Expelled by Emmy Laybourne Page A

subject.
    So she had followed Carolann out of the store and watched her go into Supreme Nails.
    Li Jing had never had a manicure in her life, but she went right in. Eight dollars, plus two for a tip, but whatever. Carolann had tutted over Li Jing’s short, brittle fingernails and her cracked fingertips.
    â€œI wear latex gloves almost every day,” Li Jing had explained. “For my work in the lab.”
    Carolann had expressed only a mild, polite interest, but it was a start. For three weeks after, Li Jing had gone to get her nails done. She’d learned that Carolann lived alone and watched a lot of TV. She didn’t seem to have many friends. And when Li Jing started talking about the compound, and the effects she was seeing in the lab, Carolann got very, very interested.
    Li Jing had started her on twenty-five milligrams three times a day, but Carolann had taken it upon herself to increase the dosage, which meant that her weight loss accelerated and she kept running out of the packets of the compound, then coming around, asking for more.
    Penny hadn’t liked that. Not one bit. She hadn’t liked people seeing a fat, working-class loser showing up at the door of their dorm room.
    Li Jing fished out the dusty suitcase from under her bed and started emptying dresser drawers into it.
    â€œI can’t believe you were testing something you made up in a lab on a real, actual person. I mean, there have to be laws against it, Li Jing. Really, you brought this on yourself.”
    Penny was eying Li Jing’s dresser thoughtfully. Li Jing could almost see her planning how to redecorate the room. The school would doubtlessly let her play out the last month of the semester with no roommate.
    Penny would migrate her pretentious poetry slam posters and her art prints over to the blank walls on Li Jing’s side of the room. She would take the two twin beds on iron bed stands and push them together into a double. She’d have boys over. Meanwhile, Li Jing’s life was ruined.
    â€œNo one will take me for a PhD now,” Li Jing said. “Because you tattled on me, my career is through. I want you to know this.”
    â€œYou don’t know that I was the one who told!”
    Li Jing had insisted that Carolann not come on campus. She’d explained that what they were doing was against the rules and they could get in trouble, but when Carolann began to drop weight, she kept wanting to talk to Li Jing about it. To show off. She went from 251 pounds to 240 within two weeks. Then she showed up, knocking at the door, maybe a week later at 227. Then she came to the dining hall looking for Li Jing at around 191 pounds, her clothes hanging off her, along with folds of loose skin.
    Penny had obviously put it together.
    â€œYes. You did it. You’re the only one who knew.” Li Jing glared at her as she threw the few clothes she had hanging in the closet into the suitcase and zipped it shut.
    â€œOh, God! Okay, I did it! I told Professor Stead, okay? Carolann was scary. I was worried she might attack me!”
    â€œYou’re a liar! And a coward! Don’t you know…”
    â€œDon’t I know what?”
    Li Jing’s fists were in balls. “Don’t you know that if you’re going to do anything … anything great or important or new, that you have to take risks?!”
    Penny stood. She tossed her mass of fluffy, wavy hair over her shoulder. “Risks? You could be killing that woman. Maybe you need to be a little more concerned with people than you are with achieving great things, Li Jing. Maybe that’s what you need to learn from this.”
    â€œYeah, yeah. Go write a poem about it,” Li Jing muttered.
    â€œMaybe I will!”
    Then there was a sound at the door and Li Jing’s father walked in.
    Li Jing saw his grim expression, his silent rage, and tears sprang to her eyes. She felt herself trembling. For a second, she thought about the