Free She Blinded Me With Science by Michelle L. Levigne Page A

got her feet under herself. "None of the things I did made any difference." She gestured
around the house. "You can do magic."
    "Oh. That." Kevyn felt like his stomach had fallen down to around his knees.
    The misery and shame in Sophie's eyes made him ache for her. He wished she would get
angry, but she just stood there and stared at him. He could almost hear the gears whirring in her
head, could almost see the pieces of the puzzle coming together in her incredibly agile, swift
mind.
    "Tell me about Mount Grief," he said, hoping to distract her until she got used to the
idea.
    "She's been trying to horn in on my project. Everything Jennifer wants, she gets. Guys,
clothes, the best lab, the wimpiest advisor, passing grades she didn't earn. You name it, she gets
it."
    "She didn't get in here."
    "No thanks to me."
    "No, actually, it is. You worked some real magic among all the mumbo jumbo. This
Jennifer twitch could have shown up with a stick of dynamite or a diamond drill, she wouldn't
have gotten in the door."
    "I worked magic. Right." Sophie snorted and stomped across the room. Kevyn feared
she would walk out on him, but she turned sharply in the doorway and stomped back toward
him. Pacing was a good sign. He welcomed her anger, as long as it wasn't directed at him.
    "She's been pestering me since I came back with you." Sophie chewed on her bottom lip
between sharp sentences. "Tried to use a sob story on her advisor that her work was sabotaged. If
I wasn't so busy, she would have framed me.
    "She claims we're following the same lines, and it would benefit the entire academic
world if we worked together, that her thesis works off of mine." She snorted. "The nasty little
twitch actually tried to convince me that since my work is a foundation for hers , I'll get a whole lot more recognition for my work. Yeah, right. Like the guy who
discovered penicillin gave the limelight to the guy who let the bread get moldy."
    "What does--"
    "And today was the topper." She stopped in front of him, close enough the toes of her
sneakers touched his bare feet. "Her advisor whined until my advisor tried to convince me it'd
benefit both of us to team up. Which makes me wonder why she was out here, trying to break in,
when she had to be so sure of success."
    "Did they convince you?" Kevyn was delighted when Sophie screwed up her face in a
disgusted look and then laughed.
    "They wish! I told them I'd go home and think it over. Yeah, it took me about two
seconds to think it over and the answer is still no. What did she think she could gain by coming
out here and breaking into my house?"
    "Which she didn't do, because of your magic."
    "And yours." Sophie dropped down on the couch next to him.
    Not close enough, Kevyn was sorry to note, for him to put an arm around her. She
vibrated with tension and anger. He could almost see smoke coming out of her ears as she
thought hard and fast.
    "You spend a lot of time on your computer," he offered, and wished he had pushed past
his revulsion for computers to investigate what she had recorded about him. "Maybe she thought
she could copy your notes and get ahead of you. I think she was telling the truth. She needs your
research to launch her own."
    "Jennifer, copying notes? That's too plebeian for her tastes. It's more likely she'd get one
of her computer geek slaves to break into my computer though the university network and steal
all my notes. She's done it before. That's why I change my password every couple of weeks,
change the encryption and shuffle the files. So she can't find anything no matter how long she
has them hunting. In case they break into my system." The defiant light faded from her eyes.
"What if she did, though?"
    "Have you been putting everything you've learned from me into your computer?" Kevyn
whispered, feeling a sick twisting in his stomach that had nothing to do with six chili dogs and a
full gallon of banana split ice cream for lunch.
    "Everything." Sophie's voice cracked. She stared at