Temporal Exploring 101 - Cultural Immersion

II.21 Working on a project with Barnett

I was not exactly looking forward to it, but I really had to start working on that project with Dorothy Barnett. Dorothy had not approached me, so far. Which was typical of her. From what I had seen, when it came to schoolwork she would never do more than strictly necessary, and she would do it at the last possible moment before the work was due.

I knocked at the door to the dorm room she shared with Barbara Lane, not really expecting to find her there. Not surprisingly, neither Barnett nor Lane were in their room. Usually, they would be hanging out with their friends after classes. Next, I checked the cafeteria. I was lucky. At a corner table, the four 'rich girls' – Barnett, Lane, Bradford and Mellon – were sitting, nursing their cups of coffee.

"Hart," Dorothy greeted me. "What a pleasant surprise."

The three other girls snickered.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too, Barnett. Of course, that also goes for your charming friends."

"I hope you're not here about that blasted project," Dorothy observed, "because up to now I did not get around to prepare for that, unfortunately."

I rolled my eyes. "I suppose you've been too busy doing your nails, or something?"

Like her friends, Barnett was quite immune to sarcasm, but I rather enjoyed making that sort of remark, anyhow.

Dorothy shrugged. "It is important to take care of yourself." She regarded me with a frown, her eyes coming to rest on my fingernails. "In fact I can highly recommend it."

My cheeks grew hot. "How is it that you guys, when you are together in a group, are so much worse than each one of you individually?"

Carol Mellon frowned. "Come on, Hart. When have you ever witnessed us acting mean?"

I laughed. "Ever? You have never been anything but mean towards my roommate."

"That's different. After all, it was Fogg herself who started it," Elaine Bradford shot back. "All those snide little remarks of hers, about us sadly not yet being able to buy ourselves good grades at this school, and such."

"She is just envious that we own all those nice things that she can't afford," Barbara Lane added.

"That's bullshit, and you know it," I retorted hotly. "Natalie is not like that at all. She likes her math, and she likes her music, but that's about it. She couldn't care less about your bracelets and your fancy pencil cases and all that stuff. Well, whatever," I continued, in a lower voice than before. "Barnett, I was planning to go the library to collect material for our presentation. I merely wanted to ask you if you would like to join me."

"If you put it like that, I'd rather not."

"In that case, let me rephrase this. We need to go to the library to work on that project. If not today, tomorrow or the day after that."

Dorothy sighed heavily. "I guess I will have to at some point, won't I?" She got up from her chair. "All right, let's go then."

She followed me outside. On our way through the park, I stopped under a huge oak tree.

"After talking to you and your idiot friends, I badly need a smoke," I announced.

Under Dorothy's reproving glare I lit a cigarette and took a drag.

"You shouldn't be doing that. It's a nasty habit," she observed.

"You know, you sound just like my dad," I told her.

In truth, I was smoking that cigarette mainly in order to provoke her. I had never smoked, back in the 23rd century. I had only started to smoke in order to blend in at this school, since a huge majority of the other students smoked.

However, I had sort of gotten used to it and nowadays I was actually enjoying an occasional cigarette or two.

"Besides, all girls here smoke, Barnett. Other than you, of course," I added.

"Actually, most members of the Galads never smoke," Dorothy claimed.

I snorted. "That's so not true. Carmichael gave me a tour of the Galads' headquarters, less than two weeks ago, and I saw plenty of girls smoking cigarettes there."

Dorothy squinted over my right shoulder.

"Oops," she remarked. "I think that you just got yourself in trouble, Hart."

I turned around. To my dismay, I saw my tutor, Allie Thomas, approaching us.
I dropped the cigarette on the lawn and stepped on it, but it was too late.

"Catherine Hart!" Allie pointedly looked at the cigarette I had dumped. "I must say I am rather disappointed in you."

"Uh, I was just getting rid of that," I tried.

"Yes, after you saw me." Allie frowned. "Come on, let's go to my office."

"But the two of us need to go to the library, to work on a project together," I explained, indicating Dorothy.

"If you had time enough for a quick smoke, there will also be time enough to settle this before you visit the library," Allie replied.

There was nothing for me to do but follow Allie as she briskly led me to her office. Barnett fell in with us.

"Hart is in trouble, huh?" she asked Allie, when we arrived in the corridor in front of my tutor's office.

"She is," Allie confirmed. "You are Barnett, right?"

Dorothy nodded.

"I heard about you." Allie regarded her with a frown. "You can wait outside, Barnett," she announced. "This won't take long."

With that, she led me into her office and closed the door behind us.

I will not bore the reader with a detailed description of what happened next. Suffice it to say that things developed pretty much along the lines that you might expect.

Outside in the hall, Barnett had been waiting for me.

"So did you get spanked?" she asked.

I scowled. "I don't see how that would be any of your concern."

She shrugged. "I was just asking. There is no need for you to act all crabby about it."

"I am not acting crabby."

"Yes you are. Most likely because you got spanked."

At this point, I was fighting an almost overwhelming impulse to punch her.

"Do me a favor, would you, Barnett?"

"Sure."

"I would greatly appreciate it if you could just shut up."

We walked the rest of the way to the library in silence.

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