“Seriously?”

Franny’s voice sounded surprised and possibly irritated in response to the girl’s words. Then the girl said something else, and Franny shrugged and muttered something in French that Jason was pretty sure was obscene.

“His name is Jason, and he studies Mycenean stuff. Mostly those stupid tablets. You know those Linear B things.”

The girl smiled and her mouth moved some more.

“She says to tell you that her name is Katerina, and she hopes you will come on the dig with me. Sacrebleu! This isn’t a dating service. And besides, I think all the places are filled. So there. Now I am going to get something to eat.” She pulled one of her earplugs out. “Do you want to talk to her?”

She offered, waving it a Jason. Ooh. Sharing earplugs. Not very sanitary! Jason was unsure how to respond to the offer. The girl hadn’t seemed to mind him butting in. On the contrary, she had asked who he was, which was a distinct plus. Most girls just looked at him blankly and then went back to whatever they had been doing before he had impinged upon their consciousness. He decided he didn’t want to presume on Franny’s good nature, so he declined the offer, although he indicated that he was interested in getting to know the girl on the screen too. Before he could get all this across, she clearly said something else, to which Franny threw up her hands.

“Now she says she is running late but that it was nice to meet you. Bye, Kat.” And the girl’s image disappeared from the screen.

Franny packed up and they headed down to the Refectory near their building while she told him about Katerina Raeburn, who Franny had met through an online archaeology forum a couple of years before. She had Livonian and Scottish parents and was currently at the University of Newcastle in her second year of post-grad studies in Roman history.

Jason couldn’t decide if the girl had actually been that interested in him or had responded that way just to annoy Franny. He had never had a girl show an immediate desire to get to know him like that ever before, so he was pretty sure it had been a prank aimed at Franny. Being a nerd meant girls largely laughed rather than drooled, or mostly they simply ignored him. Occasionally they said something to the boyfriend Jason hadn’t realized they had, which often proved painful! Not that he was a complete nerd. He had done a bit of karate in High School and played football as a third-string linebacker in his senior year, although he hadn’t made the cut for the College football program. Still, he was in reasonable shape for a nerd, or so he felt. he immediately resolved to start a more regular exercise regime. It was the second time he had made that resolution just this year!

Lunch was spent talking about the adventures they each had enjoyed during the break, although Jason refrained from mentioning his strange visitor, so he told them about the Con mostly. Franny wasn’t really into Cons but liked hearing about some of the costumes people wore, although she couldn’t see the point in spending all that time and effort to make a good costume. She had spent a large part of her break with her boyfriend, who had taken a week’s leave from his work to spend time with her. Ah, the course of true love! Jason kept that thought to himself.