Scientific Crescendo - Book 2: The Genetics Project 🪼✔

21 - Can't Always Get What You Want

I called Dad and he answered on the third ring.
"Hello"
"Hey, Dad, it's Sim... um... I'm in a bit of a problem."
"I don't like the sound of your voice... What happened?"
"Um, remember how I told you that Tayla grew because of my nanobots?"
"Yes..."
"Um, well, it happened again. And um, she really did grow into a fifty foot woman."
There was silence for a while. "I see... And where is she now?"
"Oh, you know... hanging out behind the school..."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah... so... uh... yeah..."
I heard him sigh and I could just see him shaking his head.
"What do you want me to do, Sim?"
"I don't know... Ask Mom if she can make Tayla some clothes or get a huge thing of tarp? I don't know what to do... She just needs to be covered."
"I can send your mom out there but there's not much that I can do either, Sim. Have you tried to fix your nanobots like last time?"
"Of course I have but they aren't cooperating. I need someone's help..."
"We're having our own problems here... I would love to help you more but I can't."
"Why?" I said, a little angry.
"Because the police called me and said that they saw Gerald somewhere. He's on the loose."
I gulped, hardly believing what he was saying. I knew Gerald was about and he was playing with me but... but now they have confirmed it all? I sat on the bed and licked my lips.
"Then what do we do?"
"Lock all the doors and look all around you wherever you go. Make sure you don't miss a thing. Show Tayla a picture of him and have her scout since she's in a literal higher position than you are. Take all necessary precautions. Would you like me to send Dr. Peters to you?"
"Not now... I'm fine. I'll tell Tayla or something..."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'll call him if I need him."
"Be safe, Sim."
"Yeah."
I hung up and sighed, kneading the bridge of my nose. I didn't want to involve Tayla in this but Dad was right in that since she is really tall now, she could scout. Though I don't know what the view is from fifty feet above...

************************

A couple of days went by and everything was alright for the most part. Tayla wasn't very happy that she was going to stay naked behind the school and she had to hide out in the small forest when school was in session. She figured out how to eat by herself but it was still hard for her since she was so big.
I was walking the halls when I got a phone call.
"Hello?"
"Sim?" a watery voice from the other end said.
"Bay?"
"Can you come get me from school?" he asked, a hitch in his voice.
"What's wrong? Did someone hurt you?"
"N-no... I just... I don't want to go home and I don't feel well and I feel like everyone is staring at me. Even Jai and Ichor... I just... I just want to feel normal again!"
"Calm down, calm down," I said with as soothing of a voice as I could. "Just take a deep breath for me, alright?" I heard him breathe in deeply and then exhale. "Now... What happened? Something must have happened if you're calling me."
"I just want to be normal again and since you're going through the same thing as me... At least I'll be a little normal."
I smiled. "I know it's hard to go through this by yourself, Bay. I'm too far away to pick you up though. You know I would if I was closer though, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Call my dad and tell him and he'll come get you."
"I don't want him... I hate him..."
"I know you do but he can help you, Bay."
"Can't I just come to you then?"
"After school... Can you stay there until then?"
"Okay..."
"Alright?"
"Yeah."
"We'll do something up here. Are you craving anything?"
"Eggs..."
"We'll go to a shoppe here that sells breakfast food all day long and is like a malt shop."
"You promise?"
"Yeah."
"Um... d-don't tell my dad and don't tell the others."
I laughed. "I won't, don't you worry."
He hung up and I smiled. Bay wasn't one to just be needy but his hormones must be way out of whack. Luckily, I didn't have too much of it but he's always been an emotional kid.
I went to Tayla's forest and found her sunbathing rather bluntly in a clearing she had made for herself.
"You know, you could get sun cancer doing that."
She turned to me, her big eyes narrowed.
"Well, what else am I to do with my time? Book are too tiny, ipads are too and I can't even listen to music. I was thinking about taking a bath in the lake at some point because I really don't want to smell."
"I can always treat you like a car and run a hose on you... Better yet, I can use a wishy-wash and fill it with soap."
She smirked. "Now you're just being obnoxious. But that could work... Though I'm seriously tired of people thinking that my you-know-what is a forest cave. Talk about your awkward."
"TMI, Tayla..."
"Well, you see what happens? It's not a lot but I get all stiff and stuff... Had any progress on it?"
"No... it's going to take a long time and some more professional help to fix you. Have you seen him?"
"No. Here, come get closer. I'm sure it's hard trying to yell at me all the time."
She held out her hand and I climbed into it, she raising up her hand and letting me off on the flat of her chest. As I got off of her, the baby began to kick and I gasped.
"What?"
"The baby is kicking."
"I wanna feel!"
She put her finger on my stomach and she smiled.
"Aw... how sweet. Do you know what you're having?"
"No. I kind of don't want to know. Besides, I'd have to have my Uncle Miller look at me and it's weird after the first time, ya know? It's like if your uncle was your gynecologist."
"Ah I understand..."
"Bay is going to come up and spend the rest of the day with me. He's getting emotional and self conscious about everything."
"How many months is he?"
"He should be three months behind me. I was three months when we told everyone and he was barely showing then. I think he's just confused and scared."
"I'm surprised you aren't."
"I was for a little bit but I had my dad to fall back on. He doesn't have anyone at all. He hates Dad for what he did to them and refuses to talk to him and Jai nor Ichor know what he's going through and so that leaves me."
"How is it supposed to... you know? Come out?"
"According to my dad, since it was mixed with seahorse stuff, seahorses naturally have a little hole that the seahorses can be born from. So do we at the base of our stomachs. Or so I've been told."
"I see. Must be so hard for you to deal with it."
"It's different and I hadn't expected it but if someone hadn't left my canister open, none of us would be in this situation. I wouldn't be six months pregnant lying on the chest of my fifty foot tall best friend behind a collage with a brother that's three months pregnant."
"Why was your canister not screwed on tight? Like you said, it should have been vacuum sealed."
"I don't know. It says in bright red letters that it needs to be sealed like that but someone obviously forgot."
"Or what if they didn't..." I looked at her and she looked at me. "Think about it, Sim. In a science lab, even if it isn't your stuff, you are to either let it be or look at the directions about where things go. That's how accidents and deaths happen... What if someone wanted to sabotage your experiment?"
"How? Why?"
"Why not? Nanobots is a futuristic technology. If they can make you go as slow as possible on it so that someone else can get to it before you..."
"I guess so... I'm working on it for you though, Tayla, don't worry."
"I don't worry. I'll set you down now and you can go hang out with Bay."
She lifted me off of her chest and set me on the ground. I waved goodbye to her and then left.

**********************

Bay met me at the front of the school, looking nervous and suspicious at the same time. I smirked at his weak attempt to look out of place.
"You need to work on being inconspicuous."
"Stop... I just want to go." he said, looking down.
I nodded and led him to my car so that we could go to the little shoppe that I had mentioned. Bay leaned against the window as we drove, his hands over his stomach, and didn't say a word. I sighed and just drove; he'd talk when he wanted to.
"Are the eggs good here?" he asked.
"They are to me... Bay, are you alright?"
"I'm okay... I just had to get out of that town."
"Something happened, didn't it?"
"A little bit but it's no big deal or anything..."
"It is if you came all the way here. Just tell me what's wrong."
"You'll make fun of me."
"No I won't."
He bit his bottom lip for a moment and then put his head back on the window.
"I had to pee but the teacher wouldn't let me. I... I peed right there in the classroom. Everyone was laughing at me... even the teacher... I didn't want to call Tarot and I didn't feel comfortable calling Dexter and so I just endured it. But it was so humiliating and no one let it go. I just wanted to hide and get away from everyone. And what's worse is that the kid beside me, who everyone thinks is weird anyway, he proceeded to tell me not to worry about it and that that he was a merman."
"What?" I said with a laugh.
"Yeah... He said he was a merman and that his parents were merpeople and people think he's really weird all the time. He said he understood that it was not a laughing matter."
"At least he was with you."
"Sim, he said he was a merman. How do I get comfort from crazy guy?"
"Well... I don't know. But it's better than no support at all, isn't it?"
"I guess... he's still weird. He has a funny name too for someone who doesn't even look Asian. Koe or whatever... I mean, it looks like 'koh' but he's like nooo, it's 'ko-ay'. What the hell difference does it make?"
"You're getting emotional again."
Bay calmed down and looked out the window again.
"I just want to be normal again. I want to have my rockin body that I used to have, chicks checking me out when I walk down the hall, do what I want, eat what I want, not be a complete and utter nance like a woman... I want to be me again."
"I know how you feel and I get that you feel violated but you can't be afraid to ask for help from whoever you have. You have to ask for it to receive it..."
He nodded and I pulled into the shoppe. We got out to get some eggs for Bay and a milkshake for me.