On the way to Mr. Spinoza's Logic class, Roderick bumps into a stunningly beautiful young lady. She is rather tall, with over-the-shoulder length blonde hair, bright blue eyes and an aristocratic nose; her bright red t-shirt and blue jeans only partially mask voluptuous curves.
"Oh!", says Roderick. "I'm sorry. Are you OK?"
She smiles. "I'm fine, thank you."
"My name is Roderick...this is Molly...and this is Megan."
The young lady waves shyly. "I'm Anna."
Roderick, Molly and Megan sit together in class. Anna sits by herself, in the back row.
Molly is in a funk. "My Italian teacher is the worst teacher ever," she whispers. I don't know what I'm going to do. I have to learn Italian to pass the Music exam."
Roderick is about to comment when Mr. Spinoza marches in the door. "Let's talk later," he whispers back.
Later arrives, but Molly is elsewhere. Roderick and Megan are sitting on his bed working on syllogisms. Megan has something other than syllogisms in mind. "Now that I'm your girlfriend, when are we going to do it?"
Roderick ponders. "Well, I really don't know."
"You want to, right?"
"Oh, yes, indeed."
"Well, what about now?" meows Megan, cuddling in her most alluring manner.
"Molly and I are pledged to be each other's 'first'."
"Oh!," says Megan, slightly surprised. "Aren't you already....?"
Roderick smiles. "No, not yet."
Megan is stumped. "Well, that's a shocker...I just assumed..."
Megan's surprise is not at all surprising. Among the youth of Beauneville, it is considered settled fact that Roderick and Molly are doing it. This is most likely due to an offhand conversation between Roderick and Betsy Flapper, when he praised Molly's "passion"; she thought he was speaking about carnal knowledge, while in fact he was speaking about Molly's rendering of Beethoven's Piano Sonata #17, which is more generally known as "The Tempest".
Roderick smiles. "Life is full of surprises."
Megan looks puzzled. "So, you have two girlfriends?"
"I don't know. Molly and I don't really think about that."
"You're just friends, then?"
"No, not exactly."
Fortunately, Megan has a high tolerance for ambiguity, mostly due to her low tolerance for rationality of any sort.
"Well!" she says. "You don't mind if I..."
"Of course not." Roderick has no illusions about Megan's moral restraint.
Meanwhile -- elsewhere -- Molly is in the Conservatory where the voice and piano students are gathered for a meeting with Mr. Pfitzner. Each year, the Music department pairs vocalists with pianists so they can work together on lieder.
Molly sees Anna, the blonde from Logic class, standing by the Bosendorfer. She walks over and stands next to her. Anna smiles.
Mr. Pfitzner explains the procedure, then announces the pairings. "Albertson, you're working with Figgenbaum. Babcock, work with Hartman. Bloom?"
Molly raises her hand. Mr. Pfitzner hands her a card. "Work with Zemlinsky. Schultz-Herda?"
Anna, standing next to Molly, touches her elbow. "I'm Zemlinsky", she smiles.
That evening, Molly, Megan, Roderick and Anna dine together, after which Molly joins Roderick in his room. They study a little, then retire.
In the dark, Molly curls up in Roderick's arms. "You started to tell me something in Logic this morning, something about Italian," he whispers.
"It's something I need to mull," Molly whispers back.
"Megan wanted to know when we're going to do it."
"What did you tell her?"
"That you and I have a pledge."
Molly squeezes Roderick and smiles.
