i remember everything, so who are you?

[self_composed]

Bella attends her classes with faultless punctuality, every time. She sits in the second or third row on an aisle in the middle section of seats, in the classes that take place in big auditorium lecture halls like the main section of Bio; she's willing to put herself closer to the professors in smaller classes like OS and of course her flute chair (third; she hasn't been quite ridiculously showoffy enough to climb beyond yet) is assigned. But right now, she is in Bio, learning tidbits about auxin and tropisms that the textbook didn't cover fully. She's running at about one and a half speed, just enough that she can trivially listen to and process the lecture against her memory of the text while also permitting some mind-wandering. She liiiiiikes her cognitive speedup power.

Comments

[self_composed]

"Four. Orchestras usually don't have that many, but the conductor really likes woodwinds, and even our fourth chair is really good so it'd be a pity to kick him out."

[regularsized]

"A surplus, you might say."

[self_composed]

"Yes. But only of flutes, not of violins. There are lots more violins and there are supposed to be."

[regularsized]

"I wonder why."

[self_composed]

"Well, there are two sections of violins, and only one of flutes, but their individual sections are bigger too. I'm not sure why. I guess they just get lots of emphasis in orchestral music."

The music building is a ways away from the science area. They are about halfway there.

[regularsized]

"It's a mystery," Bridget says agreeably. "We can only speculate."

[self_composed]

"Well, we could also ask a historian of music, or maybe a music theorist," Bella shrugs. "If we really cared."

[regularsized]

"And do you know any of those?"

[self_composed]

"No, but I bet there's one on campus or in regular contact with someone who is. I just don't care enough to seek them out."

[regularsized]

"So, back to speculating, then," Bridget agrees.

[self_composed]

"Flutes can be very piercing. Maybe we'd overwhelm the strings in quantity."

[regularsized]

"That sounds like a reasonable theory."

[self_composed]

And there's the building. "It was nice to meet you."

[regularsized]

"Nice to meet you, too, Bella."

[self_composed]

"Likewise, Bridget. See you next bio class. Or lab if you go to lab and wind up in my section." Bella waves and heads in to listen to the extended violin sectional.

Her lab section meets the next day. And who should be there but Bridget. "Hi. Are you just hanging out or are you going to do the lab?" Bella asks her.

[regularsized]

"I am going to do the lab!" says Bridget. "Hi!"

[self_composed]

"Cool, you can be my partner then. We rotate around so I'm not already claimed." Bella heads for a lab table. They are going to witness the behavior of unidirectional membranes with something that has an application in dialysis. Then they are going to write stuff about that down.

This is only somewhat better than high school. Maybe there can be interesting conversations to accompany boring lab, and Bella can run at 1x, and she will be only a little bored.

[regularsized]

"It's nice having a Biology Friend," says Bridget, following Bella to the lab table.

[self_composed]

"What else are you auditing?" Bella asks, pretending to read the instructions that she memorized on first glance.

[regularsized]

"Organic chemistry and statistics. I like statistics better."

[self_composed]

"Rumor has it organic chem is terribly hard," Bella says. "What kind of doctor do you want to be?"

She's moved her eyes back and forth across these instructions enough times; she starts setting up, and hands Bridget some stuff to do too.

[regularsized]

"I haven't decided yet. That was one of the problems that got me out of it in the first place. Particle physics is much easier."

[self_composed]

"In my admission essay I wrote something about how I wanted to be a medical researcher maybe because I got hit by a car this one time," Bella says. "I'm not actually as sure as I made myself sound, though. I certainly didn't have a kind of research picked out."

[regularsized]

"Hit by a car? That sounds exciting. I have to admit, though, it probably wouldn't make me want to do medical research."

[self_composed]

"I went into more detail than that in the essay, obviously. And I don't think I'd use the word 'exciting'. By the time I regained consciousness there was no further excitement."