The Smartest Girl in the Room (18 page)

"Fine. I’m sorry I was so touchy just now,
but I think I’m entitled to it after everything that happened last
week."

Kyra set her lips and shook her head. "No,
you are not, because I ended everything else for you. You have no
idea what that cost me, but I thought you were worth it. I guess I
was wrong." Her lip started to tremble.

Oh great. "Alright, I’m sorry. I was being a
jerk. I know you gave someone else up for me. I don’t want you to
leave."

Kyra sniffled a little bit. "Are you sure?
Because I want to be with you, but if you’re going to put me
through this for the next three months, forget it."

"I’m sorry." He held her hand. "Can we please
pretend that conversation never happened?"

"Okay." She kissed him again. "So tell me
about your friend. Martin? He seems nice."

All was well by the time they landed and got
off the plane, but Mitch had an annoying feeling that there was
something he forgot to do.

Mitch and Martin were able to trade off their
original roommates for each other, but Martin disappeared for a
while (with Nikki?), which left Mitch open for a visit from Kyra.
They lay in bed in the dark, Mitch absently playing with her hair
and wondering when Martin was going to return. They were
technically in violation of the rules, but the Resident in Charge
had disappeared from site as soon as everyone had settled in, no
doubt getting into the Christmas spirit with some of the new
arrivals.

"Is there any television here?" Kyra asked
suddenly.

"Yeah, I think they wired the country a
couple of months ago."

"Ha ha. I meant on campus. Once classes
start, we’re probably not going to have much of a chance to watch
too much of anything."

After about ten minutes of wandering they
found the student lounge. It was ten-thirty, and they could hear
most of the other students laughing from some of the rooms. The
lounge was empty with the exception of two half-awake, half-drunk
students.

The television was on, and after a few
channels Mitch yelled, "Stop! I think that’s Patrick McGoohan!"

"Who?"

"This British actor. I think he was in that
Braveheart movie with Mel Gibson."

Kyra squinted. "As who?"

"The king, actually." Mitch watched as the
much younger McGoohan, in khaki pants and a navy blazer, ran on the
beach, sped in a boat and then was attacked by a gigantic plastic
bubble. "What the Hell?"

"Do we have to watch this?" Kyra whined.

"Just a minute. This is like The Teletubbies.
It’s so weird you’ve got to look."

"It’s
The Prisoner!
" Mitch and Kyra
both turned around. Sleeper One was roused from his sleep by their
conversation. "Hey, Jim, it’s
The Prisoner!
"

"Excellent!" his friend said, starting to
open his eyes. "Which one is this?"

The first one squinted. "I think it’s the
first episode. Oh, look, there’s Rover!" He pointed to the screen
as the gigantic bubble came back into view.

Kyra snickered. "At least we know what it’s
called now."

"Don’t you guys get this in the States?" Jim
said groggily. "This should be required viewing for everyone. It
explains politics, society-"

"The enemy really is within," his friend
intoned seriously.

"Who’s the enemy?" Kyra asked.

"That would be telling," Jim said, and then
he and his friend both burst into laughter. Mitch moved toward
him.

"Sorry, I didn’t catch that."

"No, mate, look! Shhhh!" He pointed to the
screen, and everyone turned around.

They saw another man in a blue blazer, but
this one was wearing a hat. "That would be telling," the man in the
hat said, and then Young Patrick McGoohan glared at him as he rode
off on his bicycle.

That would be telling, Mitch repeated
silently. He hadn't really paid attention when the drunks had said
it, but now... Where had he heard that before?

"Okay," Kyra huffed. "I think I’ve had
enough." She moved toward the door, but Mitch grabbed her hand.

"Can we just finish the episode? It can’t
last too much longer."

"What?!?"

"Huh?" Mitch turned to her, half-looking at
the television. "Oh, ignore them, they’re drunk."

"That makes it better," Kyra snapped. "Why
don’t you finish this stupid show with your new friends and I’ll go
back to my room?" She stormed out, and Mitch stole one last look at
the screen before he chased after her.

"Don’t be mad!" he said when he finally
caught up to her.

"It’s more important for you to watch some
stupid old English TV show than defend me!"

"Guess what? Those guys were so drunk I could
have taken them while I was half asleep. But they probably wouldn’t
have remembered, and there’s no point in beating the pulp out of
someone if they don’t know it’s you."

Kyra thought a moment. "Okay," she said
sulkily, "but do you promise to talk to them when they’re
sober?"

"I promise to scare the living Hell out of
them as soon as I think they’re up for it."

"There’s my knight in shining armor," Kyra
whispered as she kissed him.

"You want me to be a knight? Honestly,
damsels in distress didn’t do that well with knights-"

"Oh, you’re so smart," she said, kissing him
again.

After Kyra fell asleep, Mitch lay awake,
staring at the ceiling. That would be telling. Why did that keep
bothering him?

By the time Drew left for Ohio, Emily had put
away all her clothes, bought her books and started reading in
anticipation for next quarter’s classes. She had the syllabuses for
three of the classes, but two of the professors hadn’t published
them yet. So she was going to read all of the books. Why not? It
would give her something to do while she stayed in Boston without
Zainab or Drew. Jessie wanted to do something, but she wasn’t going
to be home until the day before the party.

Emily still worried about money. She had to
find some kind of job. The books had taken half of her savings. She
quickly realized that cheese sandwiches were a luxury item, and
even eating beans and rice two or three times per day were going to
deplete her savings by the end of the quarter. And how would she
buy books for the spring? She had to do something. She just didn’t
know what it was.

By the day of Richard’s party, Emily was
filled with dread. She wanted to see Jessie and she didn't want to
offend Richard. But... ugh. She didn't know if she could handle
being around the other beautiful, fabulously wealthy people they
must have invited. She hated going into something where she knew
she was going to be outclassed.

She showered and read, but at eleven a
terrible thought occurred to her. She had nothing to wear.

She went to the closet. There were the jeans,
the white shirts, the sweaters. This wasn’t going to work. No, wait
a minute. There it was. The dress. She took it off the hanger and
held it a little bit away from her.

She remembered sitting at Princess Cappuccino
with Mitch and watching him fingering it. She remembered the way
his eyes shone when he smiled, then regretted that he had never
seen her in the dress. The thought made the room feel bigger. She
threw the dress onto the bed. Someone was going to see her in it.
She got out a pair of black stockings, her black boots- she’d
lucked out at Boomerangs a few months ago when a large shipment
came in from Urban Outfitters- and a black turtleneck. Jewelry,
jewelry... It was all she could do to wear a watch, but she had two
necklaces, one small with blue stones and one with green beads. She
liked the green necklace better, but thought the blue would look
better on black. Done. Now someone would see her in it, even if it
was only Jessie.

She washed up, got dressed and put a little
bit of lipstick on. She looked at herself in the mirror.
Attractive, even striking, but she felt like she was looking at
someone else. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be someone else for an
hour or so.

Emily arrived at the house on the corner of
Dartmouth and Beacon. It was different in the daytime. Wasn’t
everything?

Richard opened the door. "Emily! Let me
introduce you to everyone, and then I’ll give you the grand
tour."

The huge living room had a large Christmas
tree in one corner, sparsely decorated with white lights. It was
early, but three other people had already arrived. She thought she
recognized Vijay, Jordan and Carlos. So much for the fabulous
guests, she thought to herself.

"Emily! You didn't blow me off!" Jessie came
running down the stairs and threw her arms around Emily. Emily
nearly lost her balance, but Richard steadied her. Jessie pulled
back and looked her over. "What are you wearing?"

Emily was pretty sure that Jessie had on the
same jeans she'd had on the night they'd met, and possibly more
blue streaks. Now she had on a ripped t-shirt to go with it.

Not outclassed, but definitely outsmarted.
"Isn't it a great dress? Fifteen bucks at the thrift shop."

Richard patted Emily on the back. "And you
wear it well."

Jessie smirked and Emily rolled her eyes.
"Thank you, Richard. Someday Jessie's going to grow up and be as
gracious as you are."

Jessie scoffed. "I'm an original. Instead of
being polite but back-stabbing, I'm a straight-up jerk."

"Oh yeah," Richard said. "That's the first
time I've heard a teenager try that."

"Ooh, ooh, ooh!" Jessie said, tickling
Richard under his armpits.

"That's cheating!"

"You did use the teenager thing," Vijay
mused. "That's sort of low, so I think she's entitled."

Clearly, everyone was in a better mood than
they’d been a few weeks ago. "This is terribly amusing," Emily said
as Richard graduated to beating Jessie with a pillow, "but did
someone say something about food?"

"Richard!" Jessie exclaimed, hitting him on
the ear with the pillow. "You forgot to put the food out!"

"Alright!" He made the time out sign. "Can
you help me bring it out?"

Jessie, breathless and giggling, grabbed
Emily's hand. "You help too."

"Wow!" Emily marveled as she walked into the
kitchen. It was like something she'd seen on a cooking program but
it was well-used.

Jessie leaned in and whispered, "You know,
he’s single."

"Did someone say something about food?"

Emily turned around to see a woman standing
in the doorway. Emily immediately took notice of her head of curly,
almost kinky, dark hair. She was very fair with light, crystalline
blue eyes. She had high cheekbones, large eyes and full lips. All
she needed was a redder shade of lipstick and she could have passed
for Snow White- or a model.

"Since when do you eat?" Jessie shot
back.

"Before we get into that," Richard said as he
filled a bowl with nacho chips, "Miranda, this is Emily. Emily,
this is Miranda."

Miranda smiled and shook Emily’s hand. There
was something about Miranda’s smile that made Emily smile back.
"Nice to meet you. And how do you know these two?"

Miranda opened and closed her mouth twice,
then raised her eyebrows. "Well-"

"Michael," Jessie spat. "But we keep her
around anyway."

"Oh."

Miranda made a face at Jessie. "We have the
same guardian."

"Guardian?" Oh. The party a few weeks ago
started to make a little more sense.

"Guardian," Jessie answered, but she was
looking at Miranda. "Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, or
something like that."

"So," Richard said as he cut up some
vegetables, "is this how you’d like to spend time together? Or is
there something else you’d rather talk about?"

"I would love to hear more about your solar
car," Emily said as cheerfully as she could. Jessie and Miranda
groaned, then grabbed plates of food and brought them out to the
living room.

"Thank you," Richard said before he gave her
a plate of food.

"No problem. Now tell me, is Jessie always
trying to fight with people?"

Richard smiled sadly. "You’d think that,
wouldn’t you?"

"Anything I can do?"

"You’re already being very helpful."

Jessie swung the door open. Her mouth hung
open. "Oh my God you guys! Richard’s smiling." She looked at Emily
and grinned. "What’s your secret?" Then she looked at Richard.
"Don’t you want to know?"

"Jessie," Richard said under his breath as he
walked out. Jessie followed him with her eyes then grinned even
wider. "He’s blushing!" she whispered.

"Just shut up!" Emily said as she walked out
herself.

She found Richard talking to Carlos and
insisted they give her a solar car tutorial. They were joined by
Vijay and Jordan, and the four of them ended up reviewing some of
what they’d done in the past year and what still needed to be done.
Emily pricked up her ears for some mention of Drew but didn’t hear
anything.
I guess
, she thought,
he really is more public
relations than anything else.

After thirty minutes Jessie joined them. She
folded her arms and loudly cleared her throat. "Yes?" Richard
asked.

"I think you’ve monopolized my guest long
enough. I never get to play with anyone for too long, so if you’ll
excuse us." She grabbed Emily’s hand and took her to the couch
where Miranda was sitting.

"We’re much more fun than they are," Miranda
whispered.

"I bet you are, but didn’t we agree that I’m
not?"

"That’s not true." Jessie patted Emily’s
knee. "You were fun that night with Zainab."

"Well, I was in my natural habitat."

"And where was that?" Miranda asked.

"That café on Newbury Street. You know- the
one with royalty," Jessie said with a smirk.

"Oh, that one," Miranda said after a
minute.