Page 7 of Psync
“If you looked at it at all, you must have been freaking out over it, but don’t worry, I’m here to help.”
“Help me with what?” Business smile stayed firmly in place.
Beth frowned at her computer and tilted the screen toward Eli. “Look at your course load. It’s twice what it should be. If you tried to do it all, you’d be burned out after a semester.”
“It’s okay, I planned it that way.”
“You—wait, you planned to burn yourself out?”
Eli couldn’t help it, he laughed. “No, of course not. What I meant was that I planned my courses myself. I researched the best way to get the most out of my time here.”
Beth’s eyebrows were almost touching at this point. It wasn’t the best sign. “Eli, I understand you’re a scholarship student, but you don’t need to push yourself this hard in order to be able stay. I’ve seen your test scores. You’ll still be eligible for a full ride with a lighter course load.”
Eli barely suppressed a groan. Why was he so bad at communicating with people? Especially ones who had the power to make decisions about his life. He needed his advisor on board with his plan. Otherwise, his life was about to get much harder.
Time to try again.
“I don’t think I’ve made myself clear here. What I’m trying to say is that I’m planning on testing out of most of these classes in the first week. I’ve been studying the languages in my major for years, some more than others, but I believe I’ll be able to test out of all the 101 classes and most of the 102 classes as well.”
Beth’s eyebrows softened, and she leaned forward in her seat. Eli took this as an invitation to continue.
“It’s my intention to move to all second and third-year language courses by the spring semester. In order to do that, I have to prove to my teachers I am proficient enough in each language to do so.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you arrange this with the school beforehand?”
“I tried, but no one seemed to understand what I was trying to do.” He’d spent weeks on the phone getting shuffled from department to department—often being sent back to the same person who’d recommended him to the current one, trying to find someone who could help him skip this stage, but after two rounds of departmental musical chairs, he’d finally found someone who suggested he try a self-guided course of study. After a flurry of research, Eli had finally managed to cobble together his own Build-A-Bear style major. Complete with all the bells, whistles, and hoops he’d have to navigate his way through.
“I like your confidence, but I’m not convinced you are ready for this—that anyone is ready for this much work. Learning five languages and their cultures in four years is a monumental challenge, even by someone with your potential. I’d be remiss if I signed off on this without some reassurance.”
There.
Eli had been ready for this. Had been hoping for it, even.
“Then let me give you some. Let me prove to you I can do this.” All he needed was to get into the classes to be able to show his teachers he could test out of them.
“How are you planning on doing that?”
“Pick one of the languages from my schedule. Any of them. Then find a website in one of those languages and have me look at it. If I can’t understand at least thirty percent of what’s on the page, I’ll let you trim some of my classes.”
Beth studied him for a moment then nodded. “Thirty percent, bare minimum.”
She busied herself at her computer while Eli waited—mostly—patiently. Finally, she said, “I used Google translate to tell me what’s on here, so I’ll know if you’re bullshitting me or not.”
She turned the monitor and displayed the government tourist page for Hokkaido, Japan.
Eli was just—only just—barely able to hold in a squee of joy. It was easily his best language after English.
???
Beth had conceded only after Eli had translated half of the Hokkaido Tourist website, as well as half of a Thai fluff piece on cats, most of a Vietnamese recipe for Pho cuon (which he totally cheated at because he’d researched it for his sister to make less than three weeks ago and was able to guess at what it said), and an article in Hindi on Holi—a festival in India—that he thought he’d mangled, but Beth had seemed impressed enough.
Now, Eli was practically bouncing through campus, high on his success. He officially had a shot at not being stuck in college for the next six years, which was great because his savings would never hold out that long.
Now he wanted to celebrate.
He could do something totally crazy like text Alice and Nate. Or he could be a massive dork and go buy himself ice cream and eat it alone like a schmuck.
His hand hovered over his phone forever before he finally sent off two quick texts and then shoved his phone back in his pocket like he’d done something illegal and wanted to hide the evidence.
