"Give me a minute," she said, and she ducked into the women's room. Her mind... felt different. She was thinking back on details of what she had heard and either dismissed or didn't get. Suddenly now everything was flowing much smoother.
"Shit. The component was 13 and a half, not 14," she muttered to herself as she splashed water in her face. She felt a need to go back and apologize to Prof M, but in truth he didn't catch it either... or just didn't care. She slapped herself in the face. "What the hell are you doing!?!" she asked herself in the mirror.
"Are you high on something?" Carmen asked. "It's already if you are. I just want to know if you have anything, because after study I've got to deal with American Lit, and they don't let you bring in booze to deal with Ms. Bitch."
"No," Jennifer snapped a little too hard. She swallowed. "Sorry. Something odd has been going on since...." Since Kyle's phone call.
You're going to turn into the biggest nerd the world has ever known.
"You... look... sick? Are you sure you're going to want to attend practice this afternoon?" Carmen asked, with a mild tone of desire and longing underneath. It was no different than a lot of other times she's used that tone. Jennifer had just been obviously of it up until now. Sorta like how Amily had a secret crush on Jennifer ever since Freshmen year.
Holy shit. How the hell did I miss that!?!
She took a deep long breath. "I'll be fine. Bad breakfast, and the test on top of that didn't help." Nerd. What defines a nerd? Smart. Intelligent. Okay, she's getting the benefits of that. Did Kyle say anything else? No. Not really. She interrupted him before anything more could be said. Well, beyond the fact that she likely now will never get fat. A smile touched her lips on that. "The library. I need to research something on their computers." She ran out of the bathroom at a brisk pace.
Theresa blinked. "There's a sentence I never expected to ever come out of her mouth." The three followed.
As Jennifer sat down at one of the available computers, she popped open a browser and started typing into a search bar. The browsers were locked down to certain sites, but google and dictionaries were allowed.
"define Nerd"
>a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious.
>a single-minded expert in a particular technical field.
Okay, she thought. That's Google. What about the other dictionaries?
She jumped from dictionary site to dictionary site, getting their definitions. Some varied. Some said roughly the same thing. "Damn it," she muttered. "Which dictionary does a curse abide by?"
"I take it back," Carmen said. "You can keep whatever drug you're on. Why are you looking up 'nerd'? Are you planning on doing a report?"
"In a way," Jennifer admitted.
Theresa smiled a little cruelly as she read, "An unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits. Well, you're kinda falling into that 'socially inept' part right now."
Jennifer bit her lip and then bit the bullet. "All of these definitions, if somebody cursed you to turn into the biggest nerd, which definition do you think would be used? The ugly awkward person? Or the intelligent one? Or both?" In her mind, she already knew the answer.
"The one that fits all of them, of course," said Theresa. "Why? You targeting something against that dweeb from last week?"
Amily snickered, "Once is enough, Theresa. You don't want people to start thinking you have a 'thing' for that glob."
Looking at Carmen, Jennifer was expecting a snide comment about her losing her mind. However Carmen's face was somewhat pale and blank. Jennifer's mind interpreted it instantly. "You believe in the T&D curse, don't you?"
Carmen took a step back. "I... I need to go to study hall."
"You've seen it used." Jennifer stood up.
"I need to get ready for a math quiz I need to fail after lunch."
"You've had it used against you?"
"It's an important quiz, and lunch is so much work," she backed towards the library door.
"You've used it!" Jennifer said in disbelief.
"Uh. Bye." She ran.