gives me a catch-up date for both courses of about 3.5 weeks from now. Then I'll be waiting for each individual lecture from the last month, which will be very slow and boring. So I was wondering about picking up another course in the last month. My current rate is two weeks per course, so one more in the last month should be easy. I was a bit worried about quiz turnaround times, if I do the whole course that fast. What do you think?"

As soon as I'd finished saying that, I realized there was a flaw in my logic. The speed I'd quoted assumed double-speed studying. If I started the third course after finishing the other two I'd have to study from two parts of it at the same time in order to get the speed I wanted. So I added, "I should have said that the extra course has to be one where it doesn't build on itself all year. It has to have independent blocks of material."

[You're probably aware of this already, but the process that actually occurred when I spotted the problem, was that one mind was controlling our mouth, telling Prof the previous paragraph. Meanwhile another mind spotted the problem, and thought of the solution, by which time the first spoken paragraph was nearly finished. So the second mind waited until the mouth had stopped, then took it over to add the second paragraph to Prof. It's weird, cool, and very useful, but does make my conversations jump around a bit, even when I try to invent good links between the points.]

Prof asked me a few questions, mainly to make sure he understood my "independent blocks of material" point. Then he added, "The quiz turnarounds shouldn't be a problem. There aren't that many over a year, and the lecturers will prioritize marking and returning yours. You're doing Differential Calculus now, and there are two more calculus courses required at that level: Integral Calculus and Infinite Series and Sequences. You could do either. Why don't we wait until you've done a quiz from each of your current courses, just to make sure all's going well, and then we'll enroll you. We might was well do it earlier, so you can start doing some of the work if you want a change. Where are you up to with the current courses?"

I told him.

"Good. You'll hit the quizzes soon. I'll put them in your study this evening. I'll tell your lecturers that I'll probably be faxing them your answers Saturday morning at about 8, and I'll ask them to grade them and send them back as soon as possible on Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing how you do on them."

"Yeah, me too. I'm pretty sure I'm on top of it all, but it'd be nice to get that confirmed."

I was amused to have noticed that Pat and Lily were somewhat wide-eyed. With no explanations provided to them, much of what Prof and I had said would have been confusing. My amusement at their confusion disappeared following Prof's next statement, "If you can maintain two weeks per course, you'll be able to complete your undergraduate degree next year."

"Huh! The WHOLE degree!" I MUST have misheard him.

"Yes, that should be doable. You could possibly do all the reading just during your early morning study hours. That'd be quite a push, but you'll only be doing one grade at school next year so you'll have plenty of spare time during the day and early evening. Completing the degree shouldn't be difficult for you. You'll have to go to OSU quite often, which will be a nuisance, but it shouldn't be too bad. We'll be able to get a couple of your requirements waived too. For example, did you know that you have to do three credits of fitness courses to get your BS in Mathematics? I'm sure that Pat and Lily will happily attest to your level of fitness, won't you girls?" ("BS" is Bachelor of Science. Mathematicians never bullshit.)

Pat wasn't prepared to answer, but Lily said, "Yes. Mark is VERY fit."

Prof chuckled, "Perhaps more credibly, winning your 10k event should count as course credit, I would think. Or you could just turn up wearing that shirt. Haha.

^-- "In a few more days we should be able to see whether you're fast enough to finish your first degree before you graduate high school. It'll require a lot of work at OSU's end, because we're not set up for students to complete courses in one to two weeks. We could use all the lecture notes from this year, but extra exams are going to have to be written just for you, and some of the lecturers are going to have to temporarily drop everything else in order to keep up with your needs. Fortunately, I think the Dean will back you, and everyone else will do what he tells them. I'll wait until I see your quiz results, but next week I should drop this bombshell in the Dean's lap. It's going to take a significant amount of planning and preparation to make it flow smoothly for you, so advance warning is essential."

None of my minds had a coherent thought between them. I'd previously thought (although "thought" is an overly ambitious word in this context) that I'd do two courses this year, "a few more" next year, so that when I went to college the following year, I'd have somewhat less work to do. I hadn't thought about it in any more detail than that. I hadn't even wondered whether I'd save a whole year off my college education. Having the WHOLE degree knocked off before I finished high school was WAY beyond what I'd imagined.

Prof added, "It'd probably be a good idea for you to start your online studying this summer. No fixed schedule for that, but even a couple of months of your early morning studying at you new rate will give you a great headstart. It's not as if you're going to be doing anything else at four in the morning, is it?"

"Ahh, I guess not. I don't know. This is all too much of a surprise."

"Yes. I was quite surprised when I realized the implications of your new rate too. Between that and a much lighter workload at school than you're used to, you should be able to do it easily. You won't be doing any 12th grade Math courses either, so that'll free up even more of your time."

"Why won't I be doing them?"

"You'll get credit for the college courses, freeing up from going to any of those classes, doing their homework, etc. It'll save some more of your time."

"But I like Math! It's my favorite subject."

"You'll be doing an ENTIRE degree's worth of Math in one year. I don't think you're going to miss your 12th grade class, which would probably bore you anyway."

"Oh yeah. This is taking some time to get used to."

"I can understand that. I think I'll slightly change something I said about your quizzes. If you do well in those, then I'll drop this bombshell at work next week. In which case I'd better be very sure. I think I'll get up early tomorrow morning, about 5:30 or so, and bring the quizzes into you, to supervise your taking them. A lot of people are going to have to do a lot of extra work to get ready for your next year, so they'll feel better about it if I supervise your work more closely. Unfortunately a good chunk of the work preparing for your next year will need to be done before we get your results for the final exams at the end of this year, so we can't wait for those.

^-- "Also, you would've read in the material Maureen got for you that about a third of your degree has to be picked from the smorgasbord of "Baccalaureate Core Courses". They range from public speaking, to physical sciences, to cultural and societal topics. They're intended to make graduates well-rounded individuals and they're required. They're independent of every other course, so you can do them in real-time during the year. You've got that information at your home, yes?"

"Ahh, yeah. I've only very lightly skimmed them, because there are hundreds of them and I only need to do a few. I was mostly reading up on the Math courses."

Vanessa said, "There's another Core course that we might be able to get credited for you: "Human Sexuality". I believe you probably understand that material well already, haha."

Pat declared, "Mark should be the teacher! It'd be a VERY popular subject."

Vanessa added, "There are a couple of Core courses that I'd suggest could be very useful for your future, Mark, on Ethics and Power. That's not power like electricity; it's power in the personal sense, like your power over Julia. They don't go into any depth, but they'll give you something to think about. There are several courses in my department that I'd like you to do, but it's too early for those. We'll make them part of one of your later degrees."

"Huh? There are going to be more of them?"

Prof said, "Absolutely. If you progress in Math you'll do a master's and a doctorate. I don't know that you'll want to go that far in such a pure field. Vanessa's got some strong opinions about your needs in her area of expertise, and I'm inclined to agree that those are probably more important than pure math, but please don't let my Department Head know I said that! Haha.

^-- "Julia's convinced you're going to need to manage a large organization, so she's pro-business studies. Not for money reasons, but for some of the skills you'd learn at that college. But don't worry about all that now. It won't start becoming an issue for another six months or so, and we'll all help you choose a university and design a course for you. You'll be able to dictate your own terms so we'll get you something good, even if it's a diverse pastiche that'll confuse everyone else. I see you're not eating, so you must be addled, haha. We don't need to decide anything now, so get back to your breakfast."

As tempting as breakfast was (and you know it truly was!), I couldn't return to it yet. I said, "I don't know that I can do ANY of what you've talked about, let alone so much of it. I've just done a little bit of a couple of college courses so far. I think you're extrapolating way too far. A large number of people doing a whole bunch of extra work for me is a SERIOUS worry!"

I was expecting some reassurance, hopefully REALLY effective reassurance, so was surprised when Prof said, "We know you might not be able to do it. We've all seen early geniuses who hit a plateau and stall. It's an especially common phenomenon in Mathematics. We - by which I mean OSU - will do as much as we can for you next year. If you hit a biological limit, then such is life. There's no fault associated with failing because you can't exceed your limits. However, WE would be at fault if we held you back."

Vanessa said, "Prof will give the Dean the most accurate information he can about your achievements and potential, and then leave it to the Dean to make his decision. That's the Dean's job. It's his decision whether or not to allocate his staff and resources to make it possible for you to complete your BS next year. Your responsibility is just to do the best you can. If you do your best - which I'm sure you will - then neither you nor anyone else will be blamed for anything other than not supporting you properly."

All of that made sense and sounded good, but my problem was that I knew I truly had an IQ of only 105. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, I was going to hit material that was too hard for my four averagely smart minds. I had no way of explaining this without getting into territory that I wanted NO ONE to have any idea of. The trouble was that short of refusing to do what Prof and Vanessa wanted, I couldn't think of any other way to slow them down. It boiled down to the following issues:

• It seemed impossible to stop these plans.

• I DID want to go to college anyway. I hadn't a couple of years ago, but did now.

• Prof and Vanessa seemed happy to accept the risk that I might hit a personal limit (there was no "might" about it, I WOULD hit my limit, sooner rather than later).

Because of my double-speed studying and needing only four hours of sleep per night, I could do far more studying than other students. I didn't mind being loaded up with much more work than normal, especially as each mind would only be doing half of it so it wasn't all that bad. Because I enjoy math, each mind only doing half the studying was actually somewhat disappointing. I'd work on it, as everyone wanted, until I hit my IQ limit. Apparently not in this year's courses, because I'd done enough already to see that they were fairly straightforward, but surely the second or third year's courses would be too hard for me. I'll worry about crossing that bridge when I hit that brick wall (obviously I'm not an engineering genius). I nodded, to whoever needed a nod from me, saying, "Okay. I've thought it through, and we'll go ahead as you described. I think you're overly optimistic about me not having a limit that'll kick in as the material gets harder, but I'll do the best I can. Presuming the Dean agrees, I guess."

Prof said, "I don't think you have such a limit, Mark. I've seen several geniuses plateau over the years and they were all one-trick wonders. There was only one particular thing they were genius at, and they were usually average or below average in other areas. You're virtually a genius at everything, from Mathematics through to sex, and most mathematicians will tell you that there's normally a negative correlation between those, haha.

^-- "Second, I sure the Dean will go ahead with your one-year degree. I'm going to make an appointment to spring it on him personally, rather than in an email, because I want to see his face. He's going to wet himself when he hears what I think you can do. He might want to double-check me, maybe get your current lecturers to set you a test or verbally quiz you, but I don't think that'll be a problem, will it?"

"I shouldn't think so. The courses I'm doing seem quite straightforward so far."

"Good. I'm going to ask your lecturers to sit beside their fax machines tomorrow morning, and to get your grades back to me as soon as they can. They won't know why yet - I'll save that bombshell for the Dean - but I'll do my best to make sure they do."

I'd better do a good job on those quizzes then! Not that I wouldn't have tried anyway. One good thing about math (and there are many, despite its not overlapping with sex), is that when you know the material, you know you know it. I suddenly had a thought, "Does Julia know about any of this? My doing a whole degree next year, I mean."

Vanessa said, "She knows enough about your ability and about degrees that she could work it out for herself, but I don't think she's put it together yet. With three girls in Carol's bed overnight, I doubt she spent much time thinking about academia, haha. We thought you might enjoy springing it on her."

"Never mind the Dean, Julia will wet herself! She enjoys ambushing me, so my getting one over on her will be good fun. She deserves it, for making me dress like this."

^-- I just remembered a small issue, and mentioned it to Prof. "Julia and Ava are staying with me tonight, here. Ava is the 11th grade Liaison. I'd normally give her a, um, workout in the morning, but the quizzes are obviously more important. I'll let Julia know there won't be any hanky-panky in the morning, not until after the quizzes are done, anyway."

Prof acknowledged my statement. He certainly wasn't going to disagree with me that those quizzes were important, even more so than sex!

Vanessa turned to the girls, "Lily, Pat; don't spoil Mark's surprise with Julia. More generally and more importantly, you should NOT talk about things you overhear in this house. It's up to Mark to decide how much of his life other people know. I strongly suggest that both of you realize that when it comes to retaining Mark's and Julia's friendships, that discretion and trustworthiness are worth a great deal more than sex appeal, or whatever else you think you've got going for you. If you're smart you'll keep your mouths shut about his business. Got it?"

Lily answered, "I do what Mark and Julia say. More now, because Mark so special." Lily had proved herself cooperative already, but she'd given her answer extra emphasis, making it even more convincing.

Vanessa prompted, "Pat?"

"Mostly I don't understand. I was impressed when I thought Mark was doing even one college course, but doing a whole degree in one year while he's still at high school isn't possible, I would've thought. Except that both of you think he can do it, and you work at OSU, don't you?" Prof nodded, so Pat continued, "I think I'll just go to school and say that Mark is awesome in bed and not mention anything else. I'm not comfortable with anything else. This has been the weirdest breakfast conversation I've ever listened to."

Robert said, "Actually it's less weird than normal. I've got to head off. Does anybody need a lift?"

No one, by which Robert had meant Pat or Lily, did, so he left us. That started the general exodus.

I was hurriedly finishing my breakfast when the phone rang for me. Vanessa joked around with Julia briefly about how I was dressed and the two well-screwed girls that were sitting next to me, then passed me the handset so I could talk with Julia between mouthfuls.

After some brief lovey-dovey stuff, telling each other we missed each other and that sort of thing, Julia asked, "So it went well with Lily and Pat?"

"Yes. Both girls were VERY good and we all had a lot of fun, especially this morning when they both discovered that they like bisexuality and threesomes. The only criticism I've got," I said this knowing both girls were listening intently. Both were pretending not to, but their pretence was transparent, "is that both of them begged off after ONLY three hours last night. I think we need to make all the girls who want to date me run a marathon first, and pick my dates from those who can finish within a decent time. I'm sure Lily and Pat would train hard for that."

#4: <I suggest that girls with nice tits, like Pat, get a 25-mile headstart.>

Lily and Pat were not reacting enthusiastically to my suggestion.

Julia laughingly suggested, "You could always take more than two girls to bed."

"Sure, I could take more girls to bed, but sometimes a guy just likes to have some quality time with one of his favorites. Pat's trying to tempt me into another date with her by offering me her ass. What would happen if I got excited over that idea - because she does have a very nice ass - and couldn't hold myself back from wanting four or five hours of full-on sex with her. I'd have to do that on a Friday night so she could stay in bed recovering before school on Monday. Knowing she was in bed all weekend, I probably couldn't resist slipping upstairs a few times a day, just for some quick, two or three hour sessions with her. I fear she'd never get rested enough to walk again. Maybe all my dates should provide their own wheelchairs?"

Both Pat and Lily laughed and groaned at that. Julia just laughed.

I asked, "How did Ava work out?"

"Ava has very good potential - even excellent potential - but she needs to work on her obedience. She knows that we understand things a lot better than her, and that we know what's best for her and you, but sometimes she still hesitates before doing what we tell her she should." I could hear Ava's urgent promises to be more obedient in the background, while Julia continued, "It's quite annoying when Carol or I ask her to do something which is obviously a good idea, but she doesn't understand and hesitates to act. Luckily she's stopped asking for explanations all the time - because that was a TERRIBLE waste of time and effort - but she still hesitates. Every time she hesitates she's sending Carol and me a message that she doesn't trust us, so she's making it much harder for us to develop a good relationship with her, or to think she'll be good enough for you." More background promises from Ava, never to hesitate again, etc.