Jennifer, or Jenna, as her friends called her, was a strong student. She was in her mid-twenties studying bio-chemistry and researching as much as she could. She wanted an opportunity to study abroad, something she continuously told her teachers and the faculty. She wanted to live amongst the culture, like her peers got to. Unfortunately, when she got to secondary school, all that was available was to major in zoology. Regardless, she saw this as an opportunity.
Jenna was doing great in her classes, but often found herself quite bored. She lived in a studio apartment that was tiny, and focused her mind and talents into zoology -- if she couldn't be a biochemist, she would do her best as a zoologist. Jenna had to be the best at everything.
Yet, somehow, Jenna found her grades slipping and interest falling as she entered her final year. One day, she was called in to speak with the headmasters of her school:
"Jenna," her counselor said, pulling her out of the bio-replica class she was a part of, mid-experimenting on a young mouse.
"What is it now?" Jenna asked, rolling her eyes. Jenna knew she was good, and felt overqualified for the school already. She didn't get along well with anyone in class, as she was always acting as such.
"You've been requesting to study abroad; isn't that right?"
"Well not just abroad--" Jenna rolled her eyes again, "I want to--"
"Live amongst them, yes. Well your classmate Jeremy--"
Jenna stopped in her tracks, cutting off her counselor. Jeremy had asked her out before; he studied biology and zoology as an understudy. He made her feel inferior and she had left their one and only date embarrassingly drunk, telling him he was unprepared and unfocused after relaying all her thoughts on the topic.
"Jenna, just listen..." the counselor continued, reaching to touch her shoulder. "He submitted your research to the administrative office, and they approved it for his studies."
"He submitted my what??" Jenna exclaimed -- he had taken her research and run with it, she knew she shouldn't have let that man see it. "It's all fake," she lied through her teeth, looking away.
"Well, regardless, he has asked you to be the leader on the research for this. It's a great opportunity, and it pays quite well -- forget about student loans!"
Jenna thought for a moment. She had taken out an incredible amount of loans to pay for her education. If there was any way out, this might be it.
"Okay... So, why me?"
"Why you?"
"Yeah. What do I have to offer?"
"Your mind of course!" The counselor consoled.
"Well, unless he can probe in there, we'll just have to see," Jenna concluded, following into the conference room.
Inside, sat Jeremy, her counselor, and the administrators for biological research for zoology. Jenna was disappointed with the continuation of zoology, but, still thinking of the money, remained put. The points made were good: she'd have the opportunity to live amongst the research and really get a first hand glimpse of her research in play.
At the end, they handed her consent forms and waivers for the journey. She took them and agreed to look them over.
That night, Jenna poured herself a big glass of wine.
"Great," she said to herself, seeing a missed call from Jeremy. She took a drink and opened it up, phone to her ear:
"Hi Jenna. It was really great seeing you today. Look, meet me tomorrow at my property," Jenna chuckled, pausing the message. Jeremy came from a rich family, probably how he got his "property." She knew all about how they failed and left the country, leaving him in charge of, what really was, their ranch.
"Property," she laughed to herself, taking another large sip. She continued the message:
"I know you don't think great of me. But I told you from the start, your research is incredible. You need to come see what we've done here already. Please come," Jeremy ended the message with a place to meet, and Jenna wrote it down, going to watch television -- she fell asleep, dreaming of her research actually working out.
The next day she woke early, wrote a note to her roommate, and had made a decision:
She called Jeremy and said she would be there in just under two hours. To say he was thrilled was an understatement.
Driving from highway to road, from paved to unpaved gravel, Jenna reached a point her car could no longer go.
"Ugh, no cell service," She muttered to herself, pulling out the hand radio Jeremy had given her in the meeting the prior day. Turning it on to the channel he had given her, she muttered, "Come in, come in."
"Hi Jenna!" Jeremy exclaimed. Ugh, morning bird, Jenna thought to herself.
"Hi Jeremy. I can't drive past this damn area--"
"Oh don't worry! GPS location has you covered!"
