by KJ Hannah Greenberg
Dean Avery watched Thomas McNeal regard Jim Jackery’s cold, prone body.
Thomas: “Why d’ya kill ‘em?”
Dean: “Too competitive.”
Thomas: (silence)
Dean: “You students pay tens of thousands. Without superior educational achievement, there’d be no superior career achievement. Without superior career achievement we’d have less alumni-sourced funding. Parity matters. Success, yes. Stars, no. Everyone needs to get top grades.”
Thomas: “Shouldn’ta killed ‘em.”
Dean: “Professor Murphy says you did better than Jackery on the quantum physics final.”
Thomas: “Exaggerated.”
Dean: “Which direction?”
Thomas: “Student senate taped you, hacked you, photographed your home life. Nice Jacuzzi. The alumni body’s been sent email.”
Dean: “Let’s talk in my office.”
Thomas: “Uh-uh. Look at Jerry. You don’t want donations. You want the code.”
Dean: “For particle acceleration? Mr. McNeal, my office.”
Thomas: “Here. Talk here. Why’s Jerry’s body still here? Where are the campus police? The local sheriff? An ambulance? An autopsy? What’s your alibi?”
Dean: “Don’t fluster yourself. I can give you ten entire minutes before I meet with the trustees.”
Thomas: “Bring it.”
Dean: “Mr. McNeal, try gratitude.”
Thomas: “Kidding me?”
Dean: (reaches for cell ph): “I’ll call Dean Richter, your advisor. We can talk together.”
Thomas: “About the accelerator?”
Dean: “Nope, your overdue dorm fee.”
Thomas: (draws a gun and then backs away) “Don’t think so.”
Dean: (taps autodial) “Security, Dean Avery here . . . middling height . . . male . . . twentyish . . . red cap . . . armed . . . dangerous. No, I’ll be okay . . . just a physics major having a very bad day.”
3 comments:
That is a reality I a glad I did not go to school in. So many things going on here! What a rich background world you have opened up.
So much tension! There's much more to tell here.
Oh, and God forbid you flunk one of them. Their parents are even worse -- threatening to cut off their donations to the school, badgering everyone from the professor on up to the Provost. I know whereof I speak.
This is GOOD flash.
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