Title: Mentor
Chapter Six: Quizes, Mnemonics and Study, Study, STUDY!
Allison scrambled for her keys to her dorm room. She could hear the telephone ringing beyond the door and knew that it was House. Fighting the door open, she flung her bookbag aside and dove for the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi, Allison, how was class this morning?" House's voice asked over the line.
Flopping onto her bed, Allison tangled herself in the chord. "Good. I'm bored though! Most of my classes feel really easy since I've already read the textbooks for them." She admitted.
"Want to play a game?" House asked, "It might make you feel more challenged." He offered.
"How so?" Allison was intrigued.
"Well, you said that you've been reading extra books on the side, right? Well, I'll just give you little quizes that I'm sure your school hasn't even dreamed of." The tone in House's voice made Allison slightly nervous. She wasn't so sure she was prepared to make a fool out of herself. "Ready?"
"Yeah, but don't get mad if I can't answer everything." Allison agreed with a laugh.
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When Julia came into the dorm, she saw Allison chatting away on the phone. Rolling her eyes, she figured out that it was probably Dr. House, "What's up, Dr. Pain in the Ass?" Julia called over, a playful note in her voice.
Allison turned and looked at her roommate, "You're already out of class?"
"Uh what do you mean "already"? I was at the library for an hour afterwards." Julia quirked an eyebrow.
"WHAT!?" Allison twisted to look at the clock, "Greg, we've been on the phone for two and a half hours." She started scrambling around, "I have a class in five minutes! Gotta go, bye!" She hung up the phone and shoved her feet into her shoes.
"Two and a half hours!" Julia screamed after her roommate as Allison ran out the door and down the hall, barely keeping her bookbag from flying away, "You better remember saying that when we get the bill!" She yelled down the hall after Allison's fleeing body.
Arriving at her class a little late, Allison tried to ninja herself into her seat, and luckily the teacher either didn't notice or just didn't say anything. Allison suspected the latter. Sitting down, Allison quietly pulled out her book and notepad. She didn't know why she even bothered coming to this class, after all, she only spent the entire lecture doodling in her notebook.
With a sigh of boredom, Allison scribbled things that had nothing to do with calculus into her notebook. It was strange, but over the course of the last couple of weeks, her conversations with Dr. House, or Greg as she called him now, had been deterring off of the path of medical related. Lately their talks had drifted into their lives. She knew more and more about him every time they talked, which excited and pained her. She knew he was an only child. She knew how old he was. She knew why he'd become a doctor, and where he'd studied at as well as about his short stint at Johns Hopkins. And... And she knew that he had a girlfriend. Her name was Stacey and she was a lawyer. Just confirming her suspicions that an amazing guy like him couldn't possibly be single hurt more than she had expected. The fact that she'd remained oblivious before had allowed her to idly believe that she had a chance with him. Until the truth was spoken and her dreams fractured.
Another sigh issuing from her lips, Allison attempted to pay attention to her lecture.
But why? Why did he have to shatter her hopes?
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House hung up the phone and looked at the clock. "Wow." He was shocked that two and a half hours had just flown by like they had. Normally he was hunting for distractions on patient-less days. It was too bad Allison had class, maybe he could have knocked another hour off of his day.
"Finally off the phone?" House jumped as Wilson slid into his office from the balcony. "I tried to come in here five times and you were yacking away."
"What can I say? I'm popular." House kicked his feet up onto the desk. "Why so gloomy, Wilson? Get a patient that's not dying?"
"Ha." Wilson flopped down in the chair opposite the desk, "So, who were you talking to?"
"Allison."
"And?"
"Allison."
"For three hours!?" Wilson hollered.
"I was quizing her over some advanced material. She said her classes were boring." House shrugged, "I can relate. I wish I had a sexy doctor to quiz me through medical school."
"That's just... Gross to think about." Wilson shuddered, "So, what did you quiz her over."
"I gave her some symptoms. Had her diagnose." House gestured to his patient files.
"Did she get any?" Wilson asked curiously.
"Three out of five."
"Wow." Wilson nodded, "Impressive for first semester pre-med." He glanced at the files. "Which ones?"
House chucked the files at him and Wilson read. "Considering she's only read two pathology books. I think she did okay."
Wilson nodded, "And this one," he showed House the file, "you were running on for the whole day." He shook the file to emphasise. "So, she's actually good then." Wilson tossed the small stack, "The Great and Powerful House, is impressed by a little girl who could diagnose three whole patients."
"No cueing."
Wilson stared for a moment, "No hints? No clues?"
"Nope." House rubbed his eyes, "But then again, she's only read a couple pathology books, and when you really think about it, I rarely have "rare" diseases. They're usually just mixed, combined with or so out of date with what we typically see, that they're over looked. She didn't know that I was giving her my own files either. So, she had no problem thinking of simple things we normally overlook."
"Do you really think that's the problem with those two diagnosing?" Wilson jerked his head at the two men, Doctors Hoine and Messer, in the department beyond the wall. "They over think?"
"I'm not sure if "think" is quite the word to describe it... But they're always looking for something obscure to make them well known." House thought for a moment.
"And you don't?"
House shrugged, "Maybe when I'm just really bored."
"So, this Allison girl. Does she know what route she wants to go after med-school?"
"She says she wants to be a diagnostician like me." He laughed a little to himself before adding, "Well, not exactly like me. She said she doesn't want to become a sadistic, cynical individual, but she wouldn't mind being at my level of genius."
"I see she has yet to identify egotistical and narcissistic, in her Dr. House related vocabulary." Wilson pointed out.
"And misanthropic." House pointed out, "I do get called that one a lot."
Wilson rolled his eyes, "So, what's she actually like?"
House shrugged, "A little timid. She's getting more forceful when she answers questions. More sure of herself. She's got a long way to go, but she's getting there."
"That's not what I mean. Funny? Serious?"
"Both."
"House."
"Fine, more serious than funny. But she's cute funny. Not intentionally, she just says things that make me laugh."
"Like?"
House leaned back and reclined his desk chair as far is it could go on it's bar. "Like the mnemonic she uses to remember the 12 cranial nerves. Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girl's Vagina, Ah Heaven."
Wilson shook his head, "The things kids use nowadays. Remember when it used to be On Old Olympus's Towering Tops, A Fin Viewed Germans Vaulting And Hopping?"
"Only the pussies who weren't getting laid used that one. That's the one I thought Ally would use, but she rattled that one out and I couldn't help but laugh." House found himself laughing again already. "Cuddy used the sexy one."
Shaking his head, Wilson stood up, "Yeah, and Ten Zebras Bit My Cock." He grumbled as he walked away.
House thought for a minute, "Hey! A kinky one for the branches of the facial nerve!" He called after his friend. "Don't forget to tell Cuddy that one!" And the door closed.
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Allison returned to her dorm after her last class of the day and collapsed. "I hate this." She grumbled as Julia peeled off her headphones. "I want to be in medical school already." She pouted, "Not wasting my time on papers on subjects I already know."
Julia crossed her arms, "Well, I had to do them." She pointed out.
"Yeah, I know." Allison grunted and went over to the coffee maker that was perched on a neutral night stand. She started a pot and leaned against the wall.
"So what did you and Dr. House talk about?"
"Dr. House now is it? You must be really curious if you're not referring to him as "that sadistic bastard"." Allison quirked an eyebrow, but at her friend's steely gaze she complied, "He was just quizing me over stuff since I seemed so bored."
Julia nodded, "Well, you could quiz me." She pointed out, "I need to study." She snapped her books shut.
"What class are you studying for?"
"Organic Chem." Allison made a disgusted face, "My sentiments exactly." Julia fumed.
The two girls went about testing each other, both getting frustrated over the hell that organic chemistry gave them. They had both heard from many upper classmen that most either found organic chem easy and other sciences difficult, or vice versa. They were now discovering how true that seemed to be to them.
"I thought you said Dr. House was helping you study!" Julia whined after an hour of getting next to nowhere.
"He is, but it's mostly medical stuff. Not the stuff leading up to the medical stuff." Allison threw the organic chemistry book across the room and finished off her second cup of coffee. "Let's get a pizza."
Julia laughed, "Okay. But we have to get back to that book when we get back." She said firmly.
Allison grunted and rose, helping Julia to her feet, "I know, I know. That's the only damned class that's pissing me off though!"
As the girls walked out of the dorm to one of the pizza places just off of campus, they nudged each other and laughed. Carrying it home in the chilly weather, they took turns holding it to warm their hands.
"If this pizza's cold by the time we get back to the dorm, I'm going to kill you for not just taking your car." Julia seethed, teeth chattering.
Allison shook, and agreed silently that she would kick her own ass if they didn't have at least moderately warm pizza when they got home.
TBC
A/N- Hmmm Review!!!!!!... And FYI, if anyone's curious: 12 Cranial Nerves- Olfactory, Optic, Occulomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Adbucens, Facial, Auditory, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, Hypoglassal. And branches of facial nerve are: Temporal, Zygomatic, Buccal, Masseteric, and Cervical -Andi