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I don't own anything except Miranda (and her 'rents) , claim nothing except OC's that may come in. , and admit all rights to their respectful owners.

Enjoy! ]

My name is Miranda Clarke, and once upon a time I met a man with a magic box.

"Miranda!" My mother yelled up towards the back room of the flat while also attempting not to burn the bacon. "You're going to be late for work again!"

"Good," I muttered, pulling on her shirt. Walking across the room I grabbed a Sharpie and crossed off the little box on my calendar. April 12, 2013. I pulled on my scarf with a tug, making sure it flopped in all the right spots. Strolling out of my bedroom I came to a halting stop in front of my mirror and fluffed the back of my hair. With an approving nod I continued on my way.

"My, don't we look snazzy today?" Dad gave me a smile as he passed going the opposite direction down the long hall. I grimaced, thinking of how the fashion police at the university would think of it. No pocket protector? Unacceptable! No rubber soled shoes? You'll electrocute yourself! I grimaced, trotting down the staircase and walking into a veil of the smell of bacon. Delicious, thick, turkey, bacon. I reached around my mums center of mass and snatched up a piece of meat, a bit of grease popped up and bit my hand but I didn't mind; today, I was invincible.

"Volture," She snapped, attempting to hit me with the spatula, but I was faster. Like I said, invincible.

"But you love me," Except with the food in my mouth it came out more like: "Buh oo uff ay."

"Big day today," I rolled my eyes, she was a bit too cheery for my current mood. "and if you don't hurry, you'll be late."

"Aren't I, a growing girl, supposed to eat my breakfast?" She scoffed, shoving my messenger bag in my arms. I almost choked on a bit of bacon that I hadn't quite swallowed yet as the books hit my diaphragm.

"Now don't use filler words, make eye contact, annunciate, don't faint, don't puke, and for God's sake smile!"

0o0.0o0.0o0

I scanned the room of hundreds of people, we'd been using an old theatre instead of the conference room since we had several symposiums going on today. I was standing in the back, where there were only ten or twelve persons scattered in the first few rows. There was one man, though, who caught my attention. Tall, even when he sat down, sulking, slouching, and wearing a bright red fez. Honest to Heaven it wasn't the fez that caught my eye.

"Hey," I murmured, sliding into the velvet seat next to him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He was actually pouting.

"I'm good at not talking," I sank back in the chair, wondering if they'd call me to the stage or if I was just supposed to be up there. I mean, they couldn't actually expect me to just know when to go up there. However, if they called Jarvis called my name over the speaker I knew that he would end up trying to make it all… lusty – and then I'd just be disgusted and I would be thinking about that during my entire speech instead of what I should've been thinking about. Gross.

"Alright, don't be so desperate," He huffed, twisting his torso around to face me. "I messed up…"

"You messed up so you came to a physics symposium?"

"I thought you said you were good at not talking!" He was practically shouting now, and there were people looking at us. "And yes. I've come to make fun of this Dr. Clarke. A real git from what I hear," His eyes scanned me up and down, trying to read me, but what he ended up reading a bit more was my name tag. I held in a smirk and bit my tongue so as not to laugh at the absolute look of shock on his face.

"Dr. Clarke!" He jumped up, putting one hand on his fez to keep it from falling. "Big fan! Very big fan, love your work on…"

"The fundamentals of astrospheric radiation?"

"Yes…" He drawled, rubbing his forefinger and thumb together. He was dressed like someone more out of the thirties – well, minus one red cap and one bow tie. I flinched as he whipped something out of his coat pocket and pointed it at me, its prongs were waved at me as a green light shone in my eyes.

"What is that?"

"You're the scientist," He licked his lips carefully, "Why don't you tell me?"

I opened my mouth to answer-

"Dr. Miranda Clarke to the stage. Please," I took my sweet time staring him down and waiting to go to the podium. There was just this force that kept us glaring at each other.

"Maybe another time," I smirked as I stood and walked down the aisle. I rolled my eyes Great Copernicus , I'd been right about Jarvis, he had popped the 'c' and 'k' in my name and the sound waves had made the microphone pop. People looked at me as I walked down the aisle, some gaped, others just glared.

The heel of my shoe clicked loudly against the ground in the silence as I strode to the podium. Jarvis gave me a sickly sweet smile as he took his sweet time stepping away from the mic, I forced myself to give the same expression.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, physicist and scientists… I'm here today to talk about something very important… something that could change the way we see the universe forever."

What came first, the chicken or the egg?