She sat staring at the desktop and willing it follow her commands. Instead she found her fingers flying over the keyboard, typing with a grace and speed that came effortless to her. The equations worked themselves out as she drummed out their reasoning to the soft tapping. The dull fluorescent light above her flickered again, threatening to go and she sighed, leaning back, tilting her chair till it almost tipped.
"Another Nobel?"
A thin looking boy who looked almost, only almost, 19 stood behind her, two coffee cups in hand and an oversized book bag in tow. He took up residence in the chair next to her, hitting his keyboard to wake his computer to life and handing her the coffee.
"Professor Davin sucks."
The boy nodded as he extracted his books and turned toward her.
"That's what you get for questioning his theory in the middle of class. He got his PHD with that equation. You have proof it's wrong, don't you?"
"I have expulsion written all over this screen."
She frowned and turned the monitor toward her neighbor. He scanned the document she had written up, grabbing for a calculator to check some of the math and then whistled.
"Damn...you can't be thinking of turning that in?"
"Naw."
She pulled up a new sheet and set to work. Her companion turned to his own collection of tasks and they worked silently. Five minutes later the printer screeched awake and pushed two sheets from it's belly. She stood and swiftly grabbed the sheets, pulling her jacket on with her movements.
"You at least printed the truth right? Even if your handing in the half-truth?"
"You know me too well. We need to stop these late night dates."
"Sessions. Geez, as if I'd date you! The poor fellow who dares will go mad from always being proven wrong."
"Well tomorrow Professor Davin need not worry. My so-called 'half-truths' should be enough for him to correct his own logic."
She headed for the door and was just about out when he called.
"Eva, you know you can take the credit sometimes. You won't always be the fifteen year old who solved your mom's equation and couldn't get credit because she was too young."
She looked back at him, pain written on her features.
"She died today."
With that she disappeared into the blackness of the early AM.
