Hi there.
Well things start to pick up here in this chapter. I didn't hit my stride on this chapter though till about halfway through, and for a lot of it I used voice to text on my phone. So if you find yourself not being interested, see if you can stick it out till that point, I think it should improve. Let me know if that's the case.
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Chapter 2:
Davin's brisk jog down the dormitory corridor was briefly interupted by a sarcastic, mocking, sing-songsy, voice that said, "Oh Mister Wizard?"
He came to a stop, gave a dejected sigh, and let his head slump forward. Sky Waterford. Of course.
"Yes Sky, what can I help you with," he asked politely, but stiffly.
"Well, I thought I was rather helping you," came the sneering reply. Davin turned and looked at the blond elf leaning in the doorway of his dorm room with an eyebrow raised insolently. "I mean I pay you good money to make sure my papers are correct before I turn them in."
This was true. He stopped just short of breaking any actual rules by not giving the answer only by showing where the answers were not correct. Technically this fell under the heading of tutoring, and you could request compensation for tutoring, but sky obviously thought that this arrangement wasn't entirely legal and Davin wasn't about to tell him otherwise.
He wished but just once this stupid little punk with throw a punch. But bribes and cajolery were more Sky's style.
"So what is it you want exactly." ask Davin.
"Well isn't it obvious? Finals are soon going to be upon us, and it would be nice to have a copy of the final examination paper." He smiled as if he had just handed Davin a bomb with a bow around it.
Davin just stared for a moment then laughed. He laughed right in the stupid elfs face. "You seriously think I'm going to help you cheat on the final exam?" He shook his head and continued giggling. "That is so sweet of you, to think that you mean that much to me."
Sky" face turn crimson and twisted as he snarled"If you don't everyone about little arrangements."
Davin rolled his eyes and smirked at the elf. "You mean our tutoring sessions?"
"Is that what you're calling it?" sky said . "It seems like I'm paying you an awful lot just to tutor me."
Davon thought about allowing this charade to go on a little further, but he was actually running late for class and couldn't let this distract him. So he pretended to look a little worried. His shoulders slumped and he said, "Fine I'll see what I can do. Now I really have to get to class."
"You better or I'll let my orc friend handle things from here."
'Aha,' thought Davin, 'Finally the threat of physical violence, something I can understand.'
Under normal circumstances most people probably would have been afraid, but Davin had lived under the threat of physical violence for most of his life so the idea that an orc could make him afraid was laughable.
But he couldn't let's Sky know that, so he nodded his head dejectedly, and turn to leave. "I want those papers by tonight." Sky made a satisfied noise and shut his door.
'So business as usual,' Davin thought as he walked across the quad. 'Someone wants something from me they threaten me or bribe me, but no one ever tries just asking me what I want.'
He watched as a cute half-elf girl walked with her friends a few yards away across the quad in the opposite direction. She of course didn't notice him, almost no one ever did unless they wanted something from him.
Davin didn't know who this particular girl was, and it didn't really matter. He would like to be noticed for something other than his talent. It was kind of like being noticed as a computer programmer, because everyone thought that you could fix their computer.
His thoughts continue to be somewhat melancholy during professor Meriwether's class as he ran the overhead projector as usual. The power point presentation in particular was quite interesting, especially a couple of the places where Davin had fixed some of the professors formulas, and the Professor hadn't noticed in time. That got a chuckle out of most of the students, and exasperated glare from the professor.
Each of the other three lectures went the same way that day. Davin's mind really wasn't in the work. The encounter with sky seem to have bothered him more than he thought. Finally when the last class for the day, around 11:30.
"Hey there. Everything okay Dav?" The professor was packing up his briefcase, and preparing to head out for his vacation, but when Davin didn't answer he said, "Good job on the Power Point by the way, but I'd appreciate a little warning next time you fix my mistakes." He said the last part a little pointedly.
That got through the haze in Davin's head. He smiled and gave a little grunting laugh. "Yeah, sorry. I've um... been a little distracted."
"You haven't been playing that World of War Crap have you? I can't have a single goddam year in this class without somebody asking how to polymorph somebody, spam fireballs, or summon demons. It's a travesty."
Davin laughed a little again, and shook his head. "I'm not having this argument with you again. You can't avoid the fact that people are going to troll you. They troll me all the time... but that's not it. I'm... I... I just... " he stammered, then came to a halt.
The professor checked his watch, but then covered it with his hand, almost ashamedly. He looked at Davin sympathetically.
"Okay, I've got a couple minutes," he said. "What's up. Hey is it something about that weird terrorist attack this morning?"
"No... "
"I was so afraid they were going to shut down the airport, but - I confirmed the flight on my iPhone before this last lecture. But I'm sorry, go ahead. What's up?"
Davin took a second to collect his thoughts, find the thread of his issue. "It's hard to explain. Do you ever... I mean... sometimes I feel like no matter what I do, I'm only ever going to be Davin the Wizard. Like the only value I'll ever have is that I know magic. I feel like there's no one who actually knows or cares about Davin. Just Davin."
The professor nodded and appeared to think about this for a minute. "You've been studying magic, magical theory, physics, chemistry, all different kinds of maths. But more than that you have a gift like nobody I've ever even heard of. Someday you're going to be famous. Like Hawking famous. Einstein, Sagan, or even Neil DeGrasse-Tyson famous." He was saying all this in an offhand this-should-be-obvious tone of voice. "People are going to write biographies about you, you're going to be fine. You just need to take some chances every once in a while. Take a risk. Do something interesting." He glanced at his watch again as he said, "You want historians to say 'He spent his days playing World of War Crap for eight hours a day? Sorry, night." He patted Davin on the shoulder. "Look kid... Davin. If you don't want people to know you for something other than magic, then go out and do something other than magic. Or crappy video games that take over your life." He picked up his briefcase and started toward the lower door of the lecture hall, then paused.
"Oh, by the way, I don't remember if I told you, I'm leaving you the car." He tossed Davin the keys.
Davin's caught them, before his brain had caught up. Then suddenly his eyes went wide. "The Stingray? The 72 Stingray?"
"I got another Stingray? Yeah the 72. And there better not be a scratch on it, I'm counting on you."
Davin nodded mutely, not trusting himself to speak, and the Professor turned and started back to the door again. "Tahiti, here I come! Don't forget, your keeping my office hours tonight. Till five. Finals are coming and people are going to have questions."
"Uh yuh... yeah. Yes! Got it professor."
The professor waved over his shoulder, the door closing behind him.
Office hours went about as expected. Each person who had an appointment had a half hour, and everyone wanted more. He answered questions, advised study plans, gave his opinion on the subjects of papers, and generally helped people prepare for finals.
In a turn of good fortune the last appointment only lasted about five minutes, just someone needing a clarification of something, and when he went outside into the hallway, and looked around, there was no one around. He went back into the Professor's office and looked out the window. He could see the Stingray in the parking lot, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized there was nowhere he wanted to drive it. He thought he might just take it for a drive, even if it was just over to Indianapolis and back, just to see the countryside. It would be dark before he would be able to get very far, so he wouldn't see much. Maybe tomorrow...
Just as he was thinking this, the phone rang. Professor Meriwether kept an old fashioned rotory phone in his office, partly out of respect, to remind himself that even the newest and best stuff will eventually become old and busted. But his rotary phone, big, brown, easily five pounds, still did exactly what it was supposed to.
He picked it up on the second ring. "Professor Meriwether's office."
A husky female voice on the other end said, "Yeah, let me speak to the professor."
Didn't sound like a student, and certainly not his wife... thoughts raced through Davin's brain. 'Take risks indeed eh Professor?' he thought. "Um... he actually left for Tahiti... with his WIFE ...about five hours ago. By now he'll be at Boston International. Sorry," he added, almost as an afterthought.
"Shit," came the other voice. She sounded a little too upset, maybe even a little desperate.
"Uh... well I'm his TA, is there something I can help you with?"
The voice sighed. "I suppose I'll have to take what I can get. No other professors of theoretical metaphysics in the house tonight?" Her voice moved away from the phone for a second. "Hey cut it out, you don't know where that thing's been. Dammit your like a bunch of drunk fuckin' apes." She came back. "Sorry kid. Look, are you any good? Do you know much about magic and stuff?"
Davin's mind went back to his conversation with Meriwether. 'Risks,' he thought to himself.
"Uh yeah. Yeah, you might say that."
"Okay kid, you're really our only choice, so I hope it works out." There was a bunch of clattering in the background, and other voices, and a little bit of echo, as if the phone had moved from outdoors to indoors. "Here's the deal you come out, give us your expert opinion, I'll pay you a thousand." Davin forced himself to keep quiet, but his eyes went wide. "If your information proves useful, I'll even toss in another thousand."
Davin was quiet for a moment, then nodded. Then he realized that she couldn't hear that over the phone. "Uh- yeah.... sure I can do that. Where are you?"
She sighed, sounding a little relieved. "You know where the Storage Park is on South State Road 63?"
He nodded, and said, "Storage Solutions. Yeah my second cousin's dad owns that with a buddy of his. Which unit?"
There was a pause on the line. "You watch the news kid?"
Davin started... "Er... not... not too much today, it's been kind of a busy day."
Davin got the impression she was nodding now. "Huh. Then let's just say you won't have any trouble figuring it out." The line clicked and went dead, and Davin frowned at it. Then he turned and looked out the window at the Stingray again, and smiled.
******************************** Chapter 3
Alrighty then. As always comments and suggestions are welcome.
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