The Alpha For Her

“The road to the White House is strewn with failures,” Jen said.

“That’s right. Failure is always an option. So, what does Bernie Sanders do now?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Set a new goal? Make a new plan?”

“I dunno. I ain’t him.”

Jen just shook her head.

“But, my lovely, chubby black girl, I need you to think hard about your goal, and tomorrow, come here with something concrete to talk about. It doesn’t have to be lofty or long term: just concrete.”

“Okay,” she said. “Now are my lessons done?”

He slid off his stool and took her hands.

“New compartment?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

But then they just stared at one another, almost awkwardly.

“Would it be okay,” she started, “if – if, maybe one goal was a little abstract?”

“How would you make a plan?”

In answer, Jennifer leaned in and kissed him.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with my palatal-glide,” Candy said in the ride back to the mansion.

“What’s that? Bea asked.

“The way I articulate you, as in artic-you-late.”

“You do tend to draw it out some,” Bea observed.

“I was properly schooled in the King’s English, and no American cowgirl is going to correct pronunciations that are acceptable to the BBC.”

“I slouch,” Jennifer said.

“You do,” Candy and Bea said together.

Back at the patio, Bea went to find her team, while Jennifer and Candy found Billie and Vera at their table.

“This, is so, frigging boring,” Vera said. “I’m so glad that you two are back.”

“What are you doing,” Jen asked.

“Kaiser Whilemina here has taken over. We’re combing the net for any secondary school curriculums that even hint of having an entrepreneurial nature.”

“Somebody had to take over,” Billie said. “You two were, and Vera has a tendency to slack off.”

“I do not.”

“You do too. I heard all about what a help you were on the B-17 thing.”

“I pulled my weight. Ask Jennifer.”

“Jennifer showed up at the last minute, and Aaron told Billy, and Billy warned me that you were a slacker.”

“That was because there was nothing at stake.”

Billie shook her head and shut her laptop as lunch was served.

“Where were you searching?” Candy asked.

“The Educational Resource Data Base,” Billie answered. “It’s a start.”

“It is,” Candy said, taking out her tablet.

Over lunch, Jennifer suggested that, since she and Candy were away all morning, that they take over the drudge work for a while and give Billie and Vera a break. Vera was all for that, but Billie objected, saying that they were all in it together.

“Be that as it may,” Candy said, “search optimizing is a part of my thing. I could probably get more done in one hour than the three of you. And, I can also figure out how to sort and make sense of the deluge of data.”

“There’s your palatal-glide,” Jennifer said, grinning. “You said delyouge.”

Candy threw a shrimp at her.

“So, that’s settled,” she said, wiping her fingers. “After lunch, Jennifer and I will slog through, while you two gallivant a few hours. I’ll call you when we have something.”

“Okay,” Billie said. “There’s a workshop I wanted to attend.”

“Cool,” Vera said. “I can work on my tan.”

The other three looked at her, then started to laugh. Vera sat back and seemed to relax, smiling a very different smile.

Once the table was cleared, Billie went to her workshop, and Vera dove in the pool. Most of the others headed to their sanctuaries. Two groups worked on the patio, but they kept themselves distant, and kept their voices low.

“Okay,” Jennifer said, “what do you want me to do?”

“Sit quietly and be pretty,” Candy said. She took her laptop from her bag and began typing. “This won’t take long.”

“What are you doing?”

“Quiet, please.”

Candy’s finger flew over the keyboard, then she sat back watching the screen. There was small smile on her face. She took her tablet and plugged that into her laptop. A few keystrokes later the half smile became a full smile. Then she shook her head, sat back, and looked to Jen.

“The problem is,” she said, “is that everyone here has the same idea. Everyone is combing through ERIC, LearnTechLib, ProQuest, the lot. Everyone here has the same basic, vanilla idea, and are going to produce the same, basic, vanilla product. So, just like with the course-selection problem, our task is not to be brilliant, but to stand out.”

“What are you talking about?” Jennifer asked. “How do you know that everyone is doing the same thing?”

“I can see their devices. I can see what they are searching and I can see what they are finding. My tablet is sifting and sorting, cataloging everything that they find.”

“Candy? Are you a hacker?”

“No, no, no,” she said, laughing her silver laugh. “I can hack, but that’s not what I do. I am engaged with rational, relational databases—”

“You hacked into everyone’s computers? Just now?”

“Nonsense,” Candy said. “I did it our first day here.”

“You’re cheating?”

“I am.”

“That’s…that’s not fair.”

“Jennifer, darling,” Candy said, “the only thing fair around here is Billie’s pretty little posterior.”