Talk Nerdy to Me

Talk Nerdy to Me Prologue

Talk Nerdy to Me

"What do you need help with first?" She asked. She pulled the worksheet closer to them. She really couldn't stand the annoying jock that Mr. Allen assigned her to work with. It was almost as if this was a form of personal punishment for her. At least now she could get the volunteer hours that she needed- oh, who was she kidding, this was pure hell!

"Signal transduction pathway." he replied, oblivious as always. Oh, God, he could hardly pronounce 'transduction'. She glanced at his name scrawled on the top of the paper. First grade print. He was more hopeless than she thought.

"Oh that's an easy one." She said as if it was nothing. On the inside she was freaking out. Was he really this behind? What if she couldn't teach him anything? What if she couldn't handle his level stupidity? She watched as he flicked the brown hair out of his eyes. She groaned on the inside. What an idiot. "If the receptor is found in the membrane of the cell, a series of signals must be passed through the membrane to inter-cellular molecules which in turn activate transcription. These pathways often involve the phosphorylation of the receptor protein which in turn phosphorylates other cellular proteins this signal is passed through the several cellular protein where eventually a transcription factor is modified such that it activates transcription." She said with confidence. If anything, the science was a comfort to her. She needed the comfort that biology had for her. Biology was her everything and she was just supposed to give up all her knowledge to this dumb jock who would probably wouldn't even remember a thing about the signal transduction pathway. He just wanted to pass biology. He was going to be the end of her. She looked up to meet his eyes and he was staring at her as if she killed a puppy.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she rolled her brown eyes.

"I have no idea what you just said." He said honestly. This was new. She perked up at the insecurity in his voice. "All I heard was membrane, more scientific stuff, signal and more scientific crap." Science crap? Are you kidding me? This is my life. It's who I am and he described it as crap! What a jack-ass.

"Okay let me give you an example." This was easy. "I put my hand on a hot stove, and a cellular response tells me to move my hand because I might burn myself." She said simply. She checked her watch. She needed to get going- that new article on ocean acidification written by her favorite environmentalist should be online by now. She closed the textbook and grabbed her bag.

He shut his binder and stopped her hand from putting the textbook in her bag. He moved closer to her to where his breath tickled her neck while his fingertips caressed her arm causing goose bumps to form and said, "So if I kissed you here, would this cause a cellular response for you to tilt your head back, eye lids half closed, and moan?"