To String Together ( Huaze Lei )

Lost

Faye Calinao

"The first part was 13.09 cm cubed and the second part I came to a conclusion of 4.36m," I answered to my group. Today was a packet day to work on problems to help practice the concepts. I joined a group with two males when I first joined. It was by the professor's choice.

"That can't be right," the junior named Zhen commented as he looked down to his answer in the packet. The three of us had divided the word problems evenly and we're going through the answers together. We were currently doing my section and gave them a few minutes to look at the problem before giving them my answer.

In this entire class, I was the only person here who was not directly  with the science or mathematical department. When I first arrived here, everyone would look at me strangely when they saw me carrying my cello some days walking into a high level honors physics course. Everyone in this department seemed to be that way.

The science and mathematics building here is a completely different atmosphere from the music or even the business building here. Once entering through the doors, I felt a refreshing and cooling feeling when I was here. The students here were always dressed in this formal attire and most times you see many in their lab coats. The thought of being able to take a science course again was a great feeling.

"Faye is right," Gu Wei Yi commented. I looked towards him to see he was taking a look at my calculations. His dark black hair flopped almost over his brown eyes. From his expression, I could tell he was bored.

Hearing from the other students he was the genius of the sciences department. He is a senior honors physics major who is brilliant in the field. When I first arrived for the lab on my first day, it was the professor who asked Gu Wei Yi to be my lab partner even though he does independent research. Surprisingly he agreed to be my partner. Hearing him say I did my calculations right reassured me I had a good understanding of the material.

Gu Wei Yi started looking through the other questions that I did and nodded slightly as he examined the calculations. Both Zhen and I waited quietly waiting for him to make another response. I felt guilty for making Zhen look bad in front of the top student in the physics department. After flipping through the pages and going through all of them, he looked up at me. A part of him was surprised and serious.

"All of your answers are correct," Gu Wei Yi commented. "Your handwriting is neat and the calculations were organized and nicely done."

"Thank you."

"How are you not a science major?" He questioned. "You seem to have a natural understanding of physics at the honors level. For most of these problems, they take quite some time to do, you solved them in half the time most would complete them."

"Uh..." I felt my cheeks warming. "I'm actually doing a dual degree in music performance and physics," I answered sheepishly.

"No way!" Zhen exclaimed in excitement. Heads turned our way and I folded my arms feeling myself shrink slightly in my seat. He apologizes to the class and the professor before they go back to work. He looked towards me. "There's no way. Juilliard doesn't have science programs."

"I have an agreement with both Juilliard and the university of Wagner. I took all of my required physics courses and independent research at Wagner." Zhen seemed fascinated.

"You should take the sit in exam to get into Professor Jiang's research," Gu Wei Yi spoke.

"I'm not sure."

"There's two spots for undergraduate students. I think if we both score in the top two we'll work really well together. Seeing you since you've arrived, you've performed well in our labs. You should give the research opportunity a try." The bell for the school sounded and we began packing up.