“Alright then,” I say after the audience stops applauding. Someone clears their throat and my eyes draw to them. Oh. It’s Serafina. Of course. What better place to find you judgmental but also very nerdy ex, than at a seminar about the scientific method. I want to be clear right now, that I didn’t ask to speak, but then some smart dude with connections to the even smarter scientific community saw my end of junior year project at the science fair and aproached my table and asked for my parents and it became a whole thing; now I’m in a college lecture sized classroom and today, tomorrow, and a week from yesterday, I have to talk about (and fairly represent) Archimedes’ Bouyancy Principle. But lemme tell ya, I do. not. want. to.

Mostly because I will pretty much be talking out of my behind the whole time, and now that Serafina is sitting two seats to left of center stage and eight rows up, I might as well be attempting to sing in Mandarin. Which I can’t do, by the way.

“Umm,” _Don’t say um too many times. It make you look stupid! _“So let’s get s-s-started, yeah? First I’d like to say th-thank you to Mr. Lawrence Brinnson for um, talking to me at the science fair.” I glance up at Serafina. All she does is raise an eyebrow. I begin to think of my options if this doesn’t go well. One; I could bury myself under my sheets until someone tells me to read my parents’ will, then trudge to some random church in a black jumpsuit and my mother’s heel boots. No that’s too dark. Two; I could read every single scientific philosophy book until my eyes close and don’t open again. Alright I need to get away from this idea of death. “ I was flattered when you told me that my project deserved public attention.”

Serafina is the smarter one here. It sucks that I still kinda like her. Also sucks that mom’s ‘_baby girl’ _did one smart thing and now she’s here. This isn’t going to go well, but here we are. I’m just going to breath, ignor Serafina, and open my mouth.