When We Were Young

XXV: superheroes

"How was your reading week, Rick? Momzilla was okay?" Gray takes a long sip from his water bottle, emptying nearly half of it.

"If you consider talking my ear off whenever we had a moment together okay, then yeah, she was okay. I shouldn't complain, though, some people definitely had it worse than me." My mind wanders to poor Mickey, going all the way to British Columbia only to have his heart torn out of his chest. "By the way, Mickey wants to have dinner with all of us tonight, kind of a mini-reunion after the break."

I continue on to tell them about the amazing day I had today. I usually don't gush about myself, but I'm still feeling high from the rush of having someone so accomplished compliment my work and wanting me to help them on a research project. After filling them in with the details, they both crowd over my computer to read my email.

"It looks good to me," Gray comments. "I mean, it's just an email accepting her offer."

I glare at him, realizing he's actually leaning extremely close to my face to look at my screen. I can smell the cinnamon scent of his aftershave. "It's not just an email, Gray. I want to sound professional and sophisticated, not like some immature sophomore who doesn't deserve this position."

"She already gave you the job." Tate laughs at my nervousness.

"What if she doesn't respond, though?"

Rolling his eyes, Gray puts his hand on my shoulder. "She's going to respond. She has the opportunity to work with such an amazing, smart, and passionate person, there's no way she's going to pass up that opportunity."

"She can find thousands of students like me out-"

Before I can finish my sentence, Gray reaches over and presses send for me.

"I-"

"Stop." He tilts his head and closes my laptop. "It's all done now, finished. No more worrying and perfecting every small detail."

"Oh please," I scoff. "You would've done the same thing if you were in my position."

He doesn't correct me, but Tate does. "Yeah you two are people pleasers. I, quite frankly, would've sent a simple, 2 sentence email to accept the offer. If they don't want me, then screw them."

Gray reaches behind my shoulders to mess up Tate's hair until she aggressively swats him away, making me collateral damage in the process. I smile at my two friends, feeling more at ease than I've felt in a long time, "Let's see where Mickey wants to grab dinner."

---

Knocking gingerly on the door, I take one last moment to look out at the view from the window at the end of the hall. From up here on the eighth floor of the humanities building, I can see an aerial view of campus. It's never looked so beautiful with the blossoming trees and students that look like ants from this high up.

"Come in, Maverick!"

I take a deep breath and flatten the wrinkles in my dark blue blazer. Today was my official meeting with Dr. Reimann. She responded to my email very enthusiastically, saying that she thought it would be good to meet in person to discuss some of the logistics of the job. I really am doing this.

I turn the handle on the door, letting myself into Dr. Riemann's office.

My eyes immediately catch onto the modern look of it, with various impressionistic paintings hung on the wall and a lot of green plants, brightening up the room. On the far end of the room, I notice two ladder bookshelves on either side of a purple painting with many, many books stacked on the shelves. She also has a rectangular sofa in front of her desk and a window behind her desk bigger than the window in the hall, with the same gorgeous view of campus.

"Hi Dr. Riemann, nice to see you out of class." I stand a bit awkwardly near the door.

She gestures for me to sit on her couch, closing her laptop and turning her full attention to me, making me even more nervous. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other now, so get used to it! And please call me Eleanor, Dr. Riemann is way too formal."

Taking a seat, I try to think of something clever to say to her. Professors like students who can make them laugh, right? I need her to like me.

"Maverick... I don't think I've ever heard of that name before you." She starts making small talk before I can embarrass myself with a likely awful attempt at a joke. "How'd your parents choose it?"

"My grandmother chose it. Actually, it was supposed to be my cousin's name, but her parents didn't like my grandmother's choice, so they named her Evelyn instead. Thought people might get confused by Maverick. When my parents found out they were having a girl, my grandma suggested it again and I guess she made a strong case."

Nodding slowly, she twirls a pen in her hand. "Your name must mean a lot to your grandmother, then."

"It was the name of her mentor when she immigrated here from China. She wanted to start a business and an established business owner took her under her wing."

"Strong woman." She smiles appreciatively.

"What about you? Eleanor?" It feels like a weird question to ask your superior, but I say it before I have time to consider it.

"A family name," she informs me. "Not as historic as yours. Speaking of history, I guess we should get down to business. You said you have no class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, is that correct?"

I confirm that and add, "Will my work be remote or is there a place I should go on those days?"

"The documents I have are very sensitive in nature and I cannot send them to you on your personal laptop, so you will be working in my office with me. I'm going to have a desk set up for you by the bookshelves in the back."

She continues to tell me about my work hours and the various tasks I'd be doing, including reading primary documents and collecting relevant points for the paper she is writing. I'd also be helping in the writing process once we got to that stage and she even said that there may be conference presentation opportunities in the future.

At the end of her explanation, I ask, a bit overwhelmed, "What if... what if I can't do all of that up to your standards? I'm just a second year undergraduate student, not even studying history. What if I'm not good at this?"

Her lips curl up in understanding and a little bit of amusement plays in her dark brown eyes. "I don't need someone who is the most knowledgeable or most experienced. I just want someone who has as much passion for history as I did when I was an undergrad. That passion is what is going to push you to work hard, even on the long and boring days. So, don't worry about being perfect, just enjoy yourself and be resilient."