Affinity (RDJ)

Chapter 3 - Day One

He's moved on up to the next row before you can even respond.

You can't believe he actually remembered your name.

You'd remembered his, of course, but it was hard to forget someone like him. He was the first person you'd actually met in Seattle since moving here, and he'd made an impression on you the moment you saw him in your doorway.

You find yourself reliving that moment, savouring the eye contact he so comfortably shared with you and the smile that seemed to reach every part of his face.

No. You're here to do well and get good grades and make your dad and... well, yeah, your dad proud. You scold yourself and write your name on the front of your test, waiting for permission to start.

The test is predictably easy. You finish it in half the time you're given and have to wait for the others in the class to catch up.

You were kind of a nerd in school, spurred on by your mom, who said that if you've any chance of being a good doctor, you'd better start learning the basics now. That was 7 years ago and you'd read pretty much every edition of 'Grey's Anatomy' there were since then. Your mom was your best friend, second only to Robyn, and after she got sick you found solace in books rather than people.

You notice that everyone else is still hunched over their papers, scribbling down answers, and suddenly you feel very self-conscious that you're the only one done. You flip your test back over and flick through to check whether you missed any pages, but you hadn't.

You look up again to check the time and notice Robert... uh, Mr Downey, looking at you over his book and chuckling. He has his feet up on the desk and is twiddling a pen, the bottom of it twirling between his perfect teeth. He'd obviously seen your confusion as he taps his watch and rolls his eyes mockingly, despairing at how long the others are taking. You blush and grin involuntarily as you look back down at your paper.

You hear the bell chime and the shuffling of feet as the other students collect their things and leave 10 minutes later. 'Papers on my desk people, thank you!' calls out Mr Downey as students traipse out the door. You drop your paper on the growing pile, not daring to look in Mr Downey's direction as you leave.

You remember that you have a free period next and decide to head to the cafeteria to see if anything takes your fancy. You haven't had breakfast and the next few classes are long, so you get out your map to try and locate your next stop.

You used to always joke that you and your sister had half a brain each; that if you merged together you'd make a genius. You got the brains, the academic side of things. She got the creativity, the common sense and the directional ability that you simply lacked.

You'd always wanted to go into medicine, ever since you were little. Your sister had other plans. She wanted to go into interior design, or art, or something else that involved a more relaxed life and less school.

So as she sketched, you read. And you still remember that 'eureka!' moment you had when you discovered the explanation for your lack of internal compass in one of your study books. 'The hippocampus is the part of the brain that controls spatial relationships involving pathways or routes' you reeled off one day to your sister. 'Some people's just naturally develop less than others, so taxi drivers have a big hippocampus 'cos they need to know how to get places. Mine clearly just didn't have room to grow, what with the rest of my brain being so hugely impressive.' She didn't look up from her sketchbook, but you could tell she was smiling.

'Ya know, you don't have to have an explanation for everything Rem. Just accept that I'm smarter and we'll move on,' she teased, knowing even herself that it wasn't true.