Honesty - SF8 (8 page)

"You’re going to be swamped this term, Baby. Is it really wise to stretch yourself so much?"

"Well, no," Ryan said thoughtfully, "but I’m in a bind. I want to do that independent study next term, and I have to brush up on both physics and economics to give myself a firm footing. I really want to compete in this math competition because I’ve never taken the time to do it before, and it looks bad if I don’t take a stab at it."

"What’s it called again, Honey?"

"It’s the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition," she said, drawing out the name. "It’s a pretty big deal. There are usually at least 2,500 people who take the test."

"It’s how many questions?"

"Just a dozen," Ryan informed her. "You get ten points for each correct answer. The problem is that the questions can be on any mathematical topic. You’ve got to be pretty sharp in all of the elements."

"Twelve questions," Jamie said slowly, shaking her head. "How could so few questions eliminate anyone," she wondered. "Don’t most people get 120?"

Ryan chuckled and said, "Um…the questions aren’t ‘what’s two plus two’. They’re hard." She crinkled up her nose as she said this, and stuck her tongue out at her partner.

Patting her side, Jamie acknowledged that fact. "I understand that, Silly. Still…I can’t imagine that a lot of people don’t get a perfect score."

"Um, Jamie, last year only five percent got more than 43. Only ten percent scored better than the median. It’s
really
hard."

Returning her grin, Jamie cocked her head and asked, "Are you sure those were math majors? Maybe they got mixed up and sent the test to a bunch of English majors."

"Nope," Ryan chuckled. "I think the right people got the test. Speaking of English majors, though, you’re gonna have to brush up on some math concepts to get through your term, too."

"That implies that I have concepts to brush up, Ryan," she said, looking worried. "I’m afraid that taking these business courses is going to shoot my GPA to hell."

"Not to worry," Ryan assured her. "I’ll help you get through it. The math that you need to know is really very simple."

"Yeah, for you," Jamie scoffed. "For me?" She rolled her eyes dramatically, drawing a sympathetic smile from her lover.

"No worries, guaranteed," Ryan decreed. "Now get your sweet little butt in gear or you’ll be late for practice."

"I wish my golf practice wasn’t first thing in the morning. I’m not going to have my nice normal wake-up routine."

"Maybe Scott will change it when he sees what a bear you are," Ryan teased, knowing that her partner would put on a good face even if she wasn’t feeling peppy.

"Grrrrrrrr," Jamie growled, narrowing her eyes as she chased Ryan down the stairs to scare up a little breakfast.

Tuesday evening just as Jamie was getting out of her car Ryan rode up on her mountain bike. "Hey, Honey," she said happily.

"My head is throbbing!" the blonde woman moaned. "I had no idea how little I knew about business until today!" She was struggling with her packages and books, so Ryan dropped her gym bag from its secure place on her back and eased her bike down to the ground.

"Let me help you with that," she offered, and Jamie gratefully handed her two grocery bags. "What’s in here?" she asked, poking her head in.

"Just dinner for tonight and some snacks and some lunch for you."

"Only two bags?" she teased. "Where’s the rest?"

"There’s plenty, Sweetheart. I won’t let you go hungry."

Jamie went upstairs to change while Ryan put the groceries away. Mia came in just as she was finishing and asked, "Hey, what’s for dinner?" She walked over to Ryan and gave her a kiss on the lips while she tried to figure out if there was enough for her.

Ryan tousled her curly locks as she asked, "Are you our dependent? I haven’t seen you make a meal yet."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Mia threw her head back and giggled. "That’s a laugh! I’m the last person you would trust near a stove." She jumped up on the counter and looked at Ryan for a moment, their eyes close to level from her perch. "Do you mind when I eat with you guys?"

Ryan came to stand between Mia’s spread legs, then leaned over just enough to be able to give her a warm hug, as she assured her, "I love having you eat with us. It feels more like home to me."

Jamie interrupted the scene from where she stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. "Hey, get your own girl," she warned her curly-haired friend.

Ryan turned around to face her partner but stayed right between Mia’s legs. The smaller woman laced her hands loosely around Ryan’s neck and bent over to peek at Jamie from over the broad expanse of shoulder. "If I can’t have this one, I don’t want one at all," she pouted. "You called dibs on the best girl in town."

"Now there’s no need to fight, girls," Ryan said amiably. "There’s plenty of me to go around."

"There won’t be if you try to share your luscious body with anyone else," Jamie warned. "You are the exclusive property of Jamie Evans, a sole proprietorship. And I stress the ‘sole’."

Ryan left her haven and wrapped her arms around Jamie, pulling her close for a soft kiss. "I love being your property." She released her hold and instructed, "Now you two go sit down. I’ll make dinner."

"Really?" Jamie asked. "Don’t you want me to help?"

"Nope. I sat around too much today. I need to do something creative." Casting an appraising look at her companions she mused, "I bet you could both use a cold beer. Why don’t you both sit at the table and relax for a while?"

"You’re the best," Jamie said as she gave her another kiss.

Mia hopped down and added a kiss of her own. "You are the best, Ryan. And you’re such an improvement over Cassie!"

"Gee thanks," Ryan said weakly. "That’s scant praise!"

Taking a chair at the kitchen table, Mia sipped the beer Ryan handed her and said, "Ooh, Jamie, I forgot to tell you. I’ve got news."

"Spill it," Jamie demanded, knowing that Mia always had a firm hold on the latest gossip.

"I saw the aforementioned ex-roommate today. She was with a different guy, and they looked like they were ‘together.’ I wonder if Chris got sick of her sorry butt."

"How could he not?" Jamie shivered. "Actually, even though every word that came out of her mouth was probably a lie, she did mention that they were breaking up when she came here this summer to torment me. Did you talk to her?"

"I would have, but she looked right through me. We were at the bookstore and she acted like I didn't exist!"

"Her impeccable manners are obviously still in place," Jamie observed. "I wonder where she’s living this year?"

"Ask your mom. She still hangs with Cassie’s mom, doesn’t she?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but I don’t think they’re as close as they used to be. My mom doesn’t really talk about her much anymore."

Ryan walked over to the twosome and took a pull from Jamie’s beer. She squeezed her shoulder and said, "I’d be happy if that sour little face never darkened our door again."

"You didn’t like her from the start, did you, Ryan?" Mia asked.

"No. I really didn’t, and I don’t say that about many people. I can usually find something to like about anyone, but I disliked Cassie from the day that I met her. And when she started giving Jamie a hard time…" She made an exaggerated display of smacking her open palm with her fist. "Lights out!"

"My hero," Jamie sighed as she wrapped her arm around Ryan’s hips.

Over dinner they all shared news of their day. The consensus was that Jamie had the toughest schedule since she had to keep Monday and Friday free to travel to golf matches. With practice every morning from seven to nine, and a class schedule that was without a significant break from ten until four thirty on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, she was really going to be swamped. Her classes were no day at the beach either. Since she had decided to concentrate on managing her own money, she was taking Introduction to Financial Accounting, Federal Income Tax I, Money and Capital Markets, and Introduction to Real Estate and Urban Land Economics. Just to keep her sanity, she added a course that she was looking forward to—Literature and Sexual Identity. On top of her classes she still had to make time for therapy, which she moved to five o’clock on Monday and Wednesday, barely leaving her room to breathe in the middle of the week.

Mia’s recitation of her schedule had her roommates shaking their heads and laughing. "I hate taking upper division courses," she grumbled. "The classes get smaller and smaller! I had to really scramble to get into the big ones. I’ve got one with 105 people, one with 60, and one with 50. I long for the days of those huge survey courses," she said wistfully.

"Um, Mia?" Ryan asked. "Do your courses have names, or do they only tell you how many people are in them?"

"Oh, they have names," she said, shaking her head. "Some nonsense about examining cultures in time and space—blah, blah, blah. I swear the professors must have competitions for the most meaningless course descriptions." She brightened appreciably when she announced, "I do have one cool course, though. It’s got 435 people in it!"

"What’s that?" Ryan asked.

"It’s in the music department, and it looks like we just sit around and listen to music. I can’t understand why we get credit for that, but hey, if they’re dumb enough to offer it, I’m dumb enough to take it!"

Ryan didn’t understand her friend’s focus on class size, and she asked, "What’s up with wanting the big classes? More people to copy from?"

"Ha-ha," she sniffed. "I don’t copy, Ryan. You never know if the person you’re copying from hasn’t paid less attention than you have. I’ll take my chances with my own shoddy study habits, thank you very much!"

"So…?"

"Isn’t it obvious?" she asked. "The more people, the more you can slither down in your seat and disappear. If there’s more than fifty people, the odds of being noticed are very, very small," she pointed out.

"You know, Mia, I don’t think this was what the founders of the University of California had in mind when they established this institution," Ryan observed.

"Oh, so what are you taking, Smarty Pants? What’s your major anyway? P.E.?"

Ryan was a bit surprised that Jamie had not talked about her major. "No," she replied with a smile. "I’m double majoring in molecular and cell biology and math."

Mia scrunched up her face in puzzlement and asked, "Why?"

"’Cause I like it," Ryan replied, thinking the answer was obvious.

"What kind of courses do you take? I’ve never known a biology major."

"Well, I’ve actually finished my requirements for bio. Now I’m concentrating on math."

"You should take this cool music thing with me!" Mia said brightly, thinking that it would be fun to goof around with Ryan during class.

"Don’t think I can manage it, pal. I want to do an independent study next term, and my advisor has talked me into branching out a little from straight math."

"What’s your independent study gonna be on? The theory of why volleyballs bounce?"

"Nooo," Ryan replied patiently, not offended in the least by Mia’s teasing. "I’m not sure this will stick, but right now I’m thinking about studying stock market fluctuations." She cocked her head and asked, "Are you sure you want to hear about this?"

"Of course," she said. "I’m all ears."

"Okay," Ryan said as she continued. "I don’t know if you know much about linear systems, but the two polar models are the random-walk model and the harmonic model. A model in between the two is color chaos, which produces irregular oscillations with a narrow frequency band."

She looked up to see that Jamie’s eyes had glazed over, but that Mia was staring at her intently. "Go on," the curly-haired woman urged. "This sounds fascinating so far, Ryan. I didn’t know that was something that interested you so much. That was color chaos right?" she asked with a focused expression.

Jamie’s mouth nearly hit the table. "Do you know what she’s talking about?"

"Not a clue," Mia said. "But I’ve been dating men since I was fourteen, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s how to look interested when they bore you to death." She smiled over at Ryan and patted her hand. "Not to imply that you’re boring me, of course."

"Of course," Ryan gamely replied, deciding to keep the rest of her topic to herself. "Never crossed my mind."

After they had finished eating, Ryan gave Mia a lesson in how to clean a kitchen properly. The smaller woman watched attentively and performed each of her assigned tasks, but when they were finished she said, "Okay, I think I understand how to do this. But why bother? Maria Los cleans because she likes to."

"I’m sure cleaning up our filth is what gives her life meaning," Ryan said with a smirk. "But henceforth, the price of a meal is to clean the kitchen. Just because she’s hired to clean doesn’t mean we should go out of our way to make the place dirty!"

Mia nodded at her, following Ryan with her eyes as she grabbed her book bag and went upstairs to study. As soon as Ryan was out of the room Mia commented, "I can never tell if she’s kidding or not. Does she really think it makes sense to clean up when you have someone to do it for you?"