I am somewhat preoccupied telling the Laws of Physics to shut up and sit down. – RecklessPrudence
(#00301)
It took Kev most of the year to work out that Katie Walker was smarter than she seemed. When the dawn came, it was like watching a gigantic fusion energy generator rise over the horizon.
She was coding in her notebook again. Gibberish to Kev’s eyes. She used to count and mutter when writing in there, now, she just wrote in a way possessed.
“Katie…”
“In a mo. I’m preoccupied tellin’ the laws o’ Physics to shut up an’ sit down…”
Kev watched the pen as it jinked around. Studied the attitude of intense concentration in her face. She was doing everything she could to seem like one of the guys. Messy hair. Loose clothing. Even some of her mannerisms were carefully calculated to be feminine, but not feminine enough to bring her into trouble.
And it worked on everyone except Hackmeyer. The professor was almost four times her age and he still treated her as if she were open for grabs.
“Hm. Hm. Hm-hm-hm. HM!” A final stab at the page and the notebook vanished into her knapsack. Which she guarded like a lioness. “And done. What’s happenin’?”
“You’re going to show him up, aren’t you? Make everyone see he’s been a big fraud for -what- forty years?”
“I was thinkin’ sixty-three…” a rare, cheeky smile lit her face.
He wanted to kiss those cheeky lips. But Katie was sixteen. He was not a skeev or a perv like Hackmeyer, and had blacked a few eyes of guys who had even joked about becoming one. “It’s gonna be a big show, innit?”
“Oh aye. Fireworks. Dancin’ girls. One elephant. And maybe a unicorn…”
She wasn’t a mad scientist. Merely a very cross physicist. Kev had to wonder what would happen to anyone if she ever got angry.
“I want to help,” he said.
Kev could easily spend the rest of his life falling in love with her smile. He made every plan in the back of his head and it started with helping her against Hackmeyer. His grades could go hang, if it meant getting Hackmeyer the fate he deserved.
It was almost a shame that Kev did not remember what happened to the best-laid plans of mice and men.
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