Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 20835 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20835 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
“If you had questions about the lecture, you should have asked them during class,” he muttered, turning to stride out of the room.
“No, I wanted to speak with you about my field study.”
Before I could explain about the rock I had brought back with me, he interrupted, “I was very clear with your lab partner on Friday. There will be no extensions.”
“Shelley is…um…not my partner anymore. I don’t think so at least since she said she was dropping the class and taking the W on her transcript.” He paused to look over his shoulder at me, quirking a brow, and I rushed to add, “She let me know at the last minute, so I went out and did the field study by myself over the weekend.”
“While the situation is unfortunate, I am not going to give you extra points for completing the project on your own.”
I shook my head. “I’m not asking for special treatment.”
“Then what did you want?” he asked with a huff, striding down the hallway. “My time is precious, Marielle. I don’t appreciate anyone wasting it.”
I swallowed down the nervous lump in my throat as I slid my backpack down my arm and undid the zipper. “I…um…found a rock in a cave that I wanted to show you.”
“What kind of rock?” he asked, pushing through the front doors of the building.
Luckily, I didn’t have to chase him down the stairs since he paused at the top just long enough for me to pull out the large black chunk that I’d grown oddly attached to over the past couple of days. “I’m not sure, but it looked so much like the photo of your lunar meteorite that I thought it might be one, too. I looked at hundreds of other pictures online yesterday, but I know the similarities I found aren’t considered to be scientific proof.”
“You are correct about that, at least,” he confirmed, his gaze focused on the rock I held. A gleam in his eyes got my hopes up until he added, “But I am sorry to say that I think your visual observation skills have let you down. I highly doubt this is a Lunaite. The odds of you stumbling across one in this area are beyond astronomical. Not only are they incredibly rare and have never been found in North America but from just a glance, I would say you found a nice chunk of magnetite.”
“Oh.” My shoulders slumped.
At my look of disappointment, he offered, “I can test a small sample to confirm if you would like. It’s a simple matter of looking for the presence of cosmogenic nuclides, and I have the proper equipment in my lab.”
I beamed an appreciative smile at him. “I would appreciate that so much.”
“My schedule is quite full at the moment, so I most likely will not be able to get to this for at least a few days.” He carefully placed the rock inside an inner pocket of his briefcase. “I will let you know when I have the results.”
“Thanks, Dr. McCord.”
I was surprised when he didn’t react to my gratitude. The man struck me as a preening peacock most of the time, expecting everyone to take notice of every little thing he accomplished. Plus, he wasn’t the kind of professor who ever did favors for students. As far as he was concerned, we were lucky to be taught by him and should act accordingly. Something I’d actually heard him say to a classmate once.
Hearing someone call my name, I shook off the oddness of our interaction and turned to find Shelley striding toward me. “Hey, girl. I’m glad I caught you. I owe you an apology. I was so caught up in the excitement of my date with Chad that I lost sight of how I was leaving you in the lurch. Sorry to bail on you at the last minute.”
“It actually turned out fine.” Better than that, to the point where I was actually glad that she hadn’t been with me on Saturday. Then I either wouldn’t have found the rock or I would’ve had to share the discovery with her…if the tests Dr. McCord was going to run proved me right instead of him. I knew it was a long shot since he was the expert with a PhD and tons of research hours in the field, but a part of me refused to believe it was just a common iron oxide mineral with large quantities found in several states.
“Oh, good.” She beamed a smile at me. “I would’ve hated to tank your grade, but dropping the class was totally worth it for me.”
“I take it your date went well?” I asked.
She let out a low whistle and fanned her face with her hand. “I barely made it to class this morning because I almost couldn’t walk straight, if you know what I mean.”