"Big U, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stephenson Neal)

apathy. She announced this loudly and they all laughed and
complimented Hyacinth on her sense of humor.
Sarah was introduced last, being famous. "What are you into,
Sarah Jane?" asked Mitzi. Sarah surveyed the glistening, fiercely
smiling faces turned round to aim at her.
"I'm into reality," she said. This brought delighted laughter,
especially from Hyacinth, who screamed like a sow.
The meeting then got underway. Hyacinth leaned back, crossed
her arms and tilted her head back until she was staring openmouthed
at the ceiling. As the meeting went on she combed her hair, bit her
nails, played with loose threads from her robe, cleaned her toes and
so on. The thing was, Sarah found all of this more interesting than
the meeting itself. Sarah looked interested until her face got tired.
She had spoken in front of groups enough to know that Mitzi could
see them all clearly, and that to be obviously bored would be rude.
Sometimes politeness had to give way to sanity, though, and before
she knew it she found herself trying to swing the tassels at the ends
of her sleeves in opposite directions at the same time. Hyacinth
watched this closely and patted her on the back when she succeeded.
Mainly what they were doing was filling a huge social calendar
with parties and similar events. Sarah wanted to an
anounce that she liked to do things by herself or with a few
friends, but she saw no diplomatic way of saying so. She did
resurface for the discussion of the theme for the Last Night party, the
social climax of the semester: Fantasy Island Nite.
"Wonder how they're going to tell it apart from all the other
nights," grumbled Hyacinth. Nearby wingmates turned and smiled,
failing to understand but assuming that whatever Hyacinth said must
be funny.
Another phase of the social master plan was to form an official
sister/brother relationship with the wing upstairs, lmown as the Wild
and Crazy Guys. This in turn led to the wing naming idea. After all,
if E13S had a name for itself, shouldn't E12S have one too? Mari
Meegan, darling of the wing, made this point, and "Yeah!"s
zephyred up all around.
Sarah was feeling pretty sour by this point but said nothing. If
they wanted a name, fine. Then the ideas started coming out: Love
Boat, for example.
"We could paint our lobby with a picture of the Love Boat like
it looks at the start of the show, and we could, you know, do
everything, like parties and stuff, with like that kind of a theme.
Then on Fantasy Island Nite, we could pretend the Boat was visiting
Fantasy Island!"
This idea went over well and the meeting broke up into small
discussions about how to apply this theme to different phases of
existence. Finally, though, Sarah spoke up, and they all smiled and
listened. "I'm not sure I like that idea. There are plenty of creeps on
the floor already, because we're all-female. If we name it Love Boat,
everyone will think it's some kind of outcall massage service, and
we'll never get a break."