I roll over in my bed and gently slap the top of my alarm clock. I guess it’s time for school once more. Getting out of bed, I shuffle to the bathroom to use the restroom and commence the morning ritual.

As I walk past the mirror I stop, glancing at it once more. I tug on one of my strands of hair, seeing how long it is. It’s down to my chin now, which is odd because I don’t remember it being quite this long recently. I’ve been so focused on everything going on with my classes I haven’t really been thinking about my hair. I guess it has been a while since I got a haircut. I yawn, ignoring my hair for now and instead continue to carry out my original goal of relieving my bladder.

With my bodily functions out of the way, I feel a little bit more awake than I was just seconds ago. As I brush my teeth, I can’t help but look at my hair again. Now that I’m really paying attention, it really doesn’t seem like it was this long…

I shake my head and some of the longer hair gets in my eyes. Weird. Can hair have growth spurts too? I shake my head once more, dismissing the silly thought. Finishing up with brushing my teeth I continue through the rest of my routine, using my mouthwash, shaving, and then subsequently washing my face. Good hygiene is important for a nurse, so I always make sure not to skip any part of my routine.

With that out of the way, all of my classes today are in classrooms and shouldn’t cover any practicals, so I don’t need to bring my scrubs. Instead, I check my book bag to make sure that the crystal is still in there. I see the towel that I wrapped it in and nod to myself. I had to wrap it in something or it definitely would have torn a hole in one of my books. Maybe even the bag itself.

Thinking of how sharp it is, I idly scratch at my cut from the other day and see that it’s scabbed over. I made sure to clean it up properly as soon as I got home, wanting to be a little more thorough than just a bandage. Can never be too careful, especially when I don’t know where this crystal has been.

With my bag together, I get dressed in one of my normal outfits. I don’t bother with a jacket because it’s fairly warm, instead just wearing a button up tee over my normal tee shirt. With myself looking nice and presentable, I pick up my bag and leave the bedroom. I drop the bag on one of the stools in my kitchen, opening the fridge and looking at what I could make easily.

Eggs, toast, and I have some leftover mashed potatoes that I need to eat. Mashed potatoes aren’t usually a breakfast food, but I figure that it will be good enough to get me through the day. I do a very familiar dance, not a literal dance, but something like one. Swinging this way and that, turning on the stove while also reaching for a pan. I grab the things I need from the fridge one at a time, as I need them. While the egg scrambles, I scoop the mashed potatoes onto a plate, humming as I do so.

Having a routine, a plan of sorts, always helps me focus. So as I’m scooping the mashed potatoes, I plan ahead what I need to grab out of the spice drawer for what I’m making. For something like eggs and mashed potatoes, just salt and pepper will suffice. With the Potatoes on the plate, I toss them into the microwave to heat up. Then with a quick stir as I pass the eggs, I reach over to grab the salt and pepper. I place them on the counter for later, stirring the eggs gently again before plucking a piece of toast out of my bread box. I plop it into the toaster and return to paying attention to my eggs briefly again. For the scramble that I like, I have to give them frequent, but not aggressive attention.

With my familiar dance planned out in my head, I pour myself a small glass of carrot juice, which is a nice way to add some vegetables to my meal without much effort. I use carrots a lot in my meal plan, so I always have carrot juice stocked in the fridge. The microwave beeps seconds before the toast pops up from the toaster. In one smooth motion, I pull my plate out of the microwave and plop the toast on it shortly after. From there I pull my eggs off the heat and similarly scoop them onto my plate. After placing the pan in the sink and turning the stove off, my dance is done and I am able to eat my breakfast. A nice easy breakfast in only about fifteen minutes.

I continue humming to myself as I eat, pulling out my phone and putting on something to watch while I do so. As I finish my meal, I’m in the middle of another video. I look at the time and decide to pause the video. I can continue it on the bus, but I can’t fall behind schedule. I have yet to miss a day of classes yet and I definitely don’t want to start now. Not when I have a strange crystal that needs researching.

Cleaning up after myself, I place my dishes in the sink. I can clean them after I eat dinner tonight like I usually do. I swing by the fridge once more to grab one of the Tupperware containers inside it with my lunch all premade and ready to go. I nestle it into my bag snugly beside the towel holding the crystal. With breakfast eaten and all of my stuff together, I sling my bag over my shoulder and lock the door to my apartment as I’m leaving.

At the bus stop, I see a man sleeping on the bench. My heart pangs at the sight, an immense sadness filling my heart suddenly. I choke back a sob, reaching up to feel a tear in my eye. I try to control my emotions, stepping closer to the man. The feeling passes just as suddenly as it hit me, leaving me just feeling confused. Looking at the man, he doesn’t appear to need any medical help at all. Reaching into my back pocket, I pull out a ten dollar bill and slip it into his coat pocket, making sure to leave one end sticking out so he notices it. I sigh after that, just hoping that it helps even a little bit. Leaning against the bus stop sign instead of attempting to sit on the small amount of bench space left, I reach up and rub my cheek once more. No more tears have fallen though.

I pull my phone back out after a few moments, putting in my earbuds and trying to pay attention to my video once more. I can’t help glancing over at the man on the bench occasionally, the strange pang of sadness lingering in my mind.

Looking over my notes, I sigh for maybe the umpteenth time today. Another boring day of class. This time it was a lot harder to pay attention to my lectures because my thoughts kept drifting back to the crystal in my bag. There’s something about it that’s been nagging at my mind today, but I can’t put my finger on it for the life of me. Thankfully, even though I wasn’t paying attention that well, I picked up enough of the lecture to know that I already understood today’s lesson as well.

The lecture isn’t quite over yet, but with every word I get antsier and antsier about the crystal in my bag. I pause after a moment as the slide changes, the anxiety spiking suddenly. I look around at everyone else, reaching for my heart as it beats quickly. One of the students to my right is scribbling down notes feverishly, almost in a panic. I feel my heart rate increase a little more, clutching my shirt tighter. Standing up from my desk, the panic fades.

I’m breathing heavily and clutching my tee shirt. The lecture hall is quiet as a few heads turn to me. At the front of the classroom, the teacher paused talking briefly to look right at me. I sit down, embarrassment filling me as I realize that I’ve interrupted the lesson. I fall back down into a sitting position, letting go of my shirt. The teacher continues talking, the moment having passed. Looking over at the student writing down notes, they’ve stopped scribbling down notes aggressively and are now clutching their head in their hands.

Frowning slightly, I can’t help but feel bad for them. There have already been a few classmates I’d grown close to who didn’t happen to be a good fit for the nursing program. Whether because they couldn’t keep up with the pace of the lessons or because they performed poorly in the practicals. One of them learned a little too late that seeing blood made him unbelievably nauseous. He changed majors the very next day.

My heart rate has recovered at this point and I can only look at my hands. Is it an underlying health issue? It felt… a lot like a panic attack. I’ve only had them a few times throughout my life, but I’m almost certain that’s what it was. Between this and what happened this morning, I’m starting to get a little worried about myself. Maybe I should call up Jack later and get his advice.

When the bell rings, I gather my stuff and head straight for one of the labs. The panic attack can wait for now, since it seems to have passed. Right, I should keep my plans straight in my head. Figure out what this crystal is, call Jack, and head home.

With my plan in mind, I approach one of the science techs for this area of the buildings. I give them a smile as I approach, catching their attention. The one whose eye I caught turns to me. “Yes, what can I do for you?” she asks.

“Hi, I was wondering if I could use some of the lab equipment for some research I’m doing?”

She nods, looking over her shoulder at one of the empty labs. “Sure. I don’t believe this one will be in use for a bit. What are you researching?”

I pull the towel out of my bag, unwrapping it carefully. “I’m trying to figure out what this crystal is, so I wanted to look at it more closely under a microscope to try and figure it out.” The girl looks at the crystal in awe, leaning closer to look at it. “Careful, it’s very sharp.”

The girl nods, running a finger along one of the smooth edges. “What an incredible crystal… Unfortunately, I don’t think the microscopes in the lab are going to be able to do what you want. In order to look at a crystal's structure, you would need to use an electron microscope.”

Shaking my head, I wrap the crystal back up. “I shouldn’t need to go that far. I just need to be able to get a better look at it.”

She leans in smiling, “Are you sure you don’t want to use the electron microscope?”

That gives me pause. Looking her in the eye, she doesn’t seem to be kidding. I quirk an eyebrow, putting the crystal back in my bag. “Could I really use one?”

She shakes her head, still smiling. “Not alone. Luckily, I happen to be one of the lab techs with unrestricted access to one.” She flashes me a keycard and I have to trust that it is what she says it is. “Double luckily, that crystal of yours has caught my interest! I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before.”

Smiling, I nod my head politely. “Thank you very much, then. I’d be really grateful if you helped me out.”

She holds out her hand for me to shake and I take it. “My name is Debbie.”

I continue smiling, shaking her hand. She seems really nice, so I'm glad to have run into her. “I’m Anthony.”

With the electron microscope, you need a very thin piece of crystal, so Debbie very carefully scraped some small shards off the side with some sandpaper. With the dust carefully collected into a dish, she was able to put it in the machine and begin to take some very fine images of the crystals' structure.

Looking at this machine, I can already tell that I would have no idea how to use it. I’m incredibly grateful to have run into Debbie when I did. She seems almost more excited than I am to get to the bottom of this. With the crystal tucked away carefully into my bag once more, I’m able to focus on Debbie as she works her magic with the electron microscope.

Unfortunately, my unfamiliarity with the electron microscope means I’m also unfamiliar with reading the images it puts out. Debbie puts them all on a large screen, leaning forward and peering at them closely.

The images all look very different and it’s actually very difficult for me to tell what they’re of. I turn to Debbie, hoping that she can enlighten me on what the images mean. “Um… what am I looking at?” I ask her.

“I know, right!” She exclaims, looking even closer at one of the images. “I’ve never seen chemical compositions like this… And this,” she points at another one of the images, outlining one of the shadowy objects, “Is not a normal crystal structure. This is totally baffling…”

I chuckle nervously, looking at the shadowy object that she pointed at. Unfortunately, it’s indecipherable to me. “This is a crystal structure?” I ask, pointing at it.

She blinks, looking over at me. “Oh! Yes, sorry, you don’t know what any of these mean do you?” She pulls out a blank sheet of paper and sketches out a few brief shapes. “Okay, so, this is what a crystal structure normally looks like. Well, one of them. There are seven different types,” She points to the seven different shapes she’s drawn on the page, “but this crystals structure isn’t consistent. It strangely seems a lot more volatile. And the chemical composition.” She pivots to point to another group of images. “It’s actually rather hard to determine the chemical composition of a crystal using electron microscopy, but this isn’t just hard. This is impossible. The composition in every single one of these images seems to be different from each other. It’s almost like they’re different substances within the same crystal.”

I turn to look at her, tilting my head. “Couldn’t that be the case?”

She shrugs, looking at the images. “It’s possible I guess, but I’ve taken several images and none of them match up with each other. Besides, at least a couple of these should be the crystal, but I can’t tell them apart enough to know which.”

She turns to look at me, smiling wide. “This is a fascinating specimen that you’ve brought to me. Is it alright if I take a small sample to continue to research? I’ll be sure to tell you what I come up with.”

I look down at my bag. I don’t really need this whole crystal and Kaeden said that there’s plenty more where it came from. Besides, I promised that I’d tell him what it was, but it seems I’m no closer to an answer even with the help of an electron microscope. Is this really an all new type of crystal?

“Sure. I look forward to hearing what you find out.” I tell her. I reach into my bag, pulling the towel out once more. With the towel to protect my hands and a little bit of effort, I manage to break a chunk of it off one of the pointy ends.

She smiles wide and I suddenly feel a rush of excitement. Debbie can figure it out, I know she can! “Thank you so much! I’m definitely staying late tonight.” she says.

Smiling back at her, the prospect of figuring this mystery out once and for all is exciting! I feel the distinct urge to do… something. The feeling passes after a moment and once more I feel confused. What was that? Why does that keep happening?

I shake my head clear of the errant thought, focusing back on Debbie. I rummage through my bag, pulling out a piece of paper to scribble my number onto. I hand her the paper and she takes it happily. "Well, I'm going home then. I look forward to your findings." I tell her, turning around and waving farewell.

"See you later!" Almost instantly she turns around to start recording notes about the images from the microscope.

As I'm walking out of the university, I pull my phone out and message my friend Jack, a doctor with a medical license.

Hey, are you free tomorrow?