A Day in the Life of Forrester - Pt. 3
The Curse of the Jumpsuit
By: Karen Walker (Serris)
Co-Author: Stephanie Watson (SLWatson)


Disclaimer: Dr. Forrester, Larry Erhardt, and Joel Robinson belong to BBI. I wish I owned 'em... but I don't.


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The amount of paperwork was incredible. Seemingly millions of papers were scattered across the desk's surface, all out of order and in complete disarray. Clayton didn't even want to look at them, let alone fill them out, but if he didn't sit down one of these evenings and work on it, he would undoubtedly have his funding cut further. It didn't help that he had been reprimanded by his supervisor for the third time this week about putting his own pet projects ahead of those of the Gizmonics Institute. And the worst damn thing was that the idiot janitor that cleaned his lab would bring in some sort of stupid invention and the head honcho would immediately love it.

He mimicked the boss, all the while trying to clean up the paperwork and come up with a workable plan for world domination. Oh yes, he would show them all... particularly the be-suited man that told him when he could work on his projects and when he couldn't. That man would be in charge of cleaning out his toilet bowl with a toothbrush.

Through the door stepped his assistant, a younger man with a higher voice and a slightly annoying laugh. Still, he got the job done, and that's all that Clay really wanted. Carrying an arm full of beakers, pipes and liquids, Dr. Laurence Erhardt gave his trademark laugh, "Got the stuff, Clay!"

Shooting a glance in the man's direction, Forrester nodded and continued to organize the papers. Oh, how he hated business men. What was his plan for them when he took over the world? If there weren't enough toilets, the rest would be made to run on metal wheels like mice and gerbils to provide electricity for his domain. Grinning, he set the remaining papers down on the pile and picked up a pen.

Stepping in the door that had been left open, the janitor with the red jumpsuit whistled, pushing a cart with his latest invention on top. Weaving his way through the tables and around the bed, he stepped up to Clay and took his invention off the cart, "Hey, Dr. F, got something new for you!" Joel Robinson said chipperly, his hardhat leaned awkwardly to one side.

"For me? I don't want them, Robinson... It's the suited freaks that want them," he replied spitefully, trying to read over the papers. Joel, being the persistent man he was, made his way over and set a hand on Clay's shoulders that began to massage it. Jumping, Forrester threw the hand down onto the papers, leaping back as Joel snickered. After a long moment of watching the disembodied hand wriggle around the papers, he whirled on Joel, "Now you listen, you scrawny little pip-squeak, if you do that again, I'll remove your brain and use it for a pen holder!"

Larry started into his annoying high-pitched giggle, and both Joel and Clay gave him an look before Joel turned back with an appeasing expression, "If you need a pen holder that bad, Dr. F, I'll be happy to make you one."

"That's not the point," the somewhat insane scientist grumbled, picking the hand up and throwing it behind him. He heard it hit something, but he didn't really care what.

Joel looked after his invention with somewhat of a hurt look, then looked back to Clay, "Well, then why'd you say it?"

Narrowing his eyes at the boy, he leaned closer and took him by the collar of his jumpsuit, "Because I have work to do and you're getting in my way. You see, some people around here actually have to work for their funding!"

Pulling back, Joel shrugged his jumpsuit back into it's normal place and gave him a look, "It's not my fault. You had your chance to get the funding you wanted... they just didn't like your ideas." Looking back over Clay's shoulder, Joel noted that the hand had knocked over some chemicals that were dripping down to the floor and in a trail towards Dr. F, while a burner lit the slow moving liquid on fire.

"They didn't like it... brilliant deduction, Einstein! Of course they didn't like it, because they have their heads stuck up your--"

"Whoa, whoa... hold up there. I didn't say that, but they like mine better because my head's at least out of the clouds," shrugging, Robinson pushed his hands into his pockets, watching the flames crawl up Clay's pantleg.

"My head isn't in the clouds, but if you don't get out of here, I'm gonna put yours there!" Blinking, he looked around, sniffing and then turned to Erhardt, "Lar, do you smell something cooking?"

Larry shook his head, "Naw, I don't think so. At least not something I'm cooking."

Joel cleared his throat and nodded down to Forrester's leg, grinning.

Clay looked at his leg, his mustache twitching and lunged at Joel, who made sure to get out of the way, grabbing his hand and tray on the way out and slamming the door behind him. Turning his attention to his burning pantleg, the scientist then went into a fit, trying to get it to stop burning, and finally succeeded after a good 5 minutes.

Sighing and flopping down on his bed, Clay looked over at Larry, "That guy just annoys me so much... what makes his work so special?"

Shrugging, Erhardt picked up one of the papers, knawing on an apple, "Maybe because he's short, thin and funny looking?" Shrugging again, he set the papers down.

"I guess I'll just have to kill him or something. He won't come in here and show off every day, then."

"Why not turn him into an experiment or something? We're always looking for good test subjects," Larry snickered.

"Larry, I'm brilliant!" Jumping up, Clay ran over to his chalkboard and started drawing as he spoke, "We'll take the rocket and shoot him up into the space! Then who's head'll be in the cloud, huh?"

Dr. Erhardt looked bewildered, "Well, what's that going to do for us? He'll just be sitting up there, then. Why not make him do something like watch Strom Thurman, or something?"

Clay looked baffled for a moment, trying to think. What could he do to get back at the jumpsuited man? What did everyone hate? Imagining crickets in his mind, he thought for a good minute in silence until finally getting the look of pure insanity, "Movies!! Horrible, disgusting movies, Lar! I'm brilliant!"