Life as a Young Dreamer

chapter 3, things;

"If you could be anything in the word, what would you want to be?"

I hummed, chewing on the flesh of an apple, thinking. "I'd want to be a mathematician, like the people who think up e=mc2. Or maybe a singer. Both of those would be beautiful career options." I said quietly.

Bradley hummed back, chewing on his sandwich (ham and cheese, his favorite, I found out) as he thought of what to ask next. "Why?"

I blinked, putting down my apple for a minute. I sighed quietly, and folded my hands, setting them on the table. "I'd like to be a mathematician because with everything that happens in our world, having an extensive knowledge of things such as that would be amazing. Also, if I became a mathematician, tons of other career options would pop up in the leu of that. Like being an architect. And then I would enjoy being a singer for the simple reason of it's fun. Singing is a hobby that I love, as well as song making, so being a singer would be something that I would enjoy immensely." I told him, choosing each of my words carefully. Each of them meant something meaningful. I couldn't mess them up.

Bradley stared at me for a moment, scrutinizing me with his stare. "Kate Token, you really are something interesting. How do you think of things like that?"

"It's all up here." I explain, pointing to my brain. "I'm just special enough that I can access it. Not only can I access it, but I can make sense of it." I added.

Bradley sighed, and shook his head, running a hand through his hair and pushing it back. "That's just so.. descriptive and well thought out. And you can do that in seconds. I just find it amazing, personally."

I stood up with an empty tray, and smiled at him, my cheeks flaring up. "That's awfully flattering, you know." I told him, heading to go to the library.

Once I set down my tray, I turned around and walked backwards towards the library, watching him. "What do you think about looking up what happens internally when someone blushes?" I asked, the idea coming to my head.

Bradley grinned and nodded. "I'd enjoy knowing if when you blushed it showed you could die soon or if it's just a normal reflex." He teased, poking my still pink cheeks.

I rolled my eyes. "Psshh, it's obviously a reflex. If I was dying, I would go extremely pale, because my blood would stop pumping, thus not giving me any color at-" I began to explain, when Bradley cut me off.

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Bradley cried, holding his hands over his ears. "I know the basic things that the blood system does!"

I smirked, and turned around to face forward, continuing to head to the library. Once we were there, I opened the door and stepped in, heading over to the biology section.

I did a running hop onto a table and slid for a bit before I finally stopped, in front of the small section about facial structure and other things. "Hey, Bradley, do you think that it'd be in facial things, or blood stream things?"

Bradley looked around the shelves. "I'd say blood stream things, because you can get a blush on anywhere on your body, not just on your face." He explained, beginning to search himself.

"Hm." I murmured, hopping up and looking through the section with blood stream information with him. "Blushing.."

I picked up a book which read, "Normal Occurrences of the Human Blood Stream", and began to flip through, searching for a section on blushing.

"Blushing is a reaction of the sympathetic nervous system and part of our “fight or flight” response. When you're embarrassed, adrenaline is released, speeding up your heart rate and dilating your blood vessels to improve your blood flow and oxygen delivery." I read, looking over at Bradley, raising an eyebrow. "So I blush when I get scared?" I mumbled, utterly confused.

Bradley snapped his fingers. "I know. When you get embarrassed, are you embarrassed, or are you scared of that person knowing something, or what they cause you to act like, you know? Maybe embarrassment isn't so much as being modest, but more of a fear of another person." He suggested, eyes bright. He was definitely proud of what he had thought up.

I just shook my head, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf. "Wow. You're getting better at this word stuff, you know." I told him, a smile coming to my face. "Now that we've got that figured out, I was wondering if you wanted to go and sit outside and watch the clouds, since we have plenty of time left?" I suggested, twiddling my thumbs, my head tilted.

Bradley stroked his chin for a moment, before nodding. "Of course. It would be but a pleasure." He said, extending his arm. I reaching out and grabbed onto it, rolling my eyes. "Off to watch the clouds!" He declared, leading me off, to outside.

I collapsed on the ground when we got outside, looking up at the clouds. Every single cloud looked like something to me, it was just deciding what it looked like. "You know, everything is a thing, if you think about it. The only thing that isn't a thing is a thing that isn't a thing. It's not around, it's not physically, mentally, or emotionally able to be a thing." I tell him quietly, and point my finger up to the sky. "And that's a pelican, by the way."

Bradley glanced at me, deciphering the large amount of knowledge that I'd just bestowed on him. "Yes, that's true, but then again, you just made it a thing, didn't you? You defined a thing that is supposedly indefinable. Isn't that just as good as being a thing?" He pointed out, and the quite literally pointed out a cloud. "And that's a dolphin." He added.

I grinned when I saw the dolphin and heard what he said. "That's completely, irrevocably true. But the problem is, did I really define it? Think of science. The period table has tons of open slots, correct? Each of those slots, even if that element has yet to be officially discovered, it's there. But the way that the elements are, and the periodic table is, each of those unknown elements are completely known, because the elements around it tell you the properties and other things of that element. But the thing that I was just explaining wasn't a thing, isn't like that. There is nothing to base it off of, it's just the idea that there is a thing out there that is completely unbeknownst to us, but it exists." I blinked, and let out a small yawn, as I explained. Even though I was used to having internal conversations like this, never have I actually thought about such in depth things as this. It's mentally exhausting.

Bradley let out a quiet sigh, and shook his head. "You're right. Kind of. But I still have the thought that if you know that it exists out there somewhere, that's it's an actual thing." He muttered.

I sat up, crossing my arms. "Bradley. What you have to understand is that we don't know what 'it' is. If we had a generalized idea of what 'it' was, we'd have complete ability to call it a thing. Like, if we need it was pink, then it's a thing. It's a thing that's pink. But describing something as simply a thing doesn't prove that thing is a thing. There is nothing about that supposed thing that is being described, thus meaning it is no longer a thing, but a nothing." I told him, the tone in my voice hopefully ending this conversation.

Bradley suddenly got a look of realization on his face, and looked over at me, his eyes wide. "Oh." Is all he could say, and I could tell that what he really meant was "Mind blown." I smirked and flipped some of my hair behind my shoulder.

"And by the way, that cloud is totally a baby rattle." I pointed out, grinning a little as I saw it.

I slowly stood up, stretching. "It's nearly time for class, Bradley. What do you think about cutting off this conversation here, and then talking more tomorrow, same place, same time?" I asked, reaching out a hand to help him up.

Bradley nodded, and grabbed my hand, pulling himself up. "That sounds like a glorious idea if I'd ever heard one. Lunchtime awaits, my dear young philosopher. See you tomorrow, Katostotle." He laughed a little at his own joke, which caused me to roll my eyes and snicker, giving me a wave.

Not literally.

He couldn't just pull a wave out of his back pocket and give it to me.

Or could he?

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I hope that you enjoyed reading. ^-^
xx, Bright