Normalcy was never something Tesla Edison grew up with; she was never really familiar with things that others grew up with. Growing up in a single parent household, after her father dies in an accident, isn't easy. However, she's out to prove that s...
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"I don't understand," says Kimberly Adams, sitting down across from Tesla Edison in her dorm room late one evening. The tall curly-haired girl is staring at her best friend in confusion. "You're going to Slovakia in December?"
"Yes," replies the nineteen year-old, scribbling in her notebook at a furious pace. Her lead snaps suddenly, causing Tesla to startle before she mutters a curse word. She reaches for a new pencil on her desk.
Kimberly traces circles in the rough carpet. She does it in intervals, sometimes her fingers move fast, other times slow. Sometimes she stops, but while she watches Tesla work on a project for physics, she struggles to pull herself out of a loop. Her mind urges her to press further, even if she doesn't want to. "Why?" asks Kimberly.
Tesla's soft brown eyes flicker to her friend for a brief second. Her mouth twitches upward slightly in a smile. "That's the million dollar question, Kimmy. It'll only be for a few days. It's not anything special. It's for research."
"What kind of research?" wonders Kimberly, her blue eyes narrowing at the thought of the science stuff she could never get into. The two of them are like polar opposites. Kimberly isn't much for science; she does like math, though. Adding things together to get the correct answer. It makes sense to her because everything has to fit in perfectly for her. Having answers and challenging equations to solve relaxed her. Algebra and calculus have always been in Kimberly's element. She enjoys numbers because they have a purpose. They are solid and sound. Doing math inside her head helps her with the endless echo of thoughts that bounce around her brain, pushing to be said out loud even if they are not truly her own thoughts or emotions.
Tesla is the one that likes the science stuff. The hypothesis, the theories, the examining of animals and people and whatever. She also likes psychology, too. Which is definitely a more human approach to her new-found fascination with biochemistry that she got into in her freshman year of college. Kimberly's curious as to why Tesla decided to add biochemistry to her hefty list of PhD's she wanted to achieve in the long years ahead. Kimberly can go out on a limb and say it was because of a boy.
"Bio-chem research," Tesla lies. She isn't one to lie, but that was months ago when she shed the insecurity of telling white lies in order to please others.
"And Bruce is going with you?"
Tesla huffs a little, erasing a part of her sentence on her lined paper. "Yes. We are both working on biochemistry, Kimmy."
"Why isn't Betty going, then?" presses Kimberly.
Tesla glances up at her, narrowing her brown eyes. Her expression isn't angry or annoyed, just calculating; trying to figure out what she should tell her best friend in order to get her to stop asking questions. Tesla understands that Kimberly sometimes cannot help being nosy. It eases her mind to ask questions and blurt things out, because of a voice inside her head. "Kimmy, serious. Why are you so worried about this?"
