Part 1: Caroline
Chapter One
Once upon a time, there was a girl, desperate for love. When she finally found the love of her life, they married and lived happily ever after.
Well, I wish that were my story, but things are going just a bit different for me.
Cave Johnson and I have been together for about four years, and today he is taking me to a science museum.
We have been taking extra years and classes at school to become professional scientists. Cave has this big dream of opening his own science company. He wants to make science that has never been discovered or invented yet. And if I were to be honest, I don't think he will succeed in that. I know that's being a terrible girlfriend, so I try my best to get myself to believe that he can do it.
"Look, Caroline!" he says to me at the Space Exhibit. We find a section about black holes. "Did you know that black holes make a big gravity well so deep that the existing matter around it falls into it? It's like a bowling ball on a mattress and you put marbles around it, and they all fall into the well that the bowling ball makes! I wonder if it can stretch space time so much that the space time in the middle of the well will stretch inward and somehow make two completely separate points touch! I will someday need to research and experiment on that!"
I roll my eyes and laugh. His extremely nerdy side is showing again. "Yes, I know, it's one of the most basic facts of black holes. It's what a black hole is!" I say. "Just like the gravity is so great that once you fall passed the event horizon then you will never be seen again. Dun dun dun! No one really knows what happens inside a black hole passed the event horizon. Some people believe in the 'wormholes and time travel' theory. I don't really. The fact that you would need the same amount of energy as an exploding star sounds impossible. That stuff just sounds like bogus to me."
"Oh, I believe in it. Big time. When I get my own science company, I'm experimenting on all that stuff. Time travel, wormholes, black holes, and maybe even artificial intelligence!" He says.
"If you get the science company. We don't know for sure."
"Right," He says, rolling his eyes.
We pass other exhibits, him explaining something nerdy, me telling him that I know what he's talking about. We stay until the museum closes, and then he drives me home.
"So," he says as he drives. "Tomorrow is graduation day. Do you have a speech? Are you nervous?"
"I've got my speech prepared. I have been practicing it in the mirror several times. What about you?" I say.
"I'm so nervous!" He says.
"Why?" I say.
"Well, tomorrow they're supposed to tell me if I'm qualified to run my own company. I am also supposed to have enough money to buy the building, too. I hope I do qualify. This has been my life dream. My father was a scientist, my grandfather was a scientist, my great-grandfather was one, and so on. But the thing was, they were employees of someone else. No one in the family ever had their own business. Ever since my dad died, I have really wanted to do something big which would have made him proud. And since he died when I was little, I have had that dream for as long as I can remember."
I feel tears well up in my eyes. I know now why he wants this business so bad. And now I want him to get it, too. I actually believe he can now.
"I believe that you can get it, since we both are getting doctor's degrees," I say, trying to fight back my tears. "And I can help you with the money. Do you think I can work there, too?"
