"Hello, Little Miss Smiley!" Julie giggled as Wiress joined her friends in the cafeteria at school. "Someone has been making you happy these two weeks!"
"I did really well on the project in Electrical." Wiress said smiling. Which was true. Beetee had been quite impressed when Wiress brought her project notebook to their most recent dinner date.
"Did you tell your Inventor Crush?" Julie asked bouncing up and down on her seat. Melissa bit her lip to keep from laughing at her friend.
"Yeah." Wiress said before blushing.
"On a DATE?" Julie squealed. Wiress looked at Melissa and exchanged glances. She had told Melissa about her dates, but so far hadn't told Julie. She and Beetee were keeping their relationship low-profile as Wiress still had three more weeks of her internship.
"At my internship." Wiress said. However, the blush creeping up her face betrayed her.
"OH MY GOSH!" Julie squealed very very loudly. A group of kids playing Magic at another table stared at Wiress and her friends at Julie's outburst. "YOU'RE GOING OUT WITH B -" Melissa jumped up and clapped her hand over Julie's mouth. "With your SWEETIE!" Julie squealed after yanking Melissa's hand away. "OH MY GOSH! Is - Sweetie all proud of you now?"
"Julie - seriously - Sweetie? That's his code name?" Wiress asked shaking her head at her friend's silliness.
"Unless you want me to just say his real name." Julie said with an evil glint in her eye.
"Please don't." Melissa said. "Wiress wants to keep this on the DL, you know that!" Julie started giggling.
"Wiress and Sweetie - like gears in a - machiney - powered purely by love! And then they produced baby engineeries!" Julie sang making up a song on the fly. Wiress put her face in her hands. Thankfully the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Wiress ran up to her next class before Julie could tease her any more.
Thankfully the next class was advanced calculus for engineers. "In fact, Mr. Tesla informed me that he uses this equation often when he calculates electrical output in his invention work." The instructor said. Julie turned around and mouthed 'Sweetie' to Wiress. Wiress blushed furiously. Melissa snorted down a laugh and tried to turn it into a sneeze. Just then the door opened.
"Melissa Johnson?" The principal asked gravely. "Come to the office right away, please. Your father has been in a factory accident." Wiress looked up feeling like she was socked in the stomach. She recalled that day in her second year at the academy when the principal had said a similar thing to her. Melissa gripped Wiress' hand and they left together.
"He's at the hospital." Melissa's mother said. Melissa nodded. "He needs surgery."
"I'll come with you, mom."
"We have to - Melissa - the choice is yours." Mrs. Johnson said. "I took out as much as I could out of my savings to pay the down-payment. We still are short. The doctor is giving us an hour to wire money to the hospital."
"Ok." Melissa said. Her mother bit her lip.
"Honey -" Mrs. Johnson said paling. "The only option - the only other option is for you to take out more tesserae." Melissa nodded.
"No, Melissa!" Wiress yelped. "Mrs. Johnson - I - I have an idea." She looked at the phone in the Principal's office.
"Go ahead, Wiress." The principal said giving the Johnsons a sympathetic look. Wiress' fingers trembled as she dialed a familiar number.
"Beetee?" Wiress asked. "I'm at school. It's my friend." She bit her lip. "Her - Her dad - he's been in a factory accident. He needs to go to surgery. In an hour." She paused. "Could you help her? Please?" She handed the phone to Melissa's mother.
"Hello Mr. Tesla." Mrs. Johnson said. "I appreciate your concern for our family." She paused. "Are you allowed to help ordinary citizens like this? I - are you sure? No. She won't need it next year. This year's her last one. Yes. Two. No, not for another year. I won't let them take it out. Thank - Thank you so much." She looked at Melissa. "We have another two-hundred."
"I only have to put in twenty more slips." Melissa said resolutely. "Mom - I don't know what else we can do. Aunt Mary said Gina had to take some out this year too. I don't think we can ask her." Mrs. Johnson started crying.
"Melissa - honey -" She broke down and wept holding her eighteen year-old daughter in her arms.
"Mom - Mom - it's my last reaping. Just let me do it." Melissa said. "You told me it was my choice." Wiress wrapped Melissa in a hug.
"Hey, smarty-pants," Melissa said to her friend. "Take notes for me, ok?"
"Ok." Wiress said softly. "Melissa - I'll come to the hospital after school."
"They only let family visit." Melissa said sadly.
"You can come to our house, sweetie." Mrs. Johnson said. She wrapped Wiress in a hug. "Thank you so much for your concern for us, honey."
"I - I've been there." Wiress whispered.
"I know, honey, I know." Mrs. Johnson said holding her daughter's friend. She kissed the top of her head. "Now, off you go. Melly will want your notes." Wiress nodded.
Wiress forced herself to concentrate on her classes. He's alive. He's in surgery. He's ok. She kept on reminding herself. However, she found herself calculating the probability of Melissa being chosen for the reaping with her additional twenty slips. True to her word, she went to Melissa's house to visit with her family. She didn't want to eat too much of their food when they set out dinner, but she took a dinner roll out of politeness.
After leaving Melissa's apartment, she ran to Victor's Village. "Hey, Wiress!" Beetee said opening the door smiling as Wiress wrapped her arms around him. He closed the door and rubbed her back whispering soothing things to her as she cried. "Hey, love, it's ok."
"I - Thank you -" Wiress looked into Beetee's face. Her tearstained puffy eyes were reflected in his glasses. "Thank you for helping my friend." Beetee nodded. "You don't have to pay me these last three weeks."
"Of course I do. You signed a contract, dear." Beetee said. He took her hands in his.
"Melissa's father needs to rest for a month and then he can work again. Not at his usual station, but he can go back. I - I honestly don't know how to thank you." Wiress stammered.
"You already did." Beetee said smiling. Wiress nodded. "Something's still bothering you." It wasn't a question.
"She - She still had to take tesserae - it's not your fault - you did what you could - but she - she has twenty more slips in." Beetee bit his lip. "She's really smart - she's stronger than she looks - she beat up this kid in fourth grade for teasing Julie and I - she -"
"Wiress -" Beetee paused. "Don't worry about her just yet." He paused. "I don't have the exact counts of everyone in the district, but every year there are some kids with over forty slips in."
"I can't let her go, Beetee." Wiress blurted out. "I -" Beetee wrapped his arms around her and put his lips to hers to stop her from saying what her eyes told him: I'll volunteer if my friend is chosen.
"And I want you to intern with me next school year." Beetee whispered. "You know what that means." Wiress nodded. "I'll wish that the odds are in her favor with you, baby. I promise I will." He held Wiress until she stopped crying enough to walk home.