Day 278 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write a character who is too big for their environment.
Shannon: “This place isn’t big enough for you. You’ll eventually have to leave you know?” I finally said what I was I’d known for a while now. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. I didn’t want him to know he was too good for this place.
“What are you talking about,” he let out a huff and shook his head.
“You’re getting out of this boring town and you’re never coming back,” I stuck firm to my prediction, because it was inevitable.
I could he was uncomfortable, but he eventually responded, “And you’re not getting out of here?”
I sighed, “You already know the answer.”
Erin: This world wasn’t made for me. I was two times bigger than the next biggest citizen. That meant I was two times bigger than the biggest furniture could hold and two times taller than the tallest door frame. To cover my body, I had to make my own clothing with my tiny sewing machine. Life was not meant to be this hard.
Time to outgrow the surroundings.
Pelky Sisters 
Nikki has been in this lecture for almost an hour, and she’s filled a full two pages with equations and stylized periodic table squares. The professor drones on, and Nikki doesn’t look up once at the board.
“Ms. Dalton, please tell us the answer of the equation on the board.”
Everyone stares at Nikki with dumbfound faces as she answers the equation perfectly, without halting in her doodling. Or even looking at the board. This is the first time Nikki has ever said anything in class.
The professor looks at Nikki’s notebook from her upside down perspective. “Ms. Dalton?”
Nikki looks up.
“I’d like to talk to you after class. Meet me in my office.”
Nikki nods, then looks back at her paper. She doesn’t talk for the remaining half hour.
***
Nikki walks into the office. Her professor is at her computer, typing at something. “You wanted to talk to me Dr. Gilde?”
“Take a seat.”
Nikki sits down, leaving the door mostly open. The professor finishes, then turns to look at her student.
“Nikki, I’ll be blunt. Why are you in my class?”
Nikki stares at her.
“You find my class boring, don’t you? You don’t feel challenged?”
“That’s right.”
“Hm, I can see that. May I look at your notebook?”
Nikki takes it out and gives it to the professor. Dr. Gilde flips through, finding the drawing versions of equations, with a lot of stylization given to each different element. There are also pages full of spiderweb diagrams of different molecules.
“How long have you been doing this?”
“Since I was… twelve,” Nikki thinks back quickly, “I was introduced to the periodic table in sixth grade and I just started studying it.”
“So you… exercise a mental ability to solve chemical equations?” Dr. Gilde asks, in awe. Nikki nods, hesitantly. “Nikki, I don’t think that’s a skill you just pick up,” she says as she hands the notebook back.
Nikki feels blush creep up her ears at the praise.
“If you can do that, why are you in my class?” She repeats.
“I need a one hundred level class to graduate.”
“Couldn’t you have taken a test to skip those classes?”
“I got a scholarship that gets me a free first year of classes,” Nikki admits, “But I couldn’t find anything to grant me credits in the lower levels. My school didn’t offer them.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Nikki,” Dr. Gilde says, massaging the bridge of her nose before looking up, “I don’t think you need college.”
“…What?”
“You’ve come that far on your own? Nikki, why pay for classes when you could learn in an environment that doesn’t bore you?”
Nikki fidgets, “I worked hard to get here. Dr. Gilde, I can’t just give that up.”
“But, are you weighing yourself down by staying?”
Nikki shrugs. She distracts herself by putting her notebook away.
“What do your Friday’s look like?”
Nikki looks up, confused. She thinks over her schedule, “I have nothing in the mornings.”
“Would you like to go to the labs from nine until eleven? I think we should try to challenge you.”
Nikki smiles a little, “I’ll see if I can.”
LikeLike