Note: All characters engaging in sexual activities are 18 years or older.
This is part 1 of 3.
*****
Roman architect Vitruvius once classified columns, or Orders, into three categories. The Doric order, thick and unadorned, represented manly beauty. The Ionic was more decorative, with curled volutes at the top, and represented womanly beauty. The last, the Corinthian order, with its capital resembling the acanthus leaves and its thin delicacy, was in "imitation of the slenderness of a maiden."
Greenstone academy is fronted by a row of Corinthian columns. Every day I pass between them, through the front door, and every day I ask myself what the hell that guy was smoking. They don't resemble maidens. They resemble overly decorative columns of stone.
But just at this moment, as I'm listening to Mr. Perfect Asian with His Perfect Plan for the Future, I try to imagine a pretty maiden on my knee, and all I can think of are stupid columns.
"...and after I graduate from Berkeley, I intend to leverage my science degree with my MBA to create a start-up company."
"Why's that?" I ask.
"Becauseβ" he pauses and gives me a double-take. "What?"
"I was just wondering why you wanted to start a company. What do you plan to sell, or create, and what do you hope to gain from it?"
He looks at me confused.
"Nevermind," I say. "I'm glad you see that science - especially that of Physics - is as important as any business connection. You know Elon Musk?"
"Yes! He created the electric car - the Tesla."
"Yep. And Space X too. Did you know he first got his undergraduate degree in Physics?"
He nods.
"Good," I say. "Thenβ" A knock sounds on the door. "Looks like the next student's here." I reach over my desk and shake his hand. "A pleasure to have you in my class. If you ever need help or even want to run a business idea by me, do not hesitate to visit."
I mean what I say. Jacob Song - my student - is a fine young man, I'm sure. We're only one week in but I know he'll be a good student, and a credit to himself, his parents, and his culture. But he's boring. I've met a million like him. I look at my schedule, noticing the name: Samantha Pierce. A troublemaker. Those, at least, are interesting.
"Let the next student in, if you will."
Greenstone Academy is private and prestigious. My students are the sons and daughters of wealthy men who, by and large, marry beautiful women. As such, most of my female students are beautiful. They have been taught by their mothers how to present themselves to the world. Which isn't to say they are all eye-candy. Not at all. Most of them are bright, peppy little balls of eager sunshine and industry. Future leaders and scientists and all that.
But not all of them.
Case in point: Samantha. She sidles past Jacob into my office, strutting like she owns the place. She glances over my decorations - the Physics doctorate from Cornell and my research awards and the table of elements and the Hubble photographs of bright nebula, and glowing quasars, and exploding super-nova - and dismisses with them a toss of her head. She's dressed in such a way to reveal as much flesh as possible without breaking any rules: Her jean shorts grip her upper thighs, revealing long white legs. A simple tank-top does little to cover her shoulders or the slope of her delicate feminine neck. Her dyed blonde hair's been done in up in a careless bob. She watches me watching her, and sharp green eyes beneath dark eyebrows reveal nothing so much as a sense of annoyance and scandal. I require all my students to partake in a small interview with me? And I make it a
test
grade? How dare I? But yes, I dare.
"Hello Samantha," I say.
"Yo man."
"Word," I say.
She rolls her eyes.
"How are you?" I ask.
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Excellent!" She doesn't bother to look at me as we talk. The sound of her foot tapping is clearly audible. "I'm not taking up too much of your time, am I?"
"Yeah you are."
"Ah. Sorry to hear that. But who can complain about a free test grade?"
"Sure."
"Do you know why I require this interview?"
"No," she says. "But I'm sure you're about to tell me."
"You're right. I want to get to know my students. Science is not just about boring old facts rotting away in a dusty book. It's about ideas and explorations and people - helping people. I don't want you to see me as some authority figure commanding facts from on high, like God delivering the commandments to Moses: ye shall not covet thy neighbor's electron."
I wait for her to crack a smile. Nothing. Tough audience.
"Chemistry joke," I say. "That's whyβ"
"Noble gases are noble? Because they don't covet their neighbor's electron?"
"Hey!" I say. "Penny for the smart lady. Anyway, like I said, I want to get to know my students and my first question is one you've heard probably a million times and you're probably sick of getting asked but I feel like I must: what do you want to do when you grow up?"
She hesitates and for a moment I think she'll refuse to answer, but then she says, "I want to be a model."
Her answer makes sense. Her dreamy there-but-not-there apathy would be perfect for the runway. She certainly has the face for it, pretty if not beautiful, smooth and flawless, polluted by neither freckle nor blemish. And the body: long legs, flat stomach, thin and delicate arms. Androgynous like all good models. Her breasts are a little too big but not enough to disqualify her.
"Or an actress," she adds.
"Interesting," I say. "Have you done any modeling? Or acting? Are you in the drama club here?"
She shoots me a venomous look. "I don't do drama club."
"Oh," I say. "So you want to be like a movie actress? A Hollywood dream girl?"
"I've done a few commercials," she says.
"Cool," I say. "Anything I might have seen?"
"Doubt it," she says.
"You don't know that -"
We're interrupted by her ring-tone, which sounds like a combination of death metal, boy band, and a hammer smashing a glass jar full of nails. The latest and greatest in improvised instrumentals, no doubt.
She flips out her phone, an iPhone in a pink case inscribed with roses. She chats rapid fire: "Yo? Yeah. I have some left. Yeah. You know the price? Okay. Be right there."