[Right. Hmm. Some of these vestibular disorders can be caused by head trauma. I wonder if I could sell 'oh, the van knocked my ears back how they're supposed to be, and apparently I hit my head on something when I was really little'? And not have to go to a doctor at all.]

[And I'll have to resist the temptation to fly,] Bella adds. [Yeah, that works. And then I have admissions-office bait that lets me tell them I want to be a medical researcher to learn more about how such amazing things could occur so that we can harness these principles for the benefit of everyone, and also how much I value Sport Of Choice and by the way look how talented I proved to be at it once I could finally play.]

[That is some quality bullshit you are spinning there,] he says fondly.

[I'm going to have very stiff bullshit competition. I'm trying to think of another in - something unusual, everyone has test scores and grades and the requisite handful of clubs and a personal essay. But for now I might as well wish myself some grace.] This takes a pentagon. She gets up and dances, experimentally.

[How's it going?] he asks after a short pause, because he is so not the person to talk to about unique getting-into-school assets.

[Unfortunately, the kinds of things I can think of are mostly the kinds of things that would get me attention I don't want, or they involve brainwashing. I'm pretty sure they don't interview everyone who applies. I'm going to see what the Internet has to say, for inspiration.]

[The internet,] Bella says, [thinks I should definitely pick up a sport, and possibly also do something volunteerish outside of the country. Maybe graduating early isn't a good plan after all; I need time to fit all this in before applications are due! Man, if only I had known I was going to obtain magic powers back when I was fourteen. I suppose I could leave high school early, go to a decent state school and be impressive, and then transfer.]

[Not my area of expertise,] Alice understates.

[I'm just thinking, um, out loud. So to speak.] Bella decides to go for a flight; if she's invisible, she can go out the open kitchen window, and the curtains will just look like they're being disturbed by a breeze. [Hm, avenues of impressiveness beyond just getting good grades in everything... Academic contests, being ridiculously good at sport-of-choice but not so much that I get irksome attention and that's probably not the best angle to concentrate on anyway since no one cares about women's sports, getting into the arts in some capacity, clubs, activism, starting a small business... can you think of anything?]

[Write a book,] he suggests.

[Enh, there's writing for a weird niche, and then there's writing sociology or something about a weird niche - and the latter is bound to have a smaller audience and more academic prestige.]

In that case, why not write a book about, oh, masochism?

Bella laughs. [It's still not necessarily the best book topic - especially if I'm going to bill myself as a Future Scientist and not a Future Anthropologist - but I'll put it on the mental list and see how saturated the field already is.]

How saturated is the field? Alice has no idea. He hasn't read anything in that area more recent than Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, who by the way was a fucked-up son of a bitch.

[Is that his full name? Is it something about having four names?] Bella asks. [Now that would be an attention-getting thesis statement.]

[What, that it makes you kinky? Okay, that would be fucking hilarious.]

[Rather,] Bella agrees. [I think I might go with something in, like, the history of medicine - it's related to my admissions bait and doesn't require me to have unrealistic access to testing facilities.]

[Sounds like fun,] he says, fondly amused.

[Meh. I'll probably pentagon through most of it - acquire some skills, magic the information into an order that supports some interesting conclusion and then magic it into a file instead of bothering typing it up. I don't actually want to write books as any kind of significant pursuit in my life.]

[You are super-useful,] Bella acknowledges happily.