Teaching children about physics was not hard when I had such a good grasp of it to begin with. At least I thought so at the begining. It was hard just to get the kids to listen and by kids I mean high-schoolers who want nothing more than to get the hell out of this prison that is the High School environment. I don't blame them. Up until recent life-changing events, I was of the same mentality. Fact is, I had been taken for a trial period of two months or so, to see if I was capable of handling the job, I had to put all of my skills to the test just for crowd control alone. Wearing smart, no-nonsense clothing helped. I had a few sets of suits that I wore on the less hot days and it helped immensely for constructing my reputation of someone who took their job seriously.

For someone like me who was raised in Europe, American Education seemed to be lacking and my first month at school left me on the edge, barely constraining myself from crying in outrage at the unpreparedness of the children. But this was the system and all I could do was actually force the students to do homework and projects, hoping that at least some of what I was teaching them would stick for practical purposes. The students were less than thrilled and I had to rework my schedule several times after a few of said students complained to the principle that my class was too hard. Still, my fellow teachers were impressed by my assertive ways in teaching and once the two months of trial had passed I had a proper, secure job of making the lives of high schoolers hell.

For the first time in my life I had peers who appreciated and respected me and after that initial week or so where their attention actually had left me feeling bashful, I sort of got used to their positive attitude and I began taking my breaks with my colleagues, talking about things of life and other nonsense. I think that was a milestone for me. It was the moment I realized that I had actually succeeded at this being-an-adult thing and I was damn proud of myself. For a few days I had this shit eating grin that I couldn't remove from my face.

The important part, though, was that I had a job and I could pay all my taxes and bills with legally earned money and that made my precarious situation far more manageable. I felt more secure but there was this residue nervous energy that followed me around everywhere and I think it showed most of the time. For that purpose I always busied myself with this or that and even on my days off I spent most of my time either spending quality time with my son or tinkering with various knick-knacks around the house. I was just afraid to let go and relax. For a good reason too, I think. Sooner or later there was always a chance that this farce would blow up in my face and when that happened I wanted to be able to do the proper damage control. Being prepared for every eventuality was the only thing that helped me sleep at night. Well, that and also the fact that being a single mother in charge of everything, from chores, to work, to taking care of my child left me half-dead somewhere around 9 pm and I'd sleep like the dead through most of the night. Thank God or whatever deity is out there that I no longer had to breastfeed my sunshine in the middle of the night. So long dark circles and dry skin! Hello healthy dose of sleep! Of course, when I wake up the first thing I do is check up on him.

You'd think a selfish, lazy person such as myself would hardly be able to do all these things that I do on my own without breaking apart at some point and to an extent you are all right. However, parenthood, motherhood in particular, turns even the most terrible child-hating people into doting parents. At least that's what happened to me, all the way back from the day I found out I was pregnant. By the time my belly was big enough to cause constant back and neck aches, I knew everything about the development of the chld growing inside of me and even to this day I always measure and weigh my baby darling boy before his scheduled visit to his pediatrician just to make sure they got things right. The first few months I barely got any sleep. I had to ditch anything in order to make sure my baby was well fed and comfortable. Hell, I even ditched most of the bad habbits I had concerning food, which meant no more visits to places like K.O. Burger. Don't get me wrong, burgers were a great comfort food during my pregnancy but not having anyone to tell me no just drained at the appeal of eating junk food. So that's about it. No more junk food, soft drinks and anything containing conservants. My baby would get the premium super deluxe breast milk and for that to happen, I had to be a health nut. Before that I was mostly just a nut. Well, you get the idea.

Breastfeeding is easy enough, though I had to have the MILF nurse teach me how to do it properly. I was terrified that i was going to drop my precious child or squeeze too hard or something. Baby took to breastfeeding like a fish to water and I was proud of myself to have done something so natural and right and to have done it well. I don't think my mother breastfed me. I remember being told that she didn't have any breastmilk due to the stress of her university exams at the time. No matter. My baby grew purely on my breast milk up until seven months when, with the constant encouragement from my pediatrician, I finally began weaning him. He now intakes homemade baby food mixes. I try my best to follow the instructions as to how to prepare them and I usually make a batch at night, right before bed, for the next day. I also prepare a bottle of breast milk for when he stays at the day care center. It's a very smug me when you see me take my child and the other parents asking about the recipes for the baby food. Fun times all around at the parenthood wars. The only other woman that actually challenges my baby food formulas was this lady that actually grew her own vegetables for her baby's diet. Well, in my defense, I am single and she is not. Also, she is has a far less taxing work at her husband's restaurant while I have to deal with whelps. Heh. Whelps.

MANY WHELPS! HANDLE IT!

Ahem.

Anyways. We actually made good friends. The woman's name is Sharona and her little baby girl here is actually her third. She doesn't leave her here as long as I do with my baby boy (had I the time, I'd spend my entire day with him, but bills have to be paid in a legit way). Sharona was an ok woman, a little overbearing and too mother-hen for my tastes but her practical experience with raising children was invaluable. She also lived on the same street as I did and it was she that initiated me into her little Desperate Housewife Clu- I mean into her circle of friends. They were pretty cool but all of them were middle aged. Turned out Jennifer (one of the Desperate Housewives) had a boy in one of my physics classes. After three hours of intense gossiping and cooing out the combined force of our little ones, she actually managed to convince me to raise her kid's physics grade a bit. Well, he deserves it for helping his Ma with his little sister.

I, myself, was never given the chance to show such responsibility, even though all of my friends, especially those with young ones already had told my parents that I made a brilliant babysitter. And I really did. But my parents simply did not want me to corrupt their younger child, my brother Fynn, with my deviant and hellish ways of a mischief maker and chaos bringer. I'd might sound a bit of a hypocrate, considering my past but do bear in mind that I've realized where my faults lie and while I am not so much changed as it appeared, I still have the responsibility to raise a boy properly into something worthy. Also I'd never allow myself to become like my parents. I've promised myself that very early on in my life and I hope that once summer vacation is here, I'd have the time to spend teaching my baby to walk and talk and to take as many pictures a possible of him.

Anyways, it is always good to integrate yourself with a bunch of gossiping Desperate Housewives. It's amazing the things you could learn from the vine in no time. Apparently one of my colleagues, this old fella Mr. Burns had a wife who had problems with drinking who died in a carcrash not too long ago while driving under the influense. Not too long ago translates into 10 years ago. Apparently she took the life of this guy whose wife was a nurse and leaving their then six year old half an orphan. Said boy, now sixteen, had straight A's in Mr. Burn's class. I actually had that boy in my class as well. He reminds me of my cousin Harry, all responsible, friendly and a diligent worker. He has good grades in my class, not so much for excelling with his comprehension of physics as much as for his dedication to his work. Not even half of the class show the amount of responsibility he does. So I encourage him, I guess. He needs the encouragement, in my opinion. When I said he reminded me of Harry, I wasn't kidding. Whenever I paired him up with someone he'd always help them out. There were days when I was feeling particularly devious and had him paired with Sierra just to watch him squirm. Its funny how it takes only about a month and a half to figure out what most of my students were about. The best part about being a teacher? I get to do what my own teachers did. I try not to let that power get to my head, but, let's be honest, who wouldn't have fun with that kind of power? I have at least two or three of my students squirm uncomfortable while pretending to be none the wiser. There's this jack ass in the class. Well, he really isnt a jack ass but his likeness to Leo has me battling my internal berserker instincts to not kill the poor ginger. He didn't really look that much like Leo. His facial structure was different, he had green eyes and his hair was this gingery orange color while Leo's was this rich dark red color. They did, however, dress similarly and both had this swagger going on for them. But that was about it. Vince was an idiot in comparison and Leopold was a self-righteous prick who thought knew better than anyone else but really didnt. Me being here on my own raising his child was proof enough.

But enough about my instictual hatred of Vincent. Who the hell names their kid Sierra? Seriously!

#

I think Mrs. Olivia is traumatized. As far as I'm concerned the new transfer had spunk but her ideas were far from original and what she lacked in insight she made up with spunk and creativity. So I don't know what to think of this Miko. She's Japanese but her English wasn't just passable but actually spot on. Her grades were all over the place, pointing to applying herself only where she was interested. She was a punk and she pissed me off for two reasons. First, Mrs. Olivia did not deserve the scare she got. She is a woman with a poor heart and I fear any day now that we'd be dealing with a heart attack or something. I've taken to taking my medbox from my car and into the teacher's room just in case. She was an elderly woman and it was always best to be prepared. And I was always prepared.

Second, while I myself was pretty much a punk in my own High School, I was more of a Moriarty (Leopold being my Holmes) while the little Priestess was a rockstar female version of Uncle Fester or something. She was a little monster through and through and the only reason I didn't spend too much time apprehending her was due to the fact I respected her individuality and what she was trying to do. Hey, I'd be a hypocrite otherwise, and that was one of the things that I drew the line for. It was not fun to have her for detentions, though. And being the youngest and most inexperienced member of the Teacher Staff, I was often saddled with dealing with her. And let me tell you, Miko is always being difficult, Perhaps I'd one day outgrow the annoyance I feel for her and help her better channel her talents. Right now, however, I was satisfied with having her not ruining my classroom everytime she enters it. It's a work in progress.

#

It was time for Lunch Break and I took my usual spot with the other Teachers of my clique. Well, it wasn't really a clique but when you go to an American High School you'd notice how people separate themselves in these groups. My own group was considered the Nerd group. Not that anyone would call it that out loud, but it was my label of things. We were a merry little band consisting of the science division – biology, physics, chemistry and math. Our two math teachers were actually brothers. The younger one, Steven, was a 38 year old, happily married and he used to be in the Military. Here's a thing I learned about America – if you go military, you get your life settled, in a way. Education, medical insurances. I don't know how it works exactly as I don't have use for that kind of information but I might look more into it eventually, assuming I'd be desperate enough at that point to help secure my Light of Light's education. It was a last ditch effort scenario that I'd probably never have to employ but I liked having options. I liked having choices.

But back to Steven. He used to be military and after his deployment had been over he got a degree in chemistry. He was very well build and slightly intimidating. I've seen the man without his lab coat and I liked what I saw. Too bad he was married. I'd still appreciate his physique at a distance though.

I think he used to be a sapper. I will grill him about it later, when his brother wasn't around.

Speaking of his brother, the 45 year old Math teacher, Mathew, was a small, scrawny man in comparison. I don't doubt there are some jealousy issues involved, since it's like watching that little shit Joeffrey sitting next to Khal Drogo, for example. But he was a smart man. While Steven was all abot practical application and experience, Mathew was all pure unadultarated wit and logic and he was also equipped with a very sharp tongue. He was also pleasant to look at, but my 175 cm to his 157 made it a bit awkward for me to appreciate him like that. He was also happily married with three wonderful boys. You already know the biology teacher, Mrs. Olivia. Becky Olivia was a sassy old woman. She wore tons of shiny baubles that were supposed to be jewelry and her perfume was overly strong and sweet. She was a dear, however. Unless you were a student. Then she was an outright hag. I try very hard to stay on her good side. She was best friends with the principle. The other math teacher was a practical middle aged woman who spent a lot of her time researching conspiracy theories. Ms. Barnaby was a tricky one and I'd rather tango with her later on, when I'd earn enough of her trust. She was a woman who also had an eye for discrepansies. I tried to keep my conversations with her to a minimum. And with good reason.

"Aha!" Ms. Barnaby exclaimed quietly as she went through the pages of a magazine.

I looked at the article that had her so excited. Small Mining Operation Closed due to Radioactivity.

"That's Bullshit." I stated, earning a few glares from Mrs. Olivia, which I expertly ignored."Remember Lewis' report on the geological structures of the area?"

"Such a bright young fellow! His report was outstanding! No wonder he qualified for the next round-" Mrs. Olivia beamed at the mention of her prized pupil. Lewis had always been a teacher's pet. Tough luck he was one of those students I loved to see squirm. It was borderline harassment but he took it like a man. Respect. Seriously. That one'd have a bright futre.

"So why would the goverment claim radiation when there is nothing but coal there?" I asked for the benefit of my impromptu crowd.

"The goverment has its reasons" Steven remarked, Mathew nodding along in agreement."If they claimed it was something dangerous for the public, then why would we care otherwise?"

Meh, patriotism is strong with these ones.

"I just don't like when the goverment outright lies to the public." I merely stated and took a sip from my juice.

"This isn't the first one, either." Stated Mrs. Barnaby, suddenly looking all formal and official."Two months ago there was this illegal mine that got shut down in Colorado. However, there was nothing of worth in the area to mine."

"The plot thickens!" I declared in amusement and settled comfortably in my chair, giving a quick sweep of the students in the cafeteria.

Most of lunch time was spent in pleasant conversation, some gossiping and the traditional complaints from Miko's shenanigans. You'd think with the amount of students attending the school there'd be other people to complain from but Miko was the genuine article of terror among the teacher staff. Worst of all, she did all her detentions as diligently as possible in order to get home as soon as possible. As a result, it was getting harder and harder to get her under control and her host family was hard pressed at times when dealing with her.

I wonder about her parents back in Japan. As far as her file went, she was supposed to be an orderly, straight A student with a bright future ahead of her. The way things were going, it was as if I was staring at myself from times not so long past. I will get her working on a project in order to get her grades up in my class. Maybe a demonstration of practical physics? I'd have to run this by the principal. He was a real stickler to the rules and I doubt I'd manage any sort of field trips any time soon.

Lunch was over and we all went back to the teacher's room to prepare for our classes. I had three more hours of the daily grind to get through before spending an hour and a half with detentions and the extracurriculum stuff the previous physics teacher had left for me to take care of.

The Extracurriculum was fun. I had some of the brightest teen of the town goofing around and basking in the glory that was SCIENCE! And I had free reign to teach them more of that. Among them I had this shy little guy, who was younger than the rest. His name was Rafael and he was of Hispanic origin. He reminded me of Marco, a friend of mine from Spain, in the days before he met his wife Malena. I think you guys might notice a trend how the majority of my friends are older than me. Anyways, Rafael is very smart and he is also quite tech savvy. I'd see if I can apply him for a project or something but so far nothing inspiring was comming to mind.

Running the physics extracurriculum was like having your own little operation and your own little minions and I enjoyed it.

#

There are far too many dark purple caddilacs in Jasper. What's up with that? Now I want one too, but classy black, Those things look like a Batmobile. I want a Batmobile!

#

"So you have a little kid?"

"Yes."

"How old is he?"

"Nine Months old."

Miko was looking at a photo of my son and myself that she had dug out from somewhere in my desk. How, I've yet to find out, but I am keeping an eye on her. If the Japanese truly had ninja powers, I'd be on the look out for them. She's a master of distraction, but I invented that game years before she made her debut in Jasper. Tough luck missie, you are dealing with a grand master.

"So where's the dad? I only saw pics of you and the squirt."

Foot meet mouth.

I cringed a bit at her bluntness and then sighed. It wouldn't do to get angry at her for being her usual self.

"We are not together anymore."

"He's cute, though. Your baby."

I smiled warmly.

"That he is."

A pain in the ass Miko Nakadai was, but an honest one at least. She still had some forty five minutes of detention and no matter how tiresome this was, I wasn't letting her go even a second earlier.

#

I grabbed blindly at my phone, rubbing at my eyes with my other hand. I just had gotten to sleep too. My sunshine had been irritable all morning and then when I got him home it turned out he had a full blown tummy ache. And a powerful set of baby lungs. No matter, I had gotten him to sleep so whoever was calling me in the dead of night was bound for a verbal lashing. I cringed at the brightness of the screen and turned on the night lamp.

It was Martha Barnaby, the math teacher.

"It's three in the frigging morning, what is it?" I grumbled sleepily.

"I just got back from Colorado, you have no idea what I found! Let me in and I will show you!"

Ok, that got me to wake up. I got up and looked out the window and lo and behold, there she was in all of her geeky, lanky and bespectacled glory. She waved at me smiling excitedly.

She was so lucky it was a Saturday tomorrow. I opened the door and let her in. In five minutes time I had her sipping at some instant coffee I kept around for guests while I was supporting myself with some juice. This better be good. I need some sleep.

Without further ado, Martha handed me a small dark, almost black smokey crystal into my hand and I stared at it, trying to figure out what it was. It was warm to the touch and covered with soot. I was about to ask what it was when I dragged my thumb across its surface. Then I felt this ...something pass through my fingers and my eyes widened when I saw the slight glow the shard was giving off through the soot.

"What the hell!?"

"I found it at that mine in Colorado! There more from where this came from but I had to get away before I got caught. The goverment was pulling out some sort advanced machinery from the mine!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know!"

"This thing obviously countains some sort of energy and..."

Suddenly I dropped the crystal back into Martha's hands and pulled away. I quickly went into the kitched and washed my hands. What if that thing is radioactive!? I went into the Garage through the door that connected it and the kitchen and started shuffling through the various boxes I had at one side.

"What are you looking for?" Martha asked curiously as she followed me to the garage.

"I'm looking for my Geiger Counter." I answered without looking at her.

"You have a Geiger Counter?" she raised an eyebrow at me,

"Of course I do. I wanted to make one myself but it turned out it'd be far less time consuming to just buy a ready-made one than to look for a Geiger tube." After seeing the look Martha was giving me I sighed and explained myself further. " It was for a physics project the principle didn't approve of. Anyways, here it is,"

I handed it to her, at which she turned it around in her hands, looking at it curiously, Actually, the Geiger counter was supposed to be part of some Fallout themed gimmicks that I wanted to have along with me for a convention that was going in Vegas. I gave up on the idea after finally convincing myself it was not worth running the risk being seen by people who might recognize me. The majority of the friends I had were part of a cosplay club we used to run a while back. Those glory days were over, at least for me. The realization had hurt a lot.

My half-finished Pip Boy is still lying around here somewhere, in one of these boxes.

#

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"That's it?"

"It gives off heat, light and some sort of current. My fingers feel funny."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are we going to find out what that is?"

"We need to use the lab equipment at the school for that. Some basic sciency stuff experiments." I rubbed my eyes tiredly.

To be honest Martha Barnaby scared me. I mean, looking at her I imagined that'd be me by the time I was her age. Well,. I'd never let myself become quite like her, I mean, who'd want to be called a crazy cat lady that thrives of conspiracy theories, Pytagorean Theorems and sudoku? Ugh. It makes me feel uncomfortable thinking about how people around me would percieve me. Bad thoughts aside, Martha actually brought a very interesting and challenging crystal to my home. This thing is something I've never seen before and my mind irked to learn its secrets. It's been years since I had a proper scientific problem to solve. I felt as exhilirated as Martha at this point, even though I was tired as fuck. It'd be 6 am soon and I barely had any winks of sleep a little before Martha woke me up for this.

"So what do we call it?"

"We don't even know what it is.I mean, its a crystal. It could be any number of things. We don't even know what the crystal structure is... you get my point."

"The glow was very visible in the dark, though. Do you think we can borrow Steven's lab?"

"That was the plan, actually. I bet he'd be interested in working with us on this. I am no scrub at chemisrty, mind you, but I'd rather not work in his lab without him. He knows the properties and quality of his materials best."

#

It turned out that Steven had called in sick for the week. Bloody spring weather spread diseases faster than fire on oil.

#

"What is this?"

"You tell me."

"Did you- is this some kind of joke?" Steven was getting both more incredulous and more suspicious of some foulplay by the second.

He was carefully examining the crystal Martha had found. Its glow was barely visible in the well lit Chemistry lab room.

"We want to know what it is too." Martha said, adjusting her glasses.

Steven rubbed a thumb over the surface, fascinated by the small shard. It reacted to his touch, glowing slightly more in the areas where his thumb had passed for a second or two.

"She played around with the shard for hours like that." Martha supplied cheekily and I glared at her. Her attempts at humor were awkward at best.

"It glows."

"Yes."

"And it isn't radioactive! We checked! Felicity's got a Geiger Counter,"

I rolled my eyes. She was trying to impress Steven with MY stuff. Whatever.

"Seriously, you can buy that off of the internet, its not super expensive or anything."

"This...shard doesn't give off any radiation?"

"Nothing we can immediately detect at least. I've been running it by the Geiger Counter at regular intervals and still nothing. Whatever it is, though, it emits light and warmth. And also some sort of current."

"And you want to test it?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I don't think it would be safe to do this in the school lab."

"Well, we tried, Martha.. Let's -"

"I never said we aren't testing it."

"So... where do we do this?"

"There is a small warehouse not far from the school. It's considered school property and there is spare and obsolete equipment in there."

"I bet I can fix up some of that stuff and modify it for our purposes."

"You can fix machinery?"

I blushed slightly under the scrutiny. Sometimes I really get ahead of myself. Dammit.

"Uhm, a bit of this and a bit of that, I watched some online courses and stuff. I live on my own with my boy so I've got be prepared, you know?"

Well, that was true but it wasn't the whole truth. I was an expert at pulling apart and putting together computers and I'm very decent with a soldering machine. I have very steady hands and a delicate touch that I put to very good use on many, many occasions.

"We'll talk more about this later. I have a class in about 10 minutes and I need to prepare." Steven cringed slightly." I have to talk about acids and bases and their properties with that Nakadai Brat in the room."

"Godspeed, Steve," I patted him on the shoulder as he headed off.

"I still don't understand why most of the staff hates that cute Japanese girl."

"May you never have to deal with her, Martha. We don't hate her. We dread her. There is a difference."

#

"Ugh, my neck is killing me." I grumbled as I stretched and cracked my neck with some very satisfying pops comming out of it.

"My neck would hurt too if I had udders like yours." I was cheerfully informed by none other than the resident hellspawn, Miko Nakadai.

I snorted. She had no idea how right she was. In fact:

"I was just thinking the same thing, But hey, breast milk does that."

Miko stopped scrubbing the graffitti and gave me a look.

"Okay, they arent that much smaller before I got knocked up but they were more manageable."

"How do you sleep at night, Ms. Dale? I mean, if I had TNT that big I'd suffocate myself by accident."

"That's a nice way to go. Death by TNT. I bet you don't have to worry about that kind of problems, being Japanese and all, Ms. Nakadai."

She laughed out loud at that.

"Sweet burn, if a bit racist. Not bad."

"It ain't racist if it's basic biology, brat."

Science versus smart asses? Science wins every time.

I looked at my watch and then back at Miko. She still had a long way to go before she was ready. I had to go back home to pick up my baby boy from day care earlier and then I left him at Sharona, who gladly agree to keep watch over him till I got back. Right now it was well after midnight and the school gym wasn't looking any better.

"This isn't working."I mumbled, holding one of the bottles with cleaning solutions. The paint wasn't washing off and whatever Miko had scrubbed down... well, let's say she literally scrubbed it off the wall.

"What kind of paint did you even use? This thing is as tough as white hair. We'd be better off scraping off the top layers of the walls and then repainting the whole thing."

Technically this wouldn't cost Miko anything but her hard work. I knew for a fact that the school had left over paint in the warehouse two blocks down. It would be a few more days to a week before the gym would be usable again but this was better than havving the girl slave her life away scrubbing as hard as she is now.

It was pointless to get the supplies now. As stubborn and as hardy as Miko Nakadai was, she was currently practically asleep on her feet. The principle had already spoken with her host family that she'd probably spend the entire night cleaning up her latest prank, so that left me with the only viable option at the moment.

"Come on Ms. Nakadai, let's get you something to eat and then we'll catch some snoozes, There is nothing more we can do right now."

"But the principle said -"

"I'm taking you to my place kid. It's not like we can do anything more here tonight. Ugh. Seriously. If this here doesn't teach you something, I don't know what will." I shook my head sternly." Next time at least check what kind of pain you've gotten your hands on. If you haven't noticed, Ms. Nakadai, I'm always the one handling your detentions. I would've been spending this evening with my son if it weren't for your continued shenanigans."

I exhaled audibly after taking a deep long breath, trying to calm myself down. It wasn't right for me to be angry at her for things I did myself not too long ago. In fact, I think this is probably one of those cases where that bitch Karma put me exactly where I was supposed to be. A taste of my own medicine, indeed!

Miko had the decency to look properly chasticed for once. Oh great. Did I upset her?

"Come on, I'll get you something to eat and then I'll introduce you to my Sunshine, how's that?"

"Sweet!"

#