"Hey, David?" a voice called out from within the haze. “David!” the voice continued, a sense of urgency present as it grew louder and more irritated.

David snapped to reality, realizing that he'd zoned out completely. The voice he was hearing was in fact his best friend, Emily, who was currently staring at him with squinted eyes.

"Jesus, earth to David much? You were out of it. I was asking where you wanted to get food from?" she questioned with a concerned look, her emerald eyes boring a hole into his.

David simply stared at his friend. He had what others would describe as an obvious crush, but he, and she, would deny it if you brought it up to them. Her sweat-soaked auburn hair was tied up in a ponytail, letting her aforementioned brilliant green eyes soak up the limelight. Her light freckles broke up the open space on her perfect skin, albeit adorned with beads of said sweat from a just-finished softball practice session. Looking down, her button nose lead down to a pair of soft lips, immaculately -

"David!" Emily scorned, flicking David in his forehead, kicking him out of his cliché romantic gaze.

"Sorry, sorry, I pulled an all-nighter last night and I'm still reeling. What's up?" David tried to cover his obvious ogling as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"For the millionth time, food, you asshole. Where are we getting food from?" Emily asked, impatiently tapping her feet. David caught himself noticing something as his eyes drifted down to the source of the sound; Emily had had those same shoes, a pair of pink Asics running shoes, for as long as he'd known her, all the way back in high school. Why was he even thinking about that? And why did she wear such old tattered things to every softball game? Are they even regulation?

"Um, I'm not sure, something cheap I guess…" David responded, knowing the two couldn't dare to go far outside of a flat-broke budget.

"Hm… wanna just get something at the campus cafeteria?" Emily asked, a hesitant tone to her voice.

"Sure, sounds better than staying this hungry. Let's get going. I think I ate a Dorito today and that's it…" David laughed as the two began walking to the cafeteria, with thoughts of cardboard-quality food lingering in their mind.

—

"Hey, you two, want to hear about a clinical study you can be a part of?" a voice called out to David and Emily, sounding solicitous but chirpy.

"Um, no thanks!" Emily quickly responded, determined to eat as the cafeteria was right within view, her hungry stomach pleading with her to ignore the nice-sounding lady.

"It pays great!" the solicitor further pressed, stepping closer to the two as they distanced themselves, but came to a sudden stop as they heard the word “pay.”

"Tell me more!" Emily said, flipping around with a smile, dragging David by his hand towards the clipboard-wielding woman.

David sighed, and followed suit, ignoring the grumbling in his stomach as he followed the whims of his greedy friend.

"We're offering participation in a gendered study, exploring the significance of heightened olfactory pheromone sensation caused by size alterations! That's the gist of it anyway, there's more in these pamphlets. The pay is fifty-dollars an hour for females, and two-hundred an hour for males. If either of you are interested, please take a pamphlet! If you're sure you want to participate now, go ahead and sign up on this clipboard here!" they explained, with an eerily cheerful tone that seemed a little too fake.

"Damn, why do the dudes get so much?" Emily pouted. "But still, fifty an hour is way more than I make at the coffee shop…" she continued, pausing to think as she pondered the ease of effort involved.

"I'm in!" David hastily exclaimed, grabbing a pamphlet and not thinking twice due to his growling stomach.

"Perfect! We've had a really hard time getting males to sign up, would you believe it, so it's great to hear that you're interested. Here's a pamphlet, and could I get your name and contact info?" the student smiled, handing David a clipboard. He neglected the pamphlet, having nowhere to carry it.

"Wow, you weren't kidding. It's almost full on the girls side. I'm the only dude so far…" David noticed as he wrote down his details, seeing a stacked row of feminine names, contrasting to the currently forming solo name he was putting down.

"Give me that too, I'm definitely in. Sounds like the easiest couple hundred bucks of my life…" Emily grinned, taking the clipboard and scribbling her own details down fervently.

"Wonderful! We'll be in touch soon with the both of you with instructions on how to prepare for the experiment and other important details. Have a great day!" the solicitor chirped, before immediately turning away from David and Emily to find more students to badger.

"Well, guess we're part of an experiment now, huh." Emily exclaimed, wiping the sweat off of her brow as the hot summer sun beat down upon her aching body.

"Yeah, honestly I couldn't begin to imagine what it involves based on what she said, I should've taken one of those pamphlets. It's whatever, two-hundred an hour is crazy worth it." David grinned, leading Emily to scoff as he boasted about his preferential treatment.

"Yeah, you lucky bastard. Anyway, back to the subject at hand… cafeteria pizza?" Emily inquired with a saddened tone.

"Cafeteria pizza…" David sighed, desperation taking over…

—

Within the shoddy dorm room, David laid on his bed, staring at the clock indicating it was just past midnight. He'd just finished an essay he really didn't want to do, and was thankful to finally be able to get some rest. Just as he was about to shut his eyes, his phone started to ring, breaking apart the eerie silence of the night, as his roommate was out and about.

"Uh… hello?" David said, answering the unknown number with suspicion.

"Hi, is this David?" the other voice on the end of the line answered, sounding feminine and almost… sultry. It had an immediate air of professionalism, but at the same time seemed so casually alluring,

"Yeah, this is he. Who's this?" he responded.

"This is Dr. Caitlin Ross, I believe you signed up for an experiment of mine recently?" the voice explained.

"Oh, hi Doctor. Yeah, I did, my friend Emily and I signed up after we were approached by one of your people..." David replied, reminiscing on the surprise encounter.

"Oh… you signed up with a friend? That's nice to hear… ah, I see now. David Johnson and… Emily Smith! Ah, I just got off the phone with her. Wonderful energy..." Caitlin responded, having an odd, almost mischievous tone to her voice. 

"Ehem, anyways. I'm sorry for calling you so late, I've only just now finished talking to the female volunteers. You're the only male volunteer unfortunately, so I figured I'd save you for last. The experiment will take place a week from now, on saturday, June sixth at ten AM. Is your schedule free?" Caitlin continued, sounding like she was reading something as she talked.

"I can make it so." David responded, a nonchalant answer as he had no real plans made. He wasn’t the most popular.

"Great. So, you actually have no prep to do for the experiment, unlike the girls. Just bring yourself and a willingness to aid the sciences! If you need any further explanation, please visit our website, it should be on the pamphlet you were given. I'll let you go now, I hope you have a good night, and I look forward to seeing you at Greater Steps within the week!" Caitlin cheered, cutting David off before he could mention he didn't get a pamphlet.

David was slightly taken aback, but figured it couldn’t be too much of a problem that he didn't take the pamphlet. He could just google the name she gave, but he was already too tired to keep his eyes open. After a few minutes of pondering the possibilities, his phone began to ring. It was Emily.

"Yo." David answered, ever casual with the front he put up for his secret crush.

"David, I just got a call from the… uh… experiment people! They're upping my rate to a hundred an hour!" Emily excitedly shouted through the phone, causing David to pull his ear away in response to the screeching sound forming in his ear.

"Jesus, do you know why?" he asked, astonished at the sudden uptick.

"Well, the lady running the experiment, I think her name was Caitlin, called me - super nice by the way, and explained a bunch of mumbo jumbo because I asked about it.” Emily began, a frantic energy apparent in her speech.

“Basically, the girls are supposed to get their feet all nasty for the experiment. Something to do with collecting data on "olfactory" reactions, I have no idea, I'm a business major. Anyway, Caitlin asked if I had any old shoes that might stink real bad pretty much, and I told her I've got these shoes I've worn to the gym and softball since high school, and that I don't like wearing socks in my shoes even when I'm doing sports because they feel weird and gross and-" Emily spouted, before being cut off by David.

"That's weird, she told me I just needed to bring myself…" David pondered aloud, wondering why there was such an apparent difference in required prep based on gender.

"Hey, don't talk over me, butthead… anyway, so I was saying that, and she said that she was delighted to hear it and would be willing to increase my compensation for being such a valuable sample! Isn't that great?!" Emily blasted through the phone, David hearing the groans of Emily's dorm mate in the background as she clearly interrupted her peace and quiet.

"Yeah Emily, that's great. Listen, it's late as hell and I've got class in the morning, I'll let you go, yeah?" David sighed, feeling his eyes closing already.

"Oh... Sure dude, catch ya later. See ya." Emily responded, hanging up and leaving David be.

"What does gender have to do with making your feet stinky?" David wondered, before laying his head up on his pillow and falling asleep in a near instant…