Back to your dorm

When you got back to your dorm, you decided to check on Mateo before heading to your room. You knocked on his door.

"Enter."

Mateo was playing a game on his laptop.

"Excellent, I have been waiting for you. You are not going to believe what went down this evening."

Mateo proceeded to bring you up to speed on the events of the evening.

Just over an hour ago, I walked past your room and heard a girl yelling. So I stopped and listened."Are you kidding me? I spent the afternoon doing my part of the presentation, and all you have done is this. This is useless, Jake. I picked you as my partner because everyone said you were so smart. Now I'm screwed."

So, I walked in.

"Hey, guys, can I help?"

"No, Matty, we are working on a presentation for bio."

"I'm working, you aren't doing shit, and we need to submit tonight. Do you know anything about bio?"

"Show me what you got."

She showed me their slides and where Jake's part was supposed to go. I asked to see the laptop. I outlined ten more slides for their presentation and added notes with quotes and statistics they could use during their presentation. I even corrected two mistakes in her work.

"This is perfect! It's better than perfect. You are a lifesaver. Are you a bio major?"

"No, but I took the class last semester. Had to do a similar presentation."

She hugged me and gathered up her stuff.

"Thank you so much. You totally saved my ass. And you,"

She rounded on Jake.

"Everyone is going to know that you are just a dumb, lazy bitch."

"That is so weird. Jake is borderline brilliant. He is a biochem major. I know he took a bunch of college science classes in high school. He said his classes this semester were a joke."

"No, dude, you don't get it. I'm a business major. I didn't take bio last semester, that was a lie. I haven't taken bio since 9th grade. But somehow, I knew everything for their presentation. How is that even possible? Since this afternoon, I have been operating on an entirely new level. I knocked out all my homework and wrote a paper. Thirty minutes."

"What?"

"I did a two-page econ assignment and wrote a five-page paper for my freshmen writing class in thirty minutes. I suck at writing. At least I used to. "

"There must be a reasonable explanation."

"Yeah. You. This afternoon you siphoned Jake's knowledge and intelligence. I said "dumb bitch" just before the light show, and his presentation partner used that exact phrase. That cannot be a coincidence. Haven't you noticed any differences."

He is right. Before today I was a B or C student. Now I am my professor's favorite student, and I also seem to be a personal trainer and nutritionist. Something has changed.

"I need to think about this. I promise, when I figure out what is going on, you will be the first to know."