by Amy Field
In the upcoming weeks, for Janie’s greatest delight, Cal kept his promise. He was not the best lab partner of all times but also far from being the worst ever.
Janie had to carry most of the weight off-class.
The evening was sort of warm for early October. Janie sat at the open windows in her dorm room with all sorts of books scattered all around her desk. She was trying hard to solve a molar equation but her solution did not match the one given by the textbook. She sighed and took a sip of water from the bottle she had on her desk standing.
What was wrong with her formulas, she kept wondering.
Then a cheeky little grin appeared in the corner of her mouth.
The formulas might have been just right, after all. It might have been her focus that betrayed her. It was faltering, wandering. Janie could not deny that for the first time in her life she found something a lot more interesting to marvel over than science. Instead of the details of the experiment and Moriarty’s lecture, Cal’s reactions and quiet, personal remarks kept her thoughts busy.
For a crazy moment she felt like she missed Cal. Then she sighed again and shook her head. He was a nonsensical brute, a womanizing bastard. Besides the fact that he could not possibly have any real interest in her, Janie would not be interested in him even if he was the last guy on the face of the Earth.
The fatality of that last thought scared her. A cool breeze sailed inside the room through the open windows and Janie trembled. Maybe she should not have been so quick to judge Cal. Maybe he was trying hard and honest to win her sympathy. Maybe in some way he was even genuinely interested about her. He might have not been here to help solving the equation, but he did his part. At least, he kept Linda busy and that way Janie had their room all for herself.
Suddenly Janie felt like missing Cal, again – and her trembling was not due to that cool breeze from the outside any more, but to some warm ripples, shaking her body from the inside.
Then the door of the room opened.
“Hey, Linda,” Janie greeted her roommate reluctantly.
“Hey, Janie,” a familiar voice replied. But it did not belong to Linda.
“What are you doing?” Linda shrilled from behind Janie’s back. “Look at all those books. It is only the beginning of October.” She followed up her remark with some stupid giggles.
The way she said those things, the way she laughed, suggested that Linda must have thought that she had uttered something extremely witty. That other person who entered the room did not share her enthusiasm since he kept himself from laughing. Linda’s giggles sort of flattened out. Janie felt extremely glad for the other person refusing to be part of an attempt of her humiliation.
Janie turned around.
“It is called studying” she snapped at Linda. “Some professors expect you to do some work throughout the semester on a continuous basis.” Her words were not only aimed at Linda. Cal was the guy who entered the room with Linda – and Janie’s little rant carried more reproach towards him than towards her.
Cal did not seem to take it personally. He just smiled at Janie his usual, disarming way.
“All right, bookworm,” Linda muttered in a clueless fashion. She did not like how Cal was still paying attention to her roommate, that little grey moth of a girl. She grabbed her boyfriend’s wrist and pulled him down onto her bed.
“Do not let us bother you while you are doing your precious studying,” she murmured and kissed Cal. Janie could not watch this any longer and turned back to her books. She tried hard to pretend she was deaf but the noises got only louder and her anger fiercer. After a certain point, she could not even decide any longer whether she hated Linda or Cal more. She heard how they exchanged wet kisses, how they rolled over and back on the top of that bed with their bodies stuck together. She could not focus on the formulas any longer.
Janie packed her stuff and got onto her feet. She turned around and tried hard to block the part of her vision that fell upon Cal and Linda. She crossed the room without a word and was about to leave.
“Hey Janie” she heard Cal’s voice sort of shouting after her.
“What?” Janie exclaimed.
She could not avoid looking at them any longer. Cal was laying on top of Linda’s body, his strong arms pinned Linda’s wrists down to the sheets. His hip weighed down against Linda’s, and his chest touched her pointy breasts. Linda did not look at her, she was busy with applying kisses all over Cal’s smooth neck.
“Do you not want to come to one of our fraternity parties?” Cal asked without as much as a trace of shame in his voice, facial expression, or glistering eyes.
Janie shook her head.
“No,” she said, “I do not.”
And she turned around, again.
“Where are you going?” Cal insisted on continuing the conversation.
“To the library,” Janie muttered.
“To where?” Cal exclaimed.
Janie stepped out onto the corridor.
“The big building in the middle of the campus. With all the books in it…” Janie explained mockingly and let the door swing shut behind her.
She felt a little triumphant – she was happy that she found the strength and courage to talk back to Cal in such a witty fashion. And for once he had nothing to answer, for once she kept the upper hand.
While she was strolling down the corridor towards the exit of the dorm, she heard mumbled fractions of a conversation coming from her room. It might have been only her imagination but Linda might have said something rude about a certain bookworm.
Cal reacted quite simply. He told her girlfriend to shut her mouth.
Chapter 4
Sorority rush night. The biggest event of the whole fall semester – the topic every freshmen is so eager to discuss but never mentions because looking too excited about it might just wreck their chances getting into the house of their desire.
Janie was glad that the big night finally arrived, just like everyone else. But she had her own grossly different reason. Linda, and most of the other girls from the dorm, left. Felt like having the whole building all for herself, Janie sat in front of her desk, studying and enjoying the silence. Those molar equation still did not add up to anything what the textbook suggested.
Someone knocked on her door. It was a ghastly noise, something totally unexpected and unwelcome. Janie sighed but did not answer the knocking. She hoped that the visitor would just give up and leave.
The knocking was repeated.
Janie sighed. Only good thing about it, she thought, that it could not be Linda. She would not knock.
“Yes?” she snapped. Her tone of voice left no doubt of her intentions – whoever the intruder was, she did not want her coming in. Nevertheless, the door slowly opened up. Janie turned around to face the entrance of the room. Cal Bailey stood on the corridor and, for Janie’s greatest surprise, he looked confused.
“Hey, Janie,” Cal said carefully.
Janie was not sure how she should react. Cal’s intrusion was unexpected but his presence was not completely unwelcome. Especially that Linda was not around.
“Can I help you?” Janie asked trying hard to sound indifferent. She must have convinced Cal since his confusion did not evaporate – that trademark disarming smile of his did not flash up on that handsome face.
“Actually,” Cal mumbled, “I was looking for Linda.”
Janie shrugged her shoulders.
“Sorority rush,” she explained.
Cal nodded.
“Yeah,” he said, “I know that. We were supposed to meet but she did not come. She does not answer my calls and messages. Thought she might have got drunk and came back to her room.”
Janie lost her patience. She could not care less about Linda.
“Well,” she snapped at Cal, “she is definitely not here.”
Without further explaining, she turned back to her studying. A part of her wanted Cal out of the room. Another part, a strange, unfamiliar part of herself, silen
tly begged that he would stay. Janie gave another try to the molar equation.
“You mind if I stay for a little while?” she heard Cal asking. Her heart jumped, she could not give an answer immediately because she had lost her voice. Janie had pinch her own thigh in order to find her way back to reality. Worst thing was that she had no idea what affected her so savagely.
“Sure,” she sighed.
She could hear Cal making his way through the room. For a split second Janie believed that he was going to sit down on Linda’s empty bed. But Cal passed by it and took a seat on the empty chair in front of the other desk. Needless to say that the other desk was located right next to Janie’s. In other words: far too close.
“What are you doing?” Cal asked her politely.
Janie dropped her pen and gave a cold shower of a look to Cal.
“I’m studying,” she mocked him.
“I can see that,” Cal replied calmly, “but what are you studying?”
Janie sort of eased up. She felt on home ground, she felt like they were approaching a field where she had the advantage over Cal.
“Chemistry,” she said slowly, “ah, wait! You should know about this. You have chemistry, right?”
Cal answered with a suppressed smile.
“I have,” he said, “but you know that. We are lab partners.”
“Oh, yes, that is right. I do not even know why I sometimes feel like I’m the only one in the class who has to work on her own.”
Cal laughed.
“Come on, take it easy. I thought you did not want me to be screwing around. You said it yourself that you would take care of everything.”
Janie shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, it seems I have reached my limit.”
Cal pulled his chair closer.
“Hey,” Janie warned him, “no fooling around.”
Cal laughed again.
“Just want to help you out,” he protested.
Janie pushed her notebook towards Cal, so he could see what bothered her.
“Good luck with that!”
Cal picked up the pen from the table and tore a piece of paper out of Janie’s notebook.
“That’s not very nice,” Janie mumbled. Cal copied a couple of lines from Janie’s scribbling.
“I just need to give this a thought,” he said and got up onto his feet. Janie did not have much hope regarding what Cal would be able to come up with. She pulled her notebook back and picked up a pen for herself.
Cal retreated onto Linda’s bed and looked as if he was really thinking hard. Janie sighed and started to solve the equation for the umpteenth time.
The night was getting colder. Flickering white stars entertained a full moon on a black velvet sky. There were humming noises rushing out of the darkness all over the campus – like harmless ghosts of sororities past, a faceless crowd seemed to play hide and seek among the shrubs and trees. Janie felt like she was onto something. After the last subtraction, though, the solution came up wrong, again. She tossed her pen onto the desk in disappointment.
Just then something hit the back of her head. She had almost completely forgotten about Cal being in the room. The hit was not hurtful – the object Cal threw against her was a little paper airplane. It fell down beside her feet and just sat there peacefully.
“What the hell?” Janie asked Cal.
“What the hell what?” Cal replied innocently. His confident, flirting smile was back on his face.
“That is what you needed a piece of paper for?” Janie snapped at him. Her anger was genuine. Cal was a source of distraction and he needed to be dealt with immediately.
“Hey,” Cal protested playfully, “you have not even checked it out yet.”
“Your little airplane?” Janie exclaimed.
She bent down and picked it up.
“What a wonderful little airplane,” she mused over it. Then her fist closed and the airplane was crushed into a little ball. She heaved it against Cal.
“Hey,” Cal laughed, “what is the matter?”
“Get out!” Janie ordered him. Her tone of voice was almost hysterical.
Cal got up onto his feet.
“Alright,” he said. “I do not know what the matter is with you all of a sudden.”
Janie did not answer. Cal left swiftly, without a word.
Janie got up and walked to Linda’s bed. She picked up the crumbled piece of paper and was about to chuck it in the bin. Then she recalled what Cal tried to defend himself with. She had not even checked it, yet. He might have been talking about something else than the plane itself.
Janie unfolded the paper ball with trembling fingers. She did not know what she expected, but the last thing she expected was what she saw once the scribbling on the paper was revealed.
Cal had done some work on the equation.
Furthermore, he actually managed to solve it.
He found the textbook solution.
Chapter 5
Cal’s unexpected performance left Janie in a state of pleasant shock. She could not sleep, not even after she called it a day and switched the lights off, slipping her warm, delicate body under the appealing bedsheets.
She lay there on her back, staring wonderingly at the bare ceiling. When Linda came back, she pretended that she was sleeping. Her roommate was so drunk, she just fell onto her bed and soon started to snore like some sailor after an extremely testing night-off onshore. Janie could not help herself, she had to associate the sound with something heavy and furry like a huge monkey or a small bear – at that precise moment there was nothing pretty about Linda. And as soon as she thought about Linda with a vengeful little smile on her face, she was reminded of her boyfriend.
Janie sighed and turned over.
She would have liked to comfort herself with a little white lie. She would have liked to believe that it was Linda’s uneven snoring that kept her eyes open and her mind wondering restlessly. But she could not deny the truth. Her thoughts revolved around Cal Bailey – their little moments, their arguing, and even, no matter how embarrassing the moment back then had been, the image of his naked body. Unfamiliar trembles bothered her body – but except their unfamiliarity they were actually pleasant.
She could not help herself, a little hearty giggle slipped out in between her half-open lips. Then she scolded herself silently for acting in such an immature way. She tried hard clearing her mind and closed her eyes in hope of a liberating slumber to come.
Her eyes popped wide open in what felt like the next moment. Morning arrived swiftly and she still had his head full of Cal Bailey.
Janie spotted Linda sleeping on her bed in the same position she dropped herself onto it right after she had arrived. At least she stopped the snoring.
Janie checked the time and realized how late she was. In a frantic couple of minutes, she fixed herself up for the day and left the room.
Chemistry lab.
For once she was the one slightly late and Cal waited for her behind their desk in the classroom.
“I see Mr. Bailey has a bad influence on you, Ms. Williams,” Professor Moriarty remarked without any real malice when she tumbled into the classroom.
“I’m sorry,” Janie muttered and took her seat beside Cal. The rest of the class received Moriarty’s joke with mild enthusiasm. No uncontrollable, loud laughter today. A sort of fear hung in the air and it made everybody cautious.
“Apology accepted,” Moriarty nodded. “So, let’s continue, right? I wonder how many of you managed to write their reports for today.”
No one was dying to answer the professor’s question. People blinked left and right, trying to identify anyone who did. They must have figured that if anyone presented his work to the professor, the rest of them would be just off the hook. Soon it became obvious to Janie that she was the only one who completed her report. This time she was not afraid to raise her hand – no one would accuse her being a bookworm if it was about saving their asses.
“Ms. Williams,
” Moriarty smiled at her, “may I have a look at your work then, please?”
Janie fished her paper out of her bag and handed it over.
“We did it together with Cal,” she said. The next moment she realized what a terrible mistake she made. The silence in the classroom grew full of surprise and anticipation. As far as it was a joke, everybody could live with the idea that Cal Bailey and Janie Williams were working together as lab partners. But as soon as Janie gave credit to Cal for some actual work – that equaled to an insult contradicting everything the majority of other students firmly believed college was about. Star athletes dated cheerleaders, bookworms did science. Under no plausible circumstances would a Cal Bailey provide actual help to a Janie Williams.
Even Moriarty was taken aback for a second in the wake of Janie’s well-intentioned announcement. Then he buried his sight into the paper.
“So,” he muttered, “which part exactly is the contribution of Mr. Bailey?”
Janie did not dare glancing at Cal.
“He solved the molar equation,” she whispered and blushed as if she had just shared some terribly intimate secret with the whole class.
Moriarty blinked at Cal. He hid behind his usual radiating smile but his obvious frustration drew furious fissures all over his nonchalant mask. Moriarty looked back at the paper.
“Not bad,” he declared suspiciously, “but you cannot expect me to believe that this is Mr. Bailey’s work. Giving credit to your lab partner is admirable but not when it is obvious that it is undeserved.”
The world swung back to its normal state and the class hailed Moriarty’s answer with loud cheering. Janie felt like jumping up and leaving immediately but such a behavior would have only added to her humiliation.
Moriarty handed her paper back.
“Nevertheless, well done,” he congratulated Janie. “And the rest of you better stop the laughing. I reckon no one else could write the report.”
The classroom went silent immediately.
“Which is rather bad since the experiment we are going to conduct today is based on this report. And your classwork today is going to be graded,” Moriarty added indifferently. Then he announced the actual experiment and wished good luck to everyone. The class went silent, the only thing that could be heard was the clicking of tubes and the low murmur of clueless students.