The interns obeyed, scattering to their assigned areas of the facilities, becoming somebody else’s problem, at least for the moment. Ben, sighing, retreated to his office with Angela. She shut the door as Ben dropped with relief into his chair.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Angela said.

Ben rubbed his temples. “I’m too old for this,” he said.

“You’re not old,” said Angela. “They’re too young.”

Ben smiled. “They get younger every year,” he remarked.

“Well, I made sure none of them was assigned to your project,” said Angela. “That should help.”

“Thank you,” Ben said, genuinely grateful. “I don’t think I could stand another year with some stupid girl who insists on calling nudibranchs ‘snails.’ ”

“Hey,” Angela admonished him, “I was one of those girls once.”

Ben looked at her with surprise. “You were an intern here?”

“Seven years ago,” Angela answered. “But you wouldn’t remember. I worked with Dr. Rashid.”

“Seaweed,” Ben said. “I remember her. She was researching cancer treatments.”

Angela nodded. “Well, she decided there was more money in cosmetics,” she said. “Now she and her seaweed are coming up with ways to erase fine lines and wrinkles.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” asked Ben. “About being an intern, I mean.”

Angela shrugged. “I knew you wouldn’t remember,” she said. “Besides, it’s not important.”

Ben looked at her. “So you fell in love with seaweed and decided to make it a career,” he said. “Interesting.”

“Actually, it wasn’t seaweed,” said Angela. “It was a basket star.”

“Really?” Ben said.

Angela nodded. “They brought one up from one of the Canyon trips,” she said. “It was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. I really wanted to know more about it, but of course I was too cool for that sort of thing.” She laughed and shook her head. “If it wasn’t about music or boys, it wasn’t cool enough for me,” she added. “But I never forgot that basket star, and eventually I figured out that it was way cooler than music and boys. That’s when I decided to study marine biology.”

Ben leaned back in his chair and regarded the grad student from a new perspective. “So what you’re saying is that there’s hope for these little morons,” he said.

“Well, for some of them,” said Angela. “Probably most of them will go right on being little morons. But you never know. One of them might fall in love with a squid or a decorator crab.”

“I guess I should give them a little more credit,” Ben said.

“Just a little,” agreed Angela.

“How come you’re so much smarter than I am?” Ben asked her.

“Not smarter,” Angela corrected him, “just younger.”

“Hey!” Ben objected.