Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (21 page)

“I’ll sit out and watch for now,”
Zeiss volunteered. “I might make some tea.”

“Me, too,” said the Japanese
heiress. “I’ll put the music on.”

Zeiss put a kettle on the stove and
sat in the low, comfy chair. He laid his crutches on the floor and warned the
others not to trip on them.

“Why no clocks?” asked Green.

“Same reason they don’t have them
in casinos,” Red guessed. “No limits or reminders of the outside world.”

Kaguya sat behind Zeiss on a
barstool so she could get a better view of the game.

“These are synth vocals,” noted
Red.

“They’ve had those for years. It’s
like speech recognition in reverse,” said Green.

The Japanese heiress shook her
head. “Imaja is the first program of her kind. She blends parts of five
different women using the Fortune compositing algorithms for voice instead of
body image. This way, artists are truly the products of my father’s company.
You wear the sound print like a glove. It’s more like audio-sculpting at this
point, and several of the voices are proprietary. I use my own voice as the
core, but eventually we can substitute any competent studio singer.”

Zeiss turned to listen better to
her and got an eyeful of leg. He turned back to the game quickly.

Cue Ball scoffed, “More like a
puppeteer. It has no soul!”

“Everyone else seems to enjoy well
it enough. It makes contract negotiations with our bigger stars a lot easier
when they know that they could be replaced next.” Kaguya hummed to the
suggestive music, making it difficult for Zeiss to read.

As they played, a course-correction
light pinged on. The light vanished after Kaguya pushed the button for thirty
seconds. “Easy,” she bragged.

“Try the Jack,” Zeiss advised the
Indian student. “Finesse it.”

When Green was shuffling the deck
for the next hand, Kaguya asked, “Z, have
you
heard my album before?”

Zeiss wasn’t comfortable with the
tone. It implied she would gush over whatever he said next. He tried to remain
neutral “I’ve only seen the cover in the BX. It was called
Change
?”

The singer shook her head. “It’s
pronounced Chong Uh,” she said, making a slight hip thrust with the sound that
caused Green to spray cards all over the tabletop. “Kaguya is the Japanese
goddess of great beauty who launched into the sky from Mount Fuji—a corruption
of the Chinese word for immortality. Chang’e is the Chinese version of my name,
their moon goddess. She’s a
rabbit
.”

The woman placed a heel on his
shoulder. “See?”

There was a tattoo of a stylized
bunny on her ankle. Zeiss could also smell perfume. “Why is it upside-down?”

She smiled. “Because it’s designed
to be admired by the man holding it in the air, kissing it.”

The tea kettle whistled, and Zeiss
hobbled over to the stove. “I’ll take this in my room.”

“Subtle,” muttered Red.

****

All the male students did exercises
together the next morning. Cue Ball complained, “I had two emergencies last
night. On the second one, there were two lit at the same time. I almost
couldn’t reach two buttons at once. I had to hold that one for ten minutes.” He
pointed to the blue button over the sink.

“That’s the water system,”
explained Ernesto. “It’s finicky.”

“Get some sleep after calisthenics
and breakfast,” suggested Zeiss. When he went into the ladies’ bedroom for the
requested wake-up call, Kaguya was laying on top of the sheet in a ‘nightgown’ not
much bigger than a wash cloth that did nothing to hide her lacy underwear. He
stared in disbelief for several moments before turning around and clearing his
throat. “Red, breakfast.”

By midday everyone except Kaguya
was lining up for the books that Zeiss brought. She was working on a new album.
The first track was a cover of “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”. She bopped to it
whenever she met Zeiss in the common area.

The group settled into a dull
routine.

By lights-out on the third day,
however, Red had been kicked out of the card club for counting. “But they’re
my
cards,” she protested.

“Vegas rules,” Kaguya told her.

As Red stormed to Zeiss’s room to
complain, the pilot shouted, “Patsy Cline! Your super-secret voice is Patsy Cline.
My grandpa listens to her all the time.”

Red slammed the TA’s door with a
growl.

Zeiss transferred the anger to
himself when he insisted loudly, “Open that back up, please. Propriety.”

“Argh!” she bellowed. “Isn’t that
the fifth pot of tea you’ve had today?”

“I’m on a roll on my dissertation.
Is there something I can help you with?”

“What is it about that
bitch
that sets my teeth on edge?” she shouted the insult so that the people in the
other room could hear.

“Don’t use abusive language toward
people you have to live with,” he said calmly.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“You really want to know? Because
it works best if you figure it out for yourself.”

“Tell me!”

“She’s just like you,” Zeiss said,
not looking up from his calculations.

The girl slapped him on the cheek
and stormed out of his room, slamming her own door next. Kaguya poked her head
in a moment later. “I take it you stood up for me?”

“I told her the truth.”

She could see the red mark blooming
on the side of his face. “I know she’s a friend. That had to hurt.”

“I can take it.”

Kaguya kissed the red mark, and he
could smell her perfume. “I’ll talk to her.”

After she walked out slowly, Zeiss
began doing push-ups.

An hour and much shouting later, a
tear-stained Red crept back to his room. “Hi,” she said meekly. “May I come
in?”

“If you’re not going to hit me
again.”

More tears leaked out. “That’s not
fair. Mori told me about Alistair . . .”

He put a finger over his lips and
nodded to the men gathered to listen on the other side of his door. She gave
him a hug. “I’m sooorry,” she sobbed. After several sniffs, she leaned back
again. “But that comment hurt.”

“Have you found a counter-example
to disprove it?” Zeiss asked, irritated. “You’re always competing and don’t
know when to stop: secretive, obscenely rich, spoiled, entitled,
multi-talented, above the rules, the center of your own distorted world. Everything
always comes easy. The mountain always has to come to you . . .”

Her mouth gaped, but Red couldn’t
say a word to contradict him. He stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t bring any pain
meds and I’m cranky. Forget I said anything. I deserved the slap.”

She sat there, stunned for a minute.
“But you count cards, too.”

“It’s not about the counting. I use
it to help people, not crush them. When you do that, you’re no better than a
schoolyard bully.”

“You’re rich, too, you hypocrite,”
she said.

“No. Now that I’m done with school,
all my trusts went toward my mom’s assisted-living fund. Anything that’s
left
will go to my sister. Nobody ever showed her how to so much as go to a grocery
store for herself. That’s why I try to help the people here fish for
themselves. There’s still hope for you.”

Because Red wanted to slap him
again, she left. On her way through the common area, she hissed to Green,
“What’s his problem?”

“The letters from his mom didn’t
arrive like normal Monday. He can’t use a computer or call to find out why.
It’s very stressful.”

She buried her head under her
pillow for a long time.

****

The next morning, while Zeiss was
getting tea, Red noted a new letter and scooped it up. “Hey, this is from Risa.
She lost thirty pounds this year and over break a boy offered to drive her
home? Why is that a big deal?”

“It’s a euphemism,” explained
Green.

“You know, meet her at a party,
give her a ride, drive her home afterward,” said Ernesto, with a grin.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Red
complained.

“My mail,” said Zeiss blandly, not
expecting to be heard. “Private. None of your beeswax.”

Kaguya sighed. “Thirty pounds is a
huge
deal. Though I doubt you’ve ever experienced that at fifteen. She’s saying that
she feels incredibly flattered that a boy at the party wanted to have sex with her.”

“Thank you, but I’m not fifteen,”
Red said, reading further.

“By telling me, she’s hoping I’ll
let it slip to Herk and make him jealous,” Zeiss said, steering the subject to
safer waters.

“Z, why is she asking you for help?
She’s
my
friend.” Out loud, she read, “Papa was furious when he saw my
C+ in honors calculus. I never should’ve let Red badger me into taking it with
my load.” Red looked up from the paper. “My friends come to you for advice
about dealing with
me
?”

The room cleared.

Zeiss dunked the teabag. “If you’re
going to commit the discourtesy of reading someone’s mail, at least read all of
it. I was in the middle of a reply.”

Red shuffled the papers and read,
“Dealing with your roommate takes a firm hand, not unlike a hammerhead shark.”
Someone barked with laughter from the other room. “Sometimes, you need to smack
her on the nose to get the ‘no’ across.” Her face clouded with rage.

Calmly, he said, “Keep going.”

Raising her voice, she read, “But
with all her faults, she is the best kind of friend.” Red stopped, confused.
“When a member of her family needs something, she focuses that formidable will
to helping. Next time, rephrase your refusal as a
need
for more study
time. If you didn’t ask, you can’t blame her. She is who she is, and that’s why
you love her.”

She froze, processing the bizarre
compliment.

“I thought of a difference,” he
said, “between you and Kaguya.”

“She’s pretty?”

“No, Mira. You both are. She’s just
older. The difference is that you apologized. She never would; we’re all just an
audience for her.”

“What do I do now that I can’t play
cards?”

“I could teach you Go.”

“I’d like that,” replied Red.

Listening in, Kaguya vowed to seduce
him just so she could leave him a ragged ruin.

****

At the end of week one, the shower stopped
working, causing shrieks from Kaguya who’d been shampooing her hair at the
time. Red kept secret that the kitchen sink still worked just so she could
force the woman to use the water in the toilet tank. While they were wrestling
with the plumbing, the air conditioning failed. The heat had everyone on edge.

On day ten, Cue Ball fell asleep
during his shift and the shrieking alarm woke everyone. “What’s wrong with
you?” shouted Ernesto after they made the virtual course correction. “If we
crash, we have to do this whole simulation over again!”

Zeiss and Red played Go in the
common room with the others. He scribbled notes on his research and she
struggled to beat him. “It’s about planning and patience,” he’d say.

It infuriated her that he could count
cards and do math while beating her at the board game. “This is impossible;
I’ll never win now. Let me quit.”

“No. You learn from defeat.”

“It’s not fair.”

“I’ll let you switch colors once
each game if you keep playing.”

“Deal!”

Red worked herself into a hopeless
corner and then smiled, calling, “Switch.”

An hour later, they were still
playing. “I don’t get it,” she complained. “You’re still ripping me a new one.”

“In Go, you play both sides and
know their weaknesses. I only did what I was afraid you would.”

“Can I switch again?”

“Not this game. I’m going to make
you work. This is exactly like push-ups in martial arts.”

“Can I still ask for help?”

“Always,” Zeiss said gently.

Irritated by his inattention,
Kaguya said, “It’s too
hot
in here.”

When the people around the table agreed,
she added, “How about some strip poker to cool things down?”

Green managed not to drop the cards
this time. “Okay.”

Zeiss stood. “Gentlemen, I need my
rest.” Pointing to Red, he said, “You are still a minor. The rest of these adults
can do what they want. Be warned that Miss Mori can read every one of you like
a book.”

“My legs can bend open like the
pages of a book,” Kaguya admitted. “If you’re worried about my cheating, why
don’t we make the stakes interesting? The winner gets a Tantric Yoga lesson.”

They played all night. When Kaguya
went off with the victor, Cue Ball, Red had to leave her bedroom for the common
area. The noises prevented everyone from sleeping.

While cleaning up, Ernesto found a
card stuck under the Indian’s chair. Running into the bedroom, he choked the winner,
shouting, “Cheat!”

Red hit the panic button while Zeiss
and Green tried to separate the combatants.

“Three more days,” Zeiss said, as guards
hauled the two men away.

The next night, Kaguya was on
control duty. Zeiss heard some odd clinking and went to investigate. The
pop-singer stood by the food door holding a bottle of coconut rum and a glass
of ice that she was sliding over her chest. “I have fans,” she explained.

He looked at her in the miniscule lingerie
and squeaked, “I’m going to have to confiscate that.”

After he took the bottle from her
hands, she said huskily, “Aren’t you going to search me for other
bad
things?”

When he didn’t move, she added,
“You don’t have a roommate right now. No one would know.”

“I would,” he said, leaving her
alone in the common area. He locked his door and put the bottle on his
nightstand.
One more night after this.

The next morning, Zeiss woke to
someone inside his room. “I’m not afraid to use these crutches as weapons,” he
said, terrified it was Kaguya.

“You may want some of that rum,
before we talk,” said Trina. He turned the dim table lamp on. “The course is
over.”