Always & Forever by: Elsbeth Numbers of the Beast “Mademoiselle Augereau, do you find this class amusing.”

Nadine sat in class, spinning a pencil in her hand, obviously bored with the lecture. Although not an uncommon occurrence among most teenagers stuck in school, it had recently become an issue with the young woman.

Attending High School in earnest seemed at first like a dream come true. Like Jack, he missed the better part of his first run-through, graduating from High School at the age of thirteen, getting his first college degree by sixteen.

With math being his only outlet, Jack withdrew from the world. Of course, his ever-controlling parents saw to that, any obvious normal young person outlet had been closed.

Entering college hadn’t been much better; oh, the other students were nice enough, but not many fourteen-year-olds found themselves in an applied theoretical physics class.

Soon the sense of social isolation became almost unbearable, unable to fit in with kids even his own age much less fitting in with the college-age kids around him. Jack’s first meeting with Rose saved his sanity.

To this day, Nadine had no clue why a beautiful and vivacious girl would be interested in a weirdo like Jack. She pulled him out of the darkness, shattering his shell. More than likely, if Rose hadn’t met him, he would never have connected with Maggie. Jack never thanked Rose for that, now it would be impossible. More than likely, she cursed herself for introducing the two of them in the first place.

“Mademoiselle Augereau, do you find this class amusing.”

Nadine looked up, not realizing that she laughed aloud. “No Monsieur L'Enfant, I was just thinking to myself how much I enjoyed your lectures.” She said it with such serenity that the teacher felt mollified before turning back to the chalkboard.

The rest of the class looked at her, then smiled. Nadine was very popular, having an air of elegance and maturity that most children lack at that age. Her reputation, unless asked for a date, always helped those in need. Nadine knew that High School could be challenging enough without the specter of having to do it alone.

The sound of three black government cars screeching to a halt interrupted her woolgathering. Turning to look outside, along with most of her classmates, for a brief second she felt a bit of trepidation, then gave a slight giggle. No way would her ‘Good Will Hunting’ trips be the cause for government officials show up at her school.

Scratching calculations on college chalkboards might get her in trouble with her parents or, at worst a lecture from the Dean of Mathematics. She even made sure that the calculations didn’t go beyond what a graduate-level student would know, well most of the time.

Even if her foraying into secluded classrooms made her an Urban Legend, it wouldn’t cause the government to send men in suites after her. Rolling her eyes, Nadine continued to twirl the pencil but kept one eye on the door.

Moments later, Maggie burst into the classroom, interrupting the lecture. Nadine grimaced. She would, of course, be freaking out.

Running to the desk, Maggie dropped to her knees and whispered. “Did you see those cars drive up? Do you think we are going to get into too much trouble?”

“Maggie, please go back to class; it’s not about us. Why would governmental officials be interested in a little mathematical graffiti? Anyway, what are they going to do, charge us for excessive use of chalk?

“Mademoiselle Augereau, if you’re done interrupting my class…” Before the teacher could continue, the classroom door opened once more, revealing to both girl’s surprise, their mother.

“Oh, good I’m glad you two are together.” She, however, didn’t seem too surprised to find her two daughters together. “I am checking you out early, come on.”

“If this is what I think it is, then don’t worry. Relax, and don’t freak out. Enjoy the fun; you knew that this might happen.”

Before taking Maggie by the hand, Nadine gave a small mad scientist laugh.

Maggie just looked at her as if she was insane.

“So, mama, what’s up?” Nadine said in her most cheerful voice before getting nervous. “Nothing happened to anyone?”

Their mother shook her head. “Oh no, everyone is fine. It’s just that we have to go to the University. I’m not sure why, but your father called and said it was important.”

“What’s with all of the government cars?” Maggie asked nervously, not being in the best of shape at this point.

“Your Papa said that someone would come to pick us up.” She shrugged. “You know that he works for the Minister of Finance…”

Nadine had a sneaking suspicion that her mother wasn’t telling the whole truth. Nevertheless, after one look at her sister, who now appeared to have calmed down a bit, Nadine decided that her mother was smarter than she looked.

Watching the countryside, as Maggie talked to the driver, Nadine relaxed, thankful that the young man driving seemed more than happy to flirt with her. Unfortunately, her mother, although she tried to hide it, continued to look nervously at her two daughters.

As the convoy crossed the University commons, passing the administration building and heading straight for the hall of mathematics, Nadine started to bounce up and down. She knew the jig was up. However, one look at her sister was like a bucket of cold water splashed all over her. Maggie was having a terrible time holding it together.

Stepping out of the car, Nadine pulled her aside before enclosing her sister into a big hug.

“Maggie, you’re not in trouble. If anything, they want me, not you, unless for some reason you understand Einstein’s universal theory.”

“Einstein, who?” She smiled with a hint of tears in her eyes. “But I don’t want you to get into trouble either.”

“Trouble is my middle name.”

”OK, crazy lady, I love you.” Maggie smiled, sounding a lot better.

“Always and forever.” Kissing her on the forehead, the pair headed into the building.

For a brief moment, Nadine expected to be brought directly to her father, who would insist that she pay for all of the chalk used out of her college fund. However, with her government escort in tow, it seemed unlikely that the professors were worried about the chalk.

Passing the Dean of Mathematics office, Nadine’s interest was piqued. Down a flight of stairs, the group headed towards one of the larger general classrooms where two older academic looking men and her father met the group.

The two old frumpy looking men immediately put Nadine at ease. At least they weren’t being taken away for interrogation, not that she really thought that would happen, but she had several contingency plans in place just in case. Grabbing everyone and transporting her family to another country now seemed rather excessive.

“Papa.” Maggie ran down the hall and hugged him. Nadine quickly followed.

Without a word, he held the twin girls by their hands, pulling them into the classroom. They immediately stopped, shocked to find it packed with people, students mostly, but at the bottom of the auditorium sat over a dozen professors. The room, which had been quite loud, settled down as the group entered.

A tall professor approached and smiled. “Nadine and Maggie, your father, has been telling me good things about you. I am Professor Max Jaeger. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

Nadine had to keep from laughing. Jack had met him at a physics seminar in Brussels. A highly respected in Academia, but a bit of a prig, the professor was not in the same league as those who were on Jack’s Inter-dimensional Gateway team.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir, I admire your work.”

That took the Professor aback a bit, but he recovered quickly and smiled. “I see, well we have a little math problem, and if possible we would like both of you to look at.”

Nadine’s parents were nervously left behind as the twins were brought to the front of the classroom. Why all of the shenanigans, Nadine thought. Taking took one look at the double-sized chalkboard she had to smile.

Obviously, the professors expected them to take one look at the equation and proclaim ignorance. Nadine really wanted to give one of her evil mad scientist laughs but figured it would be bad form.

Maggie leaned closer. “I don’t like that look in your eye.”

“Sure, professor, no problem.” Turning to her sister, Nadine said. “Go ahead and go sit with Mama and Papa.”

Leaning over, Maggie gave her the ‘you’re crazy’ look before kissing her sister on the cheek. “Have fun.”

The room became silent as Nadine pulled a piece of chalk from the box and studied the equation covering gravitational physics. As it seemed to be satellite data, she became curious.

The Empire had placed three satellites in orbit so far, the Chinese three. Nadine was more than a little surprised to find data here, but obviously, only a very few would even understand the math behind it.

All sorts of implications floated around in her head as she realized this was more than just a test to see if she was the person writing calculations on the chalkboards at school. Making a face, Nadine looked at the double-sized chalkboard again; it was a bit of a trick, a very clever deception.

The formulas were incomplete. She didn’t think that the professors made a mistake. Therefore, if she solved the equation, it would bracket her into one category. If she turned to the group and told them it was unsolvable, it would place her into another category.

Looking about the room, she had a feeling that there was another person involved with this little event. Deciding to pick door number three, Nadine decided she needed some help. Maggie seemed too comfortable staying out of this, which was fine. Instead, she found a cute little redhead right in the audience.

“Josephine, can you help me?”

The young girl looked surprised but nodded before walking down to the floor. “What can I help you with? I don’t understand anything on the chalkboard.”

“Don’t worry, I just need help cleaning it off, the calculations are wrong.”

As the two started to erase the chalkboard, Professor Jaeger stood up.

“Is something wrong with the calculations, Nadine?”

“Yes, they are incomplete.” She replied, continuing to erase the board. The room began to grumble at her observations.

“Why are you here Josephine, it seems like a circus,” Nadine asked.

“A few of the grad students overheard the professors talking about how they finally caught the Mathématiques Ghost, saying they were going to confront him or something. It spread around the University pretty quick. The Administration tried to move the room a few times, but the walls have ears.” Giving Nadine a thoughtful look, she said. “So, are you really the Mathématiques Ghost?”

“For the last two years.”

“That’s so cool.”

Finishing up, Nadine thanked her for her help. Expecting the redhead to sit back down, Nadine smiled when Josephine stood off to the side.

Grabbing a new piece of chalk, she began to write. The old excitement soon filled her body, the joy of the formula, the excitement of an equation solved. Little puzzles of the universe that on occasion, if fortunate enough, one can see why and how things worked.

As the first piece of chalk broke off in her hand, she flung it over her head. She admitted she was a bit of an exhibitionist, perhaps even a bit of a troublemaker. As a scientist, Jack always pushed and pushed, reaching further than people thought possible.

As the second piece of chalk hit the floor, the room began to grumble. Nadine ignored them all. When the third piece of chalk flew out her hands, she could feel the electricity in the air.

“Crappy chalk,” Nadine mumbled to Josephine, who giggled.

As the fourth piece of chalk passed over their heads, the room started to buzz. Nadine started to get hoots and whistles. She also quietly noticed a small white-haired man in a very expensive Neapolitan suit pushing forward to take a seat at the front.

Finishing the calculations, Nadine stood back and frowned. Sucks to be whoever owned that satellite, it was going to come down soon.

Finishing with a theatrical flourish, Nadine turned to the audience. “There you go, professor.”

What the hell, Nadine thought; reaching reached over, she gave Josephine a big kiss on the lips before tossing the last piece of chalk into the seats before walking out the door.

The room went wild.