The Hangover of a Lifetime

"I thought you had all the research done," Anna teased.

"I lied. I haven't even written the title of the paper yet!" she screeched.

Anna chuckled only for Marie's benefit before her smile dropped. She hadn't reminded Marie about the assignment even though she could have. Knowing Marie and the influence her family had, she would get out of one late submission without an issue.

Anna needed Marie to focus on her own business so that she could concentrate on getting to the bottom of the mystery.

She looked at the box tucked in her hand and sighed.

She shut herself in the room, locking it with the key, and then sat down at her desk.

There were no lights inside. Only the illumination of the laptop screen made one side of her face visible. She pulled out the USB cord and plugged it in.

The files transferred quickly. But Anna's mind was on something else. There were too many mysterious things in this case.

She pulled up the website for the government research institute that looked into the conservation and breeding of endangered species. A little jigging around the site and she had plenty of files already downloaded in her laptop to reference at a later date.

While those humongous files were downloaded, Anna took out the box of goods she had received.

Actually, it was nothing special. She had gone to an online store that sold materials needed for school and bought everything she needed.

First on the list was cardboard. A ruler and pencil were also a must because it was the twenty-first century and no one had those lying around if they were not in middle school. She pulled out the box cutter and glue gun and started to slice it all into neat little shapes as the glue heated up.

Then, she squirted the hot glue over the cardboard and assembled it. She had to hunt around for the manual focus webcam she had lying around and she dissembled it to take out the lens from it. She reversed it and checked what it looked like on the laptop. It had the magnifying effect that she wanted. After building the basic structure of the microscope, she put the webcam in and was ready for her little high school science experiment to start.

The little plastic bag of animal fur that she had kept in her drawer for safekeeping was brought out and she screen recorded the process of looking at the fibers. There was something fascinating about looking at this stuff.

Once she had thorough footage of it, she saved it and kept everything aside.

Now, she had the grand task of going through every single sheet of paper she had found in the Dean's safe and then make a comprehensive report.

By the time she was done reading through them all, it was already six in the morning. And her first class started from eight-twenty in the morning.

She shut everything down and then set an alarm for seven.

One hour of sleep was enough after all the excitement she had in the past day. Paperwork was the worst part of her life. Add in the assignments that came with being a college student, she was very happy that she wouldn't have to do it for long anyway.

She couldn't sleep. She just lay in the darkness with a hand over her eye and relived every second in the reception area of the Dean's office and beyond.

There was something certainly odd about Ladislas Forester. If not for the case of the Dean becoming such a big issue, Anna wouldn't have thought to dig into the man. She would rather keep away from mysteries and dangers that had nothing to do with her. But he was intricately involved with the life and death of the Dean. Who knew how much he knew about the drug business or the people in the background lending a helping hand.

Maybe, just maybe… Professor Forester was the big hand.

The thoughts came to her unbridled and as much as she wanted to keep her mind off the perplexing parts of it, she found herself going down a rabbit hole.

Her mind liked to be challenged and stimulated and it had been a while since she had found a puzzle that she couldn't solve at first glance.

It was not a good thought to have for someone like her.

She squeezed her eyes tighter and willed her brain to slow down. No sooner had she succeeded than the alarm rang.

Anna perked up from bed and trudged to the door. With one glance back at the room devoid of light, she went to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of instant noodles. She poured the hot water from the tea kettle and then trudged back into the room.

She looked over the schedule, sorted the assignments she needed to finish, and then by the time she was ready to leave, Marie was already dressed.

"Get in the car quickly. I finished the paper already. I am going to grovel in front of the professor when they arrive," she said blandly. The dark circle under her eyes was profound and she looked like she had the hangover of a lifetime.

"I'll take it out of parking. You… grab something to eat," Anna commented. She caught the key perfectly and walked out after making sure her room was securely closed.

Anna waited in the car, knowing that Marie still had to write segments of the paper in the car. When the other slid in, Anna drove off without asking for directions.

"Are you going to skip the first class?" she asked.

"I have to. I will camp outside the professor's office until he arrives today. I already sent him an email last night but he hasn't responded." She was clearly panicked.

"Best of luck. I'll make sure to share my notes with you," Anna responded.

The perks of speech-to-text recorders were that she could tune out of class and still have material to study right before the exams.

"You're a life-saver," Marie hummed and then clicking on her keypad filled the silent car.

Anna could only one thing: "If only you knew."