I'm Normally Perfect (re-upload)

Chapter Twenty-Five

'Maybe he likes you. You did go to that party with him. He probably thinks you like him in return.'

'I didn't say that to him.'

She chuckled, 'Catherine, you do surprise me. Usually people believe that those they like, like them back. Whether that person verbally declares it or not. Does that make sense?'

'I guess.' I sighed, 'I don't think a person likes me unless they state it, though.' I shook my head, returning to the original subject, 'Anyway, then I had to see Professor Burrows for our weekly chat and that was just...have I already used the word "bizarre"?'

'Yes.'

'What about "weird"?'

'Uh huh.'

'Ok. Surreal, then. It was surreal.'

'In what way?' She regarded me as curiously as driving would allow.

'First off,' I turned as much as I could with my safety belt on and faced her, and stated, 'you are a subversive hellion.'

She burst out in deep throated chuckles and nodded, 'That's right.'

In a serious way I asked, 'Have you been hanging around with those Colombian drug runners again?' She laughed and nodded guiltily. I sighed deeply, 'Alex, why? Why?' I stopped playing about, 'He also said I should call you "Professor Pristin" at school, as a sign of respect. I told him I respected you loads, but I wondered if he did.'

'Oh, Cate, you shouldn't have said that.' I could tell she wasn't too upset by it, though.

'Then he thought it interesting that I liked Dr MacBeth.'

She seemed as confounded by that as I had been, 'How did that subject arise?'

'I said I liked Dr MacBeth and he went over...queer. I'm running out of synonyms for odd. He seemed interested in the fact that I liked her.'

'I wonder why? What did he say precisely?'

I thought back, 'Um, I said she was lovely and very intelligent and he said,' I cleared my throat and did an imitation of him, ' "She is indeed intelligent." And I asked if he didn't like her and he said he did, but that he thought it, "fitting that you find her to be lovely."' Alex laughed and I asked, 'You know her, right? She's in that group of yours that meets once a month, right?' I thought she'd mentioned something about that before.

She nodded, 'Yes, she's always seemed a nice sort. Rather serious and very smart. I don't know her well, though, I can't think why he'd dislike her.'

'Huh. Then again, Professor Burrows doesn't need a rational reason to dislike someone, you subversive hellion.'

'That's Professor Subversive-Hellion to you.' We broke up laughing again. 'That reminds me, Kenneth popped by my office today and asked if I was officially dropping out of the group as I hadn't made a meeting in months. I said I'd been consumed by other things lately, but I'd be at the next one.'

'Oh, that's good. You should get out of the house more.'

She snorted and threw a glance my way. 'He said you were welcome to join us. They'd like to meet you, I believe.'

'You "believe"?'

She smiled, 'I know they would. They were asking after you all last year.' I groaned at the thought of socialising and she added, 'It won't be that horrible. There will be no beer or raucous music. There will be wine, though.'

'Great, I'll need it.'

'Does that mean you're accepting the invitation?' She seemed a bit surprised.

I sighed, 'All right. If you're sure one of the Egyptology professors won't suddenly break out a techno CD.'

'I make no promises. It would more likely be Radiohead or Massive Attack, though.' I gaped at her and she laughed, 'You think I don't know who those bands are? Have you looked down my CD collection at all?'

'No, I was scared I'd be overwhelmed with the desire to rearrange everything by alphabetical order or chronologically or something. And, quite frankly, I don't have the time.' The truth was, I had never thought to look over her music collection and had just stuck with the two notebooks of my CDs I'd brought from America.

'Well, if you ever do, I think you'll find I'm not quite the pensioner you think I am.'

I stressed each word, 'I do not think you're a pensioner.' I shook my head, 'I just can't believe you know who Radiohead is.' I tried to picture her rocking out to "Creep" and began giggling.

She stole a couple of glances my way and asked, 'What's so funny?'

'Nothing.' Suddenly the thought of her playing air guitar popped into my head and I doubled over with laughter.

'For the love of Nora, what is your problem?'

'Nothing. Nothing.' Tears were streaming down my face as increasingly ludicrous scenarios presented themselves, Alex in a Metallica t-shirt holding aloft a lighter, Alex earnestly singing along with that Stone Temple Pilots song "Dead and Bloated".

'You know, Catherine, if I didn't know you better I'd think you'd been taking the pot.'

I wiped my eyes, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You don't strike me as a Radiohead sort of person, that's all.'

'What about Portishead, because I think they're brilliant.'

'Who?'

'My God, Catherine, get with it. I'll loan you my CD. They're a relatively new band out of Bristol; you must give them a listen. No wonder you don't get on with people your own age.'

'What type of music is it?'

'Rather like jazz. They call it something ridiculous like "Trip hop", I think.'

I was sceptical, ' "Portishead?" You say?'

She chuckled, 'Yes, it's the name of the town one of the members is from.' To my impressed expression she said, 'You're not the only one who can know facts about bands, Madam Fleetwood Mac.'