Running late once again, Rot headed for computer science.
Mr. Paldike was waiting at the door as Rot dashed around the corner, beating the bell into the classroom but not all the way to his desk.
"Ah, Rot," Mr. Paldike said. "Since you're standing, I can only guess that means you're volunteering to explain your class programming project."
"Right." He looked out at the class. Most of the students were guys... and most were exactly the kind of geeks he'd spent his career working with. Most of those geeks had gotten married but had ended up making both themselves and their wives miserable because of the strong sense of inferiority they'd been left with as a result of society's brutal treatment of all but the top few percent. The girls in the class were more of a mixed group. Some, like Wendy, were cute. A couple, including Rene, were outright beautiful. And a few were fat, pimple-faced, or purely unattractive. They, Rot suddenly realized, suffered in exactly the same way he had. Despised for not measuring up to the school's rigid standards of attractiveness, they'd learned to think of themselves as unworthy, with many entering abusive relationships that had reinforced that negative feeling in a destructive feedback loop.
All of a sudden, the dating program wasn't just a way to make some money so Rot could date girls. It was a key ingredient in liberating many of Aaron Burr's less fortunate... and of course, a way to make money so Rot could have more sex and fix himself.
Quickly, Rot outlined the Myers-Briggs personality profile he'd be using as the basis for the sort, the bubble algorithm which, while inefficient by 21st century search standards, was good enough for the few hundred students he hoped to attract, and the key role his partner, Wendy, would play both in marketing and in design of the questionnaire.
Mr. Paldike often looked confused... perhaps his incompetence as a teacher had led to Rot's relative lack of interest in the subject the first time through... something that had meant he'd missed the billion dollar opportunities to be an early employee of Apple or Microsoft, but he looked positively dumbfounded as Rot went through his plan.
Perhaps, Rot thought, having to go to boring meetings and listen to sales executives bullshit about how great things are going to be pays off.
"I have a question." Rene raised her hand. Her perfectly shaped breasts moved with her hand and, just for a second, Rot felt his mouth drop open and the hormone-freeze that had kept him locked up through his first trip through high school kick in.
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