Kelly laughed. ‘All right. Foundation and mascara, but no lipstick.’
Juliana cocked her head. ‘Lip balm?’
‘Okay.’
‘Coloured lip balm?’
‘That’s lipstick.’
‘All right, I’ll meet you halfway with lip gloss. Just don’t go over the top. We don’t want a bunch of thirteen-year-old boys flooding the hospital system with blue balls.’
Kelly snorted. ‘Well, I’ve held up my end of the bargain, so my work here is done. Don’t take this the wrong way, Juliana, but I hope I never see you again.’
Juliana smiled at Kelly with pity in her eyes and Kelly’s stomach dropped.
‘Kelly,’ Juliana said ominously. ‘I just became your new best friend.’
***
At her Sunday-evening study group, Kelly had mixed feelings about the fact that nobody had mentioned the article. On the one hand, it was a relief not to have to talk about it. She’d been doing that all day.
Her mum, though thrilled with the trophy piece, felt betrayed that Kelly had not told her about it in advance. To learn of it in a text message from one of her friends before she’d even opened the paper was tantamount to high treason on Kelly’s part. Before she could have the prize usurped by any of her other frenemies, June O’Mara had posted the article, pictures of her reading the article and pictures of Kelly as a child next to her photo in the article on her Facebook page. Then she’d taken screenshots of it all and flooded Kelly’s phone with text messages because Kelly wasn’t on social media. She considered it a complete waste of fucking time.
As a result, Kelly had been fielding calls, messages and emails since the moment she awoke. It had been maddening and so disruptive that she’d turned off her phone and disconnected from wifi just so she could prepare her answers for tonight’s study group.
So when she’d arrived and it was clear none of the team had even read the article, Kelly had felt an unexpected sense of disappointment. She hadn’t wanted to be in the paper. She hadn’t wanted to be profiled. And, yet, it had been oddly satisfying to spend a day receiving nothing but praise. She had hoped to enjoy the experience with the closest thing she had to friends in the medical community, but her triumph was not theirs, and they were focused on the study, as she should have been.
‘Inherited mutations in RUNX1 cause familial platelet disorder with predisposition to acute myeloid leukemia,’ Raj said.
They all looked to Eli, who was supposed to confirm whether Raj was correct. But he was staring blankly into the distance.
‘Eli,’ Raj said. ‘Am I right?’
Eli shook his head. ‘Sorry, Raj. I was miles away. You know what I was thinking about?’
‘Why you’re wasting our timenotthinking about the exam?’ Kelly said.
‘Close. But no. I was thinking about what I’d be if I wasn’t a doctor.’
Kelly sighed.
‘I like this game,’ Raj said. ‘Joyce, you go first.’
‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Kelly said, raising her hands. ‘We’re not on a break. We don’t have time for this.’
Joyce stared straight at her. ‘I’d be a traffic light.’
‘Sorry, what?’ Eli said.
‘I’d be a traffic light,’ Joyce repeated.
‘You can’t be a traffic light. You’re a human.’
‘You didn’t specify those parameters.’
Eli grinned.
Joyce looked back at Kelly. ‘A traffic light has one job with three options. And it doesn’t even have to make up its own mind.’
