Morbid

“Thanks a lot for clearing everyone out, Cissily.” Amy sighed. “They were supposed to stay and set up their workstations for Monday.”

“What has to be done?” Arnold asked, and Amy told him everything that the six of them needed to have access to at their workstations in order to perform all of the tasks they would be required to do. If they had everything at hand, they wouldn't disrupt the class by leaving their projects to get what they needed.

Arnold nodded and asked where the items were stored and Amy pointed out the various cabinets, drawers, and display shelves with the required items, and in ten minutes he had one workstation done. Then he started constructing the other five work stations.

*

Annie didn't regret letting the young woman essentially drag her to a nice little coffee shop that was just off of the campus grounds. They bought their own drinks and sat down, and Dianne told her all about herself. She was part of a rich family and they didn't care what she did with her life, since they had all the money they would ever need and she could live any way that she wanted.

When Dianne was old enough to understand what that meant, she was surprised that her parents wouldn't mind if she wasted her life, if that was what she wanted to do. She looked through everything that the local college had to offer and chose one of the hardest courses they offered. It was brutal and required a lot of studying, and she had taken to it like a duck to water. With her parents not pressuring her, she could do it at her own leisure... so she tackled the challenge head on.

“I'm glad that you decided to challenge yourself instead of just wasting away in your mansion.” Annie said. “You seem like a smart girl and not using your brain would be a real shame.”

“That's what I told my mother and she just did a fake little laugh and told me to have fun.” Dianne said and laughed herself. “My parents are great people; but, they just don't understand me.”

Annie chuckled. “A lot of children can claim that.”

“Not Arnold, though.” Dianne said. “You understand him perfectly, don't you?”

Annie was caught off-guard. “No, not... perfectly.”

Dianne reached across the small table and took her hand. “Why don't you tell me about it.”

“I... I recently lost my husband in an accident...” Annie started to tell this woman she just met, all about the problems she had. How her whole world had started to fall apart, how Arnold was now the responsible one in the family and had to work to support them, and how he had to move out to do that.

“You poor thing.” Dianne said and gave her hand a squeeze. “That's the strangest set of circumstances I've ever heard of, and I've heard a lot.”

Annie let out a sigh. “It's almost too much for one person to handle.”

“Which is why Arnold having to do this bothers you so much.” Dianne said and she nodded. “I can try to keep an unobtrusive eye on him if you like.”

“Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that.” Annie said and looked down at their clasped hands. Almost as if Dianne could tell what she was thinking, she leaned in close.

“I'm trying to stop you from running away.” Dianne whispered.

“I'm not running.” Annie whispered back.

“You look like a scared little rabbit about to be caught.” Dianne smiled.

“You are trying to catch me, though.” Annie countered.

Dianne bit her lip to stop her laugh. “I really am.”

“...and I'm really flattered. Really.” Annie said. “I just...”

“I told you that nothing has to happen.” Dianne said. “We're just two friends out sharing a nice beverage together and catching up on old times.”

Annie snorted and then laughed. “You have old times! Ha ha!”

“That was a cute snort.” Dianne said and then laughed her girlish laugh. “That usually means you're comfortable around someone and can let yourself laugh as hard as you want.”

“Really?” Annie asked and thought about it. She was pretty sure she had laughed like that around Kelly, and that made her smile. “I'm glad, even if it's something you just made up.”

Dianne laughed again. “It's reassuring, isn't it? To have that comfortable feeling?”

Annie nodded.

“...and now our date has come to an end.” Dianne said and let her hand go as she turned her coffee cup upside down. “I need to get you back to campus before your son and his girlfriend start to worry that I've absconded with you for nefarious purposes.”

Annie snorted and laughed, which made Dianne laugh her girlish laugh, and the two of them left the coffee shop. Not surprisingly, Annie felt a dainty hand take hers as soon as they had left the shop and started to walk back to the campus. They made it back to the dorm room building Arnold was assigned to and Dianne stopped just outside of it.

“It was very nice meeting you.” Dianne said.

“It was nice meeting-” Annie stopped when Dianne gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Dianne, I...”

“That was just a friendly thank you.” Dianne said. “I find you very interesting.”

“I'm flattered, really.” Annie said.

“You said that before.” Dianne said with a smile. “It's okay. Like I told you, nothing has to happen.”

“That wasn't nothing. You just kissed me.” Annie said.

Dianne laughed. “That wasn't really a kiss.” She said and leaned in and gave her a real kiss for several seconds. “That was a real kiss.”

Annie stood there with her mouth slightly open and a surprised look on her face. “Y-you... t-tongue.”

“Did I just steal your first kiss with another woman?” Dianne asked with a warm smile, then she blushed. “I'm very happy to be your first.”

“I.. well, I...” Annie stammered and her face went red as well.

Diane laughed her girlish laugh again. “I really enjoy meeting interesting people.” She said and took a step back and held on to Annie's hand for a moment, then she took another step back and she had to let go. “I hope to see you again some day.” She said as their hands slipped away from each other.

Annie watched the bleached blonde young woman walk away and didn't know what to say. After about a minute, she gave her head a little shake and then went inside the dorm building to help Kelly unpack.

*

“What about your work station?” Arnold asked when he was done of the other place settings.

“I can do my own when its time.” Amy said and walked over to the front of the class and opened a drawer in the professor's desk and took out a clipboard with several sheets of lined paper on it. “We need to do an inventory of everything.” She said and handed the clipboard and a pencil to Arnold. “Start here at the front right cabinet and record and count every piece of equipment and item that you see inside. Oh, and grade its quality, too. We need to know what has to be replaced.”

Arnold took the clipboard and went to the first cabinet and started to write down everything he could see, how many there were, and he picked each item up to record the conditions from 'new' to 'good' to 'needs replacing'.

“That's going to take you a while, so Cissily and I will leave you alone.” Amy said and led her friend out of the classroom and over to the lobby.

“You are such a bitch!” Cissily whispered and then laughed softly. “You just did the inventory on your laptop last week, and you didn't even give him the prepared list!”

“Shh! Arnold doesn't know that he just has to mark the items on a sheet.” Amy said. “Plus, this is a little payback for what he said about me to the professor.”

“I knew you looked extra fake happy when you came into the room.” Cissily said and sat down on a bench at the side of the room. “So, hit me with it.”

Amy sat down and told her about what happened and Cissily's mouth fell open in surprise.

“Okay, that boy's got big balls.” Cissily said. “He insulted you and your work ethic right in front of the professor, and he got away with it!”

“I know.” Amy said and she took a breath to stay calm. “So, I'm going to show him that as a senior assistant, he has to do everything I say.”

“Fareena, you can't.” Cissily said. “He warned you that you can't use him like that.”

Amy smiled. “The professor put me in charge of teaching him all of the physical set ups and cleaning procedures, since those are 'standard' and don't change.”

Cissily caught her breath and put a hand on her friend's arm. “Amy, don't.”

Amy blinked her eyes for a moment, because Cissily never used her chosen name.

“I'm absolutely positive that you don't want to make him angry.”

“Don't worry. I've got a lot more pull with the professor than Arnold does.”

“I meant the professor.” Cissily said. “You know what he's like. He chose this kid from high school for an advanced position as an assistant, sight unseen and above the rest of us, then enrolled him in the masters course without having him take the prerequisites first.”

“That doesn't mean anything.” Amy said to try and defend her position.

“He doesn't have to take erroneous courses or filler credits like the rest of us. His sole focus is going to be the biology masters degree. I saw the details on the professor's desk last week when I brought him one of the test specimens.” Cissily said. “ Arnold's being fast tracked through everything.”

“What?” Amy asked, surprised.

“Did you even look at his academic record when we went to the school for the prep speeches?” Cissily asked.

“I may have glanced at it.” Amy said.

Cissily laughed. “According to the professor's note, he had a five point one average on his courses before he finished taking the final exams a week ago.”

“What? How?” Amy asked.

“Apparently, he does all the work they give him, even the extra credit stuff!” Cissily said. “Talk about an overachiever!” She laughed again. “I can only imagine what his average will be if he aced the exams.”

Amy gave her a concerned look for several moments, then she sighed. “All right, maybe... just maybe... I won't take my anger out on him by making him do all the physical labour.”

Cissily punched her shoulder. “I didn't tell you to take it easy on him, stupid! I said not to give him extra shit to do that could be seen as abusing him!”

“For fuck's sake, make up your mind.” Amy said angrily and Cissily laughed again.

“As far as I can tell, he likes to work, so you might as well let him.” Cissily rubbed her friend's shoulder, then put her arm around her. “Just don't make things up and call it necessary, all right?”

Amy nodded.

“Great!” Cissiy said and stood up. “Let's go look in through the door and laugh silently as he physically checks everything in the lab.”

Amy chuckled and stood as well, then they went over to the lab and did just that for about twenty minutes. After that, they realized Arnold really was physically checking every single thing in the lab. He rated it and put it back in the proper spot and he also checked the things he had already set out for the work stations to be used on Monday during classes.

Amy was secretly impressed as Arnold worked without taking a break, like normal people did, especially when they thought no one was around. No one in their right mind worked that hard when they were alone, so she wasn't sure what to make of Arnold.

Maybe Cissily is right. Amy thought as Arnold moved around the lab with purpose and wrote down everything. I think he actually likes doing things like this.

What she didn't know was that Arnold approached it like he approached eating a meal. Mechanically. His orderly mind had no trouble whatsoever with taking inventory or writing everything down.

“What's so interesting in the lab?” A brisk male voice said from behind them and both women jumped.

“Sir!” They said at the same time and turned to look at Professor Crenslav.

“Well?” Hamil asked and looked past them. “You set my new assistant to take inventory... by hand.”

“Yes, sir.” Amy said. “I thought it was the best and quickest way to familiarize Arnold with everything we have in the lab.” She said. “If he only checked boxes on the normal list, I was afraid that he wouldn't understand the importance of having the best equipment. He's also inspecting it for quality.”

Hamil gave her a stern eye for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, actually handling the equipment does make it more real.” He said. “Although, I didn't really expect him to be put to work quite this soon.”

“He already set up the workstations for Monday, sir.” Cissily said. “Amy thought it was best to let him do it than just having him watch the others do it.”

“Hm?” Hamil looked through the door's window again and saw the expert set up at the six tables needed for the specimens for the department. “Yes, good thinking, Amy.” He said. “I'm glad you didn't take his comments to heart.”

“Yes, sir.” Amy said.

“He doesn't mean it like you think he does, you see.” Hamil said. “I recently gained access to his full academic records and it has several notations about his personality and behavior over the years, including special notes from his previous biology and science teachers.”

“What did they say?”

“He's been dissecting specimens professionally since he was thirteen.”

“What? How did... why would they...” Amy shook her head. “They don't do dissections in middle school, sir.”

Hamil smiled. “Apparently, a high school teacher was being punished and was assigned to his class. She introduced him to it and she had only great things to say about him.” The smile disappeared. “I thought it was a little too great of an opinion for someone so young, to be honest. It's not normal to be that good so young, which means he's had the disposition for a long time.”

“But... now...”

“You have to help me cultivate his talent, Miss Hollister.” Hamil said to Amy. “This won't be an easy task. He doesn't have our experience and his knowledge base is a little skewed. However, we can correct this over the next three months before he enrols into the program officially in the fall.”

Amy wasn't sure what to say to that.

“I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't believe that I needed your help.” Hamil said. “Now you need to ask yourself a very important question.”

Amy didn't know if she wanted to know the question, let alone answer it.

“Can you accept the fact that someone you teach will surpass your own talents?”

Amy was now sure that she didn't want to answer that question. “I don't know.”

Hamil smiled. “It is a blow to the ego, is it not?” He asked. “Not just to suspect, but to know, that he will be better than us when trained properly.”

“U-u-us?!?” Amy asked, shocked. “You said us!”

Hamil let out a rare chuckle. “Yes, Amy. Us. He is destined to match my accomplishments... and perhaps, even exceed them.”

“Sir, that... that's nonsense.” Amy said. “He can't surpass what you've done. You're the top person in our field.”

“I am now. What will our new resident genius become when he learns all that we have to teach him?”

Amy couldn't answer that.

“If you can accept that, then I want you to help me as much as you can. We can shepherd this young man into the great man he can become.” Hamil said and let her think about that for a few moments. “When he is done with the inventory, compare it to the one you did last week... and please, don't be insulted when his is different from yours.”

“How do you know it will be different?” Amy asked.

“For the same reason you stated earlier. He is physically inspecting each item and grading them. He will have a deeper knowledge of the quality than a visual inspection can give.”

Amy let out a sigh. “Yes, sir. I'll even compliment him on the good work.”

Hamil smiled and reached out to put a hand on her arm. “Thank you.” He said and went back to his office.

“He just touched your arm!” Cissily said, shocked. “That's amazing!”

Amy nodded, because she could still feel the professor's fingers on her skin. More than anything else, that tells me it really is important to the professor that I treat Arnold fairly. She thought. He never touches other people's bare skin. Never.

Both Amy and Cissily watched through the lab door and waited for Arnold to finish.