Work Text:
Holtzmann forgot what being well rested felt like, she hadn't gotten a full nights sleep since she was a pre-teen. It wasn't that she didn't like sleep, when it took her she welcomed it with open arms. No it was the fact that sleep didn't often take her, her brain was approximately three times too big to fit inside her skull. Physics bubbled out through her ears, rest didn't take her because science held her hostage. It was both a blessing and a curse, when she was a child it meant she was always working on a project- whether that project was relevant to the class she was taking is a different story.
Once, when Holtzmann was eight they were asked to make a baking soda volcano, everyone else in the class seemed excited. Holtzmann sat there on the lab chair, she furrowed her brow beneath her short furocious curls. This wasn't new or exciting, a baking soda volcano? She had made one when she was three, it bubbled so much that it left a mark on the sitting room carpet. She wasn't going to make a dumb volcano, she was going to make a wireless printer that connected to her phone. She didn't sleep for three days. The day they were to present their volcanoes dawned, their teacher went through the register and congratulated her student on their volcano. Then she reached Jillian Holtzmann, the teacher peered over her glasses and frowned. She opened her mouth. Holtzmann jumped the gun.
"I know it's not a volcano, but if you just look I think you'll find..."
"Jillian this wasn't the assignment." Holtzmann ignored her and clicked the print button on her phone. The blue print for the printer began to print on a piece of A4 that lay at the finger tips of Holtzmann's teacher. It was amazing to see, this was a completely new invention, the teacher bit her lip- she couldn't fault Holtzmann on the science. Holtzmann knew this, she looked up at her teacher and beamed. The teacher was frowning.
"Jillian this wasn't the assignment." She repeated. She scribbled a red F on her chart and moved on to the boy next to her. Holtzmann face crumpled. The rims of her rose tinted glasses filled up with silent tears. Holtzmann ran from the classroom, later on when she returned her printer was gone. She never found who took it.
When Holtzmann was a little older her English teacher asked her to write an easay on "Lord of the Flies" Holtzmann instead turned in an essay on collision theory. She spent a whole week on it, she drafted amd redrafted until it was perfect. Her mother often had to place a pillow under her head when she fell unconscious at her desk. The teacher took one look at the title and ripped it up. Eleven year old Holtzmann bit her lip as a weeks worth of work fell before her eyes. She scrunched up her nose and walked away.
When Holtzmann turned eighteen suddenly her school became obsessed with applying for colleges. Holtzmann set her sights on MIT, her teachers scoffed and told her she wouldn't make it. Holtzmann disagreed, she gave up sleep and proved them wrong. For the few weeks leading up to graduation every exam, every assignment was perfect. No teacher could fault her. Hotlzmann graduated top of her class.
Holtzmann moved out for college. During the first week she realised just how much her parents had done for her, she lost count of the times she had woken up in strange places and even stranger positions. Her roommate sensed she was crazy, however the day she found her asleep with her head out of their fourth floored apartment window she knew she had to take care of this little blonde zombie, if only to stop her from killing herself. Abby Yates lost count of the times she picked her friend up from her desk or from next to highly combustional materials, she didn't mind. She knew Holtzmann was special and that sleep was for dudes.