Hey everyone, I hope you had a great week last week, and that this one has started off well. Thank you to gypsyrosalie, Guest, and fangirl for reviewing last chapter. :)

Chapter 20

'She hasn't come out of her room in a while,' Claire hissed at Phil, jabbing her thumb at the stairs. 'We should go and talk to her.'

'I...' Phil paled visibley.

'You don't think...?' Hayley wrung her hands together. 'It's been a few days, should we be noticing a smell?'

'Maybe she created a chemical bath which broke her body down so there was no smell,' Luke piped up.

'She does study chemistry,' Phil nodded solemnly.

'I don't-'

'Claire, let the boy speak!' Phil screeched. Claire threw up her hands in frustration and left the room while Luke launched into an incredibly detailed spiel about how Alex had created a chemical bath and rerouted the piping of their house to flush away her remains.

'Mum, what if Alex doesn't get better?' Claire stiffened at Hayley's question, but rearranged her face into a calm expression before turning to face her eldest daughter.

'She will,' she replied.

'But what if-'

'She will,' Claire said again, more emphatically.

'Okay,' Hayley nodded, blinking away the tears which had started to form in her eyes. 'I just want her to be Alex again.'

'I know honey, I want that too,' Claire sighed. 'But you know, her therapist said that she might never be the same person, this will change her a little. It is important that we just love her and be there to support her no matter what.' Claire went back to rearranging the plates on the tray, hiding the worry which had stolen over her features. She didn't want to worry her daughter, but she wasn't entirely sure if Alex was going to get better or not; her behaviour was so up and down that it was hard to say for certain.

'Let's go and take her some lunch so we can at least make sure she's eating.' And make sure she's alive! Claire didn't voice her real thoughts to her eldest; instead the two of them climbed the stairs slower than usual, wondering what they would find behind the door of Alex's room.

'Mum,' Hayley grabbed Claire's arm as they reached the closed door. The two of them hesitated, taking a deep breath.

'It's okay,' Claire whispered before pushing open the door. 'Alex, honey?' Claire called out cautiously as she stepped into the room. Her younger daughter was sitting on the floor, surrounded by textbooks, scrunched up paper and notebooks. She looked up from her seat in shock as Claire and Hayley hovered in the doorway.

'Oh hi, what are you doing in here?' Alex asked distractedly.

'Well, we were worried you weren't eating, so we brought you food.' Claire placed the tray she was carrying down on the table and stepped back to wiper her hands on her jeans.

'I was just about to come down,' Alex shrugged.

'So ummm, what have you been doing these last few days?' Claire looked back at Hayley who was leaning nervously against the doorframe.

'I've been working on a very exciting project.' Alex put her laptop on the floor and taking her glasses off, began to polish them on her shirt. 'I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to see you much, I was just really inspired and wanted to get some work done while I was feeling motivated.

'What's your project?' Hayley finally spoke up.

'Here, have a look.' Alex handed her laptop up to her mum. Claire and Hayley gathered around the screen while Alex slowly got up, stretched out her cramps, and poked through the tray of food.

'It's a blog,' Hayley remarked, recognising the format quickly. Alex smiled to herself but remained silent, waiting for the two of them to read through the post. There was a picture of the tread of a shoe, and then text explaining the scientific principles of friction with comparisons to tyres.

'Did you write this?' Claire looked up at her daughter. Alex put down the carrot stick she had been munching on and nodded.

'What do you think? Is it easy enough to understand?'

'Yeah, there weren't too many big words, and it was still interesting enough to keep me reading it,' Hayley nodded. 'I didn't realise the grip on shoes was so important to stop us from falling over.'

'Thank you,' Alex nodded.

'This is great work Alex, I'm really proud of you,' Claire nodded, still in shock.

'The layout of the blog is really good too, it'll appeal to a wide audience.' Hayley added.

'Thank you, that's what took me so long, I coded the website myself.' Alex smiled proudly.

'You...' Hayley trailed off, tilting her head to the side.

'I designed the blog layout myself.' Alex amended.

'Oh, well it's nice, let me know if you want any help with photos or anything.' Hayley grinned.

'I will thank you,' Alex beamed.

'So what made you decide to...' Claire waved her hand at the laptop. Alex thought back to her encounter with Cristian the week before, but decided not to disclose anything to her mum.

'I just wanted a little project, and I think there's a need to make science more accessible, and explain how it is relevant to our daily lives.' Alex said. 'It's something that I'm passionate about, and I want to share that passion with other people in the hope that I can encourage more people, especially more girls to get excited about science.'

'As super nerdy as that sounded, that's pretty cool,' Hayley smiled.

'Well if that makes me a nerd, I want to be a nerd until the day I die,' Alex declared decisively.

It's so good to see Alex having something in her life which makes her happy, hopefully it will stay constant for her. Please leave me a review to let me know what you think, and I will see you all next week! :)