The Radiant Reira

16. The Beauty of the Unknown

"Reira and Orion. You're up." Mr. Reynold said.

They weren't intimidated at all, they were quite confident in what they created. It didn't actually matter if it didn't make sense to their classmates because they knew what their creation meant to them. They smiled at each other and walked up in front of their class while some of their peers stared and the rest were on a mental vacation. Mr. Reynold was over it. Completely exhausted and tired of the school year, he told the pair "Good luck."

They spoke eloquently and confidently, explaining their inspiration. "You are the universe experiencing itself" Reira said, "And those words were stated by the writer Alan Watts."

"Therefore, it only makes sense to take a second to step away from the physics and chemistry of it all, and realize we are all made of stardust. Our human experiences reflect the events of the universe out there." Orion explained.

They gave examples and photos, the first example they went with was the first metaphor Reira made about the Big Bang Theory. "All the elements collide to create what we now know as the observable universe. To many parents, their kids mean a lot more than the world. When the young couple lets go of each of their egos and misperceptions, they become raw and honest with each other about how they feel. Leading to love, to marriage, and to something much bigger, family. When the Big Bang occurred, it gave us small humans, something to explore, something to live for, just like how children give that opportunity to their parents." She began to feel emotional.

Students were a bit lost, but for Mr. Reynold, he saw uniqueness as they continued to give more metaphors. They spoke of Jupiter being a failed star yet it still serves its purpose in protecting Earth, they spoke of the concept of time, the clusters of galaxies, topics that Mr. Reynold never even touched upon. They had beautiful illustrations and photographs, it appeared to be professionally done. The teacher almost felt that it was way too good for a high school Geology class. They continued to present with pride.

After six minutes of presenting, it was Orion's time to explain his main connection, Pluto.

"Pluto was once considered to be the smallest planet of our solar system," He said, "it was the odd one out as it has a strange orbit, it's a dwarf planet, and it's even smaller than Russia. It's status was downgraded as a dwarf planet in 2006 and is now singled out from our solar system."

Orion later explained, "Nothing about the planet itself changed, only the perception and the definition that people gave that planet. In life and in the universe, we can all be singled out by someone but it's through the beauty of the unknown, we find a sense of belonging. Whether it's in another group of dwarf planets or maybe another person," He looked at Reira, "We're all in the same solar system, the same cluster, and the same universe."

The pair concluded their presentation resulting in an awkward scatter of applause and confusion. They still didn't care.

The rest of the students presented their projects. Some took the route of building a solar system model and exemplified an explosion by using soda and Mentos. Some created a PowerPoint explaining the birth of a star, or a birth of a planet. The facts all came from Mr. Reynold's lecture while Reira and Orion's facts came from beyond what they'd learned in the class.

The bell was about to ring and Mr. Reynold had asked the pair to stay in for a little bit.

"That was an interesting presentation you guys, I don't know if I should fail you or give you an A." Mr. Reynold said.

Orion raised his eyebrow, "So was it, uh, good or bad?"

"Huh, I don't know." Mr. Reynold made a confused look.

"Why would we get a failing grade?" Reira asked, concerned.

"Well let's see, the only reason you'd get an F is for overdoing your project. You know this is science, not philosophy or poetry. This is the type of assignment you'd do in advanced writing class, not tenth grade Geology."

They felt lost and a bit scared, the last thing they expected was to fail. Luckily Mr. Reynolds was messing around.

"I'm just kidding you guys." Mr. Reynold laughed.

They both simultaneously sighed in relief.

"I'm sure other teachers would find your work unacceptable, they would claim it's irrelevant to the subject. But I gave you guys no rubric, no real guide other than an essay and a presentation. You were just supposed to be creative and you guys did just that."

The pair smiled at each other.

"The reason I wanted to keep you in for a couple of minutes, is to tell you that you guys did a fantastic job and... you surprised me. This class is lame, and boring, yet you managed to create something good. I think you should be proud of yourselves... you guys can get out of my room now." Mr. Reynold said sarcastically.

Reira and Orion walked out laughing about Mr. Reynold. They were excited and finally finished with this project.

"We're done!" She smiled.

"That sucks." He looked down.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I have no reason to randomly drop by your house to "work on the project." He said.

"Orion you know you can drop by anytime" She laughed, "I don't even think that's the reason you why came to see me that day"

"It's not." He smiled.

"So what's the plan now?" She asked.

"Finish the rest of these damn finals." He said sarcastically.

"What about our plan?" She asked.

He smiled and as they walked to her locker, he put his arm around her, "Our plan is to go on another date next week."

Orion was definitely acting a lot more flirtatious, he was standing up straight with a big smile on his face. People stared as though they were seeing a new person in the school. He was in a state of bliss but he was aware of what was to come later in the day.