Joe pushed through the rotating glass doors and into the main reception area for the Illinois State Department of Medicine and sighed in relief as the cool air washed over her after the muggy, hundred degree heat of a Midwestern summer. The air was almost to cool for the tank top, athletic shorts and flip flops she was wearing and her arms and legs were soon covered in goosebumps.
She barely glanced around before walking straight over to the medical volunteer participant check in desk and presented her student ID to the young woman behind the desk.
"Hi, I'm supposed to have an appointment at twelve thirty with Doctor Susan Alcorn," Joe explained.
The woman seemed almost upset that she had to put down the kindle she had been reading to pick up a clipboard and began to go over a long lists of names with barely a glance at Joe.
"You'll want room 408," the receptionist explained with a forced smile, "Just take the elevators up to the fourth floor and follow the signs."
"Thanks," Joe replied after taking her student ID back and heading for the elevators.
Over the last three months Joe had learned to pretty much ignore how rude everyone seemed to be towards the student volunteers. Honestly though, as easy as the volunteer work was and the extra two hundred dollars a month Joe was willing to put up with a lot.
She reached the elevators and hit the call button stepping inside when the doors slid open while wondering what Dr Alcorn had in store for her today.
It had been a cake walk so far with tons of medical questions about everything from childhood diseases to how many people she had slept with, blood draws, and even a free trip to the Gyno which Joe had been way overdue for anyway since she couldn't afford it herself.
Best of all as far as she was concerned, she had been given an Implanon free of charge which was supposed to be good for two entire years.
The bell dinged for the fourth floor and Joe stepped off the elevator, checked which direction room 408 was and turned left. She walked in without any hesitation even if the first few times she had been as 'Nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers' as her grandmother would have said.
Dr Alcorn's field of study was human reproduction and sexuality and she was infamous, or possibly famous for some of her past projects that she had used student volunteers for. One in particular had become a legend with the student body and involved random volunteers having sex with each other while they were being filmed and attached to an EKG and EEG.
Joe wasn't quite sure she believed that rumor, but part of the waver she had been asked to sign when she volunteered had covered the possibility of being asked to perform sexual activity while being observed.
If she were being honest with herself that was one of the reasons she had volunteered, the idea of being asked to have sex with a stranger and being watched while she did the deed a huge and very taboo turn on for her. So far nothing she had been asked to do had even came close to what Dr Alcorn was rumored to have had students do in the past. Which was kind of disappointing.
"Joanne!" Dr Alcorn said, looking up from a monitor she and her undergrad assistant had been looking at when Joe walked through the door, "Perfect! You're right on time as usual."
"Hi Doc," Joe said as she walked in.
"For today I'm going to have you go to a different room and wait for me," Dr Alcorn explained as she picked up a clipboard and walked over to Joe, "But I'll also need you to sign another volunteer waiver if you will."
"Oh, yea, ok," Joe replied, taking the clipboard and glancing over all the legal mumbo jumbo that was on it.
For the most part it looked identical to the form she had signed three months ago, including the part about being asked to perform sexual activities while being monitored and observed. Joe felt a twinge of excitement but shrugged it off before scrawling her signature across the bottom of the form.
"Perfect," Dr Alcorn said with smile, "I'm going to ask you to go down the hall to room 412 and wait with a few other students for Greg."
Greg, the undergraduate next to Dr Alcorn smiled and nodded.
"Greg's going to bring you in a new drug that we've been researching," Dr Alcorn explained, "You and everyone else in the room will each take one pill and then wait to be called."
"What's this drug do?" Joe asked nervously as she shuffled her feet.
"We can't tell you," Dr Alcorn explained, "We don't want to bias the test results by having the participants second guessing their own reactions. Also some of you will be receiving a placebo instead of the drug, so you may be just taking a plain old aspirin.
"Is that Ok?" Dr Alcorn asked.
"Yea, sure," Joe said since she did trust Dr Alcorn who had always been nice to Joe and even helped her out.
Just helping Joe get into a class that had been full had won her over to anything Dr Alcorn could possible ask.
"Great," Dr Alcorn said with a smile, "So go on down to 412 and wait for Greg. You're the last one to arrive so he'll be down in ten or fifteen minutes."
Joe nodded walked out of the room. She found 412 just a few doors down and walked in to find four other students already waiting.
A young woman with red hair cut in a page boy bob wearing a yellow sundress was sitting on a couch by herself with her iPhone to her nose while three men sat on a second couch across the room from her. One of the guys looked vaguely familiar with a tall, lean build, short black hair and blue eyes who smiled and nodded to her when she came through the door.
The guy next to him screamed geek and was tall and skinny with brown hair that looked like he'd forgot to comb this morning and a pair of coke bottle glasses that guaranteed he wouldn't be getting laid anytime soon. The last guy looked to be a jock with a muscular build, auburn hair and sideburns that came all the way down to his jawline.
The geek kept casting furtive glances her way, his eyes never going higher than her crotch or her breasts which was a bit irritating for Joe, but the jock never even bothered to glance up at her from the sports magazine he was reading. Joe made her way over and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from the redhead before taking out her own iPhone and pretending to be busy.
"Hey, what do you think Frankenstein is going to have us doing today?" the redhead suddenly asked.
"Frankenstein?" Joe asked, "You mean Dr Alcorn?"
The redhead rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Yea, who'd you think I meant?"
"I don't know," Joe said a bit sharply, "Dr Alcorn said something about taking a new drug they're researching."
"Really," the jock said suddenly perking up, "That's more than I got out of her."