Chapter 84: A drive by to campus

Xavier woke up Thursday morning and made a decision before he’d finished his first coffee.

He was driving to campus.

Not because anything urgent required his physical presence there. Just because three days away from Riverside had a particular quality to it. Not uncomfortable, just noticeable. The way you noticed when something that was supposed to be part of your routine had been missing long enough to register its absence.

Also Amira had texted twice about the research plan outline and ignoring it a third time would produce a phone call rather than a message and a phone call before 9AM was a different level of commitment than he was currently prepared for.

He finished his coffee, got dressed. He wore a dark trouser, clean shirt,something campus appropriate. Picked up the Panamera keys and headed out.

Mama Elizabeth’s door was open as he passed.

She looked at him. Looked at the keys in his hand.

"Good morning Xavier," she said.

"Good morning ma," he said. He slowed slightly. "You slept well?"

"Not bad," she said. "You’re going to school today?"

"Yes ma," he said.

"Good." She nodded with the satisfaction of someone who considered regular school attendance a moral virtue. "Food in the kitchen. I made extra."

"Thank you ma maybe when I come back," he said.

She looked at the keys one more time. Then at him. Then back at whatever she’d been doing before he appeared in her doorway.

He pulled into the small car park beside the east gate at 8:47AM and found a space near the entrance.

Cut the engine.

Sat for a moment.

First time bringing it here, he thought. Student car park. Campus vehicles on both sides. He looked at what surrounded him. A mix of modest sedans, one motorcycle that had clearly survived something significant, a van with a cracked windscreen that the owner had long since made peace with. The Panamera in this context is not subtle.

Good, he thought. Subtle was never the point.

He got out. Locked it. The locking sound echoed cleanly off the car park walls in a way that was its own kind of statement.

A student three spaces over looked up from their phone. Looked at the car. Looked at Xavier getting out of it. Looked at the car again.

Xavier walked toward the gate without acknowledging any of it.

He made it through the gate and approximately thirty metres into the courtyard before Kelvin appeared from a direction that made no geographical sense relative to where his faculty building was located.

Xavier had stopped trying to understand how Kelvin always knew. He’d simply accepted it as a permanent feature of campus life.

"That’s your car," Kelvin said, falling into step without preamble.

"Yes," Xavier said.

"That’s a Porsche Panamera," Kelvin said.

"Correct."

"Midnight blue," Kelvin said. "Current model. Xavier that vehicle costs more than most people’s entire university education including any postgraduate study they might pursue afterward."

"Your automotive knowledge is impressive," Xavier said.

"I googled it when someone posted it in the first year group chat twenty minutes ago," Kelvin said without embarrassment. He paused. "There were forty seven replies."

"What did they say," Xavier said despite himself.

"Mostly variations of who is this and how," Kelvin said. He glanced sideways at Xavier. "I didn’t answer. I felt that was your information to share or not share as you saw fit."

That’s surprisingly restrained for Kelvin, Xavier thought.

"Thank you," he said.

"You’re welcome." A beat. "Is it fast."

"Very," Xavier said.

Kelvin nodded with the solemn appreciation of someone receiving confirmation of something they’d already suspected and found deeply satisfying. "Can I sit in it sometime?"

"No," Xavier said.

"Reasonable," Kelvin said immediately. And kept walking beside him as if the answer had been yes and they were already moving past it.

Amira was at her desk when Xavier walked into the Food and Nutrition block. She looked up when he entered, took in his clothes with one clean read, then looked back at her tablet.

"You drove here," she said.

"Yes," he said.

"In that car," she said.

"You saw it," he said.

"Xavier," she said flatly. "It’s a midnight blue Porsche Panamera in a student car park. People in the library on the other side of campus saw it." She pushed her glasses up. "Someone is live tweeting their feelings about it."

"That’s their time to spend," Xavier said, sitting down beside her.

She looked at him for a moment with the expression she wore when she was deciding whether a subject was worth pursuing. She decided it wasn’t.

"The research plan outline," she said. "I sent it last night."

"I read it this morning," Xavier said. "The methodology section needs expanding before Kenvale General. The committee will want more detail on the data collection framework — specifically how you’re measuring nutritional outcomes across the three year projection period."

She looked at him. "You read it at what time this morning."

"6AM," he said.

"Xavier."

"The outline was good," he said. "The methodology section needs work. That’s everything I have to say about it."

She held his gaze for a moment then turned back to her tablet with the expression of someone who had assessed the available information and made peace with it.

"I’ll expand it tonight," she said.

"Send it when it’s done," Xavier said. "I’ll get Meridian Research Partners on it first thing tomorrow."

Kelvin had found a chair at a nearby desk and was splitting his attention between his phone and the conversation with the comfortable energy of someone attending an event they hadn’t been invited to but had decided was worth their time regardless.

They ate in the cafeteria at lunch. Xavier, Amira, and Kelvin who had achieved the kind of permanent attachment to their lunch arrangement that made formal invitations feel retroactive and slightly beside the point.

Xavier cycled a transaction quietly under the table.

[ REBATE SYSTEM ]

Transaction Detected: $9 spent on campus cafeteria

Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x

Total Return: $18

[ Net Balance: $2,588,996.00 → $2,589,014.00 ]