The quickest route to Providence was via ferry at Orient Point to New London, Connecticut. Both Lisa and Jen were fans of long drives, but riding through Queens and the Bronx didn’t appeal to either of them.
Daylight was quickly fading as they boarded the ferry. “Wish we could have left sooner,” said Andy.
Even though they were wearing long sleeves and buttoned up collars, they were still getting some second glances…there were some unmanageable curls around the neck.
They arrived in New London around 7:30. Lisa drove slowly, not really sure of where she was going till they found I-95 which led them directly to Providence.
They stayed at a nearby Marriott. Though they were excited at the prospect of continuing their academic careers at Brown, the fact of the matter was that they were exhausted. The day had been stressful, Lisa and Jennifer had no more luck with the juniors at lunch than they did with the seniors the last two days. It was starting to dawn on Lisa that the window of opportunity was getting smaller every day.
But…no matter. Regardless of their appearance, they would still have each other as friends, especially if they could both get in. Brown was their first choice, Cornell a close second, and Dartmouth a distant third. On a whim, they had applied to the Universities of Hawaii and Florida. SUNY would be their safety school.
“We have brains, we have talent. We should get into at least one of the top three,” they reminded themselves.
That Friday night, however, exhaustion was set in. They turned on the television set and saw Cromarte’s lawyer, Barbara Epstein saying that the charges were ridiculous. “As far as my client was concerned they were simply vitamin pills.”
“What about the effect on her team?”
“A number of things could have happened; we are looking into each of them. We will in fact be interviewing each of the girls to see what could have transpired. I find it interesting that each of the girls started displaying symptoms only within a day to several days AFTER my client was taken into custody.”
Lisa and Jennifer exchanged angry glances. Jennifer shrugged. “She does have a point.”
“You think you might get some sympathy points from Brown,” asked Andy.
Lisa chuckled. “If I had to choose between going to Brown and not looking like this…I’d rather go to SUNY. But if this gets me in, I won’t refuse the acceptance letter. Either way, even under the best circumstances, it’s a 1 in 7 shot."
“When are your interviews?”
“Ten in the morning for Jennifer, and eleven-thirty for me.”
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Doctor Parker called the lab technician over. “Could you run these tests again, Larry? This can’t be right.”
“Actually, Doc, I did it twice already. I’ll run them again, but I’m afraid the results aren’t gonna be different."
“Run ‘em again. Please.”
“No problem, Doctor.”