Red Hot Love

Don't Fall Asleep During Lecture!

"…And therefore, the real solution to getting rid of an incoming asteroid isn't to blow it into pieces, but rather spray-painting it white. That way, the increased albedo will lead to the sun's infrared radiation pushing it away. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for as good of a movie, but at least it means that it isn't broken apart into even more chunks that will spell danger," the Astronomy Professor grinned.

Uh oh. Sunny bit her lip and found herself trying to tug her eyelids opened, but none of it worked.

The lecturer continued to speak, completely unaware. "On the other hand, we should be grateful for the fact that we have the asteroid belt instead of a planet around 2.8 AU."

Sunny shook her head and whacked her head a few times. No no no. Please. Why were these stupid chairs so damn comfortable all of a sudden? She shifted, trying to stay alert.

Focus focus FOCus FOCUS focussSSs, a voice inside of her head groaned. Regardless, her body continued to doze off, ignoring her brain's pleas.

"You see," the Professor continued, "If it weren't for Jupiter's resonance with the asteroid belt causing individual asteroids to be pushed out of orbit and into the Earth's atmosphere, the dinosaurs wouldn't have been killed off and we mammals wouldn't be taking notes in this room. You may ask yourself, so, how exactly did one tiny meteorite kill off an entire clade of reptiles. Well, actually…"

Okay, tiny meteorite, Sunny repeated to her drowsy brain. Tiny meteorite killed off an entire clade of reptiles. Tiny meteorite. Clade of reptiles. Spray-paint the asteroid, so the albedo won't…

Spray paint…

Wait, what?

Fuck I think I forgot.

Sunny wanted to scream. Why couldn't she ever remember anything?

As the lecture went on, more and more words began to fall through, until everything felt like a fragmented puzzle that was impossible to piece together or fill in blanks.

"It turns out that

Well, parts of the meteorite reentered the atmosphere, you see, and

…

It set fire to all the plants, so the lower food chain can't feed off the sunlight blocked

of course, not to mention the damage that shockwaves would have caused

….everything burns….

And therefore, it only took one 10,000 km meteorite to extinguish the dinosaurs."

WHAT?

The Professor quickly stooped to drink from their water bottle before launching right back into announcing a break time.

Just take a nap, please. Just a short nap, her brain begged.

No, I'll fall asleep during the whole lecture and get nothing out of it, Sunny groaned.

Just five minutes…

I CAN'T fall asleep within five minutes, Sunny insisted. And five minutes isn't enough. I need to stay awake.

But it's so much harder, the voice continued. And you're not getting anything out of it while half-conscious…

"Alright. Let's get back on track."

Noooo.

"Now, you might be wondering how we discovered that. Well, it all started in this location, which is known for a sedimentary layer containing dinosaur fossils…"

Sunny almost wanted to ask the girl next to her to nudge her and keep herself awake. But that would be depending, and not very efficient. Maybe she should ask the girl if she could look at her lecture notes at the end of class, or ask the teacher to just fill her in. But that, too, would also be depending too much on others.

"…and what makes this layer of iridium on top so unusual, is the fact that it couldn't just have been there naturally. When the Earth was differentiated – that is to say, when it was all molten and hot, a dense element like iridium should have sunk into the core…"

Goddammit. And now she had missed out on part of the lecture because she was thinking so much.

"And since meteorites are rich in iridium, that was the only plausible explanation."

I've already missed out on 90% of what's going on. Screw this. I'm going to sleep, Sunny growled.

Jem told you not to!

Sorry…Jem… Sunny curled up, rested her head on the back of her seat, and sighed.

At the thought of Jem, her brain seemed to get slightly clearer, and fully tuned out the professor's voice.

Jem…Jem…gorgeous Jem...I wonder what I should try next, Sunny mused. What does she like? I've tried wearing everything I can and she hasn't batted a lash! Sexy housewife apron, sexy policewoman, sexy swimming suit model, sexy catgirl…

Well, you do have to admit, the sexy catgirl one was just you wearing a headband and the sexy housewife apron, the voice in her head reminded her.

Shut up. Anyways she hasn't responded to ANY of them. Except for telling me the policewoman one was perpetuating harmful misogynistic sexualization of a law enforcement member who is already not taken very seriously, also that she doesn't like police that much, Sunny sighed. Also the sexy roleplay costumes shop is starting to give me weird looks because I keep on renting and returning everything.

Maybe you should try something…intellectually stimulating. Jem would like that, the voice in her head suggested. That's what she likes, isn't it? Intellectual challenges?

Sunny rubbed her eyes and looked up. Students were starting to file out of the auditorium. A few had stayed behind and were queuing up to ask the professor questions.

A smile slowly crept across Sunny's face. Now she had an idea. Yes, that was what she would do.

But first, she really needed to ask the professor to repeat everything they had said about meteorites, because for some reason the only words she could remember from the lesson were "spray paint."