The Class Reject: A Martyr in Maelstrom (Book III)

16

Miren knew she was going to get another verbal lashing for missing Ms. Cowdry's class. Then again, the instructor looked at her like she didn't know her anymore, so she convinced herself that there would be no harm in what she was doing.

Just detention.

Her teeth clattered as she walked into the Hartford Union Station, heading toward the Vermonter 55 towards Washington Union Station Amtrak. It didn't take time to locate it, and before she new it, she was on her way to Yale.

"If were you, I'd never come back either," she murmured, her gaze settling on the window." But it was hard to keep her eyes open, not because the sight of melting snow and dirty sidewalks and uncovered litter was a total eyesore, but because she had barely slept the other night. Other than Parker's notorious snoring, she kept replaying Jeno's text in her mind over and over and over.

Olive thinks Miren might be alive.

She gripped her chair harder as her heart began to palpitate. What the hell does she want with me? Was Miren just a random fixation? Like some new fashion fad or boy-toy celebrity? She seriously doubted that.

And sure, what had happened to her did sound as interesting as one of those unsolved mystery cases on TV, but it wasn't Olive's problem! It was hard not to scowl, but was admittedly harder not to smile. It was sort of flattering that she cared so much about her, even if it was just because she made a good story...a good documentary.

But no one did anything for the sake of being nice.

As she stepped off the platform, it occurred to her repeatedly that Olive had some sort of ulterior motive. The thought replayed like a bad pop song until she was on Yale campus, in the laboratory Wallace was supposed to be in.

"How did you like that article on VLSI chips from the Columbia Computer Archives?" a middle-aged East Asian man asked Wallace. As the boy typed diligently on his computer, a couple of other graduate students were discussing electronic processors or something.

"I actually thought it was quite—" Wallace stopped when his eyes landed on Miren. "—Um, Dr. Jing, I'm sorry but it appears one of my peers stopped by without telling me."

The man looked up from his tablet, blinking at the boy. "Hello. Are you another new graduate student? Because I'm afraid we haven't met."

"I'm just a high school student," Miren said, shaking his hand. It was just occurring to her that high school students were in school. And although this was technically a school, the last thing she needed was a petty adult calling her out for skipping. "We have a professional development day and I thought I'd surprise Wallace. My apologies for intruding."

"Nonsense," the man said, shaking his head. "It's always good to see that my students actually have lives." He motioned to Wallace, who was giving Miren a slightly puzzled look. "Take an hour. Show him around campus and buy him a snack or two. Yale has the has one of the highest graduate engineering school funding programs in the world." He bragged, practically shooing them out the door. "Have fun. But don't forget the advisor meeting at two, Mr. Harisson."

Once they were outside in the melting tundra that was early March weather, Wallace turned to her.

"I'm guessing you haven't made up with Jeno?"

"I take an hour long bus ride here and all you can do is get on my case about Jeno?" she shoved her hands into her pockets. It wasn't that chilly, but she didn't need him to see the fists she was making. "What about you and Chara? Why did you lie about leaving Rinzen indefinitely?"