Bo cracked open an eyelid and looked around for the source of disturbance. After a few moments of disoriented searching, she saw her cell phone vibrating on the nightstand, skidding haphazardly across the smooth surface with each unanswered ring. She reluctantly pulled one arm from under the warm blanket and grabbed the skittering device.
" 'lo?" She answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Bo, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Lauren's voice sounded thinly from the other end. It was also ridiculously chipper, considering the hour, Bo thought.
" 's OK" Bo mumbled, clearly trying to expend as little energy as possible to maintain the conversation.
"I just wanted to tell you, I ran the tests on the water."
"Hmm?" Bo probed for clarification.
"From the pond? And it's OK. It's not as bad as I feared, so, if you took a long shower, you should be OK." Lauren answered helpfully.
"Hm." Bo confirmed. She took a long shower and dabbed some antibacterial ointment on any abrasion she saw on her skin.
"OK, I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn't worry. I'll see you at school on Monday. Good night, Bo." Lauren murmured, sad she had waken her friend from sound sleep. If anything, it was clear that Lauren was the only one worried about the toxicity of the water. Though if Bo knew what Lauren knew about pollutants, she would have been worried too. Oh, the bliss of ignorance, Lauren lamented internally.
"Night." Bo replied and shut off her phone, trying to recapture her dreamscape.
She'd been dreaming about a most excellent adventure when she was pulled out from her slumber by a call from Lauren - she was a sword-wielding superhero with magical powers, fighting a demon of some sort. More precisely, she was giving him an ass-whooping. He was seven feet tall, with bull's face, horns, hooves and tale, but a body of a man. He was brandishing a scary-looking axe, but she was meeting it with her sword stroke for stroke.
She was wearing a long leather coat with a high collar, a simple black top with a plunging neckline, tight black leather pants and knee-high black leather boots with 4-inch heels – and she looked hot! The fighting, the power she could feel coiled within, her outfit, it all felt exhilarating. She felt strong, and fast, and clever, and sexy, and very capable of besting a big ugly demon with ease, almost laughing at his inept attempts to skewer her.
It was easily the best dream she ever had, and she hoped she'd remember it in the morning so she can tell her friends about it. And if, come morning, the idea of demons and superpowers would seem too weird to share, than at least she'll tell them about a rocking outfit she saw herself in. With that last thought and a smile, she slipped back into dreamscape.
On Monday, when she ran into Lauren in the hallway, the first words out of the blonde teen were an apology for waking Bo up. Bo interrupted, uninterested in the apology, and pulled her friend into a relatively quiet spot to tell her about the team she had.
Lauren listened attentively and only interrupted once to tell Bo that dreams are a specific kind of distorted reality, a way for the brain to process real events, and that Bo's alter ego in the dream was a reflection of who she was in life – strong, brave, smart and very capable.
But Lauren's eyes started to glaze over when conversation focused on the description of Bo's attire in the dream. Bo didn't mind – Lauren wasn't the person to go all gaga over an outfit like some other people. Besides, the one person whose opinion she was most concerned about regarding the outfit was Dyson, and he whole-heartedly agreed it was totally hot. So she decided not to torture her brainy friend with any more fashion talk.
"What were you doing up so late anyway when you called?" She asked, walking Lauren to her next class, which was on the way to her own.
"Science takes time, Bo. Those cultures I made from pond water needed to mature." Lauren lectured gently. She had started on the tests as soon as she got home, and knew she would not be able to sleep until she had the results. If the findings were bad, she would have insisted that Bo should go to the emergency room. You don't mess with toxins! Lauren felt strongly.
"And while I was waiting on that, I thought I'd start on some extraneous tasks for the science fair I've been putting off, like making that stupid display board for my booth," Lauren let out an exasperated sigh just remembering the hours spent on that project. "Even with Aunt Ashley's help it took a long time. Neither of us is very good at arts and crafts stuff. It was tedious work, and boring as hell. So we took lots of breaks – first to bake cookies, then to eat them. We got done with the display, but I'm not very happy with it."
"Do you want me to come help you with it? I'm not very good at arts and crafts myself, but I can at least offer another pair of clumsy hands and some company," Bo offered.
"You still have your detention," Lauren reminded her friend. "And anyway, I asked Ciara if she can help – I know she's really creative – and she said she'll come over tonight with Nadia and a bunch of supplies. If all goes well, we'll be done this evening."
"Oh, OK," Bo said, forlorn. She was happy Lauren had other friends, of course, but she too wanted to be a part of this experience, to be of some help.
Lauren must have sensed her friend's thoughts, because she quickly added "But I could still use your help with something else, if you are available."
"What's that?" Bo asked, curious.
"I need help getting some things to the convention center where the fair is being held, and setting up my booth." Just as she finished speaking, the bell announced the start of a next period, and Lauren was visibly anxious to get to her class, but Bo seemed less concerned with being late herself.
"Ciara and Nadia can't help you?" Bo knew she sounded petty, but she was a little hurt, and her thoughts had traveled straight to her mouth, bypassing any kind of filter.
"They are going to be at a debate competition, but I haven't asked them…" Lauren paused to collect her thoughts, seeing that Bo was somehow hurt by not being included in the other project. "I'm sorry, Bo. I thought that working on display board is something that they would see as a fun activity – they are always talking about drawing and decorating, and I knew you'd find it just as tedious as I do. But the other stuff – getting my booth set up, that's not fun for anyone, but you are my best friend, and if I was going to ask anyone for help, it would be you. You are… well, you can make anything fun, just by being there." Lauren confessed.
Bo had to bite the inside of her check to keep her face expressionless. Of course Lauren had a logical reason for asking the other girls for help on the arts and crafts project. And she didn't forget about Bo, instead, she thought about what the older teen would and wouldn't like, and planned accordingly. She was actually more considerate than most everyone else, which was another reason Bo liked her. She just needed to remember that Lauren's thought process was different than that of her peers – she was more calculating, more logical, but never in a conniving or devious way.
It was now some time after the bell, and they were both horribly late for class, so there wasn't time to make plans. "I'll be happy to help, Lauren. Let's catch up at lunch and go over the details?" Bo suggested as a peace offering.
Lauren smiled in agreement and ducked into her classroom, murmuring an awkward apology to the teacher. Bo hurried to her own class, making a silent vow that she'll help Lauren any way she can.
About an hour later, Bo and Dyson sat their lunch trays at the table already occupied by Lauren and Ciara. Ciara blushed and stammered in her greeting to the pair, never taking her eyes off Dyson, her crush painfully obvious to all present. But the others elected not to notice or call her out on it, taking their cues from Bo on this matter. The brush brunette and Ciara had not been best of friends, but Bo never made a scene about her feelings, never acted territorial or jealous. Neither did Dyson, at least until recently. Ciara noticed that since the start of the school year, he'd seemed more wary whenever Bo was focused on someone other than him. She noted how his eyes darted between Bo and Lauren as the two girls discussed Lauren's upcoming science fair – alert and stormy.
The discussion turned to setup to the fair and Bo was asking what she can do to help.
"I could really use another pair of hands and another car," Lauren was saying. "I would need to transport my display board, several blocks of concrete and some boxes with my chem equipment. I think with two cars, we'd only have to make one trip."
"Blocks of concrete? What's this project about?" Dyson asked, shifting closer to Bo to steal some fries off her plate.
"She has invented a method to heal concrete!" Ciara answered, happy to have Dyson's attention shift over to her for just a moment.
"Like, if concrete had a boo-boo?" Dyson joked, looking at Bo to see if she would laugh. Bo wasn't laughing. Instead, she turned to give Dyson her patented death stare, but couldn't pull of the look, her face only registering surprise once she saw how close Dyson was sitting to her. She watched him chew on a fry that obviously didn't come from is plate and snapped him on the forehead.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind a recap of your project, since I'm going to have to figure out how to fit it on the display board." Ciara interjected again.
Lauren had been watching Bo and Dyson, wondering if the interaction could be considered playful or antagonistic. It was always so hard to tell with these things. At Ciara's request, she dug in her backpack and pulled out a stack of stapled papers that she handed to Ciara.
"I won't bore you with the story, so here's everything you'll need." She said cheerfully, nodding at the papers in Ciara's hands.
Ciara leafed through the pages, noting long paragraphs intermingled with chemical formulas and drawings of cross-sections. She looked at her younger friend, exasperated. Bo and Dyson smirked from across the table.
"There are like 10 pages here. Why don't you just give me the cliff notes?" Ciara asked, dropping the papers in her backpack.
"Now?" Lauren asked, unsure if Bo and Dyson wanted to hear about her project. When they all nodded, she pushed her hair behind her ears to give herself a moment to decide what information to include. "I invented bioconcrete - that's concrete that heals itself using bacteria." She began. She looked at the group to see if she had their attention before continuing. "Concrete tends to crack when exposed to water over time. But I developed bacteria that can 'heal' the cracks that develop from that exposure."
Talking about science always brought out a more outgoing personality in Lauren. While she spoke, her lips curled into a soft smile, voice deepened, eyes opened wider and her arms drew wild shapes in the air. It was fascinating to observe the switch and to see a very different side to the normally subdued girl.
Lauren, of course, remained oblivious to the change in her demeanor as she continued with her spiel. "Bacteria gets added when concrete is mixed, and it can wait dormant and survive for years before it is activated by water. When it's activated, it produces spores that turn into limestone and repair the cracks in concrete. The biggest challenge, really, was finding the right food source for bacteria, but I think I found the most optimal one for this purpose…" she paused for dramatic effect, "Calcium lactate!" She exclaimed, as if it should have been painfully obvious. But absolutely no one at the table looked like they had grasped the significance of that pronouncement.
Seeing, instead, the blank looks on her friends' faces, she remembered who she was talking to. So she decided to focus less on the science, and more on the circumstances that led to her discovery. "It's an ingredient in backing powder, and I wasn't even thinking about using it for my project when I stumbled upon it. I had been playing around with various types of sugar as a food source, but it was softening the concrete, so I was getting really frustrated, because what will anyone do with soft concrete?! And then one day I remember thinking that I'd wasted enough sugar to bake a million cookies, so I got a sudden craving for something sweet. So I went into the kitchen and started pulling the ingredients together, and as I grabbed the box of baking powder, 'calcium lactate' jumped out at me from the list of ingredients on the side of the box. And I had this eureka moment when I thought about calcium lactate and how it will react with concrete. I ran some tests, and it was perfect! So all I had to do then is mix it with my bacteria, put it in capsules and drop them into wet concrete mix.
"When I demonstrate my invention at the fair, I'll show how when cracks form in the concrete, water enters and opens the capsules. The bacteria germinate, multiply and feed on the lactate; and then it combines the calcium with carbonate ions to form limestone, which – Ta Da! - closes up the cracks!" Lauren finished, triumphant.
Bo gamely tried to look impressed. "Mind – blown" she mimed the explosion of the head.
"Yes, I can feel my brain leaking out as we speak," Dyson added, though he didn't try to hide how very boring he found the whole thing. "So that explains why you'll be bringing the concrete blocks to the fair. But why not hire the movers?"
"Because not everyone can just throw money at every problem, Dyson. Besides, it's not like she's bringing the London Bridge with her. It's just some blocks, we can handle it. It's what friends are for!" Bo insisted. She wasn't surprised Dyson would try to pawn off the work to someone for hire. It's what kids who grew up with money always tried to do. But it was rarely an option for someone like herself or Lauren.
Dyson didn't look convinced. "Friends are there for whatever you need. If Lauren needs money to pay for the movers, I can help with that." He looked at Lauren to see if the teen was amenable to his offer.
"Dyson, I'm…" Lauren trailed off, not sure how to explain that taking his money wasn't something she was comfortable with. She tried to convey both gratitude and apology with her eyes, but Dyson just looked at her blankly. She could see that Bo understood, though, and it made her happy to know she wasn't alone in feeling like an outsider in this school for rich kids.
Bo didn't try to restrain a heavy sigh. "Look, Dyson, let me simplify this for you. We are going to show up at Lauren's with both our cars on Saturday morning. You can apply your considerable muscle to help us," she squeezed his bicep for emphasis, "or, if you are afraid to strain something, you can stand around and watch me and Lauren lift everything ourselves. Right, Lauren?" Bo looked at her friend across the table, and Lauren pulled back her sleeve and flexed a bicep in agreement. For a scrawny 14 year old who didn't participate in sports, Lauren had rather nice looking upper arms, Bo noted.
Dyson's completive nature had obviously responded to such a challenge, and he flexed both arms and chest, muscles visibly moving under his tight t-shirt. "Dyson will come." He grunted out in a gravelly voice, possibly imitating some movie character.
Ciara just about swooned. Bo was used to such displays and just laughed. Lauren mentally conceded that Dyson had far superior musculature, though she couldn't help wondering if it was developed naturally, or induced chemically.
Ciara pulled her eyes away from Dyson with difficulty and turned to Lauren. "I wish I could also come," she admitted to the younger teen. Mentally, she was calculating how much trouble she would be in if she skipped her debate competition. Watching Dyson would be… She blushed at the mere thought. And helping Lauren would be a nice bonus, too.
Lauren patted her friend's shoulder. "You are the best debater on the team, they will lose without you. And I am so grateful that you will be helping me with my display board. I know whatever you can come up with will be a million times better than what I've done with it so far!" Lauren assured her friend.
"Yeah, you're right. I can't let the team down." Ciara conceded. Also, she thought she couldn't possibly prevent herself from drooling if her imagination of what Dyson would look like, lifting hefty chunks of concrete, came anywhere close to reality. And, surely, Bo's patience could not be without end, and she would find an excuse to drop something heavy – like an abovementioned chunk of concrete – on Ciara's foot, if she were so inclined. Better not to tempt fate, she decided.
Time moved quickly and Saturday morning came all too fast. Anxious about the upcoming event, Lauren barely slept on Friday night.
By Saturday morning, bleary-eyed Lauren and her aunt had lined up 7 concrete foot-long cubes and 4 large boxes with her supplies when Bo and Dyson arrived within minutes of each other. Bo hopped out of her car and went to help Lauren bring the display board downstairs. She had to admit it looked great and very professional-looking, something she knew she herself wouldn't have come up with. She told Lauren as much, and the blonde teen revealed that it took the three of them – Ciara, Nadia and herself – 3 evenings to get it done, and she was never happier to have friends who enjoyed cutting out frames, drawing boarders, coloring in shapes and gluing.
Aunt Ashley called out from the kitchen that she had bagels, muffins and juice all ready, and the teens happily stuffed themselves with carbs and sweets before starting to load their cars.
"Are you wearing that to the fair?" Bo asked, pointing at Lauren's t-shirt and jeans. Both looked well-worn, the shirt sporting a faded print of Albert Einstein with his tongue out, and jeans a few rips and stains.
"No, I have a change of clothing for the event. I like what you are wearing though." Lauren indicated Bo's jean overalls. Underneath, she had on a concert t-shirt, but Lauren couldn't tell from what concert since most of the print was covered. Lauren thought her friend looked adorable.
"Yes, Bo would look sexy in a paper bag, but I too like this look." Dyson chimed in. He was wearing a simple black t-shirt and jeans, and though his clothing had a worn look to them as well, Bo knew they were brand new and manufactured to look tatty.
The day was chilly, typical of late fall, but it didn't take long for everyone to work up some sweat. Dyson had taken off his shirt about half way through loading, and was getting appreciative looks from Bo, the passersbys and even aunt Ashley, though she, at least, was trying to be discrete about it. Ciara's imagination, it turned out, was spot on.
Working together, they made good time, and within 2 hours they had loaded, transported and unloaded all the materials at Lauren's booth in the convention center. Bo looked around and saw there were hundreds of booths just like Lauren's, with kids and adults darting to and fro, preparing for a big event. Just as they finished setting everything up, the school's principals and a few other well-dressed people stopped by Lauren's booth. Dr. Unamen, their principal, introduced her companions as Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, and Bo wondered if these people had particular interest in Lauren's project or if they were fair officials and would be meeting all contestants.
The group ooohed and aaahed when they saw Lauren's display board, and listened with rapt attention as Lauren described her project. Bo watched them as Lauren spoke, and she was sure they were able to follow Lauren's geek-talk with little effort. She also saw respect and admiration for her friend, and she made a note to look them up later and see if these were the kind of people whose patronage Lauren should try to cultivate.
One of the men, Mr. Jonkers, ran his fingers along the concrete block before looking up at Lauren. "This could be the start of a new age of biological buildings." He said and the other adults all nodded in agreement. "Concrete is the world's most popular building material, and ever since the Romans built the pantheon from it some 2,000 years ago, we've been trying to find ways to make it more durable. But no matter how carefully it is mixed or reinforced, all concrete eventually cracks," he continued. "Until now. This is truly revolutionary, Lauren, and the practical implications of your discovery are boundless."
"Well done, Lauren." Principal Unamen congratulated the blonde teenager. The others too had added their complements one by one.
Lauren practically glowed at the lavish praise from adults, then looked over at Bo and Dyson to see how they were reacting. She was concerned they may feel jealous at all the attention she was getting, but she needn't have worried. Both looked content to be there for their friend.
The announcer came on the stage and started to welcome everyone, and Bo though it was a good time for her and Dyson to slip out.
"Lauren," she waited until she had the younger girl's full attention, since like all the other participants Lauren had turned to look at the stage. "We are going to take off, but we'll come back and help you tear down in the evening, ok?"
"Yes, thank you." Lauren said, hugging both Bo and Dyson briefly and awkwardly.
"Sure thing, kiddo. Now, go change before you are asked to get up on stage in this dusty shirt to get your trophy!" Bo reminded her friend, dusting off her overalls for empathies.
"Lauren, you need to change!" Lauren's aunt Ashley had just returned from the bathroom where she swapped her jeans and t-shirt for clean dress suitable for the venue. She took her place by the large display board, the picture of a proud parent.
"Going!" Lauren huffed and waved goodbye to her friends. Bo and Dyson had little interest in hanging around a geeky science fair all day, so they planned to spend the day elsewhere.
Lauren couldn't blame them. Even she found parts of the event tedious. She had demonstrated her invention what seemed like a thousand times, shook a million hands, and thanked a million people for their kind praise. She indeed ended up with a first prize trophy, and was just posing for pictures with their school principal and the sponsors of the fair when Bo and Dyson returned.
She disengaged herself from adults as fast as she was able to and went to show her trophy to her friends. Dyson whistled appreciatively, and Bo hugged the smaller blonde. "You are the queen of geek!" she told Lauren and mock bowed.
Lauren giggled and pretended to fluff up some imaginary ruffles on her dress. It was good to goof off with friends after a day of trying to impress a bunch of adults.
Bo caught the site of their principal standing with fair officials, and could tell they were unhappy with Lauren's early departure. She considered telling her friend to go back and do some schmoozing, but could tell from the slight twitching of the blonde's hands that she had her fill of the noisy, crowded space and was ready to get a move on. But it did remind her that she had something to share.
"I looked up some of the people the principal had brought over at the start of the fair. One of them is a professor of Chemistry at MIT and another is a founder of a biochemistry lab called 'Synthesis'. Have you heard of it?"
Lauren thought about the name and decided she never heard it. "Nope, but I'll do some research on them when I get home. Thank you for looking into them!" she said, sincerely grateful. "Let's pack up, I think my arm will fall off if I'm forced to shake one more hand here."
"As you wish." Bo answered with another half-bow and grabbed their folded boxes from under the table.
They packed everything up and reloaded their cars in record time. On the way back, they made a slight detour to a dump site where they unloaded the concrete blocks and a few other things Lauren wouldn't need anymore, so when they pulled up at Lauren's, there were only a few boxes to unload and bring inside. It was still early, and despite a long day the teens seemed to be jazzed and eager to keep going.
"How about we go celebrate at the Dal?" Bo asked the group. "Food is on the house and Trick has cupcakes that we can stack together to make a makeshift cake."
"Food is always on the house," Lauren observed. "How do you manage it?"
Bo laughed. "We don't. That's why we never have any money, despite being a popular bar and having loads of loyal customers. Half of them are Trick's friends and they eat and drink on the house almost every time."
"Well, that explains it." Lauren nodded in understanding. She looked down at herself – she was back in the cloths she wore in the morning. "Should we change?" She asked, indicating herself and her aunt.
"If you want to" Bo shrugged. "But Dyson and I are not." Dyson nodded in agreement. He was perfectly content in his dusty, wrinkled t-shirt and jeans.
Aunt Ashley surprised Lauren by turning down the invitation, saying she was absolutely exhausted after a long day, and promising that she will organize another celebration for Lauren soon and that, of course, Bo and Dyson would be the first to be invited. She thanked both teenagers profusely and waved at them as they all piled into Dyson's car for a trip to the tavern.
The three teens chatted about their day as they exited the car at the Dal, but stopped when a loud sound of car door closing drew their attention to a woman who stood a nearby, leaning against the side of a very expensive-looking sports car. She was indisputably beautiful. Curvy and slender, she looked exotic with her dark hair and dark makeup. Dressed impeccably in form fitting tailor-made skirt and blouse, with a leather jacket thrown over one shoulder, she projected confidence and sensuality.
She looked over the teens as they stood rooted on the spot. She seemed to dismiss Lauren quickly, but her gaze lingered on Dyson. Her eyes appeared to smolder as she give the boy her full attention, a tip of the pink tong appearing briefly to wet her lower lip. Dyson reveled in the older woman's attention, puffing out his chest until Bo elbowed him in the side. The motion brought the woman's attention to Bo, and she smirked at the teenager.
"What are you wearing, darling?" She examined Bo from her concords up to her messy ponytail. "I can't tell if you were trying for a 'rag rat' or a 'grunge' look, but the only way to describe the ensemble is – unfortunate."
Bo bristled at the insult. "It's good to see you too, Mother."
Author's note #1:
Sorry for a cliff-hanger. I was hoping to be further along in this chapter in terms of the plot lines, but got a little verbose. So it was either this, or a very long chapter that would take a lot longer to write. But, in a way of apology, I'll give you a brief glimpse into what's coming next in this story. The next chapter will likely be the last 'high school' chapter. After that, the story will move into present day – which happens to be a decade and a half later than the events described in this chapter, and our two favorite ladies will be full grown adults, with adult jobs and adult relationships. How does that sound?
Author's note #2:
Bio-concrete is a recent invention. Here's the article about it from CNN (most of what Lauren says about it is lifted directly from this article): www dot CNN dot com /2015/05/14/tech/bioconcrete-delft-jonkers/