Chapter 7 Who Sent You?

Skye hesitated. "I-uh-I had trouble sleeping," she said, forcing an awkward chuckle. "I was wondering if I could... be busy with you two for a while?" The twins blinked at her. Nathan narrowed his eyes, suspiciously. "You want to spend time with us?" Skye nodded. Natalie tilted her head. "Is this some kind of a joke?" Skye shook her head stiffly. There was a brief silence as the twins exchanged glances. That was new. People rarely asked to be around them. Most people barely tolerated them, let alone wanting to spend time with them. They didn't even have friends like other kids. Nathan gave Natalie a nod. "Alright," Natalie said,and turned to Skye. "You may stay." Skye let out a breath of relief. Well, that was easy. "Thanks to you two, I know we can have a lot of fun". Unfortunately , that relief she felt a second ago vanished the moment the fun started. Natalie excitedly jumped in front of her whiteboard, and started writing equations that made Skye's brain foggy. Before, she could even try to guess if it's maths or physics , Nathan's voice called her attention. "Do you believe the multiverse theory is valid given quantum fluctuations?" Skye blinked. Quantum...what's even that? "What's your take on Fermi's Paradox, Skye?" Natalie added. Skye sat there, eyes darting between the two of them, her brain struggling to keep up. "You seem to be struggling, okay this one's easy, what's your opinion on the heat death of the universe?" Nathan asked with a frown of disappointment, his tiny hands folded. Skye blinked again. "The what?" "Heat death," Natalie repeated, pulling a marker from her pocket and strolling toward the whiteboard. "The idea that eventually, all energy will be evenly distributed, and the universe will reach maximum entropy...total stillness." Skye chuckled awkwardly . "Pardon me but ...I thought we were gonna play a game or something?" "We are playing," Nathan said, raising an eyebrow. "We call it: Explaining High-Level Theoretical Concepts." Natalie grinned and added. "It's a favorite of ours." Skye nodded with a wide awkward grin. "Waw." This was what these kids considered fun? It is a punishment! "Okay, next question," Nathan continued, completely ignoring the panic in her eyes. "Do you think wormholes are naturally occurring, or do you lean toward the engineered-structure hypothesis?" Skye blinked. "Uh-" "Or better yet," Natalie interrupted, "if you had to choose between being trapped in a time loop or being stranded in a parallel dimension, which would be the logically superior choice?" "Ain't we supposed to be having fun?" Skye asked. Nathan looked mildly offended. "These are fun questions. How can you be an adult and act like an infant!" Natalie slapped her forehead. "If you're struggling, we can always start with something easier. Like quantum mechanics." Skye groaned, rubbing her face. "You said that before but it got even harder, look I was born normal okay?" "Do you just call us abnormal?" Nathan asked with a frown. Skye couldn't answer that question, it's a trap. No Job out there pays this well. Natalie sighed. "I thought you wanted to have fun with us". "Yeah! And I thought we were gonna do something fun!" Skye replied in frustration. Nathan's brow lifted. "This is fun." Natalie nodded in agreement. "What do other kids even do for fun?" Skye threw her hands up. "I don't know! Something like,dress up a doll? Play fun games like hide and seek!" The twins looked at each other as if she had spoken a foreign language. "Those are useless, they don't add to knowledge. Anyway you are learning. Now, back to our discussion. Do you think inter dimensional travel is achievable with our current understanding of physics?" Skye closed her eyes in frustration, praying for an escape. "No answer huh? Let's take baby steps then". Natalie said and twirled her marker, gesturing at the whiteboard, where a complicated diagram of the human cell was drawn. Then she suddenly paused, frowning. "Are you even listening?" "Of Course, she's not." Nathan replied. Skye's eyes widened as she snapped out of her hazy mood. "What? I-mean, I am listening!" Nathan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "No, you're not. You came here to distract us." Skye's stomach did a backflip. How did he-? These kids are scary. Natalie's eyes widened. "You know... I was thinking the same thing. It's suspicious." She tilted her head. "Like she was forced to come here and spend time with us." Her eyes narrowed dramatically. "Who sent you?"