CHAPTER 12: Packing

 

Carla and Michael

All of my new stuff plus my laptop and other things fit into the matching Samsonite luggage that Dad used for his work trips. The matching luggage made of four different-sized bags was full to the brim, with my laptop in the new Picnic backpack.

As planned, I was in ‘girl mode’ again, and was in an outfit that was, according to Ma, appropriate for a road trip: I was wearing one of my Dad’s plain light-blue button-down shirts, unbuttoned, and the sleeves rolled up. It was pretty big around me, but I guess that’s the point. I wore it over a light-pink spaghetti strap tank top underneath the shirt, tucked into one of my new faded slim-fit jeans. The jeans, in turn, tucked into my old combat boots (which Dad had cleaned up and shined early this morning – something I never expected him to do). The tails of the shirt bothered me a little bit, so I just knotted it around my waist. Over it, I would be wearing my new deerskin leather jacket, but I currently had that off - it was a bit cool that morning, but I felt fine. Maybe I’ll put on the jacket later.

Dad was in a suit and tie – he was going to the office after dropping me off. Dad said that it was okay – he didn’t need to be in his office right away. Ma was also in her usual office attire, but she was going directly to work.

Dad and I loaded the trunk of his BMW and, after a lengthy hugfest with Ma, we left for school. We got to Delos just before the final bell, parking in the lot near the admin entrance. The parking lot was practically deserted of kids - almost all the kids had already gone into class. Thank god for that – that I missed all the kids. I mean, how could I explain how I was dressed? And if they did see me, they would just beat me up: I was also glad Dad was with me as we waited for Mr. Daimon and Dr. Griffin. If ever something happens, Dad’ll be around to handle it. He’s a big six-foot-six guy and, if he wanted, he could scare the piss out of you, or, if you were a girl, get you giggling and preening. Ma says Dad was like the best combination of a man’s man and a ladies’ man (those are her words… actually, Dad’s words, too. Lol), so if you were around him, it makes you feel like you were with a policeman or something, and that no one would bother you.

“When are they supposed to be here again?” Dad asked.

I shrugged. “All they said was to be here before eight.”

“Oh.”

“Hey, Mr. Goodchilde,” someone said. It was Michael – he was standing just outside Dad’s car window. Standing behind him was Carla, waving. “What’re you doing here?”

“Oh, hello, Michael. Hello, Carla. Just bringing Val to school. How’re you two doing?”

“We’re doing okay. “

“How’s Val, Mr. Goodchilde? We haven’t seen him in school since Thursday. Last Thursday, he was sick or something. We were worried.”

“Why don’t you ask him?” Dad gestured to me.

“Where?” Carla said, and then it dawned on the two. “Oh, my god…”

“Val, that you?” Michael asked.

I waved to them half-heartedly. “Hey, guys,” I said in my new voice - Instinctively, in my mind, I thought “singsong and lilt” again, but I was too late to catch it. I wanted to sink into the car seat in embarrassment.

“What the fuck are you wearing, dude!” Michael said.

Behind them, they heard someone clearing her throat.

“Good morning, Ms Alexander, Mr. Andreas,” Dr. Griffin said ominously. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Good morning, doctor,” Carla said. “Sorry…” But before they could slink away, Dr. Griffin stopped them.

“Wait,” Dr. Griffin said. “You two don’t know what’s going on. Go to the vice-principal’s office. Mr. Daimon will explain.”

As the two of them turned to go, Michael and Carla kept staring at me.

“Go through the admin entrance,” Dr. Griffin said, “that way, you don’t run into the other kids. You need to know the situation before you start spreading anything and hurting Val.” She brought up her phone, presumably to give Mr. Daimon a call.

They turned to go through the admin entrance, and as they disappeared, the final bell rang.

Dad turned to me. “I’m so sorry, Val,” he said, and handed me his handkerchief. I didn’t even notice I was crying. I accepted his handkerchief and blew my nose and wiped my eyes.

“My makeup…”

“Stop worrying about your makeup, sweetie,” Dad said, and gave me a hug.

“I’m worried about getting raccoon eyes…”

Dad chuckled.

“So,” Dr. Griffin said, “Are you ready for our trip, Val?” She politely ignored my tears.

“I’m ready, doctor.”

“Come on, then.”

From the trunk, Dad got the two big bags, and put the small one underneath his arm. I got the last one which was the wheelie bag. Just as well, since I had my new Picnic backpack on my back, an overnighter in my hand and my coat over my arm.

Dr. Griffin chuckled. “Do you think you brought enough stuff?”

Dad laughed and I smiled sheepishly in embarrassment.

“My wife packed,” Dad said.

“We’ll be using that white E-150 van over there,” Dr. Griffin said.

“Who’ll be driving?” Dad asked as we walked to the white van.

“Dr. Castellanos came down from Troy House. She and I will be trading driving duties.”

“Who’s…”

“Dr. Castellanos is their school doctor, and she’s the lead scientist of Archimedes Genomics.”

“She is? If she’s so important, what’s she doing driving for us?”

“Penny took an interest in Val’s case. I guess this is her way of helping. I think she’s hoping this trip will give her a chance to get to know Val. There she is.” She pointed to the lady inside the van.

As we got closer to the van, this blonde woman came out of the van. She was fashionably dressed in a professional-looking casual suit, and she was really tall - she must have been at least six feet three – and looked like she was around her late twenties or middle thirties at most, making her pretty young to be running a lab. And she was simply gorgeous. I stopped, my mouth hanging slackly.

“Oh, my god,” I said.

Dad hit me lightly on the shoulder, and I remembered to close my mouth. We went forward and stood in front of her.

“You must be Mr. Goodchilde,” she said and shook hands with Dad. “I’m Penelope Castellanos. Please call me Penny.”

“Glad to meet you, Dr. Castellanos. I mean ‘Penny.’ I’m Henry. And this is my, ummm… daughter, Val.”

“Pleased to meet you, Val,” she said, and shook my hand.

“Hi,” I replied shyly.

She looked at my bags. “Goodness,” she said, “you certainly brought a lot of stuff. Go on and put them in the van – the back’s open.” I got the bags from Dad and went to the back to dump my luggage in there as well as my little overnighter (I held on to my backpack and jacket). I don’t know what I was thinking – the luggage was actually pretty big and heavy, and it took me maybe five minutes to get them in and arranged so they won’t shift around. There were several other bags in there already, and I assumed they were Dr. Griffin’s and Dr. Castellanos’.

An E-150 is pretty roomy - there was a lot of space for my bags, so I didn’t scrunch up their stuff, but even so, I took time to make sure they were all snug and secure. I closed the back and went back to Dad and the others.

The three adults were chatting and stuff when I got close.

“… so, don’t worry, Mr. Goodchilde,” the doctor was saying. “Maia and I will take care of your girl, and she’ll be a hundred percent when we bring her back.” That sounded ironic. I didn’t know Dr. Griffin’s name was Maia.

“I’m counting on that, doctor,” Dad said.

“You can. Trust me, eh?” Eh? She had a distinct accent – very Canadian-ish. She reached out her hand to Dad.

“All right,” he said, and they shook.

She turned to me. “All right, Val. Better climb in so we can go.”

I turned to Dad. “’Kay, Dad. I guess this is it.” I reached out and gave him a tight hug. For some reason, I felt like crying again.

“Careful,” he said, “raccoon eyes, you know.” I giggled. “Good luck, sweetie. Your mom and I will be here when you get back. And give us a call anytime if there’s trouble. And your mom said to remind you to give us a call every night.”

“I will. Love you, Dad.”

“I love you, too.”

I climbed into the seat in the back of the driver’s seat and Dr. Castellanos and Dr. Griffin sat up front. And we were off.

Cowboy Bebop

“So, Val,” Dr. Castellanos said in a musical voice, “have you had breakfast yet? Maybe we can drive by someplace for a bite first. Maia, do you know any nice place around here where we can have some breakfast?”

“Sure.”

“Actually, I’m not too hungry,” I said.

“Probably nerves, Val,” Dr. Castellanos said. “We can go get something later, eh? So! Maia and Daimon tell me she’s briefed you on the real score?”

I nodded to her in the rearview. “Yeah. Pretty unbelievable, if you ask me.”

The two of them laughed. “I know, right?” Dr. Castellanos chuckled. “But it’s all true. Believe me.”

“’ Gods?’” I said. “Seriously?”

“I guess I got too used to it by thinking of them as not literally gods. They were just people – but just a little different.”

“How different?”

“Well, all we can really do is go by what our graduates have become, after stabilizing, that is. So we don’t really know. I think all it really was is that these new… people were just a little different and all that, but nothing like how you see gods depicted in the movies, and definitely not like those Marvel and DC superheroes.”

“How different?”

“You wouldn’t really notice it.”

“In what way are they different?”

“Well, Maia would have told you some of them. Stronger – able to lift a little more weight than could easily be explained by their physiques; a little bit faster reflexes; a little bit more acute senses all around; better stamina; better resistance to illnesses and diseases; no genetic issues and abnormalities; higher IQs – none of our graduates have IQ scores lower than 140; better memory; more longer-lived but no immortality, of course; better at math and comprehension; better problem-solving abilities; et cetera, et cetera. There are others but they’re more subjective kinds of improvements and not really quantifiable.”

“That doesn’t sound god-like at all.”

“But pretty good, wouldn’t you say?”

“Sure, but it’s a little disappointing.”

“Depends on what you were expecting.”

“Do any of them shoot lasers out of their eyes or something? Or maybe predict the future, or lift trucks, or fly?”

Dr. Castellanos giggled. “Of course not.”

“Damn…”

“But it’s all consistent and, for the most part, quantifiable. Once a student’s been given time to stabilize, at least.”

“After they’ve been given the… ambrosia?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think will happen to me? After I’ve stabilized, I mean.”

“You’re the first with a one hundred score. So we don’t know. However, with the data we have, we’ve sort of found a correlation between the person’s score and the… improvements they’ve exhibited.”

“Yes?”

“It seems the higher someone’s score is, the better the improvements.”

“Seems like that’s a good thing for me, then.”

“We’re not sure, but I think so.”

That made me pause a bit and thought of the possibilities for me.

“Val’s a pretty name,” Dr. Castellanos suddenly said, clearly trying to break the ice. “What’s it short for?”

“Nothing. It’s just Val – my folks named me Val Edward – after the actor. My dad’s a big fan of Top Gun – the original movie.”

“Why not the other actor?”

"Supposedly, my dad thought he was too well known, and I may get beaten up or something if they give me his name. Clearly, though, they didn’t think it though. I mean, a boy named Val…” I sighed theatrically, and they laughed.

“Did you ever get beaten up?” Dr. Castellanos asked.

“In my old school, I was being bullied by the school assholes, and, once, they tried to beat me up. but I fought back and beat them up instead.”

“Whoa!”

I shrugged. “I’m stronger than I look. Plus my dad taught me lots of self-defense stuff.”

“That’s amazing.”

I shrugged again. “Anyway, after that, no one bothered me again. Sure I got… harassed a lot, but that’s about it.”

“How about at Delos,” she asked.

“Well, just a little bit of harassment, but I manage. In fact, I’ve had to break up a couple of fights.”

“Fights? What were they about?”

“Well, me, actually.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Val can tell you about it later when we get to Saint John, Penny,” Dr. Griffin said. “Val was telling us about what name she wanted.”

“Well… Like I was saying,” I said, “I was named Val Edward. I like my name, actually.”

“Ahh,” Dr. Castellanos said. “Well, at least ‘Val’ works for a girl as well. You’re a girl now.”

“Although most people will assume it’s a nickname,” Dr. Griffin said. “Also, something has to be done for ‘Edward.’”

“Well, ‘Val’ can be short for ‘Valerie’ or something,” Dr. Griffin said, “and the ‘Edward’ can be dropped altogether.”

“Oh,” I reacted. “Of course, I’ll need to change my name, too… My folks and I didn’t think of that. How can someone change her name? I mean, legally change her name. Is it difficult?”

“Don’t worry about it, Val,” Dr. Griffin said. “The school will take care of it if you and your parents want. So what would you like to have as your new name?”

“I’d like to be able to keep my current name. The ‘Val,’ at least – I don’t care about the ‘Edward’ – I don’t use it, anyway, and no one calls me Edward. So we can drop that part.”

“So, just ‘Val,’ then?”

“Doesn’t sound right – it's too short: it’s more like a nickname, like you said… So, how about Valentine? That sounds pretty cute.”

Dr. Griffin and Dr. Castellanos grinned and nodded.

“Sounds good,” said Dr. Castellanos.

“Valentine Goodchilde…” I said to myself, trying it out for size. Somehow it sounded incomplete. And then I had an idea.

“Can my new name be Faye Valentine? And Val can be my nickname.”

“Sure,” Dr. Griffin said. “Where did you get that? Just thought it up?”

“It’s a character from a classic Japanese anime, actually. Netflix did a reboot of it.”

“I should check that out. What’s the name?”

“No need – Netflix didn’t do too good a job. Better to watch the original.”

Well, anyway – the name’s not a problem. I think it’s a good name. Mr. Daimon can contact your folks and get the ball rolling.”

“Faye Valentine…” I said to myself and grinned. “I think I can get used to that.”

Tim Hortons

That morning, we spent a lot of time just talking. I guess Dr. Castellanos really did want to get to know me. I was also very impressed that Dr. Castellanos could chat while driving, and not even one close call.

I also took it as an opportunity to find out a little bit about Troy House and Archimedes Genomics.

I told her, to me, it seemed a little unusual to put up a school and a high-tech lab in a fairly out-of-the-way location, but Dr. Castellanos said the Endowment did it deliberately. Saint John wasn’t really out in the boonies: it was actually a major shipping hub with a major shipbuilding industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s, largely because of the city’s proximity to the Bay of Fundy – its seaport doesn’t ice over because of the bay’s tidal bore, making the city an ideal shipbuilding site. Over the years, though, the industry waxed and waned and the major industry of the city changed several times – to a railway hub, to an industrial district with power stations, to fishing, mining, et cetera. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the city found niches in education, call centers, IT, and high technology. And when the shift was happening to computers and high tech in the eighties, that’s when the Endowment put up Troy House.

There were many reasons why the directors thought Saint John was ideal: the fact that it didn’t have that high a profile yet have the same kind of infrastructure of its more affluent and more well-known contemporaries made it a good place to put up the kind of school they were intending, and its still-evolving educational institutions would give the Endowment good camouflage when it put up Troy House.

And after over forty years, Troy House had grown to have the largest campus of all the Endowment’s ten schools - even larger than what was considered the Endowment’s main school that was based out of Athens: Tray House had fifteen classrooms when the other schools had ten at most – more than enough for the 200-student population of each school. Troy House boasted an auditorium, a music room, two lecture halls, an indoor pool, a basketball-slash-volleyball court, an indoor racing track, four small cafeterias (the other Endowment schools like Delos usually only had one), a bowling alley (unique to Troy House) that was open to the public Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and four two-story dormitories: in Troy House, all the students were required to live in-campus hence the large dormitory and the large number of facilities. This was necessary because almost all of its students were from out-of-town, with a third from overseas.

I asked why this was so – why were most of Troy House’s students out-of-towners and why they were living in–campus? Dr. Castellanos sort of sidestepped my question, and instead said that it wasn’t too different from the other nine schools. “Look at your own situation,” she said.

- - - - - - - -

After the Endowment’s school in Saint John was more-or-less established, the city’s emerging IT and tech industries also gave them a kind of camouflage, which allowed them to put up Archimedes Geonomics, through several shell companies, without getting much attention. In four decades, Archimedes had just quietly operated and had grown to become the center for most of the discoveries that the schools and the Endowment have made, and it was also through Archimedes that they farmed out and shared these discoveries with the rest of the scientific community.

But besides being a clearing house for these kinds of scientific discoveries, Archimedes has taken the lead on the Endowment’s efforts to find more students’ getting more kids transformed, stabilized, and released into the world. In fact, it had the names of enough potential “scholars” that they could increase the number of their students in their schools starting the next school year. So, as approved by the directors, a new Freshman class will be added in all ten schools. In four years, they’ll increase their graduates from two thousand to three thousand students per year.

“Except for transferees,” I said, thinking of my case (I transferred to Delos High during my junior year, after all).

“Oh, we don’t really have transferees,” Dr. Griffin said, “except when a scholarship is offered to candidates when the school lost a student - a school’s class size is exactly twenty-five students, and as you know, there are only two classes per level.”

“I’ve always wanted to ask about that,” I said.

“We can talk about that later, too,” Dr. Castellanos said.

I nodded. I seem to be following Dr. Castellanos without much complaint, which felt a little unusual for me.

“Look!” Dr. Castellanos exclaimed. “A Tim Hortons!”

“Huh?”

“Let’s get some coffee and a bite,” she said, and started pulling over.

Instant Crush

Inside Tim Hortons, we got in line. I had my new jacket on and my backpack. It was a fairly long line of people, mostly those who were just buying take-out. The two were a couple of people ahead of me.

I got a tap on the shoulder, and I jumped a little bit.

“Oh!” the guy said. “I’m sorry to startle you.”

He seemed all right, but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, I had one of those Mace things.

“Yes?” (Singsong and lilt! Singsong and lilt!)

“Are you with those two?” he asked, pointing to Dr. Griffin and Dr. Castellanos.

“Yes.”

“Who’s the tall, sexy blonde? Have I seen her somewhere before?”

“Ummm, how would I know if you’ve seen her? She’s a doctor. She’s bringing us to a, hmmm, a hospital, for tests and an operation.” Why did I even bother to give him an explanation?

He looked at me. “You look pretty healthy,” he said. Uh-oh. Where’s that pepper spray? “What’s wrong with you?”

What an asshole. “Why is it any business of yours?”

“Well, screw you, you stuck-up bitch!”

“Is everything okay here?” Dr. Castellanos said, with Dr. Griffin beside her.

Everything went silent.

“Ummm, everything’s cool, lady,” the guy said. “Go away.”

“Val?”

“No problem, Doctor,” I said. “I can handle him.”

“You can, huh?” he said to me. He pulled back and was about to sock me, but Dr. Castellanos reached out in a flash and held onto his arm.

“Please don’t do that,” Dr. Castellanos said mildly.

The guy struggled. “Let go!”

She let go, but she did just as he pulled his arm away from her. The momentum made him fall back. He knocked over a couple of people’s drinks and he was showered with iced coffees as he fell on his butt.

The store manager and a couple of his guys rushed up.

The guy struggled to his feet spitting mad. “It’s a good thing you’re hot,” he said. “Otherwise…”

“Dude,” the manager said, “don’t do what I think you’re going to do. Otherwise, I’m calling the cops.”

The other customers turned to them. One of them stood up. He was as big as Dad. “Don’t, man,” he said.

The guy looked around at all the hostile faces.

“Why don’t you just leave, asshole,” the woman with the big guy said.

He threw his hands up, in frustration, and started to stomp out. As he passed me by, he pushed me back. I was pushed out of balance and was about to fall, but Dr. Castellanos reached out and kept me from falling.

“Thanks!” I huffed.

“No problem, honey,” she said and gave me a smile. If there was something called an instant crush, that’s what I got.

One of the people saw how the asshole hit me and started moving towards him, so the guy ran the rest of the way and escaped out of the door.

Dr. Castellanos and Dr. Griffin stayed with me and fell in line behind me, but the manager insisted to personally take our order, perhaps as a kind of apology for that asshole, and we looked for a vacant table. A bunch of guys saw this and they stood up so we could sit at their table – one of them said they had just finished and were leaving anyway. We nodded and smiled our thanks at them, and they waved before stepping out.

“That was lucky,” Dr. Castellanos said.

Dr. Griffin giggled.

“What’s funny,” I asked.

“My dear,” Dr. Griffin said, I’ve been around Penny long enough that ‘lucky’ things always happen.”

“Huh?”

“Like someone just giving up a parking space while we’re looking for a spot, or a cop just giving us a warning instead of a ticket, or someone giving up their place in line, or someone giving up their table.” She giggled again.

“Is that true?” I asked Dr. Castellanos.

“Maia exaggerates,” she said, and pshawed what Dr. Griffin said.

“You don’t have to believe me, Val. When we get to Saint John, you’ll see just how everyone bends backward for her. It’s like everyone has a crush on Blondie here.” Dr. Griffin giggled.

“Maia!” Dr. Castellanos exclaimed and hit her playfully on the shoulder.

Dr. Griffin said Tim Hortons was like Canada’s version of a Dunkin Donuts combined with a Starbucks, but I think it was pretty okay. Dr. Castellanos ordered a couple of hash browns, and something called a “double double”, and Dr. Griffin ordered a maple donut and an iced tea. For me, I tried to pick something I haven’t had yet. I ended up with something called a bagel BELT, which was just a toasted bagel with bacon, lettuce, and tomato BUT with an egg omelet (hence the ‘E’), and I ordered something called a Real Fruit Chill.

It wasn’t as spectacular as I imagined Tim Hortons would be, but the food was pretty okay. Better than Dunkin Donuts, at least, but the donuts were a lot firmer than I thought donuts ought to be, but pretty okay, definitely. The coffee was lots better than Dunkin’ – it was just like Starbucks, IMO. We didn’t loiter since we were on a schedule, so we left right away. Dr. Castellanos bought two “six packs” of donuts, and a couple of coffees. To go. Why twelve donuts – I guess the Doc had a sweet tooth, although she said they were for me. “Something for the road, eh?” I suppressed a giggle – I don’t know why, but we Americans just find the Canadian accent funny…

Dr. Castellanos insisted we go visit the “washroom” since we had a long way to go – something Dad might have insisted on, too, but as I was about to step into the men’s, Dr. Griffin cleared her throat. Oops!

I detoured immediately and the three of us went into the ladies’.

This was just my second time in a women’s restroom, but, aside from smelling better and being cleaner, it was just like a men’s room, except there weren’t any urinals, of course. It was just a small “washroom,” but it did have three stalls and they were, miraculously, free, so we had one each.

I didn’t really feel like I had to go but I thoughtfully pulled down my underwear and jeans and sat down. And after a little push, I finally let go. Apparently, I DID need to go. I then suddenly realized that, for the past few days, I hadn’t needed to go to the bathroom except after I woke up. And then I also realized that I hadn’t gone number two for a while… But I didn’t feel constipated or anything. That’s worrying… Hmmm…

We went back to the van, with the manager insisting on carrying our three six-packs, leaving me to carry our three coffees. Dr. Griffin smiled at that and gave me a wink. Dr. Castellanos noticed. “Shut up, Maia,” she said sotto voce.

 

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