Little followed Juliet from her past life to UCLA, or at least details that would reveal themselves as publicly as they did at Heller. Her roommates had decided between themselves at the beginning of the year to not ask her what sort of bizarre activities she was organizing on her voice calls or why it was that she had banned boba from their room—to them, Juliet was nice, if a bit of a neat freak, and her personal life was her own business. She certainly never showed any interest in theirs.

With this came the trade-off that nobody knew about Frank, much less that Juliet wasn't single—this was a fact inescapable for club members, some of whom privately wondered what unusual circumstances would have put them together to begin with, but Juliet made no attempts of sharing this fact with others under ordinary circumstances. Sometimes, by force of habit, she would lapse into telling stories about Frank's accomplishments, only to remember that her conversation partners were not so blessed as to know him—she would then hastily clarify "oh, he's my boyfriend—he goes to Wharton and he's a genius" before continuing to hype him up. Her delivery of these tales, while factually accurate, suffered from poor word choice and a lack of context: some wondered if this were the sort of deal where Frank had many such partners hand-picked from all his devotees and they'd all have orgies over summer vacation.

This nuance was lost on Ricardo, whose knowledge of Juliet was limited to their group project for their film studies class. He thought they had built a good rapport, bonding over Mike's unwillingness to get any of his share done and their mutual dislike of boba—if anything, there was perhaps a spark of compatibility. He hadn't yet dated in college: his only relationship was a semester-long casual affair with a fellow robotics kid back in high school, where at the end they realized they didn't have anything keeping them together but a mutual love of tightening screws. He thought he was a good catch, and given the wide range of misfits that populated UCLA he wasn't wrong, but had he known Juliet's backstory, he certainly would not have asked her for a study session at the business school café after class:

"So Juliet, I think we've really been getting along on this project, so I was thinking that we could get coffee at Anderson or something sometime—you know, just as a friendly thing," Ricardo began, really wishing that he'd practiced beforehand.

"Sounds fun! Does tomorrow at 1 work?"

That was fast.

"Sure, I'll see you then!" Ricardo said, reciprocating Juliet's good cheer—he wasn't sure if it would be too on-the-nose to say something about it being a date. She'd get the implication.

Ricardo spent all night running through worst-case scenarios in his head; his previous first-date activity had been soldering circuits, and in some ways maintaining a conversation over a cup of coffee felt harder. After a few too many stress dreams, he woke up, took care of his morning routine, went to morning lecture, and showed up exactly on time only to discover Juliet had beaten him there, already having obtained her coffee.

"Nice to see you again, Juliet. Looks like you're extra thirsty today," Ricardo said after briefly checking his watch to make sure he hadn't committed the enormous faux pas of showing up to a date late.

"A wise person once said, 'if you're five minutes early, you're on time.' That's part of our club teachings," Juliet explained. "Sometimes I forget not everyone has read How To Be A Good Person." So he had already made two faux pas: not showing up five minutes early, and not reading whatever How To Be A Good Person was. People all had their quirks, Ricardo thought, and it wasn't on him to judge.

"That's fascinating—let me get my coffee, and then I'm curious to know what that is. It sounds like reading is one of your passions," Ricardo responded, and he went to stand in line. He could feel Juliet's eyes boring into the back of his head. She was probably nervous. When he came back, Juliet broke out of her glassy-eyed stare and resumed her initial exuberance.

"So what's this How To Be A Good Person you mentioned? It must be one of your favorite books."

"It's more than a book, it's a way of life. It teaches you everything you need to know about philosophy, courage, strategy, and so much more—one of my classmates founded a club based on it, and it's now a nationwide movement. Even here at UCLA!"

"We could all learn how to be better people, I agree," Ricardo said, rapidly reevaluating the chain of decisions that led him to this moment—this was not one of the situations he had imagined.

"We took the liberty of compiling not just How To Be A Good Person, but many of Frank's speeches, into a little red book that our club members carry to remind themselves of moral virtue. Here, take a copy," Juliet said, digging one out of her bag and presenting it to Ricardo. "I always carry extras in case I meet new people."

Ricardo leafed through the book quickly, seeing that it was exactly what Juliet had promised: some long list of rules followed by speeches that seemed to touch on every topic possible. In the back, there was a roster of the "founding members," and he was somehow not surprised to see Juliet's name on it:

"So this is a club you were part of back in high school, and Frank is your former classmate?"

"Frank means everything to me, more than you can imagine. He's smart, caring, funny, wise, loving..." Juliet began, ending with a dreamy sigh and an upward stare. "Here, let's take a walk to Ackerman—I want to show you the portrait we have of him in the club office."

Ricardo nodded, and let Juliet lead the way as they walked to the student union. This was the strangest first date he had ever been on, and with the way it was going, he wasn't sure if he wanted a second. It was nice Juliet had so many hobbies, which she seemed to pursue with religious fervor, and at the very least it wasn't a religious movement. But as Juliet grandiosely showed Ricardo the club office, with its highlights of the portraits of Frank and her, the live security camera feed of Heller's hallways, and the propaganda posters, Ricardo wasn't sure if this was much better.

"So both you and Frank are the leaders of this, uh, club?"

"We do everything together. We were president and vice president back in high school, and I think we will get married someday—although we've only been dating since May. Isn't this remarkable? We are on the crest of a great wave, and this wave is going to sweep the nation!" Juliet said passionately.

"So this is not a date? Because here I was thinking, 'oh, I'm getting coffee with this girl,' and then suddenly we're staring at security camera footage of what appears to be a high school—not to interrupt your train of thought or anything."

"Oh. Haha, well, this sort of misunderstanding happens all the time—no hard feelings. Say, if you think I'm a looker, I know someone you should meet. She's a loyal club member and I think you two would get along great."

"I think I'm good," Ricardo said, edging toward the door.

"Dinner at seven? The club's paying, don't worry."

"Actually, sure. Why not. It will be a good experience."

"It's a date," Juliet said, reaching to shake Ricardo's hand and then give him a hug. Ricardo gave his goodbyes, and then left for safe ground. He rarely had cause to come to this floor of Ackerman, but the thought occurred to him that even if he did, he could easily walk right by the office and not notice anything—even if he saw the sign, he had no reason to expect the rabbit hole to go as deep as it did. Perhaps that was the point, actually, to project an unassuming appearance, and perhaps that was a philosophy Juliet lived by. She certainly didn't seem like the sort of person, during class, who would carry around a little book of her boyfriend's teachings or stare at security camera footage.

It was also on him for assuming that something so casual was a date without clarifying first—it was only because he was out of practice that he ignored the red flags. At least his date that night went well: his date was "a looker" as promised, did not seem to mind his skepticism about the entire cult thing and was mollified by his promises that her private life was her own business, and most of all, was otherwise willing to casually get to know him without any more serious talk of philosophy or "moral virtue." While Juliet was clearly in it way too deep, his date showed a willingness to consider perspectives from the outside, and with her all roads did not lead back to the club—Ricardo did not want to consider, in the moment, if this were a ploy to gain his trust. They, too, parted with just a hug, but that hug alone left Ricardo already thinking of the next time they planned on seeing each other that week, and he knew that he would have a killer of a story for how they met.

Discussion Questions:

Do you think Juliet should have told Ricardo earlier she had a boyfriend?

Ricardo chooses to trust Juliet and go on a blind date with a club member, despite his clear discomfort with her. What does it say about him that he'd make this trade-off? Do you think he's "unaligned"?

From what we've seen at UCLA of her, does Juliet seem like a sympathetic and likable person?