ith. I didn't say
a thing about changing, not me. Don't you think I'm good enough for
you?"

"I don't care one way or the other," Smith said. "I suggested you change
because I thought you'd be happier that way. Look, I'll mind my own
business and pretend you are not even here. How's that?"

"Pretend I'm not here? Like cepheid you will. If you want to be ornery,
Smith, or Earthsmith, or whatever your name is, I'll give you plenty to
be ornery about. I'm a dominant, you know, so just watch out."

"I'll change if that will make you happy." Smith didn't want any
trouble. He still felt more than a little strange and out of place here,
and a fight with Jorak wouldn't help matters. Briefly, he wondered what
sort of psi-powers Jorak possessed.

The purple man stood up. "What kind of a slap in the face is that? We
haven't even started courses or anything. You think I'd need you to help
me with my work or something?"

"No, I'm quite sure you wouldn't. But I'll change my room, anyway. I'll
probably get in your way--"

"Well, _I_ wouldn't get into _your_ hair, satellite-head! If you think
you're going to leave here and say I started a fight or something.... My
father made quite a record for himself here at the school, and I'll have
to beat it, of course."

"Of course," Smith agreed, but he did not really know why.

"Are you implying anyone, just anyone, could top my father's record,
Earthsmith? Not a man from Gyra ever did it, and intellectually Gyra is
top planet in its own sector. Not a woman from Bortinot came close, but
then, you probably don't even know where Bortinot is."

Smith said no, he didn't, but he had just met a woman from Bortinot.
Perhaps if he changed the subject....

Jorak ran his fingers up along each side of his shock of hair. They came
away greasy green. "Exquisite, those women of Bortinot. But then, you
probably wouldn't appreciate them, eh, Earthsmith?"

Smith said that he could appreciate them very well indeed, especially
since, except for a few minor structural differences, they looked like
women of Earth. It was a mistake, and the muscles in Jorak's cheeks
began to twitch.

"I say they look exquisite, you say they look like women of Earth. Which
is it, Earthsmith? Not both, surely--a contradiction in terms. I believe
you're trying to provoke me."

Smith sighed. He wanted no trouble--they had spent a year with him on
Earth, indoctrinating that. He was to be a paragon at the school, as
Earth