Brainstorm

Four

"Lets gather in pairs!"

The professor clapped her hands and the squeaky sounds of several chairs being pushed filled the room. The students started to move and form pairs for the project spanning the entire rest of the course. I looked around. Ace, my usual partner in crime, nodded apologetically from the other side of the room. I didn´t know what to do so I just sat.

The professor looked up at me and the curly guy. She pointed. "You two. Since you´re both late you'll be on the same team." She glared at us. "I just hope you don´t have bad influence on each other. Be on time from now on!"

I nodded, my mouth too dry to speak. The guy turned around with cautious look.

"Hi", I finally said.

His eyes widened slightly. He probably thought I couldn´t speak at all.

I forced myself to smile and act normal. "So... Aliens, huh?" I nodded at his t-shirt. A large print from the X-files, saying "I want to believe".

"Yeah. We´re in Roswell after all."

His voice was dark and a little hoarse. Sexy, I thought. I instantly felt the heat climbing up my neck and slammed the laptop shut. He jumped.

Great Willa, like he needed more proof that you´re a lunatic.

I put out my hand. "Willa."

"Leon." He shook it. His hand was cool against my sweaty palm. I found it incredible that he managed to stay cool in the not-so-very-air-conditioned lecture hall. I for one was sweating my brain out.

But only partly because of the weather.

"So. What do you think?" I gestured to the paper infront of us, the assignment the professor had handed out just moments before.

Our finals was to create an essay out of a project spanning over several weeks. There were no frame exept that it should have relevance to the psychology we´d read about in the course so far.

"What if..." He paused and slid his hand trough his light hair, his lean muscles playing on his arm. I suddenly found my breath stuck in my troat. He gestured to his chest. "Aliens?"

"U-huh?" There it was again, the stone age-like behavior. I straightened in my chair. "Aliens? How do we relate it to psychology?"

There was a pause. He looked away, appeared to be thinking. I took the chance to study him, forgetting all about the project.

He was gorgeous, but I felt a slight disappointment. He really seemed into the whole alien thing. Just as most people in Roswell, I reminded myself. It was just that I believed in logic and science. And while I was certain that some form of life must exist in the vast space of the Universe, I did not believe it to be little green men walking on Earth.

"What about this angle: how can myths spread through generations? The stories of elves, trolls and aliens. They seem to have been around forever. What is is that make people believe?", he said.

"Okay..." I thought about it, forgetting my pounding heartbeat. Grades were important to me and I would not allow myself to make a crap project just because of my sudden lack of concentration. "Is there enough psychology stuff there? I mean, we have to dwelve deep into their minds, not just document stories."

"I know, I know. But won´t it be awesome to explore more of this citys´ history? Imagine all the tales just waiting for us! All with a psychology angle of course", he added when he saw the look on my face. "Or we can interview abductees. Study their storys, trying to figure out what´s happening in the brain. How they can be so convinced that they´ve been taken onboard a spacecraft." He fixated me with hazel eyes. "What do you say?"

I thought about it. It was interesting, and I did want to know more about Roswell and the events that was said to take place here. And I was truly interested in how som people could fool themselves so completly. It was pure gold right there.

"Alright. We have a project."

His huge smile made my heart melt and fall to the floor.