The (Mis)Adventures of (Re)Becca Smellie

Chapter 8: Agreement

The Dean looked up in surprise to see Valeria and Bella.

"Who are y- Bella? What are you doing here?"

He walked over to them and gave Bella a hug.

Bella smiled. "Hi, Mr. Smith. Sorry to bug you. We couldn't help overhear your conversation."

"Oh that's alright. And you know you can call me Patrick, Bella!" he said with a sigh. "Besides, it's nothing you haven't heard me complain to your father about in the past. How is Maurice? Haven't seen him at the League for a few weeks now."

"He's been busy with work and hasn't really had a weekend to himself for some time."

"I see, I see. And how are you? Still number 1 in the tennis rankings?"

"You bet," she said with a little smile.

"And um, you had a younger sister, correct? Little Becca! I remember her! My, that child could really get into some mischief. I still remember when she brought her little homemade mosquito death-ray to the annual picnic and ended up zapping up half of the poolside umbrellas" he said with a loud laugh. "That was a truly memorable picnic."

Bella and Valeria looked at each other uncomfortably. "She's actually the reason we're here."

"Oh?" he asked in confusion. "How so?"

"Well today was her first day," Bella explained. "And it didn't exactly go as planned."

"Yes, well, all first-years will have a first-day worthy of the history books," Patrick said with a sigh and fixed his hair. "But no matter, I'm sure everything will go back to normal in a day or so."

"No, you misunderstand. Becca is the reason we're here," Valeria clarified.

Patrick looked at her in disbelief. "Oh...no. Are you sure?"

"She told us everything," Bella explained. "I'm surprised Mrs. Perkins didn't tell you. She sent me the suspension notice for Becca earlier today."

"I've been in my office all afternoon and haven't talked to her. I knew a suspension had been filed but I didn't pay attention to who it was. Oh this is not good...Maurice is going to kill me..."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Look, I heard everything the Governor said to you from start to finish, and I have a solution that'll benefit everyone."

Patrick looked at her with intrigue. "I'm listening, Miss..."

"Ryubridge, Valeria," she said curtly. "Becca's not a threat. Or, not really. But she is the most multi-talented scientist and engineer anyone has seen for centuries. She's a little manic, sure, but when she makes stuff and succeeds they turn out to be life-changing projects. You know what she made today? She created a phoenix. A fucking phoenix. Because she wanted to test out her theory or reincarnation using something the third-years had stored in the backroom of their science lab and a dead pigeon."

He stared at Valeria with wide eyes then looked to Bella for any support to see if what Valeria was saying was a lie, but Bella gave no such indication and only nodded. He walked around his desk and sat back down at in his chair.

"That's impossible."

"Maybe, except we didn't hear it just from her, the professor of that class was telling the investigation officers the same thing. And why would he have a reason to lie?"

"Good Lord," he said as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead with a handkerchief.

"You need someone who can take Aliva from zero to hero. You need Becca, and she needs to stay in school. So, we propose you forego the suspension notice, and get her to represent the school for ISEF next May. That will give her two full semesters to prove herself."