I grew up in all kinds of small towns up and down the east coast. Sometimes close enough to the ocean that I could smell it, and sometimes so far up in the hills the notion of so much water seemed ludicrous. My parents moved around so much I pretty much stopped making friends. I mean, what was the point if I wasn't even going to finish the school year in the same school district? So when I tell you that during my freshman year (in some long forgotten, out of the way college) I was somewhat of a loner, I want you to grasp my full meaning.
Oh! Excuse me, where are my manners? My name is Michael, though some people call me Mike, and I am now a bespoke gene hacker. I learned my trade at an east coast college of some repute, though not quite of ivy league calibre. My parents had quite a bit of money saved up so they rented me a room near campus. Every morning I walked, alone, to campus and directly to whatever lecture hall I was supposed to be in that day. I'd do nothing but attend lectures all day and then, without having said a word to anyone I'd walk back to my apartment. That first month of college the only person I spoke to was the cashier of the local seven-eleven.
This all had to change at the start of the second semester. As a stereotypical nerd I had the entire six-year curriculum read and memorized. The first semester had been all about teaching the theory: Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Gene-mapping. I was good at that. During the second semester the focus would shift to more practical research and development, starting with a collaborative lab in gene splicing. I had to find a lab-partner.
Of course by now several of my classmates had struck up conversations with me and discovered that I was neither shy or anxious among them. They now understood my lack of friends wasn't due to any psychological or social dysfunction, but simply a lack of need or interest for social interaction. I had been alone for most of my life and I grew up fine; I could still hold a conversation, especially if the topic was of interest to me, and at most my small talk felt under utilised. They had accepted me for the silent nerd that I was.
It was a Monday morning, the rain was pouring down but that hadn't stopped me from my 30 minute walk to campus. For the first time in weeks, though, I hadn't gone straight to the lecture hall. Instead I found myself in the grand hall of the primary building, the only building on campus that was open to the public and which housed most of the offices and a couple of convenience stores. Right next to the entrance was Jack's, a decently sized diner that opened before the crack of dawn and allowed sleepless professors and students their early morning coffee and breakfast. Uncharacteristically I stepped across the threshold and made my way to the counter where I ordered a strong coffee and some light breakfast. I sat down with my breakfast across from a classmate and my only reason for coming here. This is how I met Deborah.
Unlike me, Deborah's lived her entire childhood in a remote village in the middle of nowhere of the bible-belt. With a maximum of some two-hundred ultra-religious residents, Deborah had no other girls of her age to grow up with, only three boys. She was expected to spend her entire life with one of them, but as kids they were more interested in bullying and by the time they became interested in girls all they wanted was to paw at her boobs. Though the circumstance were different, she grew up as isolated and alone as I had. But where I spend my time studying, reading, becoming a standard nerd and valuing the correct statement of facts over pleasantries, she began to rebel. It started with ordering and listening to hard rock off of the media-web. Music she knew would have the disapproval of her holier-than-thou parents.
When she turned sixteen she managed to sweet talk one of the villagers to teach her to drive and soon she had a driver's license and a cheap wreck of car that was held together only by it's own dirt. This piece of shit machinery broke down every other week and she had to maintain it by herself, but she nevertheless drove it to the next decently sized city every day. Over time these trips gave her the freedom to explore a world much larger than she had supposed. A world full of art and science and all things her parents denounced as evil. Instead of reading the bible, she began bringing home books of science from the library. Particularly books that disproved biblical thought such as important texts on biology, genetics and evolutionary science. Her love of hard music became more pronounced and soon she had embraced her first Metal bands. The tattoo's and piercings came soon after. The extremely orthodox community she came from began to shun and decry her behaviour. They proclaimed her a witch. Desperate to gain her independence she used the resources of the library to apply for a feminist scholarship.
Before I sat down I counted three different facial piercings and at least five different tattoo's. She was wearing heavy black lipstick and her clothes screamed at people to keep their distance with spikes and chains attacked to thick black leather and a form fitting lady-T with the undecipherable logo of the latest extreme metal band in her playlist. In front of her stood a cup of black tea and a half-eaten bagel next to a thick old-fashioned leather bound text book with gold-leaf lettering; "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". Her head bobbed to music I couldn't hear, probably beamed straight into her aural implants. I gestured for her attention.
"What?" she demanded as she tapped the interface on the back of her hand.
"Deborah Miles, right?"
"Only bitches like my mother call me Deborah," she sneered the words, "Are you a bitch?"
"Uhm.... No?" I was thoroughly confused, I wasn't used to this kind of talk. Silence descended between us. "What do I..." I began but she interrupted.
"Debbie. Everybody calls me Debbie." she rolled her eyes.
More silence...
"What do you want?"
"Oh right!" I began to blurt out my spiel, "Next semester we have to work in groups of two during gene splicing labs and since you and I have the best grades of our class I thought it would be advantageous for both our academic careers to partner up."