Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


 

All three chuckle.

 

Principal Madison gives her a look. "Nine classes?"

 

"Five for my Library Degree and four for my information systems degree. When the fine arts building is built and the pottery kilns are up and running, I'm going to take a couple classes in art they offer."

 

They just look at her again, "It's all online, I can use the fine arts building for the art classes I want to take eventually, and two or three a day, it's not that hard. And I've already shown I can handle eight classes without any problems. And they're all split into two hour blocks so I can get up, walk around, do whatever I need and then sit down and pick up another class."

 

"You have thought about this."

 

Josette nods. "Two of them are classes I should have already taken for my Library degree, otherwise I wouldn't have chose so many."

 

"More of University of Massachusetts, Boston's handiwork?" Principal Madison sighs.

 

Josette shakes her head. "Difference in the programs, We're 'returning students' and most of us are going for degrees meant for working adults who are getting degrees for their jobs, we're taking more now but we'll have less classes when we start Graduate school. The degrees we were working for at Screw U are meant for kids just out of high school and going for a typical four year degree."

 

Doc and Principal Madison nod. "Bethany is attending Graduate school, she would have started just after graduating from her university, her grades were good enough to get a spot but petty politics got the last spot in class given to another student who didn't qualify but his father had given money to a politician for his campaign, so. . ." Doc's voice trails off and Josette and Principal Madison nod.

 

"We've had our share of money being used to get students into school. One of the girls settled in from the start, got excellent grades, and graduated in Josette's year. The other. . .still had problems and left the school without graduating."

 

"Since Bethany had the year off, we. . ."

 

"Talked about having a child. She gave birth to a little girl last summer and the rest of our family is watching the baby and our three year old while she's in classes."

 

"How old is Bethany?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"Twenty-three now, she skipped two years of school and started university at sixteen, we met her when she started an internship with us at seventeen."

 

"Ha, I'm not that far off then, I have a late summer birthday and won my cutoff to attend school since I'd just barely turned five instead of having to wait with the rest of the kids my age because I was already reading and writing at a first grade level. I only skipped one grade though, kindergarten."

 

"You were still sixteen when you graduated." Principal Madison chuckles.

 

"Yeah, but I was seventeen when I started University."

 

"You'd turned seventeen barely three weeks before you started classes, I'd say its close enough to count."

 

"Bethany graduated with two majors and three minors at twenty-one, having made the presidents list every semester."

 

"I'm going for a dual major too. . .now. I'd have been starting my senior year and applied for early admittance to graduate school next fall if the university hadn't started its nonsense though."

 

"Josette would have made the presidents list this last semester if the school hadn't had a nuclear meltdown thanks to the hacker and the adminstration ignoring everything." Principal Madison says.

 

"Was there anything in the paper or on the news about the state taking over the school?"

 

"They've filed a case and the court filed a temporary order barring the adminstration from the buildings, they were shown being denied entrance to the university. There was . . .a disturbance."

 

"Huff, puff, stomp their feet, and threaten to hold their breath until they turn blue like the two year olds they seem to be acting like?" Josette snorts. "Or did they act like bullies again and order the remaining campus police to attack the real police or whoever had been brought in to lock down the buildings?"

 

"Basically yes."

 

Josette rolls her eyes. "Idiots." The dryer beeps and she grabs a cart, walking over and emptying the machine. Pat shakes her head as she watches Josette start putting sheets in the machine and walking around to the other side to grab them and put them in piles. "No wonder you stay so slim if you do this every night."

 

"The school buys Josette a good pair of shoes every year because she does so much walking on the job." Principal Madison says. "After they're folded, Josette will wrap each set of sheets in plastic and then the towels will get the same treatment. The only things that get folded but not wrapped in plastic are the schools blankets. And speaking of blankets. . . Josette?"

 

"Next Friday right?" Principal Madison nods. "I'll wash them and put the carts in the tunnels outside the dorms as usual."

 

"Thank you." Principal Madison sighs. "I'll make sure the supply dispenser and emergency closet are filled for the students staying over before I check out, we'll be leaving the next day, splitting our time between the Covington home, David's parents place, New York?" Doc and Pat nod vigorously. "Let us know when you arrive and we'll bring you to headquarters. It takes up the entire block and is ten stories tall, we have plenty of room for all of you and your pets."

 

"New York, and the island." Josette finishes. "We'll be arriving back at school after New Years in time for our classes starting the fifth."

 

"Are you driving or flying?"

 

Josette smiles. "We have an alternate means of transportation. David," she yells and a tesseract opens in the middle of the room. David walks through and it vanishes.

 

"How?" Pat asks.

 

"David's mutation, it's called a tesseract." Principal Madison sighs. "The kids routinely use it to travel between here, town, Boston, the Covington home in Tennessee, David's home town in Oregon, and their island getaway, which is why Dr. Blake wants to beat David."

 

David wraps his arm around Josette and chuckles.

 

"Island Getaway?" Doc asks.

 

"In the middle of the Bermuda Triangle."

 

"Please tell me you're joking?" Doc moans.

 

"No, the children used to take off after shutting down the dorm for the night and would go during the weeks students were off classes." Principal Madison moans. "Katrina and I knew they had a little getaway spot but since it never interfered with classes or their duties as dorm monitors we didn't say anything."

 

"We were talking about our plans for the holidays, how we'd leave after I got out of work Friday night and split the two weeks we're off between the Covington house, Eureka, New York," she nods at her grandparents, "and the island."

 

"Are you sure its safe?" Doc asks again.

 

"Are you going to be here for a while?"

 

"Principal Madison has invited us to stay a couple of days." Doc says as Josette turns her attention back to the sheets.

 

"I'll take you to the island tomorrow after breakfast so you can see it for yourself. Principal Madison, do you and Professor Druid want to stay on the island a couple of days? It will be after Christmas, maybe between Christmas and New Years."

 

"I'll ask Katrina David, thank you for offering."

 

"We'll even wear clothes. . .most of the time." David sniggers.

 

Josette takes the second dryer of sheets out as Doc and David talk quietly for a few minutes before he and Pat leave the building with Principal Madison. David walks over and wraps his arms around Josette, bending to nibble her ear.

 

"What is it?" Josette sighs.

 

"What's what?" David asks innocently.

 

"Whatever you're trying to butter me up about."

 

"Not buttering you up, but I am breaking something to you gently. When the twins and Alan come back Saturday, I'm going to be heading home for a few days, I should be returning Wednesday night."

 

"Try to make it back in one piece." Josette kisses him and he walks out of the building. Turning back to the sheets, she starts folding and wrapping them when they're finished. Putting them in the cart, she turns to the towels and punches out a half-hour later than she normally would, putting the cart outside the girls dorm before heading to her room and bed. Waking up at six-thirty, she hops into the shower and dresses for the day, feeding her cats and the dogs before heading to breakfast.

 

"Are you finished with your preparations for your show?" she asks as Michael and Alexander sit down across from her.

 

"Yes, thank you God." Michael moans. "And our former agent has apologized for being such a bitch, if she was this understanding from the beginning, we might have stayed with her."

 

Susan sits down at the table. "Are you done running to Vegas?"

 

She nods. "I made enough money for the next couple of semesters, maybe even longer." Josette gets up for another breakfast.

 

"Did you hear that Dr. and Ms. Savage are at the school?" Alexander asks, lowering his voice when she comes back to the table.

 

"Yeah, they came to talk to me for a few minutes at the laundry last night."

 

"Are you going to. . ."

 

"David told them I know, we've talked about adding a few days in New York before we come back to the dorm after New years. You two are going to have to get some more pet food to take with us when we start travelling." They nod. "We invited Principal Madison and Professor Druid to go to the island with us." They nod again. "David's taking Dr. Savage to the island after breakfast to make sure its safe."

 

Looking at the time Josette finishes her third breakfast and runs back to the dorm to get ready for her second shift at the library. There's no teacher present when she punches in and remembering what she'd learned yesterday she starts checking books back into the system. One that's overdue she puts aside to ask what to do when a teacher comes into the building.

 

"Oh thank you Josette, I'm running late. . .as usual." Professor Fletcher says, hanging up her coat and running her fingers through her hair. "How are you doing?"

 

"Professor, what do I do about this overdue book? It was in the box when I got here."

 

"Students are supposed to hand books that are overdue directly to us." Jessica Fletcher complains. She checks the book and sighs. "They've done this before, I'll send an IM to Principal Madison to talk to him, he's been here long enough to know better."

 

There's no further surprises and Josette takes the cart of books to start shelving them again as Principal Madison comes into the room. He talks quietly to Professor Fletcher for a minute before he leaves again. "How are you doing Josette?"

 

"I've got nearly all the books shelved if that's you're asking Professor. If you're talking about how I'm handling working at the library, I had the urge yesterday to rub my hands and cackle something about how it's mine, all mine. I realized I'd look stupid though, and didn't."

 

Jessica laughs. "Oh I've known that feeling myself. How are you handling the situation with the university?"

 

"What do they think they're doing?" She shakes her head as she puts the cart back and gets on the computer to check the status of the orders she'd placed yesterday. She'd printed out the order forms yesterday and Principal Madison told her to keep the card and run into the mall that weekend to look at books, cds, and DVDS for the library.

 

"They aren't thinking." Professor Fletcher snorts. "They've . . ."

 

"Got their heads in the sand like ostriches, thinking if they don't see what's going on it will just go away? That's what gets ostriches killed." Josette snorts. "I had the same thought, that and they're acting like two years olds with their fingers in their ears chanting 'I can't hear you' in a sing-song voice hoping we'll go away. When it doesn't go the way they want, they attack."

 

Professor Fletcher nods. "That is exactly how they are acting."

 

"I'm glad to hear that all of you were accepted at other school and plan to continue your educations uninterrupted."

 

"Well you know what they always say: Living well. . ."

 

"Is the Best Revenge. Yes I know, I had an encounter with a rather nasty young woman when I first started writing. She did not want to work with me,thought I would never go anywhere, she wanted established writers. . .you name it. I was placed with another agent and went quickly on with my writing career, she went absolutely nowhere."

 

"Josette?"

 

"Yes?" She looks over as Principal Madison and another man come into the room.

 

"This is Dr. Charles Alexander, he works with the State of Massachusetts and is part of the team that's looking into what's going on with the University."

 

"I was watching the interview you had on the Talk last Thursday and when your companion said that you would have made the President's List this last semester if the hacker hadn't altered your grades I started investigating your case. The records from the university are . . ."

 

"Not worth the paper they're written on?" Josette says.

 

"Indeed, but your lawyer had all your records, we had the list of classes you signed up for last fall and your teachers backed up your story. Please accept this new record of your grades from the University of Massachusetts, a certificate showing you made the President's List, a pin that you would have received at a dinner the school would have given in your honor with the other students who also made the President's list, and a certificate for a free dinner at the restaurant where you would have eaten. And I wish you well at your new school, you would have been a wonderful addition to the list of University of Massachusetts graduates if the Boston campus hadn't. . ."

 

"imploded on itself."

 

"Indeed." The man hands over the large manila envelope in his hands, shakes her hand and leaves with Principal Madison, leaving Josette staring at the envelope in her hands. Professor Fletcher pats her on the shoulder. "Open it dear." Josette opens the tabs and starts slides everything out.

 

"That is what you should have seen when you first opened your grades." Professor Fletcher says, nodding at the list of 4.0s and the words President's list under them. "The first of many I hope you have in your university classes. A small box is next and she looks at the pin inside before putting it down. The certificate is held up showing she made the President's list and then the gift certificate is looked at before Josette puts everything back in the envelope.

 

"Thank you for doing this, Dr. Alexander." Principal Madison says.

 

"It needed to be done, Principal Madison. We're going to be going through the grades to make sure all the students got the grades they truly deserved."

 

"I wish you well, this has to be a nightmare for the University of Massachusetts."

 

The man nods and gets in his car. He could have mailed the envelope or given it to the students lawyer to deliver, but he'd wanted to meet the young woman in question for himself.

 

Putting the precious envelope next to her jacket, Josette picks up a cleaning cloth and begins cleaning shelves, looking down when a student comes in at lunch and shamefacedly pays his fine, then coming off the rolling ladder when Professor Druid tells her that its time to punch out. Punching out and putting on her jacket, she heads to the dorm, dropping the envelope on her desk, grabbing her key and walking out to the mailbox, finding it full. Dropping everything into her pocket to look at later, she walks to the dining hall and settles at the table.

 

"Principal Madison told us what the representative from the University of Massachusetts did, congratulations." Susan hugs her. "Thank you, this is all your doing. Dr. Alexander said that he'd watched our interview on the Talk, when you said that I was supposed to have been on the President's List, he started investigating my case."

 

They settle down to eat, idly wondering if David is still on the island. Almost as if they'd heard them, David comes through with a large tray, drops into a seat, and starts inhaling food.

 

"Were you on the island the whole morning?"

 

David nods. "We walked the entire island, he took samples of everything. Then we went to the hot springs and he took samples there too. Then we went to the island where you found those rocks. . ." Josette sniggers. "Shut up." he rolls his eyes. "I would have sacked out for a few hours while he was investigating everything but I was afraid I'd wake up to find him checking me out, he's concerned that I'm overextending myself by going to the island."

 

"Well, it is a bit of a trip." Susan snorts. "He asked me if we'd been investigating the water around the islands, I think he was looking for something in particular. I told him we'd found what looked to be a plane in the water when we were out fishing, that's how you found the rocks in the first place, he nodded and asked if we'd investigated it. I told him we didn't have the gear to dive that deep, we'd just took pictures and marked the site on our charts. He nodded, I think he knows what the wreck is and it might be dangerous. I brought him back to the school, he's holed up in the science building checking the samples he brought back. And that was my day so far. I still have to do my laundry this afternoon and all I want to do is lay down and sleep when we get back to the dorm. Somebody give me some good news?"

 

"I'll do your laundry." Josette sighs.

 

"Josette got a visitor today, somebody from the University of Massachusetts, not the Boston campus but one of the team that was brought in to take over the school, was watching our interview on the Talk Thursday. He started investigating Josette's case and came to the school today."

 

"What did he want?"

 

"To give me my real grades, which showed I made the President's list. A certificate to show I made the President's List, a gift certificate to the restaurant where those students who made the list would have been honored, and the pin I would have received at that dinner."

 

"Congratulations, hopefully you'll have many more starting next semester." David gives her a one armed hug, looking down at his empty tray and blinking. Josette takes both their trays and fills them, walking back to the table and putting one in front of David. He smiles up at her and starts eating again. "You're a good little wifey."

 

"If you ever want sex again, I'd shut up." Josette smirks, not meaning a word of it.

 

After their third meal, they head back to the dorm, David petting the dogs who are giving him worried looks before he hands Josette his laundry and card and would have dropped, fully dressed, onto the bed. Susan gets him undressed and under the covers before heading to her room. Josette grabs her mailbox key and her mail on the way out of the dorm.

 

With students in classes the laundry is empty and Josette sorts out David's laundry, adding detergent and dry bleach and starts them running before sitting at the table and opening her mail. Most of its junk and she'll throw them in the recycling bin when she gets to the dorm, one is her car insurance that is due in January, she'll get a money order and pay it next week, and one is a letter from social security saying they're looking into her mother's case.

 

Sliding her mail into her pockets, she gets up and empties the machines into dryers when they shut off, folding everything and putting it in the bag before getting her coat back on and leaving. The bag is put in David's room and his laundry card on the dresser before Josette heads back to her room, emptying her pockets. Her mailbox key goes back into a drawer and the letter from Social Security and her insurance goes on the desk and the junk mail is tossed in the wastebasket, which then is dumped into the recycling bin in the hallway. Looking at it, Josette takes it down to the basement as Alexander comes in from walking Momma. She pushes into the room where her babies are, settling around them.

 

Lying down on her bed, she sets her alarm for a quick nap, waking up ten minutes before the alarm would have went off. Everybody walks to the dining hall, finding Doc and Pat sitting at the head table with Principal Madison and Professor Druid. Filling her tray Josette sits at the table as Susan says that the twins had sent them an e-mail, they'd been asked to speak to the high school students at their old school.

 

Josette listens to her family talking around her as she eats, automatically getting up and filling her tray again even though she really doesn't care for what the kitchen staff had cooked tonight, one of the few times this has happened. Putting up her tray after her third meal, she taught herself how to eat without tasting it if its something she doesn't want years ago, she looks at the time fills a bag with a salad, pita pocket filled with meat and veggies, putting napkins in her pockets, and other snacks before heading to the laundry.

 

Punching in she sits the bag of snacks on the counter and starts sorting out sheets and towels, filling the machines and starting them running eating the pita and then walking down the hall to check out the other room. The machines are cleaned and the floor swept before she walks back, nibbling on the salad as she waits for the machines to finish running. Washing her hands, she moves the wash from the washer to the dryer and settles back on the stool.

 

Back at the dorm later that night she puts the garbage away and crawls under the covers. The next morning she sits at the desk after breakfast, getting her car insurance ready to mail next week. Putting it in the 'to be done later' pigeonhole in the desk, she watches as maintenance starts cleaning the parking lot after the snowfall of the night before. David is out there with Daddy, tossing lightly packed snowballs for the dog to try to catch. They go around the side of the building and looking through the open door she sees them come into the front of the building.

 

"Mail's here, we got thick envelopes from New York." David calls. Josette walks next door to get the twins key while David goes to get Alan's putting their mail on the table or dresser while they're gone.

 

Josette settles back at the desk with her mail, opening the thick envelope from New York, finding the last check from their interviews and the final footage that hadn't been in their bags. "Good, I need to pay my car insurance." Josette says, signing her name to the back of the check and putting it in her purse for Friday.

 

"That's considerably more than your car insurance." David snorts as Doc and Pat come down the hall.

 

"Yeah, but with all the damn flying back and forth we were doing last week, plus the power outage the week before, I was looking at having to dig into my savings to pay it if I wanted to mail it out before we leave."

 

"Yeah," David says. "Write down what you're going to need from Petco for Eureka, New York, the Covington house, and the island, I'm heading into Boston in a few minutes."

 

Josette takes the list from him and starts writing down scratching post, kitty litter, disposable litter pans, cat food and kitten food for two to three weeks. "Susan will need this stuff too, ask her if she wants a different brand than I'm getting."

 

"She's my next stop, she was in the bathroom when I knocked on her door."

 

Susan comes into the room and adds some things to the list, David walks through Josette's back door and thanks maintenance for shoveling him out before getting in his car.

 

"You have a car?" Pat asks.

 

"Yeah, the purple VW bug parked out back, the school gets in three or five cars every year, the auto body kids work on them all year and students can buy them after they're fixed up."

 

"Josette, we have something to tell you about your mother." Doc says as he and Pat pull chairs around from the table and sit down.

 

An hour later Josette wipes her eyes and nose on a kleenex while Doc and Pat hold her. "T. . thank you, I'd always blamed myself for what happened but it wasn't my fault."

 

"No, it wasn't your fault. . .and Clarinda never would have blamed you for what happened." Doc tells her firmly. "Now, Pat and I have to head back to New York, something's happening and we need to be there, but we wanted you to know the truth before we left. It's what your mother asked us to do before she went into the light."

 

"Thank you." Josette wipes her eyes with a cool washcloth from the bathroom and looks at the clock. "Cream crapsicle." Pat grins at the expression. "I need to head to lunch if I want to eat before my shift at the library."

 

"It's not too much for you, working at the library and in the laundry?" Doc asks.

 

"Working? The Library? I'm being paid to do something I love." Josette snorts, rubbing her eyes again and getting to her feet. Pat shakes her head at the old coat she pulls on. They walk out into the hallway with her and watch as she heads outside.

 

"She's serious about not considering the library work, you know." Susan says.

 

"I noticed that Josette has an old tv but no dvd player." Pat says.

 

"It went up a couple months ago, Josette hasn't got around to replacing it since we have a dvd player and flat screen tv in the lounges if we want to watch dvds. We tried talking her into getting a new tv earlier but she said they were too expensive, stubborn little shit. David brought her a new dvd player, he'll put it under the tree when we get back."

 

"Do you know if Josette had an eye exam recently?" Doc asks.

 

"Last Wednesday during our physicals." Susan says. "Dr. Blake said she should be getting her new glasses by the end of the week."

 

"Good, I'd noticed her squinting."

 

"So did Dr. Blake," Susan says as they walk down the hallway. They split up outside the dorm, Susan going to join the others at lunch while Doc and Pat walk to their rental car.

 

Heading to the library after lunch, Josette punches in and settles behind the checkout desk. The bin for returned books is empty and there's no books to put away so she grabs the cleaning cloth and starts wiping down shelves.

 

"Josette?"

 

"Up here." she looks down when Principal Madison comes into the building.

 

"Oh good, Professor Morris couldn't make her shift, do you mind holding down the library alone until four?"

 

"Yeah, nobody will be coming in until then anyway." Principal Madison leaves and Josette gets back to what she's been doing, checking the clock every so often before coming down and putting the stairs in the back room. Checking the list of books, she sees all the books have been returned before checking on the status of the orders she'd placed earlier this week. Punching out at five she heads to the dining hall and digs into her meal.

 

Friday rolls around and she settles behind the wheel of her car after breakfast, her purse next to her with the check she needs to deposit, her car insurance she needs to mail, and the school's credit card with a letter from Principal Madison authorizing her to use it before she drives into town. It takes a few minutes to get everything done and she's on the way to Boston, parking at the mall and walking inside.

 

She's got an idea of what she wants for everybody, taking the warnings she hears about thieves targeting shoppers at the mall to heart, it's a little extra work but she locks everything in the trunk of the car after making purchases and is eating at the food court while marking off items on her list for the others. Looking at the clock, she decides to have dinner in town and drives into the parking lot around nine o'clock that night. Getting everything in her room and locking the back door, she leaves everything until the morning and goes to bed.

 

Waking up early the next morning, she stretches, yawns, grabs the mailbox key and walks down the hallway to find her box full. Shaking her head, she starts back to her room and tosses the mail on the desk, petting Momma and Daddy as they poke their heads out of their room to see what's going on. Stepping in the shower, she gets ready for the day.

 

At least until somebody turns off the water and David steps into the tub with her, kissing her on the lips as he pinchs first one, then the other nipple.

 

"Did you miss me yesterday?"

 

"Horribly, I needed a big strong man. . . to carry my bags." Josette sniggers. David chuckles and begins tickling her, his hard cock bobbing between them. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifts her onto his cock, sliding into her vagina and pressing her against the wall of the tub as he begins to fuck her.

 

His cum gushes into her body and they kiss as David lowers her back into the tub.

 

"Now that's what I call an eye opener." Josette chuckles.

 

"I wanted to make sure you had something to look forward to when I get back Wednesday afternoon."

 

"I have to work Wednesday." Josette chuckles.

 

"Well then I guess we're just going to have round two." He lifts her into his arms and carries her into the bedroom, laying her down on her bed then lying down on top of her. His cock pushes into her vagina again and they start kissing. With one orgasm under his belt, David is able to fuck her for a while before he comes again. Walking into the bathroom, he brings a warm washcloth to clean them both and then 'helps' her get dressed.

 

Walking her to breakfast, she goes immediately to the head table and gives Principal Madison back the card. He chuckles and hands it back over to her.

 

"You're a school employee, keep it. How much did you buy."

 

"A little over six hundred but I signed up for the discount plan at the bookstore. And the music and video stores gave me a discount too since I was buying for the school. I've got five bags. . .and two boxes of books, cds, and dvds to add to the system next week, plus what should be arriving next week."

 

"That's good, you've got the job permanently of buying books and dvds for the library. Do you have any suggestions about how to get students involved in choosing books."

 

"I do." David says, coming up to them to see what was keeping Josette. Principal Madison looks at him.

 

"Have a sign up area on the Library's server where students can write down the names of books, movies, cds that they'd like to see available. Every day or so you could go in and transfer the names to a spreadsheet so we don't list something twice. We'd have to have some guidelines, no stuff like romances," Principal Madison nods. "Or stuff like Japanese Hentai." He nods again.

 

Principal Madison looks over at the computer teacher who nods. "I can easily do that. How'd you announce it?"

 

"Send a note to the students e-mails, and have a piece of paper at the checkout desk to remind students?" Another teacher suggests down the table and Josette and David duck away as they all start talking among themselves. Grinning at David, Josette slides her card and starts filling her tray as the others come into the dining hall, just looking at them.

 

"You look too damn cheerful this morning, wha . .. ohh!" Susan chuckles.

 

"Need help carrying your stuff over to the library?" David asks.

 

"I'll do that Monday after I've sorted out my purchases and wrapped Christmas presents. I need to run into town for a few last things after breakfast."

 

"Can I ride in with you?"

 

"Sure, what time are the twins and Alan due back?"

 

"After lunch, they're texting me when they want me to open the tessact." Everybody nods.

 

Walking back to the dorm after dinner, Josette locks the school's credit card in the drawer before she starts sorting out bags, moving presents into the closet for the time being before looking at the mail on the desk.

 

"junk, junk, junk, junk, junk, phone bill, junk, ad from the computer store in town about sales on hard drives next week, and junk." The phone bill goes in Josette's purse to mail today at the store as Susan taps on her door.

 

Two hours later they're back with bags they put in their rooms. Josette looks at the clock and then down the hallway as Alexander calls their names.

 

"Josette, Susan, turn on the tv. Breaking news, the former administration has been arrested!"

 

Susan turns on the tv. "What channel?"

 

"All of them!" David calls. The tv comes on and they watch a repeat of the former administration being led off in handcuffs, Josette shaking her head.

 

"Josette, your mail's on your table. Joyce had the student delivering it give the package to us instead of making you pick it up Monday because she thought it might be your new glasses." Michael says from the doorway as Susan turns off the tv and starts taking her bags to her room.

 

"They are," Josette says, looking at the box. Michael hands her his pocket knife and she cuts the tape, opening the box and pulling out a soft glasses case in a plastic box with assorted supplies in cardboard tucked around it. Taking off her old glasses, Josette puts on her new ones and blinks. She knew the doctors had said her prescription had changed but. . .

 

"This is going to take getting used to." Josette says.

 

After lunch, Josette and Susan hold Momma and Daddy's leashes as David opens the tesseract in the front of the dorm, Alan, Abby, and Anna coming through and being introduced to the dogs, the puppies are sniffed as they walk down the hallway.

 

"Alan, I need to take the electrical engineer back home and face the music from my parents and godparents, can you come put his stuff in subspace for me and take it out from somewhere else like you did with the furniture for the girls dorm?"

 

"Yeah, show me where it is and send me a picture when you arrive." Alan says as he drops his bag on the bed. "Nobody get in my bag okay? I've got Christmas presents in there I need to wrap up yet." He kisses everybody and follows David out of the dorm, returning fifteen minutes later.

 

"David's gone and everything's delivered in Eureka." He moves the bag carefully and drops onto his bed. "Did we miss anything?"

 

"Josette was on tv Monday when Ms. Sawyer came into the library?"

 

"Saw it," Alan says.

 

"Josette went to the mall yesterday, went Christmas shopping, and brought bags and boxes of new stuff for the library."

 

"Hmmm, I'll check them out and see if there's anything I want to look at." Alan says.

 

"Josette got her new glasses today."

 

"and they look good." Anna says. "I'm glad Dr. Blake talked you into different frames."

 

"We got our last check for our interviews earlier this week."

 

"Mmm-hmm," Alan says.

 

"My grandfather had David take him to the island and make sure we weren't in any danger when we go there. David says he took samples of everything, then they went to the hot springs, and that other island."

 

"Your grandfather? They told you that they're your grandparents?" Alan sits up on the bed.

 

"They were going to, but David spilled the beans about us already knowing. They came to the laundry and hugged me. We're going to be spending a couple days with them in New York after I get out of the laundry Friday night."

 

"Blankets?" There's only one reason why Josette would be working on a Friday.

 

"Yeah. We invited Principal Madison and Professor Druid to the island with us, sometime between Christmas and New Year. Everybody else can decide how to split up the remaining vacation evenly between the families."

 

"Shoo, I need to empty my bag and put away presents before I do my laundry."

 

"I need to do laundry too, David and I had wake up sex this morning and round two moved from the shower to my bed."

 

"OOhhhh," Anna chuckles.

 

"Round one was to give me something to look forward to when he got home Wednesday afternoon, I said I had to work that day so we had round two instead."

 

Josette goes into her room, snickering as the cats glare at the bed. The flash of the camera makes them glare at her instead and she strips the sheets and blanket, tossing it all in the laundry bag to wash too, spritzes the mattress with a bottle of febreeze from the supply closet before flipping the mattress throws the bag over her back and walks down to the basement and through the tunnels to the laundry. It's empty with everybody meeting with their advisors about the upcoming semester and so Josette doesn't have to explain why she's rinsing her sheets before she throws them in the machine. The laundry bag and blanket go in the machine next to her and she sits down at the table, reading a magazine as everything washes.

 

The weekend passes, once Josette gets her bed made up again she starts wrapping presents and putting them under the tree to open when they return to the dorm after Christmas. The next morning she has maintenance bring a hand cart to the dorm and she starts putting the bags and boxes on it before taking them to the library before breakfast.

 

"Josette," Principal Madison waves his hand and she walks to the head table. "Can we get some volunteers to help at the bookstore Friday. It will mainly be taking the receipts and getting books from the shelves for the students. We'll pay them for helping out of course."

 

"Let me ask them." Josette goes back to the table and looks at her lovers. "Principal Madison would like some of you to help out at the bookstore Friday, taking receipts and getting the books for students. You'll be paid to help out."

 

The twins and Alan agree to help, she catches his eye and points at the twins and Alan. He nods then holds up his hands one thumb down, makes a slashing motion in midair, then holds up one hand.

 

"Nine to five."

 

Josette nods again. Principal Madison sighs and turns to Druid. "Thank god the kids are willing to help out."

 

"They're good kids." Professor Druid agrees.

 

Josette punches in and starts opening the first bag of books, mentally going over the steps of adding them to the system. Finding the website for the company that supplies the locking cases for the dvds and the clear plastic containers for those DVD packages that don't have clamshells, she orders a case of both and starts printing a sheet of labels saying property of the school. Ordering two cases of the plastic covers for the hard cover books after she measures a hardcover book to get the right size, she starts printing out bar codes to attach to the back of the books.

 

By noon, she's most of the paperbacks are ready to put into the system when she locks the library for lunch, sitting at the table, the others arriving at the table a few minutes later. "Think all the newbies survived their first finals?"

 

Josette chuckles. "Wait until the end of the summer semester and they have two sets of finals." All the graduates chuckle and start eating. After lunch, Josette heads back to the library and starts opening the dvds to 'make sure they're all there and in working order' and watching a couple disks on the computer before she punches out at five. Since she'll be the only one there all week, she leaves everything where she'd put it and heads to dinner.

 

After dinner she heads to the laundry and punches in, shaking out sheets and towels and putting them in the washing machines. Anna had given her her mail at dinner, now she takes it out of her coat pocket and begins to open them. Among the usual junk mail is a christmas card from Diane Sawyer, she slides it into her pocket to put up when she gets home as she transfers loads from the washers to the dryers. Punching out a little past midnight, she takes the cart of sheets through the tunnels, leaving it outside the girls dorm before heading to their dorm.

 

Putting the card up, she gets ready for bed. Waking up at seven the next morning, she gets ready for another day at the library. The rest of the week passes incredibly fast and soon it's Friday night. Instead of sheets and towels it's blankets she's washing and she shakes out the first cart of blankets into the machines. Luckily these don't have to be wrapped in plastic, just folded and she folds the last blanket and puts it in the cart when the washing machines are finished with the second load. Tossing them in the dryer, she takes the cart through the tunnels to the girls dorm and heads back. Since they're so heavy she has to dry them longer than her usual laundry and she has time to run into the other room, check to see if the supply dispenser is out and fill the emergency closet.

 

The second load of blankets is folded and she punches out, pulling on her coat and walking it to the boys dorm before heading home, crawling under the covers after putting on her nightgown. She'd already packed clothes for the next two weeks Sunday night so she is ready to go after breakfast.

 

Alan puts the cat and dog supplies into subspace along with their bags, two week supply of groceries, and christmas presents for their families before David looks at the picture on his phone and they head to New York.

 

"I didn't know we were coming here first." Doc hears Josette say as he walks into the room.

 

"This way we can do some last minute shopping with our gift cards." Anna says.

 

"Oh dear, I'm afraid I didn't bring mine." Josette says in the most fake sounding upset voice he's heard in a while. Next to him Pat puts her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.

 

"I know," Abby says. "I put them in your purse yesterday while you were at work." She pats her on the shoulder in a just as fake there, there gesture.

 

"Damn it." Josette mutters. Everybody, including her grandparents and Bethany, laughs at her.

 

"You didn't bring anything with you?" Bethany asks.

 

"Alan put it in subspace before we left. We'll take it out when you show us where we'll be staying." Josette grins as she hugs first her grandparents, then Bethany. Doc takes them up a flight of stairs and down a couple of hallways before showing them a series of suites. The twins take one room and everybody blinks as two bags are put on the bed, a couple of pet beds are put on the floor, food and water dishes, and a large bag of pet food appears. The puppy food is immediately put in the closet as the puppies are given toys to gnaw on.

 

Josette and Susan take the other, by this time nobody is surprised when bags and cats supplies appear in the room. "There's a kitchen down the hall," Bethany says. "I know you asked about one. . . ." More bags appear on the counters and the kids start putting things away. "You didn't need to do that." Pat says.

 

"Trust me, the way Josette eats? Oh yes, we did." David sniggers. Josette absently flips him the bird, her head in the refrigerator as she puts away the food that needs refrigeration. "We do this at the Covington house too when we visit, Mrs. Covington complains but it saves her from having to buy a second batch of groceries when she has eight extra mouths to feed."

 

"Josette, are those new glasses?" Bethany asks.

 

"Yes, Dr. Blake talked me into getting new frames. They arrived last Saturday."

 

"They look nice dear," Pat says. "Now, did I hear the word shopping?"

 

"Yes, after our first interview, we had an envelope of gift cards in the bags we found outside our doors the next morning. We got another envelope of gift cards when we went to New York again, we used some of them when we went to times square but we still have some left."

 

Pat grins. "How long are you going to be in New York?"

 

"Through Wednesday at the latest, Michael and Alexander have to check on arrangements for their show next weekend, and Anna says her mother was talking to one of the gossips in town and she'd told her they had invitations to all their shows. They do of course as our guests. That will be Sunday night. With Tuesday being Christmas Day, everything is kerfuzzled and the school will have a third week off because of the holiday. That means the first semester had to be adjusted so school starts at the same time next year. They have to adjust it every few years when Christmas is early in the week."

 

"What are you doing for the holiday itself?"

 

"Trying to find a few hours with every family. We'll hit Eureka last since they're four hours later than us. After staying in Eureka through Wednesday probably, we're going to head back to the school to pick up Principal Madison and Professor Druid to take them to the island until after New Years. We'll be starting classes the following Monday." David looks at Doc, Pat, and Bethany. "Do you want to join us? I'm going to be inviting my godparents, Sheriff Carter, and my parents too so they can see its perfectly safe. We're going to be picking up the food we're taking with us in Eureka before we leave."

 

Pat looks at Doc. "Is it safe?"

 

"Perfectly safe." Doc looks at Alan. "How much can you put in subspace without hurting yourself?"

 

"Easily the contents of this entire room." Alan waves a hand. "I've had larger loads, Susan had a precog moment and realized a scientist who was looking into mutations was going to have his lab burned after his death because they didn't approve. We got there first, got everything to safety and set up cameras to catch them in the act as they burned the empty building."

 

"I remember when that happened." Doc nods.

 

"I had the stuff from his lab in subspace for a couple of days before we could contact our friend and see if he wanted it. We ended up traveling to his lab and taking everything out. I was a little tired, and he asked if I wanted a nap but one of the idiot new kids at school had been caught with drugs so we had to hurry back for dorm inspections."

 

"Was it the amount of items you had in subspace or the length of time you had it in?" Doc asks.

 

"Maybe a combination of both, and moving everything out to where Dr. Essex wanted it. A couple months ago I helped move the new furniture for the girls dorm. I got all the new beds, including mattresses and boxed springs, placed that first day, the next day was the other larger furniture, then the last day was the smallest items. It was finicky stuff, putting everything exactly where it was supposed to go. After that I helped the girls move from the old dorm to the new one by putting their boxed belongings in subspace and putting them in their new room, that was just a matter of grabbing things from one room and piling in another."

 

"What show are you going to next weekend dear?" Pat asks Michael then blinks as everybody laughs. "Oh take me out and shoot me now, I can't believe I forgot you and Alex are artists. I didn't recognize you and we always have invitations to your shows here in New York."

 

Josette sniggers. "That's because their old agent usually had them dressed up in monkey suits and parading them around so she'd have her face in the camera."

 

"Josette, that's not nice." Pat says.

 

"No, but it is the truth." Michael says. "That's one of the reasons we went to another agent, that and we were tired of her complaining about having to schedule shows around our classes. She once told she didn't know why we couldn't just get GEDs, our being in school inconvenienced her."

 

"What a bitch." Pat says.

 

"When she asked us why we'd signed with somebody else, that's one of the reasons we gave her."

 

"And no, you're still not getting me to dress up and attend that show with you, I don't want to stand in a corner bored to tears listening to men pretending they know what they're talking about when they talk about art while their wives or girlfriends are cattily insulting their 'friends' behind their backs about what they're wearing and then gushing about how much they love that dress when they talk to them."

 

Bethany cackles. "Oh god yes."

 

"And I didn't bring anything your agent would think is suitable." Josette grins.

 

"Your grandmother is a designer, I'm sure she can get you a dress." Alexander grins.

 

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And in case I forgot to mention it, no." Josette says firmly.

 

A couple of days later.

 

"How did I manage to get myself talked into this?" Josette complains to Bethany.

 

"Same way I did? The sex was fantastic?" the other woman says.

 

"Oh yeah." she says. "So, talk to me about your classes at Columbia's Graduate school? I was going to apply for to Boston's next fall before the school imploded on itself. Now that I'm going for a dual degree, I'm waiting for a while. As long as I'm still working towards it, Principal Madison doesn't seem to mind if I work in the library without one."

 

"It's good, last semester I took a political science class that was hard, but interesting. It's not part of my major but I really wanted to take a class with Professor Ziegler while he's teaching here."

 

"Professor Toby Ziegler, who used to work with former President Bartlett?" Josette grins.

 

"Yes, have you . . . Ohh, he showed us his first year high school students syllabus when somebody complained his class was hard. Was that your school?"

 

"Yes, he has a list of graduate schools where he will take a guest professor spot every four or five years. He's one hell of a teacher."

 

"Yes, he is. Did you really have three books for your class?"

 

"Yes, and they were thick books too. And we had stacks of handouts about a foot tall every semester. The first day the students ran from his class and he just laughed. Everybody swore they wouldn't sign up for his class their sophomore years, but we did."

 

"You did what?" A familiar voice asks as Doc comes up behind them, David a couple of steps behind him.

 

"Bethany had Professor Ziegler for a government class last semester." Josette grins.

 

"Is he still showing off his first year syllabus when somebody complains that his class is hard?" David grins.

 

"Yes, and it always turns out that he's using the syllabus the teacher whose class he took over prepared." Josette sniggers. "I was telling Bethany about how thick our books were. . " David holds his hands out about yay wide, and grins "Three of them, for our freshman year alone."

 

"How many handouts we had every semester?" This time the yay wide is a lot higher. "And how the students ran when the bell rung the first day of classes."

 

"I know I did, I think Josette was the only student who didn't."

 

"I was at the school from the age of ten, after finishing the sixth grade, the school in town felt they didn't have classes to draw me out of my shell. I was still withdrawn after the accident and I was tutored by the teachers for two years before I started high school. I already knew Professor Ziegler and had taken social studies with him the first year. He took a guest professor spot when I would have been in eighth grade, and came back for our Freshman year."

 

"And no matter how much we swore we'd never sign up for another one of his classes, he never had any lack of students."

 

"And the school always shut down when he had former President Bartlett as a guest speaker. They took over the auditorium for those talks, and everybody attended."

 

"Really? I didn't realize he gave guest lectures." Doc says.

 

"Yeah, its a give and take. Former President Bartlett talks him into doing a guest professorship, he talks him into giving a lecture at the school. Mrs. Bartlett comes along and goes shopping in Boston for the day. Since the school is associated with the government, their secret service agents don't have to worry about the security while they're there. They usually stay a couple of days, former President Bartlett sits in on some of his classes, he gives a lecture the next day, and they tour the school and Principal Madison tries to interest them in a job."

 

"You know, with the school growing like it has been, and all the interest caused by our troubles with the University, I think Principal Madison might actually have a chance at snagging him as a teacher."

 

"You may be right." David says.

 

Josette grins as she sees a familiar set of figures across the room. Excusing herself, she walks over and knows she's being watched before she even gets within three feet of the group.

 

"Josette," Professor Ziegler says as she wraps her arms around his waist, then nods at former President Bartlett, Mrs. Bartlett, and Diane Sawyer.

 

"I thought you weren't going to attend this party." Ms. Sawyer chuckles.

 

Josette grumbles and says something uncomplimentary under her breath about her lovers. "They cheated."

 

Former President Bartlett and Ms. Sawyer don't understand, but Professor Ziegler grins and Mrs. Bartlett looks smug after a minute. "The same way that your wife talks you into doing something you don't want to do, Jed."

 

"Ohhhh!" the light finally dawns.

 

"How are things at the school?"

 

"Good, thanks to the kerfuffle with Boston's branch of U of Mass, we had a number of representatives from universities at the school giving a talk. One of which was Professor Eppes."

 

"How is Charlie doing?"

 

"He looked a little sad when he was on campus, something about some troubles at home. But we got him back, he's going to be arriving back on campus after New Years and taking over some of the classes so the students know him when he takes over for good next fall. The new girls dorm is completed and the girls are moved over. The school plans on starting the new boys dorm and a fine arts building next spring when the ground thaws. It's going to be nice, since we've already got glassmakers, metal workers, and woodworkers on the grounds, we're adding working with clay and a commercial kiln for pottery. There's that flea market in town during the summer, I think the school plans on getting a booth and selling what the students make with part of the proceeds going to charity."

 

"That is nice," Mrs. Bartlett says. Josette grins, remembering Mrs. Bartlett always liked working with her hands. "If we had somebody who'd be willing to teach, I think Principal Madison would add a jewelry making class." Professor Ziegler covers his mouth to hide the wide grin on his face.

 

"Then next on the building agenda is the new computer lab and library buildings."

 

"How big do you think the new library is going to be?"

 

"If I had a say in the designs, and since I'm going to be taking it over in a couple of years, I hope to be at least asked I'd like it to be twice as big as it is now and a couple stories taller. I'm adding more fiction and dvds to the library's selection, Principal Madison gave me that job when I covered the library during finals week," Professor Ziegler grins. "I'd like to add a couple private rooms students can book for study sessions, add a larger area for students to just sit and read when they're not studying."

 

"Josette, I've been looking everywhere for you." Susan complains. "Excuse us, Professor Ziegler, President Bartlett, Mrs. Bartlett, Ms. Sawyer." They can hear Susan complaining as the girls walk away. "I thought we told you to mingle."

 

"I was." Josette says innocently.

 

"Talking to Ms. Sawyer, President and Mrs. Bartlett, and Professor Ziegler is not mingling. Mingling is when you talk to people you don't know." Susan complains.

 

"Were we just played . . ."

 

"Like a stradavarius by a seventeen year old?" Professor Ziegler grins. "Oh yes. James better watch out, Josette's going to end up running the school one day."

 

"You were playing with President and Mrs. Bartlett like a fish on a line trying to get them to join the school's teachers." Susan giggles as they join the others.

 

Josette just chuckles. "Professor Ziegler is going to be back next fall, he'll lament about the quality of higher education and talk to President Bartlett about coming out and giving a guest lecture so he can get some of the first year students he missed interested in signing up for a class the following semester. President Bartlett will hem and haw and drive Mrs Bartlett insane until she tells him to go give the damn lecture, he knows he enjoys them, they'll come out to the school. He'll sit in on a class or two, then give a lecture everybody attends. She does some shopping, they both relax for a day and go home happy."

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