Sneak Peek: 'Tutor Vetting'

Synopsis: Carl enjoys the prospect of becoming a college tutor. During a competitive interview process, a likely foe takes aim at Carl's credentials with a trick up his sleeve.

POSTED BELOW is the first 20% of the story. The rest is written but not completed. It takes me a while to tweak.

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Tutor Vetting

College was expensive and Carl knew of only one way to soften the blow… working a few shifts at the campus tutoring center. “Just a few hours a week, it’ll be easy.” 

After obtaining a well-deserved sign-off from his professors, Carl marched his paperwork over to the admin building. While there, he met Joe. Joe was similar to Carl in one regard: They were both classic geeks. Both were lanky in body structure, lacked masculine traits, and sported an obvious passion for learning. 

The two nerds sat in chairs side-by-side while they waited to be interviewed. There were many others cycling in and out of the interview room and Joe made the observation that, “Spaces might be limited.” Carl turned to Joe as the stranger he was and replied, “Yea but I’ve got a 4.0 GPA and a rec letter from my department chair, I shouldn’t have a problem.”

Unaware to Carl, Joe was in possession of a magical ‘dumbing down’ spray that he created with his extensive knowledge of chemistry. Many sleepless nights and lab hours led to the creation of a spray that slowed the mind and grew the body with testosterone. Joe created the spray in the event that he came across somebody smarter than him.

Silently of course, Joe calculated his move. “The spray will kill his mind and turn him into a hairy, horny jock.” … “Just yet to be tested…”

Joe rustled around in his bag. He pulled out the spray and ‘accidentally’ faced it in the wrong direction on purpose before letting some spray out. 

A quick sorry – “Oh sorry man, stupid container!” 

Carl coughed a few times as he waved his hands to clear the air. “What was that?!” 

Joe was apologetic. “Sorry, new body spray. It’s hard to see sometimes!” 

Carl was annoyed but quickly got over the minty smell. His mind was solely fixed on nailing the interview in order to become a paid, official college tutor. Finally, his name was called. As annoyed as Carl was with Joe’s inconsiderate spraying, he held his head high as he followed the student volunteer to an interview table. 

Three college department chairs shot off a line of questioning to a very ready Carl. He answered them with poise, although toward the end Carl began fighting off a headache. At the conclusion of twenty minutes, the lead interviewer informed Carl of the second and final stage of the interview process…

“We will observe a mock session with another applicant. You will tutor him and we will see how you perform.” 

“Oh, alright.” Carl left the room and walked into a private room separated by mirror-glass they pointed to. It became apparent they would be watching.

Carl set eyes on the contents of the new room and sitting there before him was Joe… again. Joe was sitting, pulled up close to the desk. Carl took a seat on the other side. 

“Hey Carl! They want me to play dumb for ya and have you tutor me about something?” Joe eagerly reported. 

“Yep,” Carl reluctantly answered. 

Carl dreaded with annoyance that he would have to interact further with the guy who always seemed full of himself… the guy named Joe. 

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