LIVING THE DREAM I ONC 2024 [COMPLETE]

Seventeen: The lab thief, the suspicion and Fitzgerald

"Why do you have petri dishes in your bag?" William asked, his index finger pointing at Hayley's bag. "Are you stealing equipment from the lab? Oh my God! Theo will be so pissed and-"

Hayley quickly put her hand over his mouth.
"Shhhh, someone might hear you!"

"I can't help it!"

"Then, just shut up. I'll tell you on our way back home."

William let out a disappointed sigh and rolled his eyes.
"Fine, keep your secrets."

"Did you get the paperwork? Theo will skin you alive if you don't have it done by the end of this weekend."

"My phone is dead."

That earned William a slap on his shoulder to which he responded with an ouch.
"Are you stupid? Just use the lab wifi and download the documents from your email."

Leaving William to download the paperwork for Theo's research project, Hayley went on to pack a few things she would need over the weekend: some frozen agar, milk samples and a few other things.
As Theo was currently out of town, he'd left her in charge of the project and she wasn't about to slack off or let anything happen to it.

Especially after what had happened a few days prior.

"Ready?" William called out as he packed his laptop into his backpack

Hayley nodded. "Sure. Let's go."

The receptionist wasn't at her desk when they passed by on their way out and Hayley internally relaxed. Five weeks into the internship programme and the woman couldn't still find it within herself to let her be. William's prank hadn't changed a single thing. Instead, she'd reported her to the HR and it took several hours for Theo to clear her name and several more hours of her listening to Theo giving her the adult talk.

"So, wanna tell me why you were packing up lab equipment in your bag?" William resumed the conversation from earlier while he started the car

"You won't believe me if I tell you."

"Try me."

"Alright, as long as you don't call me crazy when I'm done," she let out a deep breath, fastened her seat belt and turned to William. "I think there's something wrong at the lab. Y'know how Theo left me with samples to analyze? I have been trying to analyze them but each time I incubate the samples, I don't get any signs of growth on any of the petri dishes. All week."

"What do you think is wrong?"

"You may not believe me, but I think someone is tampering with the experiments when we all leave the lab."

William clicked his tongue. "No way! Who would want to do that? And what would they benefit from all this?"

"I can think of someone who would. Like the receptionist."

"That makes no sense, Lay Lay. In five weeks, we'll be out of Vine, so, there's nothing she will gain from trying to sabotage your internship."

"That's what you think. But I'm sure that someone is behind this."

"And how do you plan on proving that? Because, I'm sorry but even Theo would laugh at you if you said something as ridiculous as that."

"The plan is simple," Hayley grinned and reached for her phone from the car's dashboard. "According to a handout from Google Scholar, if I inoculate a milk sample on growth media and keep it at room temperature for forty eight hours, I'll be able to see some growth."

"Your plan is to conduct an experiment at home, over the weekend?"

Hayley nodded. "Exactly."

"It's a good plan, I must say. And I hope you are right."

"It'll be alright. As long as Fitzgerald doesn't cling on me all weekend."

William let out a loud chuckle. "What do you have against that cat? She's small and cute."

"I hate her," she groaned. "I don't know what Mitchell was thinking when she agreed to help Austin take care of her."

As it turned out, Austin's cat - Fitzgerald - was always at Hayley's house and almost never at Austin's while Mitchell was always at Austin's and almost never at her own house. That left Hayley babysitting Fitzgerald whenever she was around and in turn, the cat developed a strong liking for her.

And William absolutely adored it.

"Fitzgerald is cute and cuddly; how can one hate her?" William scoffed. "Besides, you just never take time to actually spend time with her. Five weeks ago, you hated your sister too and look at where you are now!"

William made a strong point there. Five weeks ago, Hayley would have signed Mitchell off to ebay or Amazon if she could. But somewhere in between spending time with Austin, Claire, Hannah, William and Theo, plus both of them having little cooking lessons together, painting their house shiny colors to get rid of the dark colors, they'd started bonding. So, it was safe to say that she didn't hate Mitchell that much. Scratch that, she liked being around her more.

Despite Mitchell still being an overbearing mother hen, who still gave her long lectures and insisted on having the birds and bees talk with her, Hayley didn't mind her so much anymore. To some extent, Hayley attributed her dislike for her elder sister to too much time they spent together all on their own. Adding a few characters to their story had been effective in reducing the toxic tension between them and gave them more time off each other.

"Are you staying for supper?" Hayley asked when William stopped the car in front of her house. "Claire is cooking. You love it when she cooks."

Another thing to look forward to was the fun at Claire's. Even after the power outage and the broken dish, nothing had changed. Fun suppers and movie nights after were much more fun to look forward to.

"Unfortunately, no. I actually have to do the paperwork, else, Theo won't be giving me my allowance next week."

"You can come over during the weekend if you get some time," Hayley suggested

"Or," William countered with a wiggle of his eyebrows, "you can come to ours instead. Theo won't mind."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. Just text me when and I'll pick you up."