Thirteen Years Later, Two Blue Competition Badges Answered Every Question

She tore it in half.

Then she tore the halves in half and laid the four pieces on the registration table in a neat row.

Vanessa looked down at them and did not pick them up.

Claire let the two pieces of the check flutter into the courtyard trash can.

She watched the torn paper settle over an empty styrofoam coffee cup.

She walked back into the main building and through the heavy brass doors of the science wing.

The sharp smell of floor wax in the university hallways coated the back of her throat, completely different from the stale air of their cheap roadside motel.