The Big Bang Baby [The Big Bang Theory]

Chapter 17

School is the worst. Luckily I didn't see much of Gregg. We only have one class together, science. The one he said he'll help me get back because I dropped out of it. I went to go and sit at the back of the class, away from all civilization or hoping no one would talk to me.

I am not in the mood to interact with anyone. I tried my best this morning to look presentable, covering my puffy eyes with makeup. I am sure one can still see the mess under my makeup.

As I take my notebook out of my backpack, Gregg walks into the class. I haven't seen him since Friday. I am not at all surprised to see him here. He has that science competition on Friday, so he probably needs all the classes now that he can attend to prepare him. But seeing him now gives me a feeling I didn't know I had. I thought Gregg's cheating in me would erase those feelings, but it did not. All the feelings are coming back.

I give him a small smile to give him a sign. I don't have the energy to deal with him today. We'll talk, but not today. He stops at the first empty seat he stops at and takes a seat. I can see the tension in his shoulders as he settles down and takes out his books and pencil case for the class. The chatter around the class quiets down as soon as the teacher enters the classroom. A very nicely dressed Mrs. Stanley walks over to her desk and pages through the book on her desk.

"Good morning, class. I hope you all had a good weekend." No one responds. "I said, I hope you all had a good weekend," she says for the second time. The entire class starts to answer some 'yes' as a response.

"Today, we will be discussing how the formation of the universe started." Mrs. Stanley starts. "Scientists have evidence that our Universe began about 13.7 billion years ago. The illustration on the right helps to show how the Universe expanded from a tiny "singularity" we call the Big Bang, which was no bigger than an electron, into the infinitely large Universe we know today."

I take out my notebook and start to write down what she's saying. In that one sentence alone, there is so much information to take in and digest that my head starts to spin with information overload.

"Looking deep into the Universe with the Hubble Space telescope, you can see galaxies as far away as 13 billion light years away. So, what is a light year? First, you should know that light travels at 186,000 miles per second! It is like traveling around the equator 7-1/2 times in only one second. It's the fastest thing we know. To give you another idea of how fast light travels, imagine that we could flip a switch to turn off the sun. The sun is about 93 million miles away from Earth." Mrs. Stanley turns around to write some information on the blackboard.

"Now, let's talk about time. Time is a tricky thing. It can seem like it's moving extremely slowly or quickly. But, in reality, time is always moving at the same speed." Mrs. Stanley turns around to face us again and continues talking.

I remember now why I decided to drop this subject. My brain, at this point, is just pulling through. All this information is just too hard to process in my little brain, which needs to be more creative. I need to start thinking about this scientific information more creatively and visually.

I start to sketch some information I've written down into pictures so that it is visually appealing and so that I can at least understand some of the information and pass this class.

I look up to scan the class in front of me. Ninety percent of the class listens attentively to whatever Mrs. Stanley is teaching. The other twenty percent, which includes me, are either napping on their desk or not even digesting the information. It goes into one ear and leaves through the other side.

Sometime during the class, I zoned out.

"The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies are scheduled to collide in 3.75 BILLION years! Our sun will also be at the end of its life around the same time, so....no worries!" Mrs. Stanley's words bring Mr back to reality together with the bell blaring, draining the voices of the class.