here goes

[self_composed]

Bella schedules an appointment at Stanford. She breezes through sixteen hours of motorcycle class, mostly by demonstrating that the instructor is redundant and wouldn't he rather teach her exotic motorcycle tricks and then just mark her as passing the course? She plays in a soccer game against a Port Angeles high school and wins. She starts driving her bike to school, and she names it Tegu after a lizard of similar coloring, because it needed a name.

On Friday evening she's due to fly out, crash in a Stanford grad student's house overnight, interview on Saturday, and fly home that evening. She bikes for the airport, black leather gold-studded saddlebags over Tegu's back wheel carrying her luggage.

Comments

[self_composed]

[Maybe you'll get used to it.] She's half-ignoring Myra now, who is droning on about her thesis.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Meh.]

[self_composed]

Myra finally pulls up to her place - which is indeed more houselike than apartment building like.

[edgeofyourseat]

Damn. Guess he's not sleeping on the roof after all.

[self_composed]

Bella lets Myra show her the couch she'll be sleeping on. It's getting kind of late, and her interview is early. [I'm going to crash as soon as Myra's roomies over there finish their video game and get off my couch,] Bella says.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Okay,] says Alice, and thinks wistfully of sleeping on the floor beside said couch, and starts hunting for a nearby hotel and somewhere convenient to de-invisible.

[self_composed]

[Someone would trip over you anyway,] Bella says.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Are people actually going to be sneaking past your couch while you sleep? Because speaking of creepy...]

[self_composed]

[It would be impolite not to sneak, if they need a midnight snack or something,] Bella says. [It's a crampy little house.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Well, that would be hilarious.]

[self_composed]

[If they tripped on you? Slightly, I suppose. Mostly inconvenient.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Yep.]

Ooh, hotel. Alice lands in a nice out-of-the-way corner.

[self_composed]

[I bet you're going to follow me to my interview, too,] Bella guesses.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Yep!]

[self_composed]

[Just don't be distracting or pull pranks on anyone I need to impress,] she sighs.

[edgeofyourseat]

[I won't!]

[self_composed]

[Good pet masochist,] she says approvingly. Myra's roommates have finished their game and cleared off the sofa. Bella ducks into a bathroom to change into her pajamas. [See you in the morning.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[See ya,] he echoes, and also loves her very much.

[self_composed]

Bella goes to couch.

She wakes up in plenty of time to get into her nice slacks and blouse and accept Myra's ride to campus, and she uses her little map of Stanford to find the building in which she is meant to have her interview.

[edgeofyourseat]

And Alice tags along like a guardian angel - invisible, unobtrusive, and airborne.

And watching you.

[self_composed]

[Behave,] is all Bella tells him as she holds the front door of the building open for an extra second to let him brush past.

She finds the room number, checks the time on her phone, and sits down to wait the remaining two minutes to spare.

[edgeofyourseat]

Invisible Alice tucks himself quietly into an out-of-the-way corner.

[self_composed]

Bella's interviewer opens the door when Bella knocks, but says, "I'm running just a few minutes late, I'll be with you in a moment."

"That's fine," Bella says.

A few minutes later the interviewer reemerges. "Come in," he says.

[edgeofyourseat]

Is there room for Alice in there? He is inclined to find out!

[self_composed]

The office is full of books, but it is not incapable of holding three people. [Don't sit in the extra chair,] Bella says, [you'll indent it funny.]