A/N: More TMI. Stanford's academic quarters last ten weeks and a week for finals for a total of eleven weeks, not including time for holidays. It is typical to take three or four classes during a quarter, although it could be as many as five, if one of those 'classes' is the lab linked to another class being taken. Although Stanford's class schedule does vary, most classes either meet MWF for one hour or TTH for one hour and twenty minutes. There are thirty (!) minutes between classes on MWF and forty (!) minutes between classes on TTH. When I was in school, we got ten minutes between classes and were damn happy. And, yes, my university was built across a valley, so we did have to go uphill both ways, so pfft.
Disclaimer: I owe a debt to all of the other Chuck writers here on Fanfic. That debt is so huge that I couldn't afford to own Chuck, particularly since I make no money from Chuck.
Chapter 6 – She Blinded Me With Science
October 2
Sarah and her friends didn't speak during the walk back to their suite. She was too busy mulling over the information Chuck had found for her about the Tower of Hanoi (or London) logic test to talk to them, anyway. The amount of information and the level of detail that he was able to locate in just a few minutes astonished her. Chuck had printed out a few short papers for her to take with her, but had compiled the rest of the information into an email that included links to all of the websites, papers, and journals he had found. He had accomplished more in a few minutes than she had been able to since she had gotten the assignment the previous morning. And Chuck wasn't even majoring in psychology. To say Sarah was impressed was an understatement.
No sooner had the door to their suite closed, when the girls all started talking at once.
"Did you see all of the stuff he found for me? In minutes?" Sarah marveled.
"Anyone else notice all of the books in his bookshelf?" Zondra asked.
"He had piles of professional journals all over the place." Amy commented.
"What a nerd! Did you see all the comic books the two of them had laying around?" Carina said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
The girls continued talking over each other for a few more minutes before Sarah finally called a halt to the cacophony.
"Hold it. Hold IT. HOLD IT." Sarah yelled. "What were you saying?" All this accomplished was to get her friends all talking again. She held up her hand. "STOP!" Trying again, she looked at Zondra. "What did you say, Z?"
"I said, did anyone else notice all of the textbooks on Curls' shelf? Way more books than he'd need to take a typical class load. Like double or triple the normal amount. Even for an engineering major. More than Amy's ever had at one time, if I'm remembering correctly." Zondra reported.
"Maybe that means something and maybe it doesn't. Amy, what do you think? You're the engineer here." Sarah commented.
Amy looked at her friends. "Hard to say. We know he works fast and does a lot in a short time. We've seen what he pulls out of that backpack of his at practice. Did you happen to catch the titles of any of the books, Z?
"Not really. I could tell that there were a lot of different subjects. I saw what looked like books for computer science, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, math, and some others, but I don't remember which subjects, exactly."
"He told us he's majoring in computer science and engineering, so the computer science and electrical engineering books make sense. The others? Who knows? Maybe he's got a class in one of those things, too." Sarah guessed.
"He's a nerd. He plays with computers, has a fish ornament, and reads comic books. What's to know? Obviously, he's into all that science and math and all that other nerdy stuff. Maybe he's reading those other textbooks for fun. That's all Chuckles is. Tall, dark, and nerdy." Carina snarked.
"Says the anthropology major." Zondra grinned. "Pot talking about kettle, again."
"I am not a nerd." Carina protested. "Just because I'm studying a particular science that doesn't make me a nerd."
"In psychology, we call that being on the spectrum." Sarah retorted. "Red, you're on the nerd spectrum, just like Chuck. At a different point, maybe, but still on the same spectrum. You are a nerd." Carina opened her mouth to say something, but Sarah wouldn't let her. "Before you say anything, yes, I'm a nerd, too. We're all nerds to one degree or another. We go to Stanford and study science and engineering. Well, all except Zondra. She's a nerd due to hanging around the three of us for four years. Guilt by association. We've rubbed off on her." Zondra laughed at Sarah's characterization of her.
Unable to stand it any longer, Carina shot back. "The only person rubbing off on anyone is you Blondie. You were 'rubbing off' on Chuckles so much tonight that I thought he'd burst into flames." Carina closed her eyes, puckered her lips, moaned, and thrust her chest out while twisting her torso back and forth.
Surprisingly to Amy and Zondra, Sarah didn't react beyond a small smile. Instead, she turned to Amy and asked. "What were you talking about before, Amy?"
Carina's eyes popped open in surprise at Sarah's lack of response. First Chuckles and, now, Sarah. She really must be losing her touch.
"I was talking about all of the piles of professional journals he had on his side of the room. I couldn't tell what journals or what subjects, but there were a lot of them. Well, at least, I think they were professional journals. They looked similar to journals I've had to use for some of my classes before." Amy responded.
"That's interesting." Sarah said. "So, to recap, he was a wizard on the PC hunting down information for me. He's got a lot of textbooks. Maybe more than what he needs for his classes. And he has a lot of magazines that might be professional journals. OK, what does that say about him? Any ideas?"
"He's not reading porn." Carina said. When Sarah stared at her, she shrugged. "Porn magazines have pictures on the covers. So do normal magazines, for that matter. Don't professional journals have either a plain cover or a list of the articles in that issue on the cover?"
"Yeah, that's true. And those things in Chuck's room certainly didn't have pictures on the cover. So, maybe, they were journals, after all." Amy said.
"We've seen him having stacks of magazines or something next to him when he's studying during our practice." Sarah said, trying to picture him up at his studying spot. "Let's say they are journals, for the time being. Where does that leave us?"
"Pretty much where we started." Zondra replied. "From seeing him in action at our practice, we knew he had journals that he read. He was a fast programmer or whatever on the PC, since he's done that on those laptops he brings to practice. And he's got textbooks."
"In other words, we don't got squat." Carina grumped. "We need to get a look at those textbooks and those piles of journals to see what they're about."
"We'd have to get back in his room to do that. Either that, or go through his stuff when he's studying at our practice." Sarah volunteered. "How do we manage that without letting him know?"
All three of her friends looked at her with the same flat look.
"What?" Sarah shrugged and held up her hands. "You want me to lie my way into his room or distract him so you can search his backpack? I can't do that. It's not fair to him."
"No, Blondie, you don't need to lie or distract him or anything like that." Carina spoke soothingly. "You just need to ask him for more help or to talk more about your Tower thing like you did tonight. He'll invite you over, simple as that. We can tag along and look around, casually, like we did just now. Maybe, get a picture or two of his books or the journals on the top of one or more of his stacks, with our phones, while he's talking to you or showing you stuff on his laptop. No big deal."
Sarah twisted her lips while she thought about what Carina said. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I'll have to think about it." She said, reluctantly. "In the meantime, Z, can't you use your own computer skills to search for information about his mom and dad. Maybe confirm what he's told us? Maybe even use your dad's access from the Port Authority to search government stuff? Can you do that without getting your dad or you in trouble?"
Zondra nodded. "Sure, Sarah, I can do that. It shouldn't take all that long. It's not like they're secret agents or something, right?" The girls all laughed at the mental image of Chuck Bartowski being a secret agent.
Sarah walked over to her desk and booted up her laptop. Pulling out the papers, Chuck had printed for her, she sat down and began to read. She didn't see the look shared by her three friends and had no idea she was aiding them in their own investigation into Chuck Bartowski.
Zondra sat down and booted her own laptop, while Amy and Carina moved to do their own work. Once the PC finished coming up, Zondra opened her browser and started typing. She didn't notice the small messages, flashing by in the status bar at the bottom of her browser window, that indicated her searches were being redirected.
Chuck sat at his desk for a few minutes with a silly grin on his face. Sarah had been in his room. He had been in a room with Sarah. Sarah and he were in a room, together. He did a little chair dance and pumped his fist. It was all he could do not to shout 'Yippee', at the top of his lungs. He was making friends. He was making friends with girls. Actual girls. He was making friends with her. Sarah! In. His. Room. Oh my God! Well, Sarah and her three friends. But, still, oh my God! And he hadn't sounded or acted like an idiot. That would have sucked with a capital S. Things were looking up. Maybe. He had to handle this carefully, gently. Get to know her and let her get to know him. Well, part of him, at least. Don't let her get to know any part of him that might make her think he was a weirdo or a freak. "You can do this, Chuck," he thought, "Just don't freak out."
His euphoria was broken when his phone vibrated and played part of Chopin's Funeral March. Chuck's face fell. That tune meant one or more of his sniffer programs detected that someone or multiple someones were searching for information connected to him. After the show he had put on in the dining hall during dinner, he wasn't surprised. He turned to his laptop and opened a DOS window. From the DOS prompt, he connected to a secure VPN (virtual private network), and started TOR (the onion router) to mask his signal and location, before connecting to his memory-only database on the distributed virtual server he'd deployed when he first arrived at Stanford.
Once in his database, he queried the IP address data along with the related date and time data from the appropriate tables. The query returned multiple rows of different IP addresses. While most of the results showed single accesses, there was one IP address that showed repeated accesses and similar date and time stamps. That meant that there were numerous people doing single searches, most likely on 'Chuck Bartowski', since that is what people had heard Jill say in the dining hall. The repeated IP address, on the other hand, indicated that the same person was doing a number of searches in a short time frame.
Logging out of his database, Chuck ran his IP tracker to locate the IP addresses of the people searching for him. The tracker reported that all of the IP addresses were located in various dorms across campus, with most of them being either his dorm or the other dorms located near Lakeside Dining Hall. As he had suspected, the program quickly returned the information that the recurring IP address was located in Roble Hall. It couldn't get any more exact, but it was exact enough to confirm what he already suspected. Someone, possibly Sarah, or one of her friends, was searching for him on the Internet.
Besides setting up his virtual server, Chuck had also deployed a spy bot program on the Stanford network when he first got to school. After that, anyone who connected to the network would automatically download a copy of his bot. With the list of the specific IP addresses to contact, he could ask the bot at each address to use its keylogger function to report what people had most recently typed and, also, find out the device name from the computer's system information, which would be helpful if the owner had given their computer a name other than the factory default.
Reviewing the output from each bot confirmed what he had guessed. People were curious who 'Chuck Bartowski' was and were, probably, not a problem. The recurring IP address did belong to a machine named 'Zondras-PC' and the keylogger data showed she was searching for him, his parents, Ellie and, even, Morgan. Damn.
Chuck knew his redirect programs, that were running in the background on the web, would deflect any direct searches for 'Charles Bartowski" or "Chuck Bartowski' to dead ends so he wasn't overly worried, but he couldn't stop people from looking for his parents, they were professional people, after all, or Ellie, for that matter, or doing a more indirect search like for Morgan. He didn't want to scrub the entire Internet. That would be too suspicious in and of itself, in the social media age, and might attract the attention of people he would rather not have looking for him. He was going to have to be careful. Try and avoid any more floor shows in the dining hall or anywhere else going forward. Baseball season next spring would make it impossible for him to stay under the radar on campus.
Sooner or later one or more of the Songbirds would find information about him and then they would start asking questions that he wasn't prepared to answer, yet. His redirects gave him time, that's it. All he could hope for was to spend enough time around them so that they liked him enough to override the inevitable fallout his answers to their questions caused.
Chuck shook his head, sadly. It would come out. It always came out. Always. He wondered what he had done to deserve this curse. Shutting down TOR and the VPN, Chuck closed the DOS window before powering down the laptop. He shoved his study materials, along with his laptops, into his backpack, locked the room, and headed off for another evening at Terman Library.
Zondra pushed back from her desk and rolled her shoulders to release some of the tension that had built up while she was hunched over her laptop typing and searching. Blowing out her cheeks, she looked over at her friends.
"OK," she began, "want to hear what I found out?" All three girls looked at her expectantly, but only Sarah spoke.
"Sure, Z, what did you find?" Sarah asked, a little breathless.
"Well, first, his dad, Stephen Bartowski, is a PhD and he's a research professor in Computer Science in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at CalTech. He's also listed as a consultant for a company named Advanced Intersectional Methodologies, Inc. or AIM, which is owned by a Carmichael Holdings."
"That squares with what Chuck told us at practice today." Amy interjected.
Zondra nodded, 'Yup".
"What about his mom? Were you able to find anything out about her?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, same story. Dr. Mary Bartowski has a private practice in Burbank where she provides psychological and psychiatric counselling and care. According to her website, she's been in practice for years, so she's probably pretty good. Like his dad at CalTech, his mom is listed on the UCLA website as being on the research faculty in the Psychology department."
"Anything about her area of research?"
"Yeah, there were some of her latest papers listed on the UCLA site. The titles of the papers all looked to be focused on utilizing neurological and psychological tests to identify and treat mental conditions."
"Did any of the titles mention either the Tower of Hanoi or Tower of London stuff Chuck showed us?"
"Not specifically, you'd probably have to read the papers to find that out."
"Yeah, that's true, I guess. I'll have to do that, but I'm not sure I have the time right now with everything else that's going on." Sarah thought back over dinner and their time in Chuck's room for a moment. "Shit! Did any of you see Chuck react any time we talked about doing psychological tests with the Tower of Hanoi or Tower of London or whatever? Do you think his mom did tests on Chuck?"
"That's messed up, Blondie. No lie." Carina frowned.
"It's possible, Sarah, sure. But Carina's right. That's messed up. Running tests on your own kid? Who'd do that to a nice guy like Chuck?" Amy fumed.
"That kind of shit could really mess you up. That's for sure." Zondra crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her computer screen.
"Could be she ran tests on him. But maybe not, either. Before we go on the warpath to Burbank, we need to look for more information. Were you able to find out anything else interesting, Z?" Sarah asked and blew out a soft whistle. She didn't let her surprise at her friends' reactions show on her face. Chuck was having an effect on all of them, not just her.
"Oh yeah, was I ever. First, his sister, Ellie graduated from Burbank High School five years ago, went to UCLA, and graduated there last spring with summa cum laude honors with a double major in biology and neuroscience. And she is listed as attending Stanford medical school this fall in the newspaper article I found."
"He wasn't lying about that. Points for Chuckles." Carina chirped. Sarah glared at her and she shrugged.
"What else, Z?" Sarah wanted to know.
"Second, his friend, Morgan Grimes, graduated from Burbank High School last spring. He was a member of the baseball team. Pretty good game stats, too. Got a scholarship to come to Stanford and play baseball. That was in another article."
"OK, no surprise there, either." Sarah hesitated. "Why do I get the impression that you're holding back, Z?" She felt nervous, but couldn't for the life of her figure out why.
"Because, I am." Zondra paused for a second. "I found a few articles talking about Chuck being a top baseball draft prospect. Some others about him turning down the offer he got from the draft. He was offered over seven million dollars as a signing bonus, by the way, so that's all true, too. Closer to eight million, actually. There was an article in the Burbank newspaper about him signing to come play baseball at Stanford. Even a couple of articles talking about him pitching and pitching well in a baseball tournament in Irvine called Perfect Game."
"But …?" Sarah prompted. "I sense a 'but' coming."
"You're right. What I didn't find was anything about a Charles Bartowski graduating from Burbank High School or playing on their baseball team last spring."
"What? How is that possible?" Sarah demanded.
"It's possible because he lied to us, Blondie. It's obvious." Carina snarked.
"Why would he lie about that when he didn't lie about anything else he told us? That doesn't make sense." Sarah said, defensively.
"Wait a minute." Amy interrupted. "Did Chuck ever actually say he went to high school with Morgan at Burbank High School or play baseball there?" The girls all paused and thought for a bit.
"No, he didn't." Zondra announced, shaking her head. "All he ever mentioned was travel baseball or being on the baseball team here at Stanford."
"Yeah, you're right." Carina reluctantly agreed.
"So, where did he go to high school?" Sarah asked. "How do we find that out? I'm guessing nothing showed up when you searched online, did it, Z?"
"No, I didn't find anything else. I haven't used my dad's Port Authority account, yet, to look through the government sites. Something may turn up there, but I kind of doubt it. Why would the government have information on Chuck Bartowski that isn't on the public web?"
"You're probably right about that. Can't hurt to check anyway. No rush, just when you get a chance. I'm pretty sure Chuck is harmless, really. We'll just have to quietly keep an eye on him and see what we can find out from normal conversations. At least until we can get a clue where to search next. Anybody have any better ideas?"
No one offered any other ideas, so Sarah continued. "Not to switch subjects, but I've been thinking about Chuck's stuttering and stammering, both when he does and when he doesn't. Did you guys notice that he didn't stutter or stammer when he talked about his parents or his sister? He didn't do it, either, when he was talking about baseball at dinner, just a while ago."
"Chuckles was stuttering and stammering all over the place yesterday. Today, not so much." Carina chimed in.
"Yeah, but the more we talked with him, the less he fumbled." Amy observed.
"So, you're saying he's a stereotypical nerd who's shy talking to girls?" Carina asked.
"I don't think so." Sarah responded. "Yes, he was stuttering and stammering over everything yesterday, but he did it less and less the more comfortable he got around us. So, shy nerd. Maybe. But today, he didn't stutter at all and only stammered a little bit, except when he talked to Jill and he stuttered at first."
"He did so well with Jill because you were practically holding his hand, Blondie." Carina teased.
"You're right, Red." Sarah agreed. Carina was surprised. "When I put my hand on his arm, he was tense as hell. As soon as I touched him, he started to relax. And I think that's part of it."
"What do you mean, Sarah?" Zondra asked, confused.
"I think Chuck's wound pretty tight. Not sure why. Yeah, I think I helped calm him down before he confronted Jill tonight. I don't know why I was able to calm him down, but I was, apparently. The other thing I think about his stammering and stuttering is that the one time he still does it is when we ask or talk about him personally, apart from school or baseball."
"OK, I'll bite." Carina asked, seriously. "What do you think it means?"
"I think Chuck is hiding something or multiple things and it stresses him out. I also think there's more to his being awkward in social situations beyond being a shy nerd, which he probably is. Now, what all of that is, I have no idea. But I plan on keeping my eyes and ears open when I'm around Chuck Bartowski."
"You're not afraid of him, are you, Sarah?" Amy asked, a little nervous. "You don't think he's dangerous, do you?"
"No, I don't think he's dangerous, but I'm not one hundred percent sure about it, either. I will say I'm not worried about him hurting any of us. If he tries any bullshit, I'll kung fu his ass like Paul Bunyan chopping down a redwood." Sarah grinned evilly. The girls chuckled at the image of Sarah kung fu-ing Chuck.
"Anyway, stuff to think about for tomorrow." Sarah concluded. "For right now, I've got class work to do." She didn't notice the knowing glances her friends shared before they all settled in for their evening study time, as well.
October 3
Chuck had just started his study music, after setting up his work area in Helman Hall, and the Songbirds had just started their practice, when the door to the hall flew open and a short, auburn-haired woman strode purposely into the room. Sarah looked up in surprise and the girls stopped what they were doing.
Dr. Diane Beckman stormed right up to Sarah and came to a halt, her face covered in a fiery scowl. "What's going on here?" she demanded.
Sarah was startled, but managed to shake her head. "I don't understand what you mean, Dr. Beckman. Nothing's going on. We've just started practice, like usual. Like every other day."
"I've been told you've been messing around with boys here instead of practicing. So, where are you hiding them, hmmm?" She looked angrily at Sarah. "I agree with the girls voting you team captain, at the end of last year, and this is the thanks I get? I thought you were better than this." All of the girls stood silently staring between the two women. No one knew what to say.
Looking around, Dr. Beckman finally spotted Chuck sitting up in the seats working, oblivious. "So, there are boys here!" She barked as she stomped up the aisle toward where he was sitting. Sarah ran to catch up to her. Chuck would not deal with this well. It was a disaster in the making. The other girls rushed to follow them, but stopped at the bottom of the stairs and waited.
Dr. Beckman came to a stop in front of Chuck. He was completely engrossed in his work, ignoring her, his fingers flying over the keyboard of the laptop in front of him. When he didn't acknowledge her, she reached out and slammed the laptop closed. Only Chuck's quick reflexes prevented him from injuring his fingers. He pulled off his earphones and looked up at Dr. Beckman with a stunned expression on his face. His confusion grew when he noticed Sarah standing a little further back and one step down from where he still sat with a worried expression on her beautiful face.
"What do you think you're doing, young man?" Dr. Beckman demanded. The girls waiting at the bottom of the stairs tensed, waiting for Chuck to put on one of his shy nerd shows.
Chuck may have been surprised and confused, but he knew a college staff person when he saw one. He scrambled to his feet before he answered. "I'm doing schoolwork, Ma'am."
"What's your name? Who said you could be in here? Are you bothering my girls?" Dr. Beckman was still angry and a little intimidated, having to crane her neck to be able to continue to glare at him. He was so very tall.
"My name is Chuck Bartowski, Ma'am. I'm here because I asked Sarah Walker if I could study here. She and the other girls agreed to allow me to remain here and study. I promised to stay up here and not bother them at all. I even wear earphones and listen to music to help me concentrate and so I don't hear what the girls are singing." Chuck calmly answered. Sarah was surprised he wasn't stuttering or stammering.
Dr. Beckman eyed him suspiciously. "Did Roan put you up to this?"
Chuck shook his head, emphatically. "No, Ma'am. No one put me up to anything. I don't know anyone named 'Roan'."
"Hmmm?" She sounded dubious, like she thought he was lying to her. Then she paused. "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Bartowski? Are you related to Mary Gunter? I mean Mary Bartowski?"
Chuck looked even more confused than he was before. "Uh … yeah … Mary Bartowski is my mom. Gunter was her maiden name. Do you know my mom?" Did this tiny terror of a woman know his mom? How was that possible?
"Know her? Hell yes, I know her. We went to school together, here at Stanford. Sang in the Songbirds on top of that. Nice alto voice your mom has, too." Sarah was confused. What was happening?
"Wow, that's great! I didn't know my mom sang with the Songbirds. That's pretty cool." Chuck enthused.
"So, you're not here because of your mom's connection to the Songbirds and you're not here because of Roan Montgomery? How did you end up here then?"
"I literally ran in here the other day, looking for a place to catch my breath. There were a bunch of Baseball Annies chasing me. Groupies. Sarah and the other girls were kind enough to let me stay." Chuck grinned over at Sarah.
"Baseball Annies, huh?" Dr. Beckman stood thinking for a minute. "Hold on. Hold on. Were you pitching over Labor Day weekend in a tournament down in Irvine? A Perfect Game tournament? I was down there with … a friend … for the tournament."
"Yes, Ma'am, I was." Chuck confirmed, a little confused at the change of subjects.
"You pitched for that Burbank team against a team from Puerto Rico, right? Pitched a shutout? Held them to four hits and had ten strikeouts?"
"Yup, that was me." Chuck couldn't keep the note of pride from creeping into his voice. He blushed. "Sorry, I shouldn't brag. Didn't mean to."
"Don't apologize. You weren't bragging. You were just confirming what I thought I remembered seeing. Not a bad ballplayer. I'm guessing you're on Langston's team up here?"
"Yes, Ma'am I am. Thanks for asking." Chuck smiled down at her.
"Good. Good. I'll be looking for you next spring. Of course, you're a giant, so you'll be easy to spot." Dr. Beckman grinned at Chuck. All the girls were stunned. She grinned. At Chuck. Will wonders never cease?
Chuck chuckled. "Yeah, I am sort of a giant, I guess."
"Well, nice to meet you Chuck. Looking forward to seeing you pitch for us. Oh, I'm Dr. Diane Beckman, by the way. Music Department. Baseball fan, as you might have guessed." She shook hands with Chuck. "Tell your mom hello for me. And your dad, too, of course. I'll let you get back to studying and the girls back to practice. Sorry for the misunderstanding." Sarah thought she saw Dr. Beckman's cheeks turn a little pink.
Chuck turned on his full nose-wrinkling, eye-crinkling smile. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Beckman. I'll be sure to pass on your hello the next time I talk to my parents. I promise to stay out of the girl's way and let them practice."
Dr. Beckman turned to walk back down the stairs. "I'm sure you will, Chuck." As she passed Sarah, she nodded. "Sarah." Sarah nodded back. "Don't forget what we talked about, earlier. Get on that fundraising."
"I planned on talking to everyone about it at the end of practice today." Sarah confirmed.
As Dr. Beckman reached the bottom of the stairs, she nodded to the assembled group. "Ladies." Then she turned and primly walked back out of the practice hall. Everyone silently watched her retreating form until the door closed behind her. Sarah and Chuck had followed her down the stairs and joined the other girls.
Sarah practically leaped into Chuck's arms, only stopping herself at the last minute to awkwardly hop in front of him. "Holy shit, Chuck! How in the world did you charm Dr. Diane Beckman? No one's ever done that." She paused. "Well, I've never been able to do that. You even got her to smile at you. She was even blushing a little bit."
Chuck shook his head. "Oh, I didn't charm anyone. I just answered her questions. She's not the first school administrator I've had to talk to."
"Oh, you charmed her, alright, Chuckles. Made her blush. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes." Carina teased. "Made her blush, almost as bad as you're blushing right now." Chuck was blushing. They all could see it.
Sarah smiled at him. "Don't worry about it, Chuck. Anyone who can get Beckman to unbend even a little has magical powers as far as we're all concerned. I do wonder why she came storming in here in the first place, though. Who told her about 'boys' being in here, anyway?"
Chuck shrugged his shoulders as they each ran through the confrontation in their minds. After a moment, their eyes widened and they stared at each other, both having come to the same conclusion. "Jill!" They said, simultaneously. No one disagreed. Who else, but Jill, would want to cause them all trouble?
"That bitch!" Amy growled. Amy? Jill better watch out if Amy was growling. That was bad, if she got that angry.
"I may be an idiot, but how does getting me and y'all in trouble help Jill? Does she think I'll start to like her now?"
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Curls. Didn't you learn that in school, yet?" Zondra said through gritted teeth. "Next time I see that cow, she's gonna regret trying to mess with us."
"Yeah, I learned that in school. But I didn't scorn her. I don't even know her, much less like her. She was just a pest. I didn't do anything, except tell her 'no'."
Carina patted Chuck on the shoulder. "For some girls, Chuckles, that's all it takes. Not your fault. Nothing you could do about it, either."
"Well, I'm confused. I have no idea what's going on." Chuck shrugged and looked at them with a rueful expression on his face.
"Well, now you know, Chuck. Don't worry about it. Just remember not to scorn any of us. If you know what's good for you, that is." Sarah teased and bumped his shoulder.
"I w—wouldn't do that. I'd n—never scorn you. Any of y—you …" He stopped and squinted his eyes. They all were staring at him. "Ah, right. Teasing. Th—That was teasing right there. Wasn't it?" He ducked his head, sheepishly.
"Yeah, Chuck. That was teasing." Sarah giggled.
"Well, shoot. I done told momma that Chuckles weren't no ijit. He done lernt summin' rite befur yor eyes." Carina drawled. Some of the girls started chuckling.
Chuck raised his head and looked Carina in the eye. "Darn tootin. Momma dint raise no foo." He grinned.
Carina grinned back at him. Way to go with it, Chuckles. Good stuff. Everyone laughed for a minute.
It was up to Sarah to be the bad guy, so she clapped her hands. "OK, everyone, playtime's over. We need to get back to practice. You, too, Chuck." She gently shoved Chuck back toward the stairs.
"Shore thang, Boss Lady." He smiled over his shoulder at her.
She blushed and gave him a shy smile. "Now git!"
Chuck chortled as he walked back up the stairs.
Sarah smiled at his back. She thought she had been right. He didn't stutter or stammer at all when he talked to Beckman or when he was talking with them. When she teased him about his behavior toward them, though, that was different. Teased him about his social skills, then he stuttered. She needed to talk to her friends after practice back at the dorm.
Sarah saw Chuck and Morgan exiting the serving line. They were deep in conversation and hadn't looked around for seats, yet. It appeared to her that they seemed to be disagreeing about something. Chuck was looming over Morgan with a displeased look on his face. After a little more back and forth, Morgan looked like he sighed and nodded his head, clearly giving in to Chuck on whatever they were discussing. She wondered what that was all about.
They both looked up and scanned the room. When they caught sight of Sarah and the others, their faces broke into bright smiles, all disagreements behind them, for the time being. As they made their way over to the table, a number of people at the intervening tables called out greetings to Chuck, which he returned with a confused smile on his face.
"What was that all about?" Chuck said, as they arrived at the Songbirds' table.
"My guess is you impressed some people with how you handled Jill last night." Sarah commented. Chuck raised his eyebrows and pointed his chin at the empty chair next to her. She nodded for him to take it, scooting over to give him room to maneuver.
"That's my boy, firm, but fair." Morgan grinned as he slid into a seat next to Alex and gave her a shy smile. One which she returned as she slid over to make more room for him. He didn't notice the annoyed look Zondra gave him when he bumped her slightly as he took his seat.
"I guess so, but I didn't do anything special. Good evening, y'all, by the way." Chuck grinned at the table. "Thanks for saving some seats for us. We really appreciate it." Some of the girls waved. Everyone smiled at him.
"Oh, those seats weren't saved." Carina smirked. "We just got done killing the last two guys that tried to horn in on us, is all." She ignored the glare Sarah sent her way.
Morgan just stared at her. Chuck blinked for a few moments, then said deadpan, "Well I hope they don't try serving Soylent Green to us tomorrow for dinner." Some of the girls giggled, but others gave Chuck confused looks.
"Soylent Green?" Sarah asked. "What are you talking about." Carina grinned. She knew.
Chuck smiled. "Soylent Green was a dystopian sci-fi movie. 1973. Charlton Heston. In the future, Earth is running out of food, so they recycle people into food called Soylent Green. Charlton Heston plays a cop who finds out about it and tries to warn everyone. Kind of creepy, but something of a classic."
"Kind of creepy? More like a lot creepy. Eating people. Even recycled. Yeech!" Sarah shivered. Chuck opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it and closed it again.
Carina jumped into the awkward silence. "Eating people isn't so bad, Blondie. It just depends on what part you're eating. Know what I mean?" She wiggled her eyebrows and licked her lips.
Sarah blushed. Morgan choked on his food for the second night in a row and Alex had to gently pat his back until he got his breath back.
Chuck looked confused and started to respond. Sarah put her hand on his arm and shook her head when he turned to look at her. "Don't bother." She said. "You'll just encourage her." There was laughter around the table. Chuck shrugged and went back to eating while making small talk with the girls around him. Carina frowned. She'd wanted to tease Chuck some more.
Putting his fork down, he turned to Sarah. "Do you mind me asking what Dr. Beckman was talking about when she said fundraising this afternoon?"
Sarah eyed him for a second before answering. "No, I don't mind. Dr. Beckman was reminding me that we have to raise money in order to be able to afford to go to competitions."
"Doesn't Stanford pay for that stuff?" Morgan asked.
"They pay for some of it, but not all of it. They cover the entry fees for the competitions, but any travel costs or clothing costs aren't covered. The Songbirds aren't a sports team like the football team or your baseball team. We have to get money from donations from alumnae Songbirds or other people. We also try to raise money on campus." Sarah explained.
"Clothing costs?" Chuck asked.
"You didn't think we just wore street clothes, did you Chuck?" Amy chimed in.
"N—No, I didn't." Chuck hesitated. "Well, to be honest, I had no idea what you would wear. I guess I was thinking you'd wear robes like a choir would."
Sarah jumped back in. "We have worn robes before, Chuck. So, you're not wrong, but normally we like to wear, if not matching outfits, at least outfits that coordinate with each other."
"I'm confused." Chuck admitted.
"Come on, Chuck. Didn't Ellie ever explain women's fashion to you?" Morgan teased. Chuck gave him a flat look. The girls giggled.
"No, Morgan, Ellie didn't explain women's fashion to me. She and her room were off-limits to me whenever I was home." Some of the girls were laughing.
"Nobody likes a pesky younger brother, Chuck. You should know that." Alex snarked.
"Oh, I do know that, Alex. For sure. I wasn't always this big. For most of my life, Ellie was bigger, faster, and stronger than I was. She didn't hesitate to beat my butt if I crossed her boundaries. Keeping out of her way was pure self-preservation. Oh, my aching head." Chuck rubbed his head and grinned ruefully. Now all of the girls were laughing at his story and his antics.
Sarah pulled out her phone and called up a video. "Take a look at this, Chuck. It's a video clip from one of the competitions last year. Don't worry about the songs, just look at what they're wearing." Chuck watched the video for a few minutes.
"OK, I think I get it now. You need outfits that either are the same or look almost alike. Kind of like our baseball uniforms."
"Yup," Sarah confirmed.
"And what about travel? Do you need bus or airfare and hotels? Food? That sort of stuff?"
"Right again." Sarah nodded.
"How much do you have to raise? That stuff costs a lot. And for twelve girls. Does Dr. Beckman go with you?"
"Yeah, she does, so we need travel, accommodations, and food for thirteen people this year. There are five local and regional competitions. Those are all in California, luckily. Either short rides or short flights, if we can get enough money for airfares. Also, there's a national competition, if we get that far, in New York. That costs the most due to the airfare and expensive hotels. We share hotel rooms, so we can save a little there, but with twelve girls and Beckman, we'll need seven rooms for however many nights when we go away."
"So, how much money do you need?" Chuck asked earnestly.
"We're guessing fifty thousand dollars, but we're not sure. Hotels and airfare change all the time and are so expensive. Food costs are all over the place, too. We can always cut costs of our outfits, be creative, but the rest we just have to be able to pay for." Chuck was nodding his head.
"You said you do stuff on campus to raise money to supplement the donations you get. What do you do?"
Sarah laughed. "We do singing telegrams, birthday wishes, party invitations. We'll dress up in themed costumes and go to people's doors and sing the invitation or birthday wish. It's kind of fun, but we don't make much money at it. We also get paid to sing at events that the President or Deans put on. That pays better, but there are only a few of those."
"You're saying it's tough to raise money."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"How much have you raised, so far?"
"We've got just over five thousand. Not bad, but there's a long way to go to get to fifty."
"Would you mind if I called people back in Burbank and asked for money? I can talk to my parents. My mom was a Songbird, after all. Maybe, she and my dad can reach out to their friends and business associates." Morgan gave Chuck a knowing look.
"You would do that for us?" Sarah was incredulous. The other girls were stunned silent.
"Why, Chuckles? You're not a Songbird." Carina said, wide-eyed.
"Why not? I think I can help. Maybe, maybe not. What could it hurt? You've been nice enough to let me study while you practice. I just want to help out, if I can. And, no, I'm not a Songbird. Maybe I'm a groupie." He gave them a crooked grin.
Sarah's eyes were shining. "Or maybe, you're a Songbird Annie." She teased.
"I'd really rather be a Songbird Andy, if it's all the same to you." Chuck chuckled. Some of the girls giggled.
"The hell with that, Curls." Zondra shook her head. "Annies are pests, the way you described them. You try and help us out and you're no pest. You're more like our …" Her voice trailed off.
"He's your mascot!" Morgan chirped.
Carina clapped her hands. "He's right, Chuckles. You can be our mascot. Just the thing." The girls around the table giggled.
"Thanks, Morgan. Thanks a lot." Chuck gave Morgan a flat look, but when he looked at Sarah, his eyes were shining, too.
Without thinking, Sarah hugged him. Chuck froze for a second, as a warm feeling spread from where she hugged him throughout his body, then he hugged her back. It was her turn to feel the warmth spreading through her.
"Thank you, Chuck." She whispered.
"You're welcome, Sarah. I won't let you down. I promise." He whispered back.
Neither noticed that the rest of the people at the table watched the exchange with smiles on their faces.
As they finished their hug and began to draw apart, Chuck thought of something
"Just so you know, I'm not wearing any goofy costume with a big paper mâché head." He firmly shook his head. The girls laughed at the image.
"You don't need a paper mâché head, Chuckles, your real one is big enough." Carina snarked.
Chuck glared at Carina, but smiled when he felt Sarah squeeze his forearm. "No reason to get mad over Carina's teasing. That'll just encourage her." She whispered. He nodded and then thought of another question from the afternoon's events.
"Who was that Roan person Dr. Beckman mentioned today?"
"Roan Montgomery. He's a professor in the Art & Art History Department focused on Film & Media Studies." Sarah answered. "You'll probably have him as a teacher sooner or later, Morgan." Morgan nodded thoughtfully.
"So, why did Dr. Beckman think he had put me up to something?" Chuck asked.
"He's her 'friend'." Sarah made the air quotes sign with her fingers before continuing. "He's probably the 'friend' she was with when she saw you pitch in that tournament over Labor Day weekend."
"Is that a problem? Why would she think he's trying to use me to cause you trouble? I'm confused." The look on Chuck's face confirmed what he had said.
"Not cause me trouble, per se. More like cause Beckman trouble." Chuck looked even more confused. "They're kind of an on-again-off-again kind of relationship, know what I mean?"
Chuck shook his head. "No, I don't." Sarah's eyes widened in surprise.
Morgan piped up. "I'll explain it to you, Chuck." He looked at Sarah. "I got this." She gave him a doubtful look, but nodded her head after a moment.
"The other thing is, he advises the boy's acapella group on campus." Zondra grumped.
"There's a boy group like yours?" Startled, Chuck sat up straight as he pulled his neck back, his eyes widening.
"Yeah, damn assholes." Amy said, flatly. "They're called the ChoirBoyz. They're anything but."
Chuck looked around the table and saw sour looks on all of the upper class faces. The freshmen girls just looked confused.
"So, what's their story and what's it got to do with you Songbirds?" He asked.
A/N2: Chapter title comes from the song by Thomas Dolby. Seemed appropriate.
A/N3: Even more TMI. When on a meal plan, Stanford students are free to eat in any dining hall around campus, regardless of which hall they are 'assigned' to. Those assignments just indicate the dining hall closest and most convenient to their particular dorm.
A/N4: Memory-Only databases are a real thing. You configure part of your database server data cache to act as a storage device and build your database on it. It gives much faster performance than accessing data from either a normal hard drive or even a solid-state device. The downside is you lose the data if the server crashes. Of course, Chuck might not mind that as it would cover his tracks if that were to happen accidentally/on purpose. The other programs mentioned in the chapter are real things, too.
A/N5: Perfect Game is the country's largest sponsor of youth baseball tournaments, both metal bat and wood bat, for multiple age groups. Originally founded in Iowa, they hold regional weekend tournaments around the country that can attract upwards of 100 teams or more at each one and national world series wood bat tournaments in Georgia with up to 250 teams which last eight days each during July. Needless to say, the 16U, 17U, and 18U world series tournaments attract college coaches and pro scouts by the hundreds. Not endorsing it, just telling you how it is. Yes, Perfect Game does hold tournaments in Irvine, CA, like the one Chuck (and Morgan, even if Beckman didn't mention that) played in.
A/N6: Thank you to WillieGarvin, my hard-working beta reader, advisor, and all-around good egg. How he finds the time to produce his own wonderful story, Chuck vs. A New Day, and help me with my scribblings is beyond me. My hat is off to you WG. I am, most definitely, not worthy.
A/N7: Thank you all for reading and for your continued support. Drop me a PM or a review. Let me know what you think.