Chapter 1--Part One

Abner Shetfield sat in a corner of the Lace and Frills Cafe her writing hand limp and her mind numb. Two hours until her first Organic test and her head was full of nothing but open spaces and soft morning breezes. She stared blankly at the open text book and splattering of notes before her, her cup of hot chocolate half empty. She sighed the heavy sigh of one who sees the beginning of the end before them and acknowledges it. You see, there comes a moment in every promising student's illusterous career when, stairing at a Chemistry book at three o'clock in the afternoon, they realize that they know absolutely nothing about Chemistry. It happpens differently for everyone--some realize it in high school, others thier first semester of college, or their first day of Organic Chemistry. For some it's the day they're handed a diploma with the word "Chemistry" on it. For others still yet, it's not until after they've dedicated 30 years of their life to research. For everyone, however, it's a milestone--one which can only result in two possible net effects.

The first, which will inevitably be repeated continuously, is to ignore this momentary "incident" and imagine that it was simply a momentary, entirely circumstantial, fluke whose sole origin was content and a lack of sleep. This reaction is momentarily effective. That is, until you've slept for 14 hours straight only to wake up and realize that you still don't know the first thing about Chemistry. It is upon this occasion that the second, far more reasonible response becomes obvious--panic.

Panic in any way and every way you can. To ignore such an indisputable sign as total ignorance, to attempt to constru it as anything other then what it really is (a sign from God) is folly. Pure folly.

It happened to Abner Shetfield that morning--not for the first time, but for the first time that she acknowledged it for was it was--a sign from God.