Moose and Goose

Chapter Sixty-nine

"I'm glad we found the time to sit down and talk this over," Dr. Ahmed tells Judith. They're settled at the dining table with him and Kacey next to each other on one side and Judith alone on the other.

"Me too. I've been telling her about you so much that I probably sound like a groupie," Kacey admits with a nervous, awkward chuckle. Judy flashes her a faint smile with her brows low. "And I can't apologize to you both enough for what happened yesterday."

"Don't at all," Judith says, shaking her head with a stern gaze and tone. "I'll admit it was frightening, but I needed a new perspective on - well, everything."

"Me as well." He nods with his head turned to Kacey. "Your ability to remain propulsive is a quality that I'm positive will not only expand our campus population, when you transfer your Christian group to the Morehead campus, but it'll lift us past Ivy Leagues like - Harvard."

"Wait, how did you get a scholarship, again," Judy asks her, and Kacey shifts her eyes from one to the other.

"After you were arrested, I may have boycotted the program. I mean, La'Shawna wasn't showing up, so it was just me bringing in resources and finances," she explains, taking a weary breath. "Anthony and William stopped coming after she went on her hiatus, then Mary ditched us. But getting back on track, I sent a letter to him, and yeah, he says we can move our project to North Carolina."

"Where it'll be appreciated beyond your comprehension." They look at Dr. Ahmed when he chimes in. "Since I don't have much time to get to know you before my train arrives, I'll get straight to it."

He leans to his right, and as he reaches for his brown briefcase leaning against his chair's leg, Kacey and Judith share a glance. He lifts it onto the table between him and Judy.

"I brought the paperwork my assistant typed up," he begins, pushing the flap back to reveal the clusters of white papers. "Your Dean was, for lack of better words - a jive turkey."

Being middle-aged, Dr. Ahmed's choice to use slang causes the girls to chuckle in response. They exchange a look of almost mockery, like teenagers at their parents when they force a sense of hipness.

"Yeah, um, he's as liked as Hitler by black people, but the others love him; obviously," Judith says, rolling her eyes. "You know he wanted me to move into the dorms?"

"So that's what he was going on about." He lifts a sheet from the bunch and lays it in front of her. "It took me what felt like forever to convince him to give me your admissions manuscripts, and he mentioned you not coming back to sign some paperwork."

Oh, shit. Did I forget?

"But I'm glad you didn't." Bringing his hand to his chest, he lifts a black pen from his suit pocket and sets it on the sheet. She scans the paragraphs from the title to the date and signature lines at the bottom.

"So, I just - sign my name and the date, and I'm officially a student," Judith asks without looking at him, and he hums a flat note in thought.

"Not quite." She meets his gaze. "There's still a lot I need to do on my end, mailing the rest of your paperwork, overseeing the redecoration of your dorm, and what have you."

Judith feels her heart beat a few notches faster, and she vacuums her bottom lip into her mouth, gnawing it with her two front teeth.

I can't leave Stevie and Vera.

"We're sharing a room, you said?" When Kacey asks, Dr. Ahmed hums yes, and the girls look at each other with opposite expressions.

Judy darts her worried gaze off Kacey's ecstatic one and watches him flash her an encouraging smile. Judith parts her lips, catching a breath in her inflated chest, but it dissolves with her next question when a thump echoes from upstairs.