Let's Face It

by Jodi R. Moore

  “Jenna has good taste,” he said, taping up the last box so I could put the address label on. “Awesome. We’re done!”

  “So, can we go to the lab now?” Finally!

  “After we bring these to the mail room.”

  “All of them?” There were over a hundred. That was going to take awhile.

  “Well, they can’t mail them out from here. There’s a cart we can load them on,” he said. “After lunch I’ll show you the research bungalow.”

  I could hardly eat. Over lunch, I kept thinking about what the research bungalow would be like. I wondered what type of research they did to figure out the new products Tomlin & Tomlin should make. The first time they made Clearagel, did they really think it would work for everyone? And how was it different from all the other products that had the same active ingredient? Why’d they keep using that active ingredient anyway if it didn’t really work that well? Was there anything better?

  I don’t even remember what Charlie and I talked about on the walk over the bungalow, I had so many questions racing through my mind.

  “That’s it?! The research bungalow?” I said as we approached a building on the other side of the courtyard.

  “I’ve never seen anyone so excited about a building before,” Charlie said.

  It wasn’t just a building to me. It was where new discoveries happened. Where scientists asked questions, formed hypotheses, tested them and reached conclusions. They may not have found the conclusions I was hoping for just yet, but who knows . . . maybe they were working on it.

  When we reached the door, Charlie held up his ID badge to the sensor on the wall and I heard a click as the door unlocked. Charlie held the door open for me as I stepped inside.

  “Where is everybody?” I looked at Charlie expecting him to have a confused expression like I’m sure I did. I ran through possible explanations. Maybe they’re all at lunch.

  Charlie turned some lights on, even though the room already had a lot of natural light pouring in from the windows and skylights.

  “Remember when James said there had been some changes,” he said. “It was a pretty big change. As in no more lab.”

  I started to realize what he meant as I looked across the rows of metal tables topped with glass beakers and other equipment. I noticed some partially packed boxes labeled DONATE or STORAGE as I followed Charlie to the back windows.

  He sat down on a stool next to some metal drawers and picked up a small picture frame that sat on top.

  “This is my Uncle Terry,” he said. “He and my dad started the company together.”

  Next to his uncle there was a young boy playing drums. “Is that you?”

  “Yeah. And this was sort of my spot in the lab. My dad would let me come to work with him sometimes, and I used to love coming out here to see Terry.”

  “Did you get to help him do experiments?”

  “No, nothing like that. When I was little I’d color and stuff. He’d have music playing sometimes. It was fun. Sometimes I’d just come here and do my homework. We’d order pizza and hang out.” Charlie looked at the picture like he was lost in a memory.

  “What happened?” As soon as I said it, I wished I could take the words back. Whatever happened, I could tell Charlie was still upset about it. No wonder he hadn’t taken me here right away. And I kept bugging him about it!

  “My dad and uncle had a big falling out last year. Terry was in charge of coming up with new products and my dad was basically in charge of everything else. My dad started getting upset that Terry’s research was costing the company too much money and it would take too long before anything might come of it. They’d have these intense arguments. Then they just stopped arguing. They stopped everything. And Terry left to start his own company, T2, where my dad says he can waste all the money he wants.”

  “So do you ever go hang out with your uncle at his new company?” I asked.

  “I haven’t seen him since my sister’s graduation. It’s really messed up.” He set the picture back down. “So now you know the story—the ‘changes in the lab’ as James said. Earlier this summer I was supposed to help box everything up and get rid of it so they could turn the bungalow into a gym. But James was hoping I could try to get my dad and Uncle Terry to work together again. I don’t think it’ll ever happen though.”

  “I don’t get it. Your dad doesn’t want to make any new products?”

  “No, he does. Like Clearagel Cool, they came up with that pretty fast after Terry left. The type of research Terry wanted to do takes a really long time and a lot of money. He had tons of research papers in his files.” Charlie opened one of the file drawers to show me. “He tried to convince my dad, but my dad wouldn’t go for it.”

  “Are these your uncle’s files? They’re still here?”

  “I sent some of them to him, but the rest he said he already had on his computer or could get online.”

  The drawer was open just enough for me to see the labels on the folders hanging closest to me. NIH—HMP. I didn’t have a clue what that meant. P ACNES. I knew that one from my research on Clearagel. It was the name of the species of bacteria involved with acne. I was intrigued by what else could be in there.

  “Do you think it’d be okay if I look through the files?”

  “I don’t see why not since they were just going to get thrown away.”

  I pulled the drawer toward me that Charlie had initially opened, and he went to turn some music on.

  There were more words I didn’t know labeled across the files, but then I saw one I knew.

  SUNNY VACCINE

  Well, at least I understood the VACCINE part. But what’s a sunny vaccine? Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to find out here—the folder was empty. I looked in front and behind the hanging folder to see if maybe the vaccine research was there somewhere.

  Charlie was tapping two pencils on the metal table like he was drumming along to the music, which would’ve been annoying if it was anyone else—but I knew he was having fun and it was giving me more time to look through the files.

  “This one is empty.” I held it up so Charlie could see. “I think your uncle had some kind of vaccine research in here but it’s gone.”

  “That might’ve been one of the folders I sent him. But I don’t really remember,” he said.

  Now I wondered what else might be missing. Those must’ve been the most important files, right? The ones he was planning to work on at his new company. The ones that were worth leaving Tomlin & Tomlin for.

  But nothing else seemed to be missing. There was a file crammed with papers for NIH—HMP. I looked at a few of the pages in there, articles from the National Institute of Health. Oh yeah, I remembered. The NIH was one of the places you get to visit at Science Camp in DC. You—meaning Sean and Courtney. But now that I was getting to look through these files I was feeling a little better about being left behind.

  Then I noticed behind the overstuffed NIH—HMP folder there was another file with a label, but nothing inside.

  HMP—PROJECT UPDATES

  “Another one’s missing,” I said, wondering what it could all mean.

  “Yeah, I sent him a few of them. It was awhile ago. We should probably get back in case Jayla’s looking for us.”

  I looked up at the clock on the wall. He was right. I had totally lost track of time. “You were really going to throw this all away?”

  “Nearly took them to the shredder, until James said maybe we should wait in case Terry and my dad make up. But, I bet it’s not going to happen.”

  “I wish I could come back tomorrow and finish looking through all this.” I put the paper I had been reading back in its folder. “There’s some sort of project going on at the NIH. It sounds important.”

  “Why don’t you just take the papers with you?” He lifted the entire folder out of the drawer. “Wow, that’s a lot of reading. You’d be here all day if you were trying to read through all that. Seriously, just take it. You can bring it back when you�
�re done. Nobody’s going to miss it. I’m probably the only one who’s been in here since Team Terry left. That’s what they called everyone who worked in the bungalow.”

  I wished I could’ve been on Team Terry. What are you up to now, Team Terry?

  “Thanks Charlie,” I said, taking the file from him. “Your uncle sounds really cool. I’d love to talk to him sometime.”

  Charlie turned off the lights and we left the bungalow. “Yeah, me too.”

  I brought home the file of papers and started reading as soon as I finished eating dinner. I always thought I was a fast reader. Even for biology class, I’d breeze through the reading and then spend extra time looking for more information online. But the articles I found in the bungalow took a lot longer to read. There were so many words I didn’t know, I felt like I was googling every other sentence.

  Pathogenesis . . . From the Greek word pathos, “disease,” and genesis, “creation.” The scientists still weren’t sure the exact step-by-step cause of acne. But they had identified several factors involved.

  HMP . . . Human Microbiome Project. I couldn’t remember the exact Science Camp itinerary, but I was pretty sure the NIH visit was in the second week. I should text Sean. This wasn’t like my usual maybe I should text him—where I’d ask my friends, and they’d roll their eyes because they were sick of hearing me talk about him. At least this time I had a real reason to. Maybe there was something going on at the NIH that could lead to a cure for acne. But if I was being honest, deep down, or maybe not so deep down, there was a part of me that just wanted to hear from him.

  NEW MESSAGE TO SEAN:

  How’s Science Camp going?

  If you go to the NIH, can you ask them about the Human Microbiome Project? I’ll explain later.

  Before I even had time to over-analyze why my heart was beating so fast after sending the message, I got his response.

  REPLY FROM SEAN:

  OK. Going Tuesday.

  That was brief. I mean, I was happy and all that he said he’d ask about the project, but he didn’t really say what else was going on with him. Now I could only wonder.

  But I had more important things to wonder about.

  SUNNY VACCINE. The missing file. What could it mean?

  A lot of the articles in the file I read came from the same science journal. I decided to check online to see if there were any articles from the same science journal about a sunny vaccine. But when I searched on the journal’s website for “sunny vaccine,” I couldn’t find any information.

  Before I went to bed, I tried one last search:

  HUMAN MICROBIOME PROJECT and P. ACNES and VACCINE

  And boom. There it was . . . new research for an acne vaccine from a scientist at the nearby university. Dr. Sunny Lee.

  Even though I couldn’t understand everything in the article, I think I understood the most important part. The vaccine was effective in an animal model both prophylactically—which means it prevented disease—and immunotherapeutically—which means it treated disease. Except it hadn’t been tested in humans yet.

  I printed out all twelve pages, reading it again while using my green highlighter. But when I was done I had more questions than answers. If I had been in school I could’ve asked Mrs. Diaz about it, but she was at the Galápagos Islands.

  The biggest question I had was what was happening now with the research. And that was something even Mrs. Diaz wouldn’t know. But I saw something at the bottom of the page that could help me figure it out. Dr. Lee’s email address!

  ten

  The vaccine hadn’t been tested in humans, but it seemed like there was at least a possibility it could work. And that possibility was enough to keep me going the rest of the week at Tomlin & Tomlin getting signs ready for the conference, making calls to see if magazine editors and bloggers would be coming to the Clearagel Cool debut, and checking the Project Lettuce tester portal. I was supposed to make sure all the testers had logged in their first update on Friday morning, while Charlie checked to make sure they each had sent in their photos.

  “They’re all there,” Charlie said. “You think you’ll be finished checking their updates by one?”

  “Probably. What’s at one?”

  “It’s Summer Fridays.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about.

  “Nobody told you? We get to leave at one on Fridays. It’s summer hours.”

  “That’s nice,” I said. “Except, my ride isn’t coming until five.”

  “I was going to go to the beach,” Charlie said. “You want to come?”

  “It’s okay. I can just stay here and finish reading through the research from your uncle’s file. I’m almost done.”

  “I bet if I had asked if you wanted to go with me to the university and try to find Dr. Lee’s lab you would’ve said yes.”

  Uh, of course I would’ve said yes! “You would do that?”

  “No, stalker.” Charlie shook his head like the thought was ridiculous. I didn’t think it was so ridiculous since I hadn’t heard back from my email to Dr. Lee. Which he knew since I had been obsessing about it all morning. “Come on, Kaylin. The beach will be fun.”

  I did like the beach. But I wasn’t really dressed for it in my pants, button-up shirt and dress shoes. Charlie wasn’t either.

  “Are you wearing that?”

  “No, my mom’s bringing me a t-shirt and flip-flops. She’s going to take me since my dad has to stay to talk with the lawyers about the Suki5 deal.” Jayla had been stressing all day that they might not get the deal done in time to make a video for the conference. I secretly hoped there wouldn’t be a video. At least not until we had the test results back and knew Clearagel Cool actually worked.

  “My sister has tons of flip-flops in different sizes for her friends. I’ll call my mom and tell her to bring a pair for you.”

  “I guess I could roll up my pants.” And I had a tank top under my button-up shirt. It was perfect beach weather and there really wasn’t a reason not to go.

  He was already talking to his mom. Apparently, I was going to the beach with Charlie. The flip-flops were on their way.

  Charlie had changed his shirt and shoes in the front seat of his mom’s car by the time we arrived at his favorite burger place.

  When he stepped out of the car he kind of caught me by surprise. You wouldn’t think that flip-flops and a t-shirt could make someone look that different, but I could see now why Jenna thought he was cute. And I realized why sitting across from each other in the restaurant booth wasn’t nearly the same as sitting next to each other at Tomlin & Tomlin. Even though we had been spending practically all day together, hanging out like this felt more like we were friends.

  We had always been friend-ly. Charlie had a friendly personality in general. I was pretty sure he was friendly with everyone.

  But going out to lunch, hanging out at the beach, these were things I did with my good friends. Girl friends, to be more specific. I had never had a good guy friend before.

  Charlie was someone I could really become friends with. He was so easy to talk to.

  After we ordered, I told Charlie something that had been bothering me since I read the vaccine research.

  “I know you’re probably sick of hearing me talk about the vaccine research, but— ”

  “I’m not sick of it. I think it’s awesome you emailed Dr. Lee,” he said. “And if you don’t hear back, then maybe next Friday we’ll try your stalker idea.”

  “That wasn’t my idea,” I reminded him.

  “Oh yeah, I’m the one with the good ideas. Clearagel Cool.” He gave his best impression of “cool” which was really far from it. But it made me laugh.

  “Okay, seriously. . . .” There was something I’d been wanting to ask him. “Here’s what I’ve been wondering about. You said your uncle showed your dad the research and your dad wouldn’t get involved because of the money, right?”

  “Something like that,” he said.

  “But I was t
hinking more about why your dad wouldn’t do it. If the vaccine actually worked, and it was able to cure acne, then nobody would need to buy Clearagel anymore. Maybe he makes more money if there isn’t a cure for acne.”

  “My dad never said that was the reason.”

  “But think about it, Charlie.”

  I could tell he hadn’t thought about it before. “I don’t know,” he said, but stopped talking when the waiter brought over our burgers. “Come on, I’ll show you my favorite toppings.”

  We went over to the burger bar where they had pretty much anything you could think of to put on a burger—plus several more things I would’ve never expected like peanut butter and pineapple.

  As we walked back to the table, I could see a man in an oversized Hawaiian shirt standing with our waiter.

  “Is this him?” the waiter asked the man and pointed towards Charlie, who was a few steps behind me.

  “Uncle Terry!” Charlie said as soon as he saw him.

  Terry immediately hugged Charlie, nearly knocking the burger basket out of his hand.

  “Your mom called me after she dropped you off,” Terry said. “She knows I’ve been wanting to see you. Can I join you? I just have a few minutes.”

  “Of course!” Charlie scooted over. “Terry, this is Kaylin. She’s been helping out for the conference.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he said to me. “It’s been way too long, Charlie. How are you? How’s the drumming going?”

  “Come over sometime and I’ll play my new solo for you. Terry taught me how to play,” Charlie said to me. He looked back at his uncle. “You should come to the Fourth of July party at the house.”

  “That’s a great party. I remember. But you know your dad wouldn’t want me there.”

  “He does,” Charlie said. “He was going to invite you.”