Zoe awoke to the sound of Emily snoring; Emily only ever snored when she was lying on her stomach. Zoe grunted and tried to roll over but couldn't. There was something heavy leaning on her legs, Zoe grunted and tried a little harder, but still couldn't budge, but Emily's snoring changed pitch as Zoe moved, she figured that Emily must be sleeping on her legs. Reaching down and patting around, she found what seemed to be Emily's head resting against her thigh, with a shove she tried to move Emily offer he so she could wake up but was stunned by the result. The feeling she got from her crotch jolted her awake instantly, it was like someone had punched her in the groin.
Zoe's eyes opened up in a snap and looked down, it took a second to realize what she was seeing then she remembered the night before. Emily and she were still conjoined. Emily was still asleep, even through all that. She definitely knew how to ignore outside stimulus when it came to sleeping. Zoe managed to roll their body out of the bed and stand up, wobbling on her feet still with her head pounding from whatever she drank the night before.
Trotting tentatively towards the mirror, Zoe realized they were also still fully dressed and the sun was coming in from outside, with a quick glance to the alarm clock, she realized that it was nearly 11am. Their graduation ceremony was in 3 hours. Reaching down with her free hand, she slapped Emily on the cheek, ignoring the obvious stimulation that it was giving her.
"Ly, we've gotta get ready for graduation!" Zoe said sternly, "Come on, wake up!"
Emily stirred; blinking the sleep out of her eyes, the first thing that greeted her was the reflection of herself on Zoe's crotch, "Wow Z. What a night, huh?"
"Uh-huh", Zoe said, "Well come on, we gotta get ready to graduate!" trying to ignore the pounding in her head.
"Yea yea", Emily replied, "We could always go like this you know", she added with a smirk.
"Nope", Zoe replied, "We're going as ourselves, I don't want this to be messed up for either of us"
Emily sighed, "Ok-ok, but we get to try this out later though. I really had fun last night, maybe even swap positions"
"Later Lee", Zoe said, "Keep that up and I'll put a dildo in your mouth for the day. Now come on, concentrate so we can get out of this thing"
After a quick strip down of all their clothes last night, the two girls concentrated. Zoe separated rather easily, she watched as Emily's head slid down from her crotch to just below it and the arms and legs of the costume, a few seconds later, Emily's form resolved itself too and the two of them extracted themselves from the costume, discarding it on the floor. They headed off to the bathroom to have a shower and get ready for their big day.
After the two were finished, they got changed into their graduation gowns; the university that they were graduating from required them to wear blue robes. While Emily was getting dressed, Zoe kept fidgeting, trying to get her robe to sit just right. Emily walked up behind her and wrapped her arms around Zoe's waist.
"You look fine", Emily purred, "Stop fidgeting, it'll be fine. Don't worry", she said. Emily planted a kiss on Zoe's cheek and went back to getting dressed.
The two girls, dressed in their robes, were finally ready to leave. The two girls grabbed their bags from the table near the dresser, or at least Emily did, Zoe realized she'd forgotten where she put her purse after last night and spent 15 minutes frantically searching the house before she found it. When Zoe returned to the front doorway, she saw Emily fidgeting with something in her bag.
"You got everything?" Zoe asked.
Emily nodded and quickly slung the bag over her shoulder, "You bet. Let's go, 'professor'"
Zoe stuck her tongue out at Emily, offering out her arm, Emily wrapped her arm around Zoe's and the two of them headed out.
The college had chosen to have their graduation celebration out in the sun due to the beautiful spring day that was presenting itself. The podium and stage were set up facing away from the sunlight, giving anyone who walked down the red carpet to the stage a halo of light as seen from the stage.
Zoe and Emily arrived at the graduation mustering area with a good 15 minutes to spare. They were immediately greeted by Jon and Karyn who were already there waiting for them, the rest of the Gibson family was there too, including Mickey and his girlfriend Sandy. Linda Gibson was looking very pregnant and had a little difficulty hugging her daughter, but managed to anyhow.
They settled down and shared the various congratulations and praise that one expected from family. Emily looked around expectantly for her parents. She stood on her toes trying to scan the crowd for any sign of her folks, unfortunately she couldn't find them.
"I'm sorry Emily, I couldn't find your parents", Jon said, "I don't think they're coming"
"That's ok", Emily replied, "I didn't think they'd show anyway"
Zoe saw that Emily was rather upset, she hugged Zoe with one arm, "You gonna be ok?" she asked.
"Yea", Emily replied.
The ceremony kicked off rather promptly, each of the graduates made their march of fame down the red carpet to receive their diplomas. Zoe cheered loudly along with Jon and Karyn as Emily made her march down the carpet to receive her double degree. Emily walked away from the podium with a Masters in Business Studies and a bachelor of theoretical physics.
Zoe wasn't called out with the rest of her class, the reason for this was easily apparent when the university dean gave his speech at the near conclusion of the ceremony, citing Zoe out for outstanding academic achievement during her course. He announced her as Valedictorian of BOTH her courses, with a massive amount of whooping from her family and friends and constant applause from the crowd, Zoe beamed as she headed up to the podium.
Shaking the hand of the dean firmly, she received her diploma, walking away from the stage summa cum laude with masters in Applied Quantum Mechanics and Applied Quantum Chemistry. She turned around to the crowd and saw Emily standing and waving, cheering for her the whole time. Zoe couldn't help but blush at how over the top Emily was, and it seemed to be infectious, with several of her classmates and family members joining in.
As Zoe headed off the stage and back to her seat, she couldn't help but remember her high school years, all those years she acted like a malcontent simply because she was afraid to be smart. Here at the university she found that being smart was applauded and not shunned.
The ceremony concluded and the crowds started to disperse into groups, several classmates came up and shook Zoe's hand, congratulating her on her success.
"My beautiful professor ", Emily said as Zoe approached, grinning from ear to ear.
Zoe and Emily, to the appreciation of several male classmates and other guests, shared a very passionate kiss between each other, in celebration of their graduation. Zoe didn't notice, but even though her father seemed hesitant, both her parents seemed not to mind the fact that she and Emily were publicly displaying their affection.
They broke the kiss and joined the rest of the family, Zoe was in the middle of giving her mother another hug when Emily asked her to turn around. Zoe broke contact with her mother and saw the look of surprise on her face.
Linda was looking over Zoe's shoulder. Zoe turned around in confusion and found Emily had suddenly become much shorter, she was kneeling on one knee, with a small box in her hand. Inside the box was a diamond ring.
"Zoe Gibson", Emily said, "Will you marry me?"
Zoe was stunned, she never expected this, and from the looks of the Gibson family members and companions around her, none of them expected it either. Zoe looked back and forth from Emily's face to the ring. She broke out into a wide grin.
"Yes", Zoe said proudly, "I will"
Emily broke out into a grin too, sliding the ring onto Zoe's ring finger. She stood up from her kneeling position and planted a powerful kiss on Zoe's face. Zoe returned the affection as well. Behind her, Zoe could just make out the sound of clapping and wolf whistles. Jon, Karyn, Mickey and even Sandra were clapping loudly, cheering the two new fiancées on, Linda and Gareth were just looking on in stunned amazement, but it only took them a moment to see how truly happy Zoe was and join in the accolades.
Zoe felt a bulge against her leg as she embraced Emily, whispering in her ear; she said to Emily, "You have a penis, don't you?"
Emily whispered back, "Didn't feel right proposing without one"
The celebrations died down shortly after, Zoe and Emily were still together, arm in arm, when the dean of the university stepped into their path with another man following him.
"Ms Gibson. I just wanted to congratulate you again on your degree", the dean said, offering his hand, "It's been a real pleasure watching you grow and learn while you've been here"
"Thanks Sir", Zoe replied.
The dean released Zoe's hand and gestured to the man next to him, "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Williams here", he said.
Zoe looked the stranger over, he was a well dressed man in his early thirties, and his hair was spiked up randomly and all over the place, like an attempt to simulate bed hair for fashion reasons. The man was looking at her intently with his dark brown eyes.
The man extended his hand, "Hello, you can call me James", he said, Zoe accepted his hand, "My friend Professor Donaldson here has been telling me all about you"
"Oh really?" Zoe asked, "I'm flattered sir", she said to the dean.
James continued, "Yes, I was quite impressed with your work, I've been following it for some time since the Professor first showed me your first year thesis on Quantum pairing in a zero point energy matrix. I have to say though that I was very much staggered by your graduate thesis, the work I read seemed to be on par with someone who had been working in the Quantum physics field for decades"
Zoe blushed; Emily nudged her in the side gently as to keep her from shying away from the man.
"Yes, I have to admit that your thesis was very impressive. Not just the fact that it needed a paragraph for the name alone, but its actual content", James said.
Zoe and Emily shared a quiet smile with each other, if anyone actually read the title and took it literally it read, 'How a magical rock performs its tricks with quantum energy fields'. The work Zoe had done with Jon's wishing stone for the last year had figured out most of its secrets, the theory of its operation. Zoe had effectively figured out the stone's magic and wrote a thesis on it for her graduation.
"I have a proposal for you, if you are interested", James said, glancing at Emily's direction, "I understand it's not the first proposal you've had today, and I hope you'd be willing to accept this one too"
"I'm willing to listen", Zoe said
"Good", James said, "Do you mind if we talk somewhere quietly?"
Zoe released Emily's arm, she patted Emily reassuringly on the hand, "Go on, I'll catch up later"
"Ok Professor Z", Emily replied with a smile. She walked off, catching up to the rest of the Gibson family who'd left to find the post-graduation party.
"I'll see you later, Paul", James said to the dean, who nodded and walked off.
The two of them, Zoe and James, walked off into the campus gardens. They talked for quite some time, Zoe listened intently to James' proposal, but a fair bit of it seemed hard to believe.
" so basically, that's it so far", James said, "I've got a large amount of research and capital to put behind this project, and once I read your thesis, I learned that you not only have the theoretical expertise to help me finish the project, but you also have the know how to help develop it into a full fledged production series"
"Automorph, huh?" Zoe mulled over, "From what it sounds like, you seem to be aiming to change the face of the world"
"Quite literally, yes", James replied, "I've got a company that's funding all the capital, Brayntrust Industries. I'm quite prepared, if you're interested in accepting this proposal, to make you a partner in the company straight away"
"Really? Partner?" Zoe said, "But I'm just out of university, not even a day as a graduate yet"
"Yes my dear, but from your work, you could have graduated with a degree 6 years ago and still be smarter then most engineers and scientists on this planet", James replied, "I think it would be incredibly stupid to let someone like yourself slip away, regardless of the cost"
Zoe mulled the thought over, it sounded like a fascinating project, something that was right up her alley, and James was offering a lot of money, including a stake in a multinational company. Where else was she going to get an offer like that?
"Alright", Zoe said, "If you can send through to me the details, I'll look them over. But I think it's something I'd like to be involved with"
James broke out into a wide smile, "Great! I'll have my receptionist contact you with the details in a few days", he offered his hand to Zoe again, "Congratulations. You won't regret it"
Zoe accepted the hand and shook it, after they released hands, James parted ways and headed towards the dean's office, Zoe ran to catch up with her friends and fiancée, and she couldn't wait to tell Emily the news.
