prodigy | e.d.

five

morgan

saturday morning, josslyn takes me over to the boys' dorms.

"i thought we weren't supposed to be here?" i ask as we step into the elevator.

she shrugs. "we're not really, but the girls never get in trouble for being here. if it was the other way around, yeah."

"weird."

"right?" she agrees and presses the button for the sixth floor.

the numbers climb up, and so does my anxiety for seeing the guys for some reason. i have this aching suspicion that peter doesn't like me. and for what, i don't know. maybe because i stood up to his best friend.

the doors open and let us off in the common area filled with couches, tvs, video game consoles, and some vending machines. there's a group of guys in there who don't look fazed.

"hey joss," they all chorus out as we walk past.

she smiles big and waves.

i scramble after her down the hall to the very last door. on the small whiteboard on the door, it reads devin & ethan.

she knocks on it twice before simply barging in.

inside, peter and devin pause their obvious arguing and look to the door. ethan is hunched over the small coffee table, eyes focused on a wooden 3D puzzle in front of him.

"what are we arguing about today?" joss sighs and plops on an unmade bed. the other one is pristine and neat with hospital corners, even.

"he's trying to tell me the mathematical incorrectness of one of my poems!" devin shouts. "it's a sonnet, peter!"

"and it's wrong," peter shoots back.

their arguing starts again, with josslyn being the mediator of it all. i shyly step into the room and sit on the couch next to ethan.

"what is this?" i ask, reaching out and picking up the wooden puzzle.

"a puzzle. i can't focus."

"puzzles help you focus?" i ask curiously, observing it in my hands.

"yes," he replies simply and takes it from my hands, setting it on the table and going back to staring at it.

his gears are working. i can tell by the way his tongue  slips from his mouth a little.

"well... don't you need to be holding it to figure it out?" i suggest.

"no," he says quietly. "i'm figuring it out right now."

i sit back, a little confused, for another three minutes or so. until then out of nowhere, he lunges for it and his hands begin to work at a mile a minute, moving wooden pieces to make a shape.

how does his brain click like that? he didn't need to even hold the puzzle for him to figure it out.

he sets it on the table, it accomplished in a geometric pattern that i couldn't even begin to see when i first looked at it.