The rest of the week flew by. Pierce found it hard to believe she’d only lived at the Complex for a few weeks; she felt as if she had spent her entire life at the Complex. Eventually, after much cajoling, Dr. Spencer and Dr. Claries gave her an electro-slate of her own. Actually, Dr. Spencer didn’t mind Pierce having her own electro-slate; it was Dr. Claries who objected the idea. In the end, the two Doctors and settled on an agreement: Pierce would receive her own electro-slate, but certain restrictions would be enforced on it. For example, she wasn’t allowed to connect to websites not approved by Dr. Spencer or Dr. Claries.
Indigo and Pierce had also established a system around Dr. Claries, who disapproved of Indigo uttering more than a two-worded sentence to Pierce. Whenever Dr. Claries was around, Indigo would put on an indifferent face and Pierce didn’t talk much. Dr. Claries seemed to buy into their acting because she never pulled Indigo aside for any other side conversations.
There were a few other kids Pierce’s age around the Complex, but none of them ever offered her the chance to befriend them. As a result, Pierce still spent most of her time talking with Dr. Spencer and Indigo only. During her spare time, which wasn’t much, Pierce sometimes helped out Cook Asha in the kitchen.
This is pretty sad, Pierce thought. I can count on one hand the number of people I interact with daily. Indigo, Dr. Claries, Dr. Spencer, Rick and Asha.
However, one thing that kept on bothering Pierce was the fact that she wasn’t improving as fast as she would like. In fact, she was falling under the expected improvement rate in a few areas. At the moment, she was feeling pretty dejected after finding out her time had actually gotten worse from last session’s mile swim.
“Cheer up,” said Indigo. “It could be worse.”
“Worse?” Pierce asked. “How can anything be worse than regressing?”
“Instead of adding two minutes to your time you could’ve added three minutes.”
“I’m not just improving at a below target pace, I’m deprogressing!”
“Is deprogressing even a word?”
“I don’t care!”
Indigo kept silent, sensing that Pierce was in a foul mood.
“It’s been almost three weeks,” Pierce said. “And I want to see results. Good results.”
Pierce wrung out her wet hair and drew the towel around her shoulders tighter, wishing the AC wasn’t so strong in the gym.
“I’m showering,” she said, heading for the female locker room.
“Alright. Don’t take too long. You have your weekly meeting with Dr. Spencer in a while.”
“Trainer Rick is leaving,” said Dr. Spencer. “He has some family matters to attend and has already left.”
“Is he coming back?” Pierce asked.
“Of course he is, but it may be a while before he returns. In the meantime, we need to find someone to take over Trainer Rick’s role for you.”
Please don’t let it be Dr. Claries, Pierce thought. I don’t know how much of that woman I can stand before I go crazy.
