While Pranav did not have a private jet, what he did have was a smooth trajectory via BART to SFO, and he'd be damned if he didn't tap into their treasury for biweekly business trips. He felt so professional—he could wake up early one morning, put on a suit, grab a coffee, board a train, and a few hours later be on a plane for Chicago or San Diego or wherever his fellow professionals went. He blended into the crowd, too, and nobody questioned why he looked a bit young. This weekend, his destination was Los Angeles, and from there, UCLA, Caltech, the Claremont schools, and Occidental. It was a bit petty, he thought, that Frank vetoed creating an USC branch, just to spite Tom and to throw Juliet a bone, but it was a small concession and one Pranav did not feel like arguing.

Pranav had taken a morning flight, and Juliet met him for lunch at the campus hotel after he had stowed away his luggage. It was the most professional-seeming restaurant on campus, and they took an outdoor table where they could take in the fresh air and blend in with the herd.

"It's so nice that people wear formalwear all the time here," Juliet began. "I feel less special that way—good special, yes, but it's not like I'm actively sending a message."

"Fitting wear for Madame President, if I should be calling you that—that election was a feather in our cap, and I thank you again for your efforts."

"Juliet is fine, Pranav—we knew each other in high school."

"I still outrank you, you know," Pranav laughed. "I know that we didn't talk much in high school, but we both knew Frank—obviously in different ways—in a way, we're equals. Just because we didn't give you a special title doesn't mean you're worth anything less, and UCLA is a very prestigious office."

"Why even bring that up if you don't mean anything by it? Look, I know things haven't been perfect here: that election was a bit of a circus, and despite our best efforts to gather kompromat on my peers I don't think I'm going to have a ton of political influence, but things haven't been going poorly. I've been doing a good job," Juliet said assertively, taking a delicate sip of her ice water.

"Oh, I don't mean anything by it—you assume too much of me. I'm just saying that, you know, my personal feelings aside I always have to make decisions that are in all our best interest. You've been doing well, but all I wanted was to clarify that we're happy. I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but I will since we were classmates and we both know Frank: there have been some other executives, ones not from Heller who didn't know much about your track record and ambition there, who wonder why we give you any more special treatment than any other campus head. Now I think they only spread those rumors so in the future they can get ahead, but they act very sweetly to me—appealing to my good nature, telling me stories of their own prowess—and at the end they sneak in: 'compared to Juliet...' or 'speaking of UCLA, I was just wondering...'. And they always make it sound like they don't mean anything by it, but I can tell. I can always tell."

If someone had asked Pranav at the beginning of the year why Juliet was being treated better than any other, he'd have given a lot of reasons that had less to do with Juliet herself but that she had legacy status as an executive at Heller. It was unclear to him if she had actually done much to improve things at Heller or if it was merely the universe revolving around Frank, but she certainly hadn't done anything to undermine the integrity of the system, and they had gotten this far with her in charge. And there was also the idea that Frank wouldn't have stood for it if anyone had said Juliet was an average club member at the end of the day who had shown no potential for her own leadership, and if Frank weren't on board with something, that would be a public relations disaster for the ages. So all through the year he had gone waiting for Juliet to slip up in some way as UCLA club president, but nothing ever came. She had managed to hold it together, and maybe it was easier than he thought to maintain the status quo, but when the club kept growing and when she had become USAC president, Pranav was willing to admit it was the right decision. He figured that in his defense, he had a front-row seat to the shenanigans at Heller and consequently Juliet's personality; now, obviously she had hardened over the years, but at least he wasn't preemptively dismissing her like the others. Were they sexist? Pranav figured it wasn't his call.

Juliet pondered what Pranav said for a few long seconds, then took another sip of ice water and continued: "And were you fighting for me the entire time when they were trying to spread rumors about me? Were those executives punished for their attempts at sedition?"

"Well, there's little I can do: it's all politics, and if we purged everyone who tried to make a power play against another we'd lose all our staff. When you tried to get the UCSD vice president fired because she insinuated she didn't like your outfit, was that not also a personal play? We allow these fun and games because everyone knows that as long as they, everyone who isn't us, keep losing and we keep winning, it works out in the end."

"I trust your judgment, but see if you can put in a good word for me next time they try spreading any allegations. Everyone here likes me, though. So anyway, what do you want to do here while you're on campus?"

"Well, obviously I want to see your office, and I don't know, I've never been here before. The campus looks pretty and I'd love to see more of it."

"Sure, we can do that."

Pranav and Juliet finished lunch going over club business, and they then walked to the main campus thoroughfare and began their tour. It was similar to Berkeley, but in a way all college campuses felt the same. So many people everywhere, all minding their own business. Juliet waved to a few people she recognized, but it didn't feel terribly homey; at Berkeley enough people recognized him that he felt like he carried some influence. Here, he was a nobody in a suit. Not a person, just a statistic. Juliet took him to the club office last, where a few people were working on homework and the wall of security footage continued to play.

"We do that at Cal, too, and I'm surprised nobody's ever tried to shut it down. It's a bit creepy, if you think about it," Pranav remarked. "Do you think they know that at any time, hundreds of people could be watching them?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be bothered by it. What would they do, come and shoot me? Besides, it makes me feel closer to home, seeing teachers I recognize doing their thing, seeing the Alphas relaxing on the Alpha grass. In a way, it's like I never left."

"Do you have the audio controls set up?"

"Yeah, I think so, why?"

"Let's play a prank on someone. Look around, find someone in a hallway sitting by themselves—how about there, outside of Mr. T's room?"

"OK..."

"And now we turn on the volume control," Pranav said, reaching over to the control panel, "and boo!" he shouted, and the Delta jumped and spilled their orange juice on themselves. "Funny, no?"

Juliet chuckled. "Serves the Delta right for not having friends to eat with."

"You're right, it does feel closer to home! Well, this was a fun trip, and I'll be back tonight if you want to grab dinner—I'd love to meet some of the other club officers here."

"We have a table reserved in Westwood—you're welcome to join us."

"That would be lovely. Frank should do this more often—has he ever visited?"

"Well, no, he hasn't," Juliet said slowly, before adding on suddenly: "Frank says he's too busy to travel, and he doesn't like it much anyway. Being on airplanes. Which is kind of weird, but I respect it—we still talk often, so it works out. In a way, I like this long-distance thing: it keeps the personal and the professional separate."

"I can't speak for Frank, but I know if I were in his position I'd travel more, and even if he isn't going all over the country like I am you'd think he'd at least come here. To visit you. Think about it this way: if Frank weren't Frank, but merely UPenn's president, it would be seen as unambitious if he didn't visit other offices. He wouldn't be interested in building our community, in networking, in exploring new opportunities for collaboration. People would speculate about him—they would wonder if he were hiding something from the rest of us, or if he thought he had everything figured out and didn't need our help. So for someone like Frank, all I'm saying is that it's very unusual," Pranav said in a hushed tone.

"These people you always mention in your examples, who are they?"

"Oh, executives, you know—there are so many people it's hard to keep track of them all."

"And you really think that Frank's being, I guess, neglectful of me by not visiting?"

"Well if you don't need him to visit there's no issue at all with it, but it's not what I would do. It's not my philosophy," Pranav said, and he made to leave.

Juliet escorted Pranav out of the building and pointed him in the direction of the best place to catch an Uber, then went back to Ackerman and her office. She had never thought much of Pranav: until she got to UCLA, he wasn't even on her radar as someone who served a purpose other than to be a lesser version of Frank. But all of a sudden he had been made CEO out of nowhere for reasons nobody seemed to want to talk about, and if anything, it seemed like he was the one who was promoted because of a personal bias on Frank's part. Everyone had their own leadership styles, and Juliet was content with running her bubble like an ordinary club without as much of the gossip and politicking that pervaded the nationwide organization. If she were in charge, Pranav might not have been her top pick. But it wasn't her call, and she had to respect that.

If Juliet had to honestly appraise herself, as she found herself doing often in times of crisis, she would say she had become a tougher leader since she entered UCLA, and certainly since her days at Heller. Those were fun times, but she hadn't done much there but be Frank's angel on his shoulder. Frank had all the ideas, and she remembered fondly him pitching her on various schemes when they were TAs together or in Ms. Foster's class. She'd provide that human touch, saying that as much as it was certainly a great idea to have a human-sized chess game, it wasn't terribly necessary to have Epsilons play the chess pieces. But Frank had said something she believed to be convincing then, and they played Epsilon chess, and Juliet had decided her concerns were unfounded after that. Now that she was part of a group of hundreds and not a council of four, she found it harder to assert herself and fight for what she truly believed in, and Pranav's vague assertions of discontent within the ranks didn't help much. Someday, she'd grow more comfortable with what seemed to come to everyone else in the club as naturally as breathing, but until then she'd continue trying her best. It had gotten her this far.

Discussion Questions:

A year and a bit later, how has Pranav's personality changed? Does he seem supportive of Juliet's authority?

Pranav seems to insinuate that Frank's not as devoted to the club in its current incarnation as he could be—does this match what we know of Frank?

Has Juliet succeeded in carving out a name for herself at UCLA? Has she matured since her high school self?