Chapter 08
"I don't understand any of this," muttered Danny as he glared at the sheet of paper in his hands. Vlad held onto Danny's upper arm and guided him through the throng of students in the hallway. "This might as well be a foreign language!"
"You seem to be grasping the formulas quite well," Vlad insisted, but Danny could tell the man was growing weary of encouraging him.
"You don't have to be nice to spare my feelings." Danny sighed and folded the paper before he stuffed it in his back pocket. "All my teachers never hesitated to tell me what a poor student I am. Well, except Mr. Lancer. He always tried to help me, except when he was taking sides with the bullies, but that was mostly in freshman year."
"There are teachers like that." Vlad shook his head. "They like making it difficult for their students to pass, or they try to break their students' confidences with cruel words. You just have to learn not to let their words drag you down."
"I suppose," mumbled Danny with a frown. "But I don't think there's any way I'm going to learn this calculus stuff."
"Stop that already!" Vlad snapped, causing Danny to jump at the firm, forceful tone he used. "You're not that bad in math."
Folding his arms, Danny stared at Vlad, daring him to prove his statement.
"You don't believe me." Vlad sighed. They stared at each other, neither speaking, until the corners of Vlad's mouth twitched. "Care to make a little wager then?"
"What sort of wager?" Danny asked, not liking the look on Vlad's face. It was a look he grew accustomed to seeing on the older man whenever Vlad had some trick up his sleeve.
"I think you can pass the next exam," replied Vlad, already expecting the skeptical look now gracing Danny's face. "So here's the bet: if you pass, you have to," he paused and pretended to think. "You have to do the laundry and clean while wearing a French maid outfit."
Danny gaped at Vlad, his mouth hanging open. Then it snapped shut as he frowned. "What is this obsession with French maid outfits?"
"I'm not sure." Vlad rolled his shoulder in a small shrug. "Somehow the idea just amuses me."
"Right," said Danny, not believing the man's words. "And if I fail?"
"That is for you to choose."
Danny thought about all the possibilities. The one option that stuck out in his mind was to force Vlad to go on another blind date. He did still want Vlad to find someone else to stop his obsession with Maddie. He shook the thought from his mind as another idea occurred to him. "All right," Danny said after some more thought. "If I fail, then you have to tell about your theories on ghosts." And this way, I can keep tabs on their progress of the Proto Portal, he thought with a mental smirk, proud of his plan.
"That's what you want?" Vlad hid his mild shock with confusion and a frown. Danny nodded in response. "I guess I can agree to that. But you have to do your best on the exam. You can't fail on purpose."
"That never crossed my mind." Danny grinned.
"Good. I have to get to my next class, but starting tonight, I'm going to start drilling those formulas into your head so you're prepared for the exam."
"I'm so looking forward to that," muttered Danny in a sarcastic tone. They waved as they parted ways, and Danny headed back toward their dorm. After he entered the building, Danny jogged up the stairs to the third floor. With a sigh, he walked down the hallway toward the room he was sharing with Jack and Vlad. He had his hand on the knob about to open the door when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find a tall, black man with nervous look in his eyes standing before him.
"I, um, a friend of mind said there was a guy living his this room offering to do laundry and stuff," said the man, stuttering and coughing as he glanced away with an uncertain look.
"Yeah, that's me," Danny said, grinning friendly. "Is it just laundry?"
"Actually, I'm having a date come over," replied the man, looking more embarrassed. "My roommates, well myself as well, are slobs. Do you think you could clean our room?"
"Sure." Danny followed the man down the hallway to his room. When he entered the room, he gave a low whistle at the mess he found. I hope he pays me well for this, he thought as he rolled up imaginary sleeves and got to work.
"So you're sharing a room with, oh what are their names," said the man, "that Masters guy, and, um, Fenton?" He sat on one of the beds and leaned against the wall as he watched Danny clean.
"Yeah," Danny answered, his brow knitting together as he frowned.
"Huh." The man nodded his head.
Silence passed. The man scratched an itch on the inside of his foot. Danny made a face as he lifted a plate by a sock that was glued to it by some leftover food. He couldn't tell what the green and brown goo plastered to the dish was.
"You don't think they're… odd?" asked the man after a while.
Danny raised his head to look over the top of the table. "Odd? They aren't odd." He ducked down again to grab the last bit of trash under the table. He climbed to his feet and dumped the trash into a basket that he spotted near a desk. "This isn't going to be about their belief in ghosts, is it?"
"It was," mumbled the man, shifting awkwardly. "I guess I just never understood why anyone would be interested in that kind of thing. I mean, I've never seen any real proof of ghosts existing."
"Just because you haven't seen proof, it doesn't mean no one has seen proof," said Danny, straightening some books on a shelf over the desk.
"I guess… that's true." The man fell silent once again, allowing Danny to work without interruption.
"Why did you ask?" The thought was nagging Danny's mind throughout the long silence.
"Oh, my younger sister sent me a letter. She's taken an interest in ghosts, and I'm just trying figure out why she would suddenly be interested in them."
"Does she really need to have a reason to be interested in ghosts? Could you move so I can make the bed?"
"No, I supposed she doesn't really need a reason." The man climbed off the bed then leaned against the wall. "I guess I just wanted to understand her. I feel like there's this gap between my sister and me, and it just keeps getting bigger. We used to be really close, you know."
"That kind of makes me think of my sister," said Danny with a fond smile. "My whole family believes in ghosts, but my sister, always thinking she's the sane one, refused to believe in them. It kind of drove a wedge between us. It wasn't until she started believing in ghosts as well that we've started getting closer. So if you want to keep a close relationship with your sister, I suggest just accepting her interest. Don't go around teasing her for believing in ghosts. You don't have to believe in them yourself, but maybe you could try to show a little interest in it just to let her know you don't think she's some weirdo." He finished making the bed and turned toward the man.
The man scratched the back of his shaved head. "Well, I guess that would be fair," he said after some thought. "She did come to my basketball games even though she didn't particularly care for sports." He noticed then that Danny finished cleaning the room while they had talked. "How much do I owe you?"
"Oh, I don't have any set payment. I've been letting people pay me whatever they feel is appropriate for the work."
The man nodded as he got his wallet. He pulled out two bills, a twenty and a five, and handed them to Danny. Taking the money, Danny was a little disappointed. The room wasn't exactly fun or easy to clean with how much trash and questionable leftover food cluttered it, but he didn't want to ask for more and seem greedy.
"Thanks for the advice," the man said, following Danny to the door. "None of the guys I know would have bothered to actually offer me advice. They would have just laughed at me and said I'm worry over nothing."
"No problem." Danny grinned at him. "Talking made the work go a lot faster. As for your friends, don't listen to them. Family is important."
"My thoughts exactly." The man chuckled. "Well, thanks again, and if I ever need my room cleaned again, I know who to ask. Well, see you around." He closed the door.
Danny found a few people loitering around the hallway. How long did I spend in his room? he wondered as he made his way through the small crowd toward his own room. When he reached door, Vlad was already there, holding it open.
"You can't tell me that I didn't just see you leaving the room of some guy," Vlad said as he closed the door behind them.
"I wasn't going to deny it," said Danny, sounding almost puzzled.
"What were you doing in there?" Vlad stood by the door with his arms folded as he frowned at Danny.
"I had planned on surprising you," replied Danny with a pout. "I did a little work for some of the men on this floor, laundry mostly, but that last guy, I cleaned his room. I thought maybe this time I could treat you to dinner… and Jack."
"Oh," Vlad responded, his brow lifting in surprise. "That's thoughtful of you."
"Well, I figured I can't just mooch off you and Jack." Danny flopped onto the couch. He sighed as he picked at a loose strand on the hem of the shirt he wore.
Vlad stared at the forlorn expression on Danny's face. "All right. What's with that look?" he asked as he joined Danny on the couch.
Danny glanced at Vlad. "Well, it's just while I was cleaning that guy's room we got to talking about some things. It kind of got me thinking of my family. I miss them." Well, Jazz mostly, and mom. I haven't really seen her much since I arrived here, he thought. It's kind of cool spending time with dad like this. And getting to know Vlad a little hasn't been all that bad either.
"Maybe you should call your family," Vlad suggested.
"No, I can't," said Danny quickly. "It's, um - My family situation is a bit complicated." He swallowed nervously when he caught the suspicious look in Vlad's eyes. "So why don't we get started on that tutoring stuff?"
Vlad frowned at the change of topics. He dug into his book bag for notebook and dropped it into Danny's lap. "All right. Let's continue where we left off in class," he said. Danny opened the notebook to a clean page, and they began that night's tutoring session.