The Iso-Stasis Experiment (The Experiments) by Jacqueline Druga Read Free Book Online Page A

started to smile.
    “Dude, wait. I know. I know why you’re dressed like this. I got it. Hold.” Rickie paused as if to think.
    A twitching of his upper lip on his stone face, Jake’s eyes shot daggers at young Rickie.
    Rickie snapped his finger in front of Jake’s face. “Wait . . . You’re in the Army or something.”
    Cool gone. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Jake’s deep voice plastered and frightened the young man. “Sit your ass straight up in that chair, eyes forward and don’t speak to me unless you have something intelligent to say. Got that?!”
    Rickie didn’t respond verbally, but snapped to an upright position and looked ahead.
    After a short whistle, Jennifer clapped her hands together once and spoke with an annoyingly chipper tone to her voice. “OK!”
    Jake winced, very visibly.
    Jennifer smiled widely and kept talking. “I think we should take this moment” her hands moved about as she spoke, “to really get to know each other personally. You know, tell a little something about ourselves. After all, the world could end while we’re here and we may have to repopulate the planet.” She crossed her legs as she glanced at Jake. “What do you think, Major?”
    Jake snickered. “I think that man would become extinct if you’re waiting for me to help you out.”
    “Dude,” Rickie’s shoulders bounced in laughter. “Are you gay?”
    Jake, looking cross, turned quickly to him. “Now what the hell did I just tell you about saying something intelligent? That wasn’t intelligent. Sit back!”
    Holding up a finger, Jennifer smiled. “No-no, boys, this is talk time. OK. . . .” She exhaled what she thought was a tension releasing breath for all. “I know I’ve spoken to all of you except Caleen .”
    Cal sat sideways in her arm chair. She looked up from her notebook and smiled. She continued to move her pencil about the paper, not writing, drawing.
    “OK, Caleen’s not in the mood for talking.” Jennifer still sounded chipper. “How about we go to . . .” her finger twirled around in a circle, “John.” She pointed. “Talk first.”
    “I’m a writer.” John shifted his average size body in his seat to be more comfortable. He sniffled quite a bit while he talked, crinkling his nose as he did. “I’m here to get the story of a lifetime. I also feel that the four years I just put in at Harvard, and the tedious work I did there, has helped to prepare me for this. Well. . . I’m an honest person and . . . and why are you rolling your eyes at me, Major?”
    After snapping his eyes toward Cal when he swore he heard her mumble, ‘because he’s an asshole,’ Jake with arrogance, looked at John. “Ivy league doesn’t prepare you for mental endurance. Life experience does. You’re twenty-three years old. How much experience has life thrown your way?”
    “Enough to know it will be a pleasure writing in detail about how you mentally fall apart.” John’s hard expression didn’t change despite the fact that Jake laughed loudly.
    Trying to break the tension, Jennifer injected her upbeat self and tapped John on the knee. “Shrug it off, John. We all have to deal with him.”
    Cal had just about all she could take. She had been with the group long enough. She knew that the people she had to spend the next seven months of her life with weren’t exactly the type of people she was going to enjoy being with. Rolling her body forward, she closed her notebook and set her feet on the floor.
    “ Caleen ?” Jennifer asked as Cal started to leave. “Where are you going? We’re just getting to know each other.”
    Cal gave a half smile. “I have seven months to get to know all of you. And please, take no offense to this but . . . I’m not here to make new friends . . .” she lifted her shoulders almost embarrassingly “. . . so I’m heading back to my room. Good night.”
    John Montgomery, not one to remain silent, didn’t. “I think you of all people shouldn’t walk out