Mark chewed his pencil, not really paying that much attention to the lecture. He'd chosen to study design because he'd hoped there'd be less lectures in this course, but he supposed there was no escaping this sort of thing at a university.
It was good to stretch his legs after it was done. He groaned when he saw the rain outside. And he hadn't brought an umbrella. To get back to his dormitory, he'd have to leave out these doors and walk all the way around the entire main university building. He frowned. There had to be an exit closer to the dorms he could take to not get wet.
Mark bit his lip nervously ten minutes later. Where the hell was he? This university really needed better signs. The place was practically a maze. He thought he was in the science department or something, based on the classrooms with beakers and stuff in them.
This late in the day before the weekend there weren't many people around, but surely there was someone to ask for directions. He heard some hushed voices coming from a classroom down the hall. He went over and was about to knock when the conversation inside caught his attention.
“This discovery could make us millionaires!” a guy said.
“Definitely!” a girl agreed. “The possibilities are endless. Industrial applications alone could set us up for life.”
Mark peeked into the crack of the door without revealing himself. They were two third years that Mark didn't recognize. An African American broad set guy and a bubbely asian girl. A complex series of chemical or mathematical diagrams and formulas were written on the whiteboard next to the pair. It was all gibberish to Mark. He couldn't tell a proton from an integer.
“Just keep this quiet until we're done with testing and can patent the formula,” the guy said.
“Speaking of which, I prepared this for the test,” the girl said holding up something out of Mark's line of sight. The guy laughed.
“I'm not trying it.” The guy walked out of sight now.
“You're no fun,” the girl complained. “I had all these ideas and preparations ready as well.”
The guys answer came far too close to the door, Mark was spying from. “I'm sure you did, which is why I'm not...” He stopped speaking as he pulled it open to reveal Mark eavesdropping.
“Ah, hi,” Mark said nervously. “Do you know where the exit is?” The girl quickly began erasing the formulas on the whiteboard. The guy grabbed Mark by the arm and pulled him forcefully into the classroom and closed the door.
“Ow!” Mark complained.
“He saw!” the girl said as upset as if Mark had caught the two getting it on or something.
“I know. I'll handle it,” the guy said. He was way bigger than Mark was.
“I didn't mean to overhear anything,” Mark said.
“We can't take chances,” the girl insisted. Her lab partner crossed his big arms as he stared down at Mark.
“We can overlook your spying this time,” he said.
“Oh, thank you. I honestly just wanted to find the way...” The black guy wasn't finished though.
“...on the condition that you help us with testing our experiment.”
“Experiment?” Mark asked. “It's not something dangerous, is it?”
“No no,” the guy reassured. “It's perfectly safe. We just need to the limits. That sort of thing.” Mark looked out the window at the pouring rain. He didn't really have anywhere urgent to get to, and maybe the rain would stop if he killed some time here. Why not?
“Okay. So, um... What do you need me to do?”