Conniveo

Chapter 9: Translation

"Yuje?"

"Yeah?"

"I have this friend who works in a comic book store. Major Marvel Universe aficionado, but he's also a physicist - at least that's what he majored in. I asked him about it and he says we should come have a talk."

"Comic book geek though? You couldn't have come up with anything more original?"

"Hey, they're better than you think. Anyway, I'll come pick you up this evening. That's when he says he'll be free."

"Better be worth it though. I'm not a big respecter of comic nerds."

"Whatever Yuje. Don't go visiting Kana without me."

"I'll stay right here, sir."

I hung up and sipped my coffee. My schedule was somewhat free, even though I knew I should be using the time to study. Greg was filming something from an old script he had and was hoping to submit it into some indie film competition. Irene kicked my leg.

"So you're with King Hall now?"

"It's too early for this foolishness, Lady Irene."

"You guys have been all love-birdish all day. I mean, that's like the third time he's called you, and it's not even noon yet. Hmm...maybe that's why you shot me down."

"I'm not even going to bother."

"Oh cool it Yuje, you know I'm kidding. Or maybe I'm onto something..."

"I'm in a dilemma as to whether to hit you or not. If I hit you, something inside me will scream it's wrong, but if I don't the little chauvinistic part of me will accuse me of thinking you're the weaker sex."

"The beauty of womanhood. We can eat our cake and have it at the same time."

"Too bad you also have to deal with periods and child birth."

"Eww, Yuje. I'm still eating."

"What did I say? 'Period'?"

Irene formed a fake scowl but smiled shortly afterwards. She wasn't the only one with the belief that Greg and I were doing something. Mum was sure to think the same thing too after Greg muttered something about us hiding in the closet yesterday because he was trying to get me to face my claustrophobia. When a gay guy uses your name and 'closet' in the same sentence, it's bound to set off a certain thought chain. It was a stupid lie anyway, but I couldn't have come up with anything better at the time. I couldn't even come up with a good one now.

"Did Leo get back to us about our projects?"

"It's way too early for that. We submitted just yesterday."

"I know, but I still want feedback." Of course she did. Her Albany dress story was bound to get interesting reviews. 

"When are we to submit Matthews's assignment?"

"Oh shit, I totally forgot. I think it's today."

"Oh well."

"You're not doing it?"

"Google is your friend, dear."

She raised an eyebrow and I chuckled. I mean, which normal 21st century American student didn't involve Google in their assignments? Just find the right sites to copy and paste from and you're good. Irene and I finished our late breakfast and decided to whip out the laptops and get to work. I ran a search on assignment topic, skipped to page 4 of the results page and began to look from there. I always made sure I avoided sites on the first three pages. They were most relevant, but that's where everyone else was sure to get their stuff from and I couldn't have Matthews accuse me of plagiarism or whatever. I found a couple of articles and began to copy paragraphs into Microsoft Office. I didn't care what people said about Microsoft, I preferred their word processor to iWork. Maybe I was just used to it after all the years of playing with my Mum's laptop. I rearranged a couple of words, deleted some irrelevant sentences and added a few errors to make it more believable.