The Nerd's Alter Ego

Ch 18: Premature

(unedited)

Nicky's pov

The moment I gave the answer, Alex spurted out his milkshake. I burst into laughter. I've always wanted to make someone do that. While he was wiping his mouth, everyone else cracked up with me. 

"How the heck did you do that?" He demanded. 

I tried to calm down, "How did I do what?"

"Answer the question? I forgot the number half way through, and yet you were able to add it at the top of your head without a calculator? What are you?!"

I laughed some more at him. "Not important, Ryan do you have more?"

"Oh, we have plenty," Zac said, chuckling a bit. "Here's the next one: 4587998 minus 145236 plus 89532 equals..?"

"4532294. Next!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Hold your horses!" Alex cut in. He showed me his phone, which had on a calculator. It showed the number I just said. "How are you able to get the right answers?"

I covered my mouth, to keep from laughing; I wasn't succeeding much. "I'll explain after I'm done with them. Guys?"

This time it was Richard, "The next one is a code. The number represent the letter in the alphabet. For example, 1 stands for A, 5 stands for E. Here it is: 14 25 4 6 12 19 20 18 5 3."

"N-Y-D-F-L-S-T-R-E-C." I didn't hear a sound of surprise from beside me. I looked over at Alex to see that his mouth was dropped open. 

We went on for a few more nonsense words, and then I got tired of answering them aloud, so I just got up and decoded it by myself. Then we all went home (the girls were done with the report way before). But the elevator didn't have enough space for all of us, so Alex and I went in the next shift. While waiting I said, "Okay, now you may ask any questions that you wanna ask."

He nodded and took a deep breath. "Why are you so good at math? Why did you not need a calculator to solve those problems? Why were you able to decode those words so easily?Why do you know know which letter is in what position in the alphabet? Can you please explain what the heck is going on?"

I blinked as I digested all of that, and then I waited for more questions to be thrown at me. they were none. Huh, I thought he'd have a few more hundred. 

"Okay, soooo, where do I start. Actually, all of your questions basically have the same answer. The thing is, I'm premature. I was born after only seven and a half months of pregnancy. My mom caught a viral disease that would've killed me if I stayed in her womb any longer. So she got a cesarean delivery to save me. Thankfully, nothing serious happened to either of us, at the time. The only thing that affected me was...." I didn't continue because I was sure he wouldn't know what I'n talking about.

"Do you know why babies cry immediately after birth?"

"Absolutely no idea." He shook his head.

I knew it.

"Anyways, doctors make babies cry before anything else, because when they do, oxygen gets in the baby's lungs. That's why the first thing doctors do is make babies cry. But that was what affected me. I didn't cry. Oxygen didn't get into me immediately, and the doctors even predicted my death. But some form of miracle happened, and here I am. 

"Anyways, the reason why I'm like this is because of that. Since Oxygen didn't get in my brain when it should have, my brain works a little differently. It's like it works on a different rate. You know that a human can only control like ten percent of their own brain right? I can control around fourteen. But unfortunately, I can only control the math side of my brain. I'm photogenic you see. So that's one thing. The other thing is that my brain works faster, so if I learn how to do something, I will always know how to do it. That's why I was able to solve those additions and subtractions. I learned how to do them in grade one, and it stuck in my head. I can just calculate them much faster and with a lot more ease. Same with the letters. I memorized them when I was little, and I just remember them in my head. That's all there is to it."