There was a knock on the office door. Schiller looked up from his computer and saw Barry poking his head in.
"Professor, I'd like to take a few days off. But I couldn't find Professor Hall. Could you please let him know for me?"
"Are you going to Metropolis?" Schiller seemed to have expected it. He set the documents in his hand aside and said, "You're still two classes short of completing the participation credits for your Criminal Investigation foundation course. Are you planning to take them early, or make them up when you get back?"
"I'll deal with it when I get back." Barry walked into the office and said, "If I go sit in on classes with other year groups now, I might not make it in time."
"Is it that urgent? Is the fighting over there already that intense?"
"Not really. I just really don't want to go to Football Team practice anymore." Barry sighed. "Having to deliberately run that slowly is torture for me. I'd rather go fight aliens than train."
Schiller nodded and said, "Then go. I'll tell Professor Hall. Are you running there directly, or driving?"
"Pamela and the others are going too. They'll give me a ride."
"She's going too? The paper she said she'd publish last week still isn't finished. Victor's been hounding her about it for days."
"I don't know about that." Barry shook his head. "Maybe she doesn't have any ideas either."
"She was just saying that his latest batch of plants had been growing very well. Why is she out of ideas again?"
"I don't know the exact details, but I heard that the newly cultivated batch of plants turned the lab into a complete mess again."
Schiller sighed and said, "Then she should go to Metropolis after all.