The Girl Who Speaks With Algebra

23: Catching Up

"Shall I apologize for the 'Red' thing first?" Calvin asked me, as I reached him.

I shook my head. "It got my attention. Besides, after my major misstep with the 'Cal' name, I think you have dibs on calling me 'Red' for the rest of my time on campus."

Calvin shook his head. "Offending people is never my intention."

"I wasn't offended," I assured him. "It catches me off guard, that's all. I haven't heard anyone call me 'Red' since grade school."

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "Do I sense a story behind that?"

I smirked. "My mom's a botanist. Bless her heart, after she married Dad she wanted a daughter named Rose Thorne, yet she didn't want me to get teased at school. Hence Rosemary. But I sensed which way the wind was blowing early on in education, given my loner ways. So I beat any detractors to the punch, by owning up to Rose Thorne before they could. That only left them with 'Red' as in 'Red Rose'."

"'Red Rose' – like that brand of tea?" Calvin wondered. He was trying not to look amused, and almost succeeding.

"That's what *I* said," I countered, grinning. "I would deadpan, 'Oh no, you called me a caffeinated beverage, however will my ego survive'. Or if they dropped the Rose part, I'd go with 'You can see my hair colour, aren't you clever'. They eventually took a stab at 'How are parsley and sage?' but that doesn't roll off the tongue like 'Red'."

"I shall still apologize for the moniker then," Calvin decided.

"Yeah, well, I'm more sorry about the 'Cal' thing – did Seiko mention to you that she'd talked to me about your history?"

"She did, along with some other things you've been dealing with," Calvin admitted. "So, apology accepted, and can we find somewhere to talk briefly?"

I nodded, and we went to sit on a nearby bench. I let him talk first.

"First, Seiko indicated to me that there might be some individuals around the campus who are slipping you medications," he began. "And that their organization has something to do with fractals."

"Right. Do you have any information on that?" I said, warily.

He shook his head. "I do not. Nor, I must insist, am I associated with anyone who might be involved."

I winced. "Seiko shouldn't have mentioned my suspicions."

"She didn't," Calvin assured me. "But I could read it in her expression and in her mannerisms."

"Oh. Meaning I've made things awkward between you two," I realized. "This despite all the help you've offered to both Seiko and Marc. Meaning I'm sorry AGAIN."

Calvin made a dismissive gesture. "Things aren't awkward, but they might have headed that way, hence me bringing it up early. But that's not the only reason I wanted to talk with you."

"Great. What else have I screwed up?"

He contemplated me. "Why do you jump to the conclusion that there's a problem?"

"Chaos follows in my wake. It's a skill. Did Seiko mention I'm seeing a campus shrink?"

He smiled. "No, but that hardly matters. Rose, did it ever occur to you that maybe injecting a little chaos into people's lives is a good thing? For instance, if I hadn't started down the wrong path, I would be less appreciative of the path that I am on now."

"You can't say your suffering was a good thing though," I protested. "Plus chaos is unpredictable. Disorderly. Who wants that?"

"It's not a matter of want," Calvin remarked. "The second law of thermodynamics leads us to the conclusion that all natural processes happen in such a way that the total entropy – the total disorder – of the universe increases."