Chapter 5: A cure for the common cold.
Clara’s POV:
After my classes ended, I ran to the student diner to grab something to eat. Luckily for me, I remembered all of these classes from my previous life, otherwise it would have been a grueling day. As I walked up to the register to pay for my burger, someone reached over me handing the cashier their black card. I quickly spun around to see who was paying for my lunch. It was Casey. Confused, I was about to ask him why when he held up his hand.
“Consider it an apology for giving you shit earlier.”
During class, I’d answered majority of the instructor’s questions. All of the students just stared on as the prodigy proved she was worth the hype.
I smiled sheepishly at him and nodded my head.
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
Casey wasn’t a bad person, he was just cocky, it was good for him to learn now he wasn’t god’s gift to the world. Holding out my hand for a shake, I smiled my most polite smile.
“Friends?”
He stared at my hand for a moment before taking it into his and shaking. His face was full of confusion when he finally smiled.
“You’re a strange girl Rouleau.”
Hearing him call me that immediately shocked me. In all my years, even in my previous life, no one had ever referred to me as Rouleau. It was always Granger up until I married Jason and then it became Sterling. Hearing him call me my mother’s name did something poetic to me. Why should I bare the name of a man who cared nothing for me. All that did was allow him to ride off my glory. I’d made up my mind, first thing tomorrow, I would be changing my name. Smiling at Casey, I offered him to join me for lunch.
“So, you went to Batrum huh?”
I nodded as I continued to eat my fries.
“If I hadn’t left early, I probably would have been valedictorian.”
When I looked up at Casey, he had this puzzled look on his face.
“How old are you Rouleau.”
29 almost slipped out my mouth, thankfully I caught it in time.
“I’m 16, I’ll be 17 in October. Why?”
“Because you just seem really old to be this young.”
I let out a nervous laugh, that was the second time I heard that over that past two days. I better figure out how to act 17 again before people get suspicious, though I doubt they’d surmise I died and came back to life.
“I’ve been around a lot of adults.”
Casey scrunched his eyes but decided my explanation made sense.
After we ate, Casey followed me out to the annex.
“Where are you going?”
“The labs. I need to use the lab for something.”
“You have lab homework already?”
“Something like that.”
I answered vaguely not wanting to give too much away, I was already slightly annoyed he was following me.
As we entered the lab, I took a look over. The same as it was in my previous life, Lexington had some of the best labs in the country, I would definitely be able to put my medicines together here.
I pulled out my books and ingredients immediately and got to work. Casey looked at me with a confused expression. Slowly walking over to the table, he took a look at all of my notes and the ingredients next to them.
“What is all of this?”
Staring into a microscope, I answered blandly.
“They’re medications I’ve created to help with the common cold.”
In my previous life, I managed to do what many others before me could never do. CURE the common cold. Once I mastered that, I was able to create cures for a variety of ailments such as covid, the flu, pneumonia, etc.. It also opened the door for me to create my cure for cancer expanding on my mother’s equations.
“Wait what! Are you telling me you’ve created medications to help with the common cold?”
Still writing and looking through the microscope, I once again answered flatly.
“No…”
“Oh, because I was about-”
“I’ve created an actual cure for it. I just needed a lab to put it all together.”
Casey stood in complete and total shock. His mouth was hanging open, his mind trying to grasp what I’d just said. Finally, he swallowed and began to speak.
“You’re joking…right? There’s no way you’re serious…are you?”
I put my pencil down and looked Casey directly in the eyes.
“I’m not. I’ve been working on it for a few years; I’ve finally created the perfect formula combination.”
Casey could hardly believe his ears.
“For a few years?? You mean to tell me you’ve been working on this since middle school?!”
Middle sch…Oh yeah, I supposed that is what I’ll have to say.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Casey stared at me in total disbelief, just this morning he’d thought this young girl was just some legacy kid riding off her parents’ hype, turns out she may have surpassed even them.
“Clara, you’d tell me if you were an alien…right?”
WHAT!
I let out a loud and hysterical laugh. Though it was understandable why he would think that, it didn’t make his words any less hilarious. Not wanting to freak Casey out anymore, I decided to give him an explanation about my research.
“I’m not an alien Casey…I promise. Before my mom died, she made a lot of groundbreaking medicinal discoveries, unfortunately she died before she could finish it and put it all together. Once I started studying her work, I was able to put a lot of the pieces together.”
That wasn’t a lie, I had used a lot of my mother’s research to help advance my medicinal formulas thus being able to create a lot the medications I made in my previous life.
Casey nodded his head, accepting my answer.
“That makes sense. Your mom was amazing.”
I smiled proudly; indeed, she truly was.
“So are you.”
His words caught me off guard. Casey blushed slightly as he looked to the left avoiding eye contact.
“Just saying, you’d have to be a total genius to even understand these equations and an even bigger freak to advance them. That’s pretty amazing Rouleau.”
I blushed and smiled as I continued my work. Casey stayed in the lab with me until I was finished, he even began to help.
“I should start paying more attention, this could help me as well.”
He said as we began to clean up. By the time we got finished, the sun had already gone down. Casey offered to walk me back to my apartment.
“You really don’t have to do this Casey.”
“It’s cool, I live in the complex too, I’m a few floors up.”
As we entered my apartment, a sweet and spicy aroma hit both our noses. Gloria came put of the kitchen with a slightly angry expression on her face.
“Hey young lady! Where have you been? Classes were over hours ago!”
I couldn’t help but laugh, I was scowled by my roommate for being late. Watching her pout made both me and Casey laugh. Gloria began laughing too, popping my shoulder, she tried to get serious again.
“Seriously Clara, I was really worried about you. It dawned on my I don’t have your number.”
I apologized to Gloria for scaring her and thanked her for being so thoughtful. I explained to her I went to a lab for some work. Afterwards, she thanked Casey for walking me home and offered him to join us for dinner. For the first time in a long time, it felt like I was having dinner with family.
After dinner, Casey updated Gloria on what I was working on. She could hardly believe it.
“So, wait! You created a cure!”
“More or less.”
Both Gloria and Casey looked at me like I had three heads. Finally, Gloria spoke.
“Sheesh! I knew you were amazing Clara, but you’re on a whole different level!”
After we winded down, I walked Casey to the door, suddenly he pulled outside.
“I need a favor Clara.”
Favor?
“What is it?”
Casey blushed and then looked through our window.
“Help me ask Gloria out.”
Okay…didn’t expect that. Trying to figure out the right words, I scratched my head. Finally, I settled on a simple…
“I’ll see what I can do.”
That was enough for Casey, he hugged me tightly and headed home. Laughing I made my way back into my apartment and finished helping Gloria clean up.