“Yeah, that’s probably for the better. If you sell it to some company, won’t that make you seem fancy for potential PhD programs?” he asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt.” And much better than being busted for it. I could always sell it to someone else if Compass BioTek wouldn’t buy it. The moonshine mafia might want it. They were one of my big clients. Not sure who all they sold it to.
Carlos stood and threw his beer bottle in the recycling. “I’m going to take a quick shower and get a few things I need from my mamá’s. Do you want a shower?”
“I’m good.” I finished my own beer.
He disappeared.
I texted my sister Grace, akarich big sister.
Me
Would Compass BioTek have a use for my party drug? Looking to go legit and sell it.
Grace
You are? That’s great. I’ll see what I can do. Why aren’t you coming for Christmas? I thought you were. I even got extra Christmas dragons, so we could fill them with helium, release them, and have the dragon rapture.
She added a picture of her looking sad while holding a plate of cookies. Not sure what she meant bydragon rapture,but I was all for filling inflatable Christmas dragons with helium and releasing them.
Wait, I hadn’t told Grace? Whoops.
Me
Aww, I’m sad to miss that. I’m going to Switzerland to snowboard with some friends.
Grace
Oh, have fun. We’ll miss you.
Me
I’ll miss you, too. Go to bed. It’s late.
Grace
Don’t be bossy. I have mates for that.
Grace, the oldest of us ten, didn’t grow up with us. We only met her a couple of years ago. But she loved us with her whole heart, and we loved her back. While she was a bit of a weirdo, she was the glue that kept us older siblings together after the pack dissolved.
She sent me a picture of some of her chickens dressed in holiday outfits. My phone lit up with a bank transfer. The memo read,For your trip. Eat lots of cheese.
Me
I will eat all the cheese. Thanks. I’ll try to meet up with you before classes start. I want to try skijoring.
Grace
I’d like that. I’ll look and see when the next skijoring event is.
I checked my email, because I hadn’t all day. Oooh, I got a reply from Rock Tech. What a way to start my vacation.
A frown tugged at my lips as my heart fell. I didn’t get in? I thought for sure…
Fuck.
Yeah, I was a national disaster who couldn’t even get into a PhD program based on nepotism. What was I going to do now?
