"You'd better watch what you say, Baker," Violet said in a voice that seethed with rage as she narrowed her eyes. "You're nothing, and people who are nothing have a way of sinking to the bottom."
"Baker! Metzler! Enough!" Robert yelled. "I'll not have this nonsense in my lab. If you're going to fight, I'm going to call the program director and have her come down here to talk with you."
"She started it," Violet whined. "She's always so angry and mean."
"Shut up, Violet," Liz and I said in unison.
"I do not want to hear another word out of any of you for the rest of the lab," Robert said as he shuffled papers on his desk. "I've had enough of these stupid petty squabbles. Grow up!"
"But..." Violet protested.
"I'm not kidding, Metzler," Robert said, sticking to his guns. "I've had enough. Shut up and do your work. Not another word, unless it directly relates to the lesson in front of you."
I looked over at Liz and found her wearing a grin that stretched from ear to ear as she evaluated the slide and made notes.
#
After lab, Liz and I grabbed lunch from a food ca
rt and took it back to my apartment. Liz dropped her coat at the door and headed for the couch where she collapsed in a heap and promptly fell asleep before she could eat her lunch.
I thought about waking her up, but since we had a few hours before we were due at the hospital, I decided to let her sleep. I watched her for a while and thought about how pale and thin she looked, but then we'd been out of the sun for nearly five months, so we were all pale. And the nursing program was stressful for everyone. How many of us hadn't either lost or gained weight? I ate my lunch and decided not to get too worked up about things.
There was a message on my phone from Cam asking me to call him as soon as I could, so I dialed his number and waited for him to pick up. I got his voicemail and left a message telling him I'd be home for a few hours before heading to the hospital if he wanted to talk to me.
I sat down at my desk and went over my practice exam trying to figure out why Professor Jackson would have accused Liz and me of cheating. We'd never cheated, not this time and never before this. I got up and went to Liz's bag and dug through it to find her test. I laid the tests side by side and began going over each question and answer.
It took me an hour to get through the entire exam, but by the time I was finished, I could see why we'd been accused of cheating -- it appeared that Liz had copied my exam in its entirety. I was shocked. I'd never known Liz to do anything dishonest, and I couldn't imagine why she would have done this. She had a photographic memory and had never needed to do much more than read the materials. I thought about waking her up, but as I studied her, for the first time, I could see that my friend had a problem.
"Liz, wake up," I said as I gently shook her. "Wake up, Liz. We need to talk."
"Huh? What?" Liz mumbled as she surfaced from beneath the blanket I'd covered her with. "What's up, Alex? Is it time to go?"
"Liz, sit up and talk to me," I said as I pulled her arm. "We have to talk."
"Um, okay," she said sleepily, rubbing her eyes. "About what?"
"This," I said, holding up our exam papers. "What happened? Why does your exam look exactly like mine?"
"Maybe because we're study buddies?" she said, sitting up and looking very awake. "Where did you get that?"
"Your bag," I said as I tossed the two exams on her lap and stared at her. "Explain why your exam looks exactly like mine."
"Dunno." She shrugged. "Luck or coincidence?"
"Liz, I'm not kidding around here," I said in a hurt tone. "This might cost us our degrees. What happened?"
"I'm telling you, Alex, it's a coincidence!" she shouted as she threw the papers at me. "God, you don't even believe me! I didn't do anything wrong!"
"I just have a hard time believing that this is a coincidence," I said as she pushed herself up off of the couch and started pacing the room. "Tell me what's going on, Liz! Why did you cheat?"
"Why did I cheat? Why did I cheat?" she shouted. "For the last fucking time, Alex, I didn't cheat!"
"Fine," I said in very businesslike tone. "Then what's going on with you, Liz? Why are you wavering between lucid and out of it? Why are you so thin and pale? What is going on?"
"What the fuck?" Liz said as she stopped pacing and stared at me. "Not you, too. Jesus. I told you I don't have a drug problem, Alex. I'm not using drugs. I've been sick lately. I don't know what's wrong, I just haven't felt well."
"Then let's make an appointment to have you get checked out, Liz," I pleaded. "If you're not using drugs or drinking, we need to find out what's wrong."