As Jess rifles through it, she notices something important is missing, “Wait. Where's my social events calendar?”
Clearly this guy wasn't expecting that, so he asks, “Your what?”
Jess informs him, “Social events. You know. Dances, barbeques, potlucks, field trips.”
The guy clearly has no idea what she's talking about, so he just ignores this and just goes back to his clipboard, wishing she'd just go away.
Seeing she's not going to get an answer, she asks a different question, “Okay. Do you know if Tyson Brady has checked in yet?”
Completely irritated, the guy just pretends to look at his chart, and tells her, “You know what, no. Why don't you go ask cruise director on the lido deck?”
That stings, but she doesn't have time to think too much on it, because before she knows it, she's being clustered into a group, and can see others on the quad doing the same.
This volunteer is at least somewhat more friendly, and tells the other new students,
“Alright, welcome to medical school. Here's how this works. We're going to go around the circle and everyone says a little bit about themselves.”
He nods towards the squirrely guy, telling him, “You first.”
Nodding, the guy responds, “My name’s Garth Fitzgerald IV. I have a Masters in industrial design, PhD in philosophy, and for the past 18 months I've been helping my dad bring free dentures to orphans in Somalia.”
The volunteer nods, impressed, “Very nice. How about you?” He asks the only other girl in the circle.
“Hey, how you doing? I'm Meg Masters. I have a degree in women's studies, emphasis in history of combat.” The girl says, punching Garth on the shoulder. “And just last year, I organized the first March for Women with Multiple Sclerosis.”
The volunteer responds, “Impressive.”
Meg responds, “Indeed. Good times.”
Then the volunteer turns to the second guy in the group, who talks without being prompted, “Jimmy Novak. Graduated with honors from Northwestern, and have an IQ of 196.” The other two besides Jess snicker at this, but Jimmy keeps talking, “And it's been said that the great Carver Edlund stole his ideas for his Supernatural book series, from my elementary school short stories.”
Maybe not as amazing as the others, but still impressive, so the volunteer acknowledges that, “Pretty cool.”
Then it's Jess’ turn, who, once the volunteer turns towards her, asks, “Me?"
The volunteer replies, “Yeah.” Thinking there's no way this girl can have anything impressive to say.
Jess responds enthusiastically,
“Hi, I'm Jessica Moore. I'm an Aquarius. I have a bachelor's degree in Fashion Uncovered from UCLA and FIDM, and I was voted president of my sorority, Alpha Delta Pi.”
That seems to be it, but she startles them when she keeps going, “Oh yeah, and before I came here, I told off a salesperson for trying to sell me a dress full price that didn't even have a half-loop top stitching on the hem. Whoever said stuff like that doesn't matter, has never met me.”
Well. That might not have been as impressive as all of their stuff, but they honestly don't know what to make of anything she just said.
A day later, she's standing in front of her mirror, looking at her carefully selected outfit.
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
“This is it. My first class as a serious med student.” She tells herself, then puts on a pair of glasses with the lenses popped out, to make her look smarter. “Completely sells the look.”
With that, she exits her room, shuts the door, and walks straight to her first class, head held high.
Jess is nice to everyone she bumps into, but they're all just staring at her, making comments on just what the hell she thinks she's doing here.
But Jess doesn't care about any of them, because she sees the man she did all this for, standing by a bulletin board.
God, he's still as handsome as the last time she saw him. Time to make her move. She marches straight past him, and she knows she's gotten his attention when he calls out,
“Jess?”
Jess does a perfect 180 and turns right back around, and feigns surprise, “Brady? Wow. I seriously forgot you go here.”
Brady's clearly too shocked to say anything other than, “W-what are you talking about? I'm sorry, but are you here to see me?”
Jess keeps up the act, ready to give him a real shock, “No, don't be silly. I go here.”
Brady doesn't get it, so he asks, “You...go where?”
Jess drops the bomb, “Harvard! Med school?”
Success! It's all over Brady's face that he doesn't have the first clue how to respond, so he responds, emphasizing on the first word, “ You got into Harvard Medical?”
Jess still keeps up the act, really wanting to drive it home, “What, like it's hard?” But then she drops the act for a moment, telling him, “Oh my God. You absolutely have to help me throw together this party I'm planning. Maybe Mardi Gras, or a luau, or even poker night! It's gonna be just like senior year, but 10x better!”
Brady's still staring at her open-mouthed, so Jess looks at her watch, and tells him, “Uh oh. I gotta skedaddle. Meet me after, on the benches?” When Brady still hasn't said anything, Jess takes his silence as a yes, and says, “Great! See you then.”
Without another word, Jess walks away, Brady unable to do anything but stare after her open-mouthed, like a dead fish.
