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“Professor, please, I’m begging you - just read it through again, I-”
“How many times do I have to tell you ‘no’, Kate?” Professor Lufton kept up a furious pace along the corridor, his black converse squeaking along the J-wing hall of the Pertree Building. He was one of those ‘cool’ professors, one of the ones who didn’t do his top button up and tried to make them all follow his Twitter account for ‘daily tweets about the amazing world of physics everybody!’.
Behind him, Kate was struggling to keep up, only just managing to keep herself from breaking into an actual sprint as she scurried along. She readjusted the position of her strap on her shoulder. She had a shift at Johnny’s in an hour, and since she was heading straight there from Professor Lufton’s lecture, she’d had to resort to a quick bathroom change into clothes more appropriate for work, leaving her ponytail at an odd angle. She’d been set, but then... she’d gotten the paper back.
“If you just let me have another go at it, I’m sure I could do better this time,” she tried again, her voice taking on an eerie quality in the abandoned corridor “I had a deadline on my bank loan and I had to work a few extra shifts to try and get the money”. That, combined with the weird writing in her textbook (which she was definitely not telling the professor about) had really put a dent in her productivity - she hadn’t been able to get much of anything done.
It was late evening, and the Lightbridge twilight was starting to seep in through the windows, flooding orange-gold across the linoleum floor and causing Kate to squint. When the professor stopped suddenly, she almost walked straight into him. She managed to stop herself just in time, but she was still uncomfortably close. She took a step back, he pushed his wire rimmed glasses up his nose and sighed.
“That there is exactly the reason why you did so poorly on your paper,” he said, taking on a tone that made her skin crawl.
She grit her teeth, “I know that, but I had a payment due - what did you expect me to do? I was already late on last month’s rent, I can’t afford to do that again, and-”
“Kate!” he cut her off quickly, before she could work herself up too much, “take a deep breath and, calm down. In fact, y’know what?” he glanced down the corridor before beckoning her towards an empty classroom, “let’s discuss this somewhere a little more private, okay?”
She shook her head and secured her bag over he shoulder, “I…I don’t have time for that, I’m sorry, my shift starts at six, and If I’m late I’ll end up leaving Johnny on his own because the guy I work with leaves when I arrive today”
The professor ran a hand through his hair, looking closer to sixty than he usually did, “I know that you’re struggling financially, heck, I don’t think I’ve got many students who aren’t, but I can’t give you special treatment, you know that right?”
“I’m not asking for ‘special treatment’”, Kate said, air quotations and all, “I just… I think I know where I went wrong, and I think I can fix it, you just have to give me a chance, I know that I can do it,” she bit her lip, the skin rough and jagged from where she’d indulged in the habit previously, “please?”
He frowned, “I don’t like this but… where do you think the mistake was?”
Kate felt her stomach unknot almost immediately, he was going to let her try again, she knew it,“Well, I know for a fact that I messed up with Lorentz transformations, but I know how to do them now, and I understand everything, I had someone explain it to me.”
“Very well. I want it this time next week, you hear?”
She grinned, “Loud and clear, thanks professor!”
Now all she had to do was try again. As long as she could do that, she’d be fine.
She’d just about managed to make it to the subway on time to catch the B train East to Johnny’s, and now she was sat, textbook open on her lap, trying to make the best of her time.
The carriage smelled like sweat and chinese takeaway, and odour that slithered and crawled up her nose, poking at her olfactory nerve to the point where she could barely focus. It wasn’t busy at this time of day per se, rush hour was just dwindling to a close, leaving the carriage available to an odd mix of university students like Kate coming out of later classes, people who worked odd hours in the city centre, and a few tourists who seemed to have missed the memo that just because Lightbridge was on an island that didn’t make it a great destination for a family holiday.
Kate knuckled down, drawing her attention away from her surroundings and back to the book.
Lorentz transformations are coordinate transformations involving two coordinate frames moving at a constant velocity relevant to each other. Lorentz functions are useful when discussing special relativity. For example when it is nearly time Kate.
With a yelp, Kate slammed the book shut, heart pounding. It was happening again. Why was it happening again? She was going mad. That was the only plausible explanation. She’d read that paragraph before, several times over, and it had never said that before. The fluorescent lights overhead cast the book in a familiar shade stark white, bouncing off the shiny cover and creating a glare that obscured the cover.
Nearby, a tired looking student glared at her and she flinched away, “Sorry!” she hissed quietly by way of an apology. He scowled before looking away again, leaving Kate to once again ponder the book in front of her.
Slowly, she cracked it open, flicking back to the page she’d been on before.
For example when
is the Lorentz function and c is the speed of light….
And it was back to how it was before. Huh. She allowed her eyes to slide shut and breathed deeply for a moment. She was probably just tired. Luckily her shift at Johnny’s was only a few hours long today, mostly involving helping close as opposed to serving. She’d go home tonight and go to bed straight away, she could get her re-do started tomorrow instead. Working on the subway was always a bad idea anyway, it was too easy to get distracted.
She closed the book, letting it sit on her lap for a few seconds. Glancing back down, about to slide it into her bag, she did a double take.
An Introduction to The Theory of Relativity was now Be Ready .
Like that wasn’t creepy. She needed sleep. She needed to get her shift at Johnny’s over and done with. She needed to figure out a way to tell Ruth at the shelter that she couldn’t make it this weekend. She needed to make sure her assignment was actually readable this time around. She needed to somehow do all that and pick up enough shifts to be able to cover bills and rent and her loan. She needed…. She needed a miracle, at this rate.
The train ground to a stop. Kate picked herself up, mistitled book still clutched in her fingers, and stepped out onto the platform. Not long now, she told herself, not long now.
As soon as she approached the small restaurant tucked into the little alley, it was if all the stress from earlier melted away. Johnny’s was a home away from home for anyone that needed it, and it was hard to let stresses from life and study reach her here, it was just so far removed from all the… bad. She was glad she was working somewhere like this and not in a cold, corporate chain restaurant like she’d been doing before she moved to Lightbridge.
It was the kind of place with more regulars than not, where the customers and staff treated each other like friends, where her boss actually smiled at her when she walked through the door. She remembered being told by a teacher when she was a kid not to use the word ‘nice’ to describe anything, but honestly? She couldn’t think of a word that fit better.
Well, for the most part.
Just as she was about to enter something, or rather someone, collided with her shoulder. She blinked in surprise, taken aback. Before she could say anything, they’d already gone. She looked back, trying to catch a glimpse of - oh. That explained it. She watched Saffron’s retreating form as he made his way down the street, something heavy and thick like tar settling in the pit of her stomach as she did so.
For a second, she thought about calling after him, but decided against it. She had work and he looked… not much different from how he always looked these days to be honest. She doubted he wanted to talk to her. And she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to talk to him, not after the day she’d been having, it wouldn’t end well.
Pushing the thought away, she made her way inside, ready to numb her mind with dishes and cleaning until she couldn’t even remember what had been bothering her in the first place.
“See you tomorrow Johnny!” Kate called as she pushed her way through the door, bag slung over her shoulder, skin crawling with the dirt and grime that accompanied closing shift. The open night air was cool in comparison to the cosy but cramped restaurant, even when there weren’t that many customers.
“Remember, bright and early! The breakfast rush are out for blood!” he replied with a wave and a smile as usual.
“Sure thing! Bye!” she laughed, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her coat as the door closed behind her, leaving her more or less alone. In the distance, drunken shouts and songs echoed, mostly male in tone, but backed by the ever present buzz of far-away traffic in the city centre. It was quiet here, so much as to almost feel muffled, but still connected, still a part of the city.
She began making her way to the subway, taking comfort in the familiar litany of shops and bars and restaurants, mostly independant or discount, that she walked past - The Toad in The Hole, EVERYDAY SALE FRENZY!!!!, Oakley’s Art Supply Store, Do not put it on yet.
Wait, what?
She blinked a couple of times, and the glowing neon sign above the hairdressers was back to showing it’s original, albeit questionable, name Belle’s Bangs. She rubbed her eyes, they were playing tricks on her again, although by this point it was more frustrating than it was bothersome. She continued walking. She just wanted to get home, get to bed, wake up in the morning, go to work, go to class, and get that assignment done. She needed to make sure she called Ruth as well, sooner rather than later. She’d be disappointed, and she’d be right to be disappointed. Kate was letting her down, again. It didn’t feel right, dropping the shelter to catch up on her studying, but she was falling behind, had already fallen behind to be perfectly honest. She couldn’t afford to miss any more grades, not if she wanted to succeed, not if she wanted it to have been worth-
A dark, glowing shape, falling from the sky. Fast.
Her heart stuttered. She leapt backwards. It was heavy. If it hit her. It’d kill her.
Seconds later it hit the pavement, with an explosive crack! sending out a concussive wave that slammed into Kate’s stomach knocking her backwards. An involuntary gasp escaped her lips as she staggered, overbalanced, and landed arse-first on the floor, coughing on the clouds of dust billowing upwards from the impact site.
She raised a shaking hand to cover her mouth - what had just-? She pushed herself to her feet, somewhat unsteady, legs trembling from the leftover adrenaline shooting through her veins, blood pounding in her ears.
She should run. There could be more of whatever that was. It could be some weird kind of terrorist attack. It could be anything - anything dangerous.
But, and why did there have to be a ‘but’, she felt… drawn towards it, whatever ‘it’ was. She looked up. All around her the signs on the shops had changed. From every angle all she could see in a million different colours and designs, just Take it, Kate. Take it. Take it. It is yours, take it.
A few steps forward, one terrified foot in front of the other, crushed on all sides by curiosity, excitement, things she hadn’t felt in so long it took her a second to realise what they were. There wasn’t a reason for her to do this. If anything there were a million reasons not to.
She got closer, close enough to see what it was.
A mask, like one of those ones art-y people paper mached over and painted. Except black, made of some kind of hard material that she didn’t think would break if it was thrown into the sun, despite the fact that it was covered in scratches and gauges, and looked generally worse for ware.
It steamed in the cool air, and the concrete in the small crater surrounding it looked damp,
melted even, yet somehow she knew that if she picked it up it wouldn’t hurt.
This went against… everything.
She picked it up.
It hung, slack from her fingers. Comfortably warm.
you know where you must go. the signs said.
Kate smiled, although it was a hesitant thing, threatening to shatter at the slightest knock.
“I do.”
“How many times do I have to tell you ‘no’, Kate?” Professor Lufton kept up a furious pace along the corridor, his black converse squeaking along the J-wing hall of the Pertree Building. He was one of those ‘cool’ professors, one of the ones who didn’t do his top button up and tried to make them all follow his Twitter account for ‘daily tweets about the amazing world of physics everybody!’.
Behind him, Kate was struggling to keep up, only just managing to keep herself from breaking into an actual sprint as she scurried along. She readjusted the position of her strap on her shoulder. She had a shift at Johnny’s in an hour, and since she was heading straight there from Professor Lufton’s lecture, she’d had to resort to a quick bathroom change into clothes more appropriate for work, leaving her ponytail at an odd angle. She’d been set, but then... she’d gotten the paper back.
“If you just let me have another go at it, I’m sure I could do better this time,” she tried again, her voice taking on an eerie quality in the abandoned corridor “I had a deadline on my bank loan and I had to work a few extra shifts to try and get the money”. That, combined with the weird writing in her textbook (which she was definitely not telling the professor about) had really put a dent in her productivity - she hadn’t been able to get much of anything done.
It was late evening, and the Lightbridge twilight was starting to seep in through the windows, flooding orange-gold across the linoleum floor and causing Kate to squint. When the professor stopped suddenly, she almost walked straight into him. She managed to stop herself just in time, but she was still uncomfortably close. She took a step back, he pushed his wire rimmed glasses up his nose and sighed.
“That there is exactly the reason why you did so poorly on your paper,” he said, taking on a tone that made her skin crawl.
She grit her teeth, “I know that, but I had a payment due - what did you expect me to do? I was already late on last month’s rent, I can’t afford to do that again, and-”
“Kate!” he cut her off quickly, before she could work herself up too much, “take a deep breath and, calm down. In fact, y’know what?” he glanced down the corridor before beckoning her towards an empty classroom, “let’s discuss this somewhere a little more private, okay?”
She shook her head and secured her bag over he shoulder, “I…I don’t have time for that, I’m sorry, my shift starts at six, and If I’m late I’ll end up leaving Johnny on his own because the guy I work with leaves when I arrive today”
The professor ran a hand through his hair, looking closer to sixty than he usually did, “I know that you’re struggling financially, heck, I don’t think I’ve got many students who aren’t, but I can’t give you special treatment, you know that right?”
“I’m not asking for ‘special treatment’”, Kate said, air quotations and all, “I just… I think I know where I went wrong, and I think I can fix it, you just have to give me a chance, I know that I can do it,” she bit her lip, the skin rough and jagged from where she’d indulged in the habit previously, “please?”
He frowned, “I don’t like this but… where do you think the mistake was?”
Kate felt her stomach unknot almost immediately, he was going to let her try again, she knew it,“Well, I know for a fact that I messed up with Lorentz transformations, but I know how to do them now, and I understand everything, I had someone explain it to me.”
“Very well. I want it this time next week, you hear?”
She grinned, “Loud and clear, thanks professor!”
Now all she had to do was try again. As long as she could do that, she’d be fine.
She’d just about managed to make it to the subway on time to catch the B train East to Johnny’s, and now she was sat, textbook open on her lap, trying to make the best of her time.
The carriage smelled like sweat and chinese takeaway, and odour that slithered and crawled up her nose, poking at her olfactory nerve to the point where she could barely focus. It wasn’t busy at this time of day per se, rush hour was just dwindling to a close, leaving the carriage available to an odd mix of university students like Kate coming out of later classes, people who worked odd hours in the city centre, and a few tourists who seemed to have missed the memo that just because Lightbridge was on an island that didn’t make it a great destination for a family holiday.
Kate knuckled down, drawing her attention away from her surroundings and back to the book.
Lorentz transformations are coordinate transformations involving two coordinate frames moving at a constant velocity relevant to each other. Lorentz functions are useful when discussing special relativity. For example when it is nearly time Kate.
With a yelp, Kate slammed the book shut, heart pounding. It was happening again. Why was it happening again? She was going mad. That was the only plausible explanation. She’d read that paragraph before, several times over, and it had never said that before. The fluorescent lights overhead cast the book in a familiar shade stark white, bouncing off the shiny cover and creating a glare that obscured the cover.
Nearby, a tired looking student glared at her and she flinched away, “Sorry!” she hissed quietly by way of an apology. He scowled before looking away again, leaving Kate to once again ponder the book in front of her.
Slowly, she cracked it open, flicking back to the page she’d been on before.
For example when
is the Lorentz function and c is the speed of light….And it was back to how it was before. Huh. She allowed her eyes to slide shut and breathed deeply for a moment. She was probably just tired. Luckily her shift at Johnny’s was only a few hours long today, mostly involving helping close as opposed to serving. She’d go home tonight and go to bed straight away, she could get her re-do started tomorrow instead. Working on the subway was always a bad idea anyway, it was too easy to get distracted.
She closed the book, letting it sit on her lap for a few seconds. Glancing back down, about to slide it into her bag, she did a double take.
An Introduction to The Theory of Relativity was now Be Ready .
Like that wasn’t creepy. She needed sleep. She needed to get her shift at Johnny’s over and done with. She needed to figure out a way to tell Ruth at the shelter that she couldn’t make it this weekend. She needed to make sure her assignment was actually readable this time around. She needed to somehow do all that and pick up enough shifts to be able to cover bills and rent and her loan. She needed…. She needed a miracle, at this rate.
The train ground to a stop. Kate picked herself up, mistitled book still clutched in her fingers, and stepped out onto the platform. Not long now, she told herself, not long now.
As soon as she approached the small restaurant tucked into the little alley, it was if all the stress from earlier melted away. Johnny’s was a home away from home for anyone that needed it, and it was hard to let stresses from life and study reach her here, it was just so far removed from all the… bad. She was glad she was working somewhere like this and not in a cold, corporate chain restaurant like she’d been doing before she moved to Lightbridge.
It was the kind of place with more regulars than not, where the customers and staff treated each other like friends, where her boss actually smiled at her when she walked through the door. She remembered being told by a teacher when she was a kid not to use the word ‘nice’ to describe anything, but honestly? She couldn’t think of a word that fit better.
Well, for the most part.
Just as she was about to enter something, or rather someone, collided with her shoulder. She blinked in surprise, taken aback. Before she could say anything, they’d already gone. She looked back, trying to catch a glimpse of - oh. That explained it. She watched Saffron’s retreating form as he made his way down the street, something heavy and thick like tar settling in the pit of her stomach as she did so.
For a second, she thought about calling after him, but decided against it. She had work and he looked… not much different from how he always looked these days to be honest. She doubted he wanted to talk to her. And she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to talk to him, not after the day she’d been having, it wouldn’t end well.
Pushing the thought away, she made her way inside, ready to numb her mind with dishes and cleaning until she couldn’t even remember what had been bothering her in the first place.
“See you tomorrow Johnny!” Kate called as she pushed her way through the door, bag slung over her shoulder, skin crawling with the dirt and grime that accompanied closing shift. The open night air was cool in comparison to the cosy but cramped restaurant, even when there weren’t that many customers.
“Remember, bright and early! The breakfast rush are out for blood!” he replied with a wave and a smile as usual.
“Sure thing! Bye!” she laughed, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her coat as the door closed behind her, leaving her more or less alone. In the distance, drunken shouts and songs echoed, mostly male in tone, but backed by the ever present buzz of far-away traffic in the city centre. It was quiet here, so much as to almost feel muffled, but still connected, still a part of the city.
She began making her way to the subway, taking comfort in the familiar litany of shops and bars and restaurants, mostly independant or discount, that she walked past - The Toad in The Hole, EVERYDAY SALE FRENZY!!!!, Oakley’s Art Supply Store, Do not put it on yet.
Wait, what?
She blinked a couple of times, and the glowing neon sign above the hairdressers was back to showing it’s original, albeit questionable, name Belle’s Bangs. She rubbed her eyes, they were playing tricks on her again, although by this point it was more frustrating than it was bothersome. She continued walking. She just wanted to get home, get to bed, wake up in the morning, go to work, go to class, and get that assignment done. She needed to make sure she called Ruth as well, sooner rather than later. She’d be disappointed, and she’d be right to be disappointed. Kate was letting her down, again. It didn’t feel right, dropping the shelter to catch up on her studying, but she was falling behind, had already fallen behind to be perfectly honest. She couldn’t afford to miss any more grades, not if she wanted to succeed, not if she wanted it to have been worth-
A dark, glowing shape, falling from the sky. Fast.
Her heart stuttered. She leapt backwards. It was heavy. If it hit her. It’d kill her.
Seconds later it hit the pavement, with an explosive crack! sending out a concussive wave that slammed into Kate’s stomach knocking her backwards. An involuntary gasp escaped her lips as she staggered, overbalanced, and landed arse-first on the floor, coughing on the clouds of dust billowing upwards from the impact site.
She raised a shaking hand to cover her mouth - what had just-? She pushed herself to her feet, somewhat unsteady, legs trembling from the leftover adrenaline shooting through her veins, blood pounding in her ears.
She should run. There could be more of whatever that was. It could be some weird kind of terrorist attack. It could be anything - anything dangerous.
But, and why did there have to be a ‘but’, she felt… drawn towards it, whatever ‘it’ was. She looked up. All around her the signs on the shops had changed. From every angle all she could see in a million different colours and designs, just Take it, Kate. Take it. Take it. It is yours, take it.
A few steps forward, one terrified foot in front of the other, crushed on all sides by curiosity, excitement, things she hadn’t felt in so long it took her a second to realise what they were. There wasn’t a reason for her to do this. If anything there were a million reasons not to.
She got closer, close enough to see what it was.
A mask, like one of those ones art-y people paper mached over and painted. Except black, made of some kind of hard material that she didn’t think would break if it was thrown into the sun, despite the fact that it was covered in scratches and gauges, and looked generally worse for ware.
It steamed in the cool air, and the concrete in the small crater surrounding it looked damp,
melted even, yet somehow she knew that if she picked it up it wouldn’t hurt.
This went against… everything.
She picked it up.
It hung, slack from her fingers. Comfortably warm.
you know where you must go. the signs said.
Kate smiled, although it was a hesitant thing, threatening to shatter at the slightest knock.
“I do.”
