The moment he walked into the classroom for his Chemistry 203 class, a girl called his name and was waving him towards her.
At first, he wondered who she was. Analise had said she also had this class, so he was half expecting her to introduce herself, but this girl didn’t look like Analise. Analise had been rail-thin, possible anorexic, but this girl looked healthy.
He walked over and said, "Analise?"
"Yay, you recognize me!"
She did. Once he had gotten closer, he could tell that much of her weight gain was muscle, not fat, though there was a thin layer of that as well. It made her look fit, healthy, and softly feminine.
She was taller than Robin and Madison, but shorter than Miranda, and had a figure similar to Madison’s, but was a little wider in the hips. And her breasts were larger than Robins, but smaller than Madison’s. Her hair was a different color as well. Before, when he’d asked her out, she had orange hair, but now her hair was light brown.
"Thank you. I’ve worked really hard on myself the last two years."
"Well, it shows. I was honestly a little worried about you back then, so I’m glad to see you fit and healthy now."
"Thank you, I was-" then she stopped and looked around at the other students, some of whom were trying not to look like they were listening. "Well, we can talk about that later."
The class room had tables with two chairs at each table. When he sat in the chair next to her, she leaned over and squeezed his leg, while also leaning closer and saying, "It’s really good to see you. I’m really looking forward to this weekend."
First Robin, now Analise. Both were far more forward than he expected. What was that saying? He thought, Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but three times is a pattern.
Miranda could be explained by her atypical upbringing combined with being copied, then soul bonded. But neither Robin nor Analise had seen him in almost two years, yet they were responding to him eagerly. Maybe he was just lucky.
"Yes, me too. By the way, let’s exchange contact info, then you can send me your schedule."
"Sure!" she said, happily.
They’d just finished when the professor walked in and began talking immediately.
"Alright, welcome everyone to Chemistry 203. Those of you coming directly from advanced placement may find this course a little harder than you expected, but if you put in the effort, you should have no problem passing. And, unlike high school, here you are adults, and I will treat you as such. That means, as long as you are not distracting other students, I will not call you out for staring at your devices instead of paying attention. That also means that I have no qualms about failing you. This class is a prerequisite for advanced chemistry and other courses designed for those pursuing a career in this field, either in industry or in academics. So, I will hold you to a higher standard."
"Now, I am Mark Berkheimer, and you can..."
While the professor continued with an introduction of himself and the syllabus, Jack glanced down at his phone and noticed that Analise had already sent him her schedule.
She also had a full day, but they both had the same lunch slot open, so he sent her a text letting her know and she replied with a thumbs up emoji, then suggested a nearby restaurant.
Using the map app on his phone, he checked the walking distance and saw that he would have about fifty minutes to sit and eat there, so he agreed.
A moment later, he got an e-mail from Robin sending him her schedule. When he saw it, he found that her lunch break also aligned with his, but only on Tuesday and Thursday, whereas Analise’s lunch schedule aligned with his on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
He sent Robin a text arranging for them to meet for lunch the next day, then put his phone down because what the professor was saying was getting interesting.
"...advancements in computer technology are facilitating advancements in chemistry and many other fields. Just recently, this university acquired a Cerebras super computer and one of my colleagues was able to get some compute time on it. She ran a simulation that simulated every single atom in a reaction and produced this short video. Check it out."
Then the professor dimmed the lights and started a video playing on the projector. As soon as the video started, Jack knew exactly what it was.
"Crisper," he blurted, without thinking.
"Who said that?" asked the professor, sounding surprised.
Jack raised his hand. "Sorry."
"No, no need to apologize. This is just a tiny portion of the overall CRISPR reaction, so I’m simply amazed that you were able to recognize it from just this tiny bit. Do you know Doctor Satyarthi?"
"No, but I have read several of Doctor Satyarthi’s papers. One of them covers what they believe to be a flaw in the CRISPR-cas9 interaction with adenosine that can cause it to make edits in the wrong place. In the paper, they showed some proof that the errors was with CRISPR’s interaction with adenosine, but lamented that there was no way to identify the precise cause of the error. From the video, it looks like they’re trying to use a simulation to work out the precise cause of the edit errors."
The professor’s eyes widened. "Young man, would you be willing to stay after class for a few moments?"
"Sure, my next class is close enough that I can spare a few minutes without being late."
As the professor continued with his presentation, Jack heard someone mutter, "show off."
At the end of class, several students tried to crowd around the Professor Berkheimer, but he brushed past them without even acknowledging their presence and walked up to Jack. Several of those students glared at Jack, like it was somehow his fault the professor was ignoring them.
Just before the professor spoke, Analise put a hand on his back and said, "See you at lunch Wednesday?"