⇢ CHAPTER 10

supply closet for some peace and quiet, Holly was surprised when she heard a voice call out, "George?"

Holly frowned her eyebrows, walking towards the voice that sounded like Lexie's, "Lex-- Oh, my God," She stared at Lexie, who had files all around her, "Klepto."

"Please," Lexie pleaded again, "don't report me."

Holly squinted at the girl, "Of course, I'm not." She kneeled down and grabbed a file, "What did you do?"

"I may or may not have stolen files from the Chief about the residents." Holly gasped, "Don't judge!"

"I'm not!" Holly defended, "I'm just shocked-- wow." She looked back at the file, "Cristina's dyslexic?"

"Yes! And--" Lexie stopped herself as the supply closet door opened and the two girls grew silent, "Who's there?"

"George O'Malley." George whispered, "I was paged to the supply closet."

"Are you alone?" Holly asked.

"Holly?" George frowned his eyebrows as he walked to where the girls sat.

"Um," Lexie started, "remember how I said I wasn't a thief?" George's jaw slackened as he saw the files in front of the girls, "I think maybe I am."

"Alexandra Caroline Grey!" He reprimanded in a whisper, looking at Holly next, "Holly Kepner!"

"I didn't do anything!" Holly defended, whispering, too.

"I couldn't help it." Lexie admitted as George sat down, "I had to know. And then once I knew, I knew."

"Get these back to the Chief's office right now." George instructed as he began to pick up the files on the floor and Holly read another one.

"I tried to stop reading, but I couldn't." Lexie sighed, "I have a photographic memory, which is how I got through Harvard Med. I read all the files. Information is burned into my brain. I read yours."

"No," George stopped her, "I don't want to know."

"You failed the intern exam by--"

"One point?!" Holly yelled as she read the file.

Lexie nodded, "One point."

George forcefully pried his file out of Holly's hands as Holly scoffed, "One point!"

✧

Holly leaned against the file cabinet as she passed George the files one by one for him to put back, muttering, "One point."

"I don't think this looks right." George spoke as he placed the last file inside.

"Cristina is dyslexic," Lexie started, "but she got straight A's all during med school and she has a PhD. It's pretty amazing. Eight letters of recommendation in her file."

"Does this look right?" George asked, "Is this how it was when you found 'em?"

"Maybe it was alphabetized." Holly shrugged as she looked at the files.

"Izzie went to college at night." Lexie continued, "It took her six years to graduate, and she volunteered as a candy striper. Patients wrote her letters of rec."

"We gotta get outta here before someone catches us." George said as he closed the file cabinet. He grabbed the files that the Chief gave him along with a chart, accidentally dropping a bowl full of small colorful balls.

The three looked at each other as Holly spoke, "Crap."

They all crouched down to pick up the balls as Lexie went on, "And Alex-- he wrote this essay to get in, this moving, beautiful essay about how his grades weren't that good during med school because he was suffering from testicular cancer."

"What?" Holly asked, accidentally banging her head against the Chief's desk, "Ow!"

"What?" George questioned as he checked Holly's head.

"He said he lost a ball." Lexie scoffed and the other two gasped, "But I've seen him naked. He has two mangerines, guys, two pouch potatoes. He lied. He's a liar."

"Wow." Holly shook her head.

"Stop telling me information I don't wanna know." George tried to stop her.

"One point." Lexie added, "Just one point."

Holly scoffed again, "How can they keep you back for "

 "Just forget about it." George whisper-shouted.

"Photographic memory." Lexie defended, "I can't."

✧

Lexie groaned as she held her head, "My head is exploding."

Holly flipped the page in her book as she and George commented in unison, "Make it unexplode." The tone different in both-- while Holly's was said in a joking tone, George sounded angry.

Holly put her book away, placing her bookmark on her page as Lexie looked at him, "Are... are you mad at me?"

"No." George shook his head.

"Then why are you talking to me in that voice?"

"There's no voice."

"There's a voice..." Holly noted in a low voice.

"I did you a favor." Lexie smiled in confusion.

"But you didn't do me a favor." George shook his head again, "You just--" He corrected, "You two just made it clear that I'm still me-- the almost guy. All that separates me from the rest of my class is one point, one point? I mean, it would've been okay if it was fifty points or even ten points, but one? That means it was right there, it was in my hand, and I let it slip away. It--I didn't want to know that. Do you get that? That knowing that if I had just, what, checked 'A' instead of 'B,' that... that that one point separates me from freedom... I have been running my tail off, busting my ass to make up for one lousy point, proving..." He stopped himself, "You didn't do me a favor. Don't kid yourself."

✧

Holly leaned against the doorframe to the gallery as she saw George and Lexie talking.

"...nobody had recommendations like yours. People said the others were smart, they said that they were hard workers, they said that they were good. But your letters? They said you were great. They spoke of your kindness, your attention to detail. They talked about how hard you try and that you never give up. They painted a picture of the kind of doctor that I hope to become. It was an honor to read those letters because now I know that what separates you from the others isn't one stupid point. What separates you from the others is greatness. So don't you dare let one point hold you back."