To say Lisa Loud was smart would be an understatement. To say Lisa Loud was brilliant would be an understatement. To say Lisa Loud made Mislav Predavec look like the woman who tweeted "My HIV results came back positive. I'M CLEAN!" would also be an understatement.
Nobody really knows the cause of Lisa's great intelligence. Her parents weren't particularly brilliant, or any of her ancestors. She was just born smart and only became smarter as she grew.
As long as she could remember, Lisa wanted to become a great scientist. She'd been studying things and performing experiments as long as she could remember. At home, she would experiment on any willing test subjects she could find. At school, she would experiment on anything that wasn't bolted down.
Then, around the time she turned seventeen, Lisa was surprised by a sudden letter from the University of Toronto, offering her the opportunity to teach a class in the school's developmental biology program.
At first, the idea of teaching made Lisa laugh. Then, it made her nervous.
Finally, to her family's surprise, Lisa stated she wanted to accept the offer. After informing the university, everybody knew there was a lot of work to do to make sure Lisa was ready.
First, they had to get Lisa everything she needed for international travel: a passport, an up to date visa, travel insurance, and really large suitcases. They also wanted Lisa to get vaccinations so she wouldn't get sick alone, but she'd already vaccinated herself before they had the chance to make an appointment.
Second, they had to find an apartment for Lisa with a landlord that would let her store everything from her lab, including radioactive materials and equipment.
Third, they had to find a moving company that would move things to other countries and handle radioactive materials and equipment.
Fourth, they had to make sure they knew everything Lisa needed to know about Canada: the weather, the cost of living, whether they had Lisa's favorite kind of donut (red strawberry). Luckily, this was a task Lisa was more than happy to do. It seemed Canada had Lisa's donut.
Fifth, the members of the Loud family had to accept that Lisa was leaving. It wasn't that they were unprepared for her not being there, they'd all gone through this eight times before, but they were a bit worried that she couldn't make it on her own. She may have been an undeniable genius, but the only Loud sister with lesser social skills and common sense is Leni. So, everybody was a bit nervous about Lisa being on her own in an entirely different country.
Then, the big day came. Lisa had to report to the college a month before classes started. They actually were able to leave on the same day Lisa had to be there, since Royal Woods was only six hours away.
And, despite the worries of her parents and siblings, Lisa adapted to her new Canadian environment and showed that she could truly be all on her own.
For about four days, until she called home in tears and her parents, Lincoln, and Leni had to drive up to Canada and stay with her for a week.
But, after that, it was back to Lisa showing that she could adapt in Canada all by herself and help mold the young-ish Canadian minds.
And, for her first three years at the University of Toronto, there were no other major problems.
Then, a few months into Lisa's fourth year at the school, she faced her next big problem.
It started on a Friday. Lisa had just finished teaching her last class before the weekend. Everybody had left the room except for Lisa and one of her students, Peter.
Peter seemed like the type of student who was more comfortable around his teachers than most students. He was never in a hurry to rush out if the classroom, like most of Lisa's students. Most students start packing up a minute or two before class was supposed to end, then dashing off as soon as they were dismissed. Peter always took his time to carefully organize his stuff before putting it in his backpack and would ask Lisa any basic questions he had about the material covered that day. Lisa even once spent an hour fully covering the most advanced aspects of a topic with Peter after a class. Lisa never minded, though. She always enjoyed seeing someone as interested in learning as Peter. Plus, he was always in her last class of the day, so he was never keeping her from getting anywhere important.
Anyways, on Fridays, Lisa would usually stay behind to stack the chairs onto the tables, something she always asked her students to do and they rarely ever did, and Peter would usually take his time and either leave last or ask Lisa questions before she started stacking. And today, when Lisa saw Peter standing there, looking at her at her desk, she assumed that's what would happen today.
"Did you have any queries for me today, Peter," Lisa questioned.
"No," Peter brushed off, "Nothing like that."
Lisa figured this meant she could save the documents open on her computer before she started stacking the chairs.
"Isn't it unfair that you have to stack all of these chairs," Peter questioned.
"I suppose," Lisa considered, "But there's nothing that can be done."
"Well," Peter offered, "What if I were to help you stack the chairs?"
Even though Lisa was surprised by this, she figured if any student at this school were to actually help her, it would be Peter. But, she also knew he shouldn't have to.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lisa countered, "Go enjoy your annual two day sabbatical."
"Technically," Peter pointed out, "I'm not going on sabbatical, because I'm not being paid for my weekend break."
"Very nice," Lisa complimented, "You're the first individual to ever notice I purposefully used 'sabbatical' incorrectly. Take that for what you will."
"And I'm not going to have you stay here and fix these by yourself again," Peter persuaded, "I have no plans. Let me stay."
Lisa wanted to keep arguing, since she knew one student shouldn't have to do what twenty were supposed to do. But, she also felt tired of arguing with him.
"I suppose it would not be detrimental to have extra help," Lisa contemplated, "Especially someone studious like you."
So, Lisa let her documents save and shut down her laptop. With that, Lisa and Peter began stacking chairs.
It usually takes Lisa eight minutes to stack all of the chairs by herself. But, with Peter, it only took five. That may not seem like much less time, but it felt faster and Lisa thought that any time saved was worth it.
"I must admit," Lisa admitted, "That was considerably faster."
"Thank you," Peter thanked.
"No," Lisa countered, "Thank you."
Lisa then started to pack up her computer and a few other items so she could go home. But, Peter was still standing in her classroom.
"Is there something else you wanted to ask me, Peter," Lisa questioned.
"No," Peter nervously countered, "I'm go...well."
"Nice catch there," Lisa stated.
As Lisa finished packing up, she saw Peter still standing there. She decided leaving him in the classroom with the lights on would be easier than figuring out why he was just standing there.
"Well," Lisa stated, "Have a lovely excursion from classes."
Lisa then proceeded to walk out the door, until...
"Wait Professor," Peter loudly stated.
Peter's sudden outburst startled Lisa, leaving a freaked out look on her face as she turned around.
"What's amiss," Lisa stuttered, "You nearly gave me a catastrophic cardial infarction."
"Professor," Peter asked, "Do you have any plans today?"
"I have no prior commitments for this afternoon," Lisa responded, "Why?"
"Do you want to go and drink coffee with me," Peter questioned.
"You've told me on several occasions you don't consume caffeine," Lisa countered.
"But you do," Peter persuaded, "I can drink water or something."
At this point, Lisa was very confused. Peter had shown no interest in spending time with her outside of the classroom. They'd bonded after the many after-class discussions, for sure, but this sudden personal interest confused Lisa.
"Why are you so insistent on consuming caffeine with me," Lisa questioned.
"Because you seem like an interesting person," Peter replied, "Because I feel like we really know very little about each other and I'd like to possibly change that."
Lisa understood Peter's reasoning. And she would admit, knowing more about Peter might actually be an interesting endeavor.
"I suppose you are the only student attending this university I would like to consume beverages and discuss things with," Lisa answered, "Where exactly would we go?"
"What about that cafe just off campus," Peter suggested, "Barnie Et Sès."
"That sounds satisfactory," Lisa stated.
Lisa knew where this cafe was. So, she started to walk out of the room again.
Peter wanted to make sure he was chivalrous, though, and held the door open for Lisa. Even though the door was already open and she was already standing in the doorway.
Lisa knew that Barnie Et Sès was mostly frequented by students at the university. But, once she had finally been inside the cafe, she realized that it looked like its interior designed was a university student. Who'd been smacked with a shovel several times.
The walls were covered in posters. The subjects of the posters ranged from The Office to Scarlett Johansson. There was a window in the middle of the main sitting room, with blinds. A piano that had apparently been touched by Wiz Khalifa was sitting in a glass case. And one of the tables just appeared to be a series of sideways dorm beds stacked next to each other.
Thankfully, Lisa saw Peter's facial expression and determined he didn't care for the decor either. He likely just picked this place because of its popularity and closeness.
Lisa and Peter then ordered their drinks and sat down at a regular table (not a sideways bed).
"So," Lisa questioned, "Is there any particular topic on which you'd like to converse?"
"Well," Peter responded, "We could start with something simple. Like, have you always wanted to teach?"
This question caused Lisa to laugh.
"Hell no," Lisa brushed off, "I definitely didn't picture myself educating anybody at any point in my lifetime."
"Oh," Peter gasped, "Well, what made you accept the position then?"
"It's complicated," Lisa explained, "At first, I thought that the odds of any simple college student comprehending the knowledge I have was close to zero. Then, I remembered attempting to tutor my siblings and companions at a young age. Simply put, it was a disaster. If that is what all teachers go through, I knew I could never repeat the tension of doing that for a minimum of forty additional years."
"Wow," Peter stated, "Sounds like you definitely had your reasons for not being a teacher."
"I did," Lisa continued, "But, then, I thought of all the teachers I had outside of school. Brilliant professors, books with a plethora of knowledge... If I could give the knowledge of those teachers in a school setting, I might actually ameliorate a few lives. And, if I can generate a few more humans like myself, then I will have surely accomplished something."
"Huh," Peter stated, "That's actually pretty interesting."
"What about you," Lisa questioned, "What made you determine that you wanted to pursue this particular field of study?"
"Well," Peter explained, "I knew that I wanted to study something in the field of science. And this particular field of study seemed the most interesting."
"That's a much less complicated story," Lisa giggled.
This line made Peter giggle as well.
"This is becoming enjoyable," Lisa observed, "Ask me another question."
"Ok," Peter stuttered, "Um...what do you usually do on the weekends?"
"Really," Lisa questioned, "We go from asking questions that end up revealing psychological details to 'What's your Saturday schedule'?"
"Not everything I want to know about you requires a complex answer, Professor," Peter replied.
"Fair enough," Lisa conceded, "I suppose, on most weekends, I'm doing stereotypical teacher stuff. Grading assignments, preparing lesson plans, getting any necessary materials to prepare for the week ahead."
"Huh," Peter gasped, "You ever do anything non-teaching related?"
"I actually have multiple endeavors I enjoy outside of education preparation," Lisa responded, "Possibly the simplest, but easily my favorite, is sitting by the window, observing the rain fall on a drizzly day. There's something rather soothing about observing precipitation interact with the window and the exterior environment."
"Huh," Peter pondered out loud, "That actually does sound rather relaxing."
"Other than that," Lisa continued, "I do the stereotypical relaxing activities. Listening to music, watching television, performing brief experiments to possibly find the origins of the known universe."
"Sounds pretty cool," Peter stated in response.
"What about you," Lisa asked, "What do you do on your brief learning hiatus?"
"Not too much," Peter answered, "Homework, watch TV, homework, play video games, homework, get a cupcake from this bakery not too far from here, homework..."
"I'm sensing a pattern here," Lisa stated, "You can't possibly have that much homework."
"I try to work on as much homework as I can," Peter stated, "Even the stuff due weeks from now. Can't ever be too prepared."
"That sounds rather brilliant, actually," Lisa admitted, "You say you watch television as well. What was your last 'binge', I suppose I should ask?"
And that was how a majority of their conversations played out after that. Back-and-forths, simply talking, answering questions, and learning more about each other.
As she went back to her apartment later that afternoon, Lisa reflected on her realization that she didn't know that much about Peter.
Granted, she knew he was smart, ambitious, and nice, but that's about it. As she talked to him at the cafe, she learned things about him that she never knew about him and was surprised to learn.
They discussed their favorite movies (Interstellar and the Dark Knight), the type of music they enjoyed listening to (they both loved rap), Lisa told Peter what it was like to graduate and become a professor at an early age.
Lisa knew Peter had siblings, since he'd mentioned it before. But, Lisa learned that Peter apparently had strategies for dealing with them Lisa had never even thought about trying on her own siblings.
It was all a very enriching afternoon. Lisa was glad she now knew so many things about Peter.
Lisa also thought it was nice to know that he had a delightful personality to go along with his brain. Even if he was sometimes unnecessarily nice to her, maybe even a bit too much...
That was when Lisa came to a horrifying realization.
One of Lisa's students was in love with her.
And she might love him back.