Lana looked at the message on her watch.
[Could I ask a favor? While we wait for your experiment to get approved, could you bring me whatever you cook for yourself? Starting tomorrow?]
She read it several times and had yet to answer Blaine.
"Lana?"
"Huh? Oh, just a veggie pizza for me if possible and maybe a salad to go with it?"
He nodded and placed his order. He then looked at her, "Is something wrong? You've been staring at your watch for a few seconds."
She shook her head. "My classmate who is helping me with my study has asked me to bring him whatever I cook for myself for dinner each night until my study gets approved. I'm wondering if he will help with my research proposal. I think it would be quite helpful. I'll ask him when I bring him food tomorrow."
"How do you know he isn't just trying to get free food?"
"Because he's on the top floor. He could have the cooks prepare him anything he wants."
Blaine laughed, "we know how well they cook."
Lana nodded, "for us. I also saw what they prepared for him on the first day. I was jealous."
"What?"
"He stood aside and they prepared a meal special for him. Fresh. With real ingredients."
Blaine nodded with sudden understanding. Paul's family paid for him to have privilege. While the Abel family could have done that for Blaine, it would have defeated their purpose of sending him to school.
The others came in carrying drinks and popcorn despite the fact dinner was just ordered. Since there were boys in the room, chairs were moved over so they could be seen from the door as required, if in the living area.
While they discussed entertainment, Lana was looking up her teacher and sending him a message.
[I was wondering if I could do special PT sessions for those struggling? Blaine Abel wants to do the same for his class. Can we work together to help our classmates?]
[When do you want to start?]
[In the morning.]
[Let me ask their teacher.]
After a few moments,
[Approved. Both us teachers will be there. All students needing assistance will be assigned to this as mandatory. See you in the morning.]
Three watched then dinged. Alto, Kattie, and Blaine as he needed to be informed to be there.
None were happy about the notification.
"Sorry, guys. Blaine and I learned firsthand today what life would be like here for those doing poorly in PT or combat class. This is for your own good."
Dobin looked at his sister, "what did you do?"
"Special PT sessions to help those who need it get in shape. Once this movie is over I need to go to the library."
Dobin sighed. Blaine said he'd take her without a second's hesitation.
Lana realized they chose a horror movie and decided to tune it out, focusing instead on what gear she may need to help her fellow students. By the time the movie was over, she had a plan in her head. Her classmates were going to hate her but she was hoping they would thank her eventually.
Thirty minutes into the movie, food arrived. Blaine was right in being able to have food delivery from the best places in town. They had never had luxury pizza before. Even the salad rivaled anything Lana could grow and the dressing made her mouth water. She savored the meal, enjoying every bite.
Blaine even got them desert. It was an ice cream cake like Lana had never seen before. The ice cream was cold on the outside but the middle had hot liquid chocolate surrounded by chocolate cake. There were no leftovers. Kattie wanted to argue with Lana over the last piece but she remembered having PT in the morning thanks to her roommate.
The movie finally ended and the credits began to roll. She sat up and put her boots back on, having had to take them off to lay on her bed. She tossed the books she borrowed from the library in her bag.
In the library, Lana found a bunch of gear for getting in shape: jump ropes, orange cones, elastic bands, relay rods, reflective tape, and sets of weights that people could run with. She purchased 4 of these kits. She planned to divide the students between herself, Blaine and the two teachers. With all four working together on calisthenics and more, she believed they could get these people in shape. Once those were in the cart, she was only spending 100 credits. She added a 100 credit gift card to the cart then she looked up the four books she checked out and added those to the cart as well. The total was then 220 credits.
Lana went ahead and checked out and asked Blaine to get her package for her. She returned the books she borrowed and went to look for more. She aimed to buy as many as she could with her birthday money so she would not have to rely on the library. She could get in trouble for keeping a book for too long. She flipped through a few and those she felt would be the most helpful, she carried to the computer and purchased 10 more books. Some of these were expensive. She was left with only 200 credits. Since she walked away with 14 reference books for her ability, she wasn't complaining.
They each carried a package back to the dorms. Neither was light. The good thing about the PT gear was each kit had a mesh bag. She could separate them out while in her room and hand them to each team lead. They would be responsible for bringing the gear to PT.
In her room, she unpacked her books onto her desk. Blaine helped her separate out the gear into the bags. The jump ropes and hand-weights were interesting. They had a setting on them where you could change how much they weighed. The jump rope could add 10 pounds. The hand weights could go up to 20 pounds and magneted on. Both had a sensor to identify excess stress as a result of use of the item and would turn off.
He then sat down with her while she wrote down her plan. Blaine was impressed and put in his opinion where he felt it was needed. Once they agreed on the plan, she sent a copy of it to his watch with his help as well as to her teacher.
**********************************
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