Daniel had said something about a castle on Longwood. She hadn’t been there, but knew it was just off campus. Maybe she would go there Friday.
“Lucy, I’m home,” yelled Ana as she stomped into the apartment. Kate heard a thud, probably Ana’s backpack hitting the floor. She next heard a knock on her door, since it was right off the kitchen. “Come in,” Kate called.
Ana threw open the door. “Hey, can you read over my paper and tell me what you think?”
“What’s the paper on?”
“Moby Dick.”
“I never read Moby Dick.”
“Neither have I. But I want to make sure it doesn’t sound like the Yellow Notes.”
“Ana!”
“Could you please?” She held out a few hand-written papers. “I’ll type it up later. Just look it over?”
“Will you make me dinner?”
Ana sighed. “Oh, come on.”
Kate said, “Nevermind, I already had dinner. Let me see.”
Ana stomped into the room on huge platform shoes and handed the papers to Kate. Ana turned back and left the room. “Mark up what you need to,” she said, and slammed shut Kate’s door.
Kate sighed and sat down to read. It sounded too much like the Yellow Notes, using words Ana would never use, such as “armistice” and “moribund”. She crossed the words out and at first started to fill in some words that Ana would use, simpler ones, but then just crossed the words out. She wasn’t going to write Ana’s paper for her, and she’d be damned if she was going to help her like this. The more she read, the angrier she got, until she got to the third page and just tossed them aside.
Kate glared at the hand-written notebook paper, and picked it up, then threw open the door. The TV was blaring in the other room, and Ana was in her usual spot, laying about on the couch. She had a bag of microwave popcorn and was eating it, getting popcorn bits all over the rug. The rug that she would have to vacuum tomorrow.
“Ana,” Kate said. Ana said nothing. “Ana!”
Ana jerked up. “Oh, done already?”
“You copied this right out of the Yellow Notes.”
“Some of it.”
“Most of it.”
She shrugged.
“Don’t you think your professor will know?”
“He’s old. He’s not going to know.”
“You do know that he doesn’t grade his papers. A grad student usually does. That grad student probably read the Yellow Notes at one time.”
“Oh. Can’t you make it sound like it’s not from the Yellow Notes?”
Kate dropped the papers onto Ana’s lap. “I tried, but this is direct plagiarism.”
Ana shrugged. “I’ll get Lynn to read it.”
“Lynn’s got clinical tonight. When’s it due?”
“Tomorrow.”
Kate knew something like this was going to happen. She vowed that she wasn’t going to let Ana walk all over her and use her. She knew Ana didn’t have a computer, and it was too late for her to go back to campus to use the computer lab. She wasn’t going to be the one who was going to pander to Ana.
However, the person who was ended up walking in the door. “Niva!” Ana yelled as soon as she cleared the threshold. She was up and out of the couch in a flash. “Niva, hon, can you do me a favor?”
Niva stopped at the door, not even shutting it. “Of course, Ana.”
“Can you read my paper over? I want to make sure it doesn’t sound like Yellow Notes.”
“Surely, I can do that,” Niva said, and dropped her books immediately. She shut the door and pulled out a chair at the kitchen table.
“And, uh, I might need to use your computer. I didn’t get a chance to type it up at school, and…”
“Do you have a flash drive?”
Ana frowned. “No, I don’t.”
“I will be happy to let you use my computer.”
Something told Kate that Ana was going to somehow get Niva to type up her paper for her. Kate would not do it. Would not.
