Sophia was beyond shocked and terrified. What the hell was this? She stared at her laptop screen for a long time trying to contemplate her thoughts. With shaky hands, she played the audio again, and again, but every time she hit play, the frown on her face creased further.
Suddenly, her laptop dinged, almost causing her to scream. She checked the notification but realized it was from her science teacher. With a sigh of relief, she opened the message.
"Hello Sophia, I got your message. Let's meet by Monday and further discuss these findings." It was a short message, but it sounded like music to her ears. Finally, someone was interested in her work.
Feeling good, she looked over at the unknown format and sent it to the trash. Someone might have been playing pranks on her. Of course, she is the daughter of a business tycoon, so she ultimately knew of this kind of thing.
Shutting down her laptop, she pulled the bedsheet around her and wore the eye shield, before she finally slept.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Sunday, 09:00 am.
An alarm blared ceaselessly, almost falling off due to the vibration. Sophia quickly hit the snooze button, before standing up from her bed with a smile on her face. "Damn, I feel more refreshed than ever! Best day of the week!" She stretched her body before rushing downstairs to greet Beatrice.
"Hmm, that smells good", Sophia said dreamily as a pleasant smell wafted through her nostrils. Beatrice was cooking her favourite, chocolate cookie. She met Beatrice when she pulled out the tray from the oven.
"Morning aunt", Sophia approached and kissed her. "Oh good morning Sophie, looks like you are in a good mood today", Beatrice replied with a smile as she sorted the cookie on the plate.
"Yeah, I am. All the fatigue and stress is gone after sleeping for nine hours straight. Ohh, I'm starving", Sophia said as she attempted to pick a cookie on the tray. Beatrice slapped her hand, causing it to fall back. "No eating until you brush your teeth, madam", Beatrice scolded, causing Sophia to laugh heartily. "Alright, I'm coming alright", Sophia said as she raced to her room to clean herself. "Alright wardrobe, spit out my Sunday wear", Sophia muttered as she opened her wardrobe.
Her mom has always told her never to repeat any clothes for any reason because as she always said, 'a beauty queen is not meant to be seen in one colour twice". Although she was against that notion, the habit to wear cloth once stuck as a habit. Even her school uniform is not repeated.
As she picked an outfit, she went to the bathroom to clean herself, and minutes later, she came out dripping. After cleaning herself and wearing her cloth, she opened her laptop and checked for any message.
There were three messages, two from her school friends, and one from her next-door neighbour. They were all asking her what her plans were. Sophia sent a mass message telling them she would not be available for long.
"Alright nerd, I'll see you in ten", one of her friends replied. Sophia grinned and closed her laptop. She then resumed the research she paused last night. "I'll only use like thirty minutes to study", she mumbled to herself.
The more she studied, the more she understood the brain the more. She was fascinated by the similarities between an orangutan's brain and a human's brain. They both looked similar side to side, and they work the same way human brains work.
The only thing that separated them from humans was intelligence. But Sophia dug a little deeper, and her insight improved greatly. She realized that it was not because they were incapable of intelligence, the lobe responsible for logic and reasoning is present in their brain. The main reason is that it's not activated.
One Chinese article she looked at said that they took an orangutan to ab to monitor their brain activity. Then they gave a closed jar, telling it to open. Their studies found out that although they realized it was closed, the ability to logically figure out a method to open it was not active. The cerebrum was not completely active.
Even though these animals are incapable of intelligence, Sophia felt there was a way to activate it, making the animal think and reason. This might sound like something straight out of fiction, but she knew it would work. She just needed more study.
Sophia was so engrossed with her research that a message popped on her smartphone. Seeing it was from her school friend, she checked the time. "No", she exclaimed as she closed her laptop and ran out of her room. She forgot she had plans with her friends again.
The limousine stopped at her classmate's house, and Sophia could s, ee their questioning face as they both entered the door. "Sorry, I was carried away…" one of her classmates interrupted her: "doing your nerdy stuff, yeah we know" Sophia rolled her eyes and beamed.
"So, are we ready to pa-pa-party?" Her other friend asked jovially. "Yaaaas!", Sophia said and made a gesture of playing an electric guitar, making her friends laugh.
Moments later, they arrived at a concert. Their favourite musician was performing, and the hall is filled to the brim. Luckily for them, Sophia had booked three front-row seats for all of them, allowing them to move to the front and admire their idol up close.
"Hey Sophia looks, it's Daniel" one of her friends whispered after the musician went off stage. Sophia frowned and looked over at the direction her friend was pointing at. Sure enough, Daniel was there, and with someone that appeared to be his friend.
Daniel looked in the direction of Sophia's, and their eyes met. Sophia uncomfortably removed her stare from him and looked up to the stage. What was he doing here?
Something was telling her he came because of her, but the thing that bothered him was how he knew she was coming to this concert. "I don't know what he doing here, but I sure hope he doesn't approach us", Sophia's other friend added, eyeing Daniel.
As if fate jinxed her statement, Daniel slowly approached the front row, walking directly to Sophia's seat. 'Oh god!' Sophia screamed in her mind.