The Girl Who Speaks With Algebra

9: Sister Act

Sine didn't seem to be working on her blackboard when I appeared. Instead, she was sitting in a deck chair, staring at the sky. I tossed my stress ball back and forth between my hands as I approached. "On a break?" I asked.

She looked up as I approached. "Hi Rose. No," she sighed. "I'm working on it mentally."

"Ah. Sorry to disturb," I apologized.

The brunette trig shook her head. "It's fine. I suppose I could use a break."

I tried to toss the stress ball for an over the shoulder catch, completely missed, and slipped my hands behind my back as it fell in the sand. "Some reason you're not using the ol' chalkboard?"

"The hooded figure," she answered. "Because I realized something. Whoever it was, he'd been looking at my calculations there... shortly before that tornado ripped through here." She grimaced and rubbed her forehead. "Which could mean he used my work to summon it. Worse, maybe if I get out of here, that guy can then use my theories to follow after me."

I pursed my lips. "Oh. You have no proof of that though, right?"

"No," Sine admitted.

"It's dangerous to assume things. Might lead to you bawling your eyes out in a bathroom stall. Or so I've heard."

She gave me a curious look, but didn't ask. "Even so, it would be dangerous for me to continue working on the portal out in the open," Sine pointed out. "Alas, it's harder to do in my head. Sorry Rose, I fear for the next little bit, I'm going to be preoccupied whenever you get here."

"It's fine," I assured her. Yet another person avoiding me – I was getting used to it.

I reached down to retrieve the stress ball, and then looked towards the sky. "I can always try to figure out that flying thing. I've heard it's a simple matter of throwing myself at the ground and missing."

"Okay. Anything you want to discuss while I'm on a break first?"

We chatted briefly, long enough for me to mention the results of my latest mathematical research, and to ask her what she knew about logic and probability. Which wasn't much.

"One legend says that there ARE personifications for probability," Sine told me, looking thoughtful. "In fact we were hoping to get them on our side, as a way to increase the chance of a successful landing back in high school mathematics."

"But you couldn't find them?"

Sine shook her head. "We didn't even know what they looked like. In fact we only knew of their existence thanks to 'Evvi."

"'Evvi?"

"Right. I should really compile a list for you... the Heaviside function. Not from high school like the rest of us; she was a step function we encountered in our travels who had the power to turn on other functions." Sine rubbed her jaw. "Come to think, with her power, she might know something about sexuality too."

"Why? Oh, wait, when you say 'turn on functions'..."

"Mmm hmm, literal and metaphorical. Not all relations are functions though, fortunately. So she couldn't convert all of us, and we got her under control."

"You're giving me mixed feelings about whether I'd want to meet her."

Sine smiled. "As a human, I imagine you'd be immune. And you're certainly welcome to come with me to look for her, assuming I can figure out this portal thing."

I wondered if coming along was truly possible. Then again, why wouldn't it be? Except... might that sever my ties with the human world? I considered asking about it, except Sine already seemed to be mentally drifting, trying to write something with her finger in the air. I decided to let her be.