Authors: Andrew Ball
"That was freakishly specific," Mark
said. "Are you speaking from personal
experience or something?"
"Just going off of the fact that you
consider shit everywhere a sexual fetish."
"Don’t judge me," Mark said.
"And then what about your tongue?"
Daniel said. "You couldn’t even eat with a
sunburned tongue. Enjoy starving for a
week."
"That’s bullshit," Jensen said. "No one sit around outside with their fucking tongue
out."
"Yeah," Jack said, "it wouldn’t be on the tongue. I’ll accept the asshole part."
Daniel nodded. "Sunburn’s still worse."
"I’m torn," Mark said.
"I’m sticking with fever," Jensen said.
He looked at Jack. "Also, what the fuck is
with this topic of conversation?
Jack shrugged. "Dunno. I’m drunk. By
the way, Daniel, before you were drunk you
were pretty awesome at being the
commander. You didn’t tell me you played it
that much before."
"I used to be into video games, comic
books. That was a while ago."
"You’re a closet nerd?" Jensen said.
"Every guy is a closet nerd," Mark said,
"they just keep it quiet. Some guys are your
normal video game nerds. Some are car
nerds. And there’s stuff like book nerds,
trivia nerds, music nerds, outdoors nerds.
They just don’t call it nerd for stuff other
than things that make you get off your ass or
that also appeal to women. That’s the thing."
"That was deep," Jensen said.
"Thank you."
"Not as deep as I was in your mother,
though."
Daniel burst out laughing. Even Mark
chuckled. Jack groaned.
****
Mark and Jensen had left. Daniel had
shut off the TV. He was sitting in his chair,
thinking. Just thinking.
His buzz was dying, and as his senses
came back, he could finally hear his body
shouting for water. He sipped from a plastic
cup. It helped with the headache.
Jack was up on his bunk, splayed out
over the sheets and blankets. He had a soft
snore. He was also about to fall out of his
bed.
Daniel set his cup down, stood up, and
started roughly shoving his friend further
back. Jack awoke with a startled grunt.
"Wassa…what the shit?"
"Just making sure you don’t fall down
and crack your skull open."
"Uh…" Jack seemed to realize where he
was, and what was happening, and he
scooted back. "Oh, thanks."
"Yeah, man. No worries." Daniel sat
back down.
"Ey, Dan."
"Yo."
"Thanks, man."
"It wasn’t a big deal."
Jack shook his head. His voice was
slurred, still half-drunk. "No, I mean…for
stuff. You know. Just…being cool. And
friends."
"…no problem."
Jack’s snores started again.
Daniel sipped his water.
****
"Come on," Rachel whined.
"For god’s sake, Rachel, we’re in
college. Figure it out yourself."
"I seriously don’t get this."
"Then you seriously need to work on it,"
Eleanor said, "and stop bothering me about
it."
Rachel and Eleanor were sitting in the
common room. Eleanor had just finished her
calculus homework; Rachel was still mired
in the middle of it.
And Daniel had managed to sneak up on
them.
He slowly raised his head behind the
back of the couch and took a deep breath.
"AHHH!"
They both shrieked. Rachel flipped onto
her feet and balled up her fists. Eleanor
crouched on the cushions like a cat. It was
quite an athletic performance. Daniel
laughed at the looks on their faces.
Rachel sighed and let her hands drop.
"You bastard."
"Oh, yes, just what I needed," Eleanor
said. "More Fitzgerald." In a moment, she
was seated again, hands folded in her lap,
poised like a model. It was almost uncanny
how she always looked perfect.
"Don’t be jealous, Eleanor," Daniel
said. "There’s plenty of me to go around.
Whatcha up to?"
"I’m trying to get Elly to help me with
calculus," Rachel said, "but she’s being a
jerk."
"Honestly," Eleanor said. "Try reading the textbook."
"That thing makes my head hurt."
Daniel propped his elbows on the tops
of the blue cushions. "Why are you in
calculus, anyway?" he asked Rachel.
"You’re an English major."
She made a face and flicked her eyes at
Eleanor. "Scheduling issues."
"You’re smart enough to get it," Eleanor
said. "Apply yourself."
"Apply myself. Apply myself. That’s all
I hear from you people." Rachel pouted and
flopped on the couch. "Math hates my brain."
"Maybe I can help," Daniel said.
"Absolutely not," Eleanor said. "She
won’t have you as a crutch during the test."
"What are you, her mother?" Daniel
rolled his shoulders. "I can teach her how to
do the problems, not just give her the
answers. You can huff and puff and blow
some houses down in the corner over there."
"You’re pushing your luck, Fitzgerald,"
Eleanor said. "She doesn’t need your help.
And I don’t need a headache."
Rachel sighed. "Please keep talking
about me like I’m not here."
Daniel almost responded to Eleanor, but
decided there were more pressing matters.
He hopped over the couch and sat down next
to Rachel. She snuggled into him.
They’d gone on several dates, now, and
things were going quite well. That mutual
secret hung in the air, but it wasn’t bothering
him too much.
Daniel couldn’t ever tell her he was a
contractor. It simply wasn’t an option. He
could not get her involved in that world. But
he couldn’t help but wonder what her secret
was.
He glanced at Eleanor. What was the
connection?
Eleanor’s lips pressed together at the
sight of their cuddle. She stared back at him
for a moment, then silently sat on the far end
of the couch and opened her laptop. Daniel
felt extremely pleased with himself.
"How do you learn math?" Daniel
asked.
"…memorize how to do the problems,"
Rachel said. "Isn’t that how everyone does
it?"
"See, there’s the issue right there.
You’ve got no real strategy, so you’re
floundering around wondering what the hell
you’re supposed to do."
"Thanks for the tip, Sherlock."
"Baby steps." Daniel took her notebook
and started writing on a blank page. "Doing
math is like building a house. The laws and
rules are your tools. If you know your
toolbox inside and out, you’ll never see a
problem you don’t know how to handle.
That’s five hundred times better than trying
to memorize the problems." He wrote the
two theorems that pertained to the section
she was working on. "The most important
thing would be to learn how to separate out
what you actually need from the rest of the
crap in the chapter. That takes time, but I can
help with that part until you figure it out."
"…ok." She tapped the paper. "So how
do these help me?"
"Look at this problem." Daniel led her
through the textbook example with a finger,
showing the difference between how the
theorem was written and how it was actually
applied. He then immediately flipped to a
work problem of the same nature. She
stuttered her way through it. He let her check
back with the rule as needed.
Rachel sighed. "I can’t believe you
wrote that from memory. You’re surprisingly
smart."
"Surprisingly? I take offense to that."
"You look too hot to have any brains.
Some people have all the luck."
Daniel grinned. "Right back at you,
sweet cheeks."
"Sweet cheeks? Did you find that
compliment in a time capsule somewhere?"
"Stop concentrating on my raw animal
magnetism and focus," Daniel said. He
slapped the notebook. "Do you know the
definition of the derivative by heart?"
"…I memorized it for the first test?"
Rachel offered hopefully.
"You need to be able to explain that off
the top of your head. So let’s back up and
start there."
As Daniel taught, he quickly realized
how little foundation Rachel had in the
subject. She must have been getting along by
the skin of her teeth. He sighed. "This is
turning into a lot of work."
Rachel looked at where Eleanor was
busy clicking on her laptop, then back to him.
"Well, sorry if I’m not a genius like some
people."
"It’s turning into too much work for
tonight," Daniel clarified. "The next test is the Friday after next. That gives us 12 days."
"You’ll really tutor me?"
"Sure, why not?"
Her cheeks blushed slightly pink.
"Thank you. But I wouldn’t want to take time
away from -"
Daniel waved her off. "Don’t worry
about it. Plenty of time to whip your math
into shape after class."
"Whip, huh?" Rachel grinned. "I kinda
like the sound of that."
"Do behave, Miss Ashworth." He kissed
her. She kissed back.
"You two are sickening." Eleanor stood
and folded her laptop under her arm. "I’ll be
in the room. Don’t be late again, Rachel.
We’ve got work to do." She marched away.
Daniel and Rachel were left alone on the
couch.
"If this is sickening," Daniel said, "I think I’d like to venture on into disgusting."
Rachel didn’t crack a smile. She sat back
with a serious look on her face. "What’s the
matter?" he asked.
"Eleanor. She’s not taking us very well."
"So what else is new?"
"She always gets short with me when
she’s irritated," Rachel said. "She’s about as short as a midget right now."
"Just let her fuss," Daniel said. "Stop making it your problem."
"I’m worried she’ll -"
"That’s her problem."
"She’s my sister."
"So why is the Great Wall of China
sitting there?" Daniel said. "Talk to her."
"…I couldn’t -"
"Rachel." He tapped her shoulder. "It’s obvious every time I see you two. You’re her
loyal subject. Suddenly you’ve struck out on
your own, and she’s lost. Tell her that you
need some space. She’ll come to terms if you
give it to her straight." Daniel scratched his
ear. "Probably. I mean, you’re basically
sisters, right? Sure, you fight sometimes. I’m
not always in love with Felix. But you work
things out over time."
She looked away from him. "…it’s more
complicated than that."
Daniel thought hard. She always ended
it with something vague when he started
circling in on the nature of their relationship.
It was at the core of her secret.
He was starting to form ideas worthy of
a conspiracy theorist. The Astors were
obviously a powerful family. He’d looked up
a bit of information and discovered that they
were the people that actually owned Times
Square before it was called Times Square.
Who knew how much influence was being
exerted over Rachel? How one-sided was
their sisterhood?
He had to wonder what Eleanor was
doing at Northeastern. Not to put down his
own school, but she reeked of Harvard’s
corn cob pipes.
He decided to let it go. They did make a
promise, after all. "Just my two cents,"
Daniel said. "I don’t really know what I’m
talking about. You’ve known her for eight
years."
"Sometimes a stranger’s perspective can
be valuable," Rachel said. "But…it’s
complicated."
"Very complicated." He turned her head
with his hand and kissed her on the forehead.
"I don’t like it when you’re upset. I’m right
here, ok?"
"I know. Thank you." She smiled. "It’s weird. I feel like I’ve known you forever."
Daniel stretched. "Well, we live in the
same dorm, huh?"
"Yeah. Umm. Thank you, for helping me
with this, too."
"A girl in need is a princess indeed,"
Daniel said. "Seriously, you can ace this
test."
"You think so?"
"Easily. I’ve crammed twice as much in
a quarter the time. We just have to run
through the problems until you can do them
without the cheat sheet."
"Yeah. I guess…it’s really tough to read
math." She fingered the page with the
theorems they’d written down. "With
everything I need in one place, it’s a little
easier."
"You know what I don’t get?"
"What?"
"Why doesn’t Eleanor help you out?
You keep telling me she’s a genius, right?"
Rachel sighed. "Elly is…she’s just one
of those people that’s good at everything on
the first try. It just comes to her. But she’s an
awful teacher. She can’t explain herself."
The more Daniel heard about Eleanor,
the more paranoid he got. She was rich. She
was spoiled. She was talented. She’d never
had to work hard. She was probably used to