The Three Body Problem

## Content Information

Principles of Problem Solving for Engineering was, without a doubt, Tamzen’s favorite class of the semester. A smaller interdisciplinary seminar, looking at case studies and issues and breaking down how an engineer would approach describing and solving the problem. There was always something fascinating to learn, and Professor Marike Jansen taught the class with an intense energy that was practically infectious.

Unfortunately, it was also the class that she shared with Didi. After the awkwardness of Sunday morning - and the additional awkwardness of hearing about Didi and her roommate together - the other girl was the last person she wanted to see. She had dragged her feet getting ready this morning, partially because she had spent half the night with Arsling at the hospital and was running on too little sleep, but also because she was hoping to avoid running into Didi on her walk over to Gilbreth Hall. She had misjudged her time badly, however, and was now attempting to slip into an unoccupied seat without being…

“Ah, Ms. Shaw. How nice of you to finally grace us with your presence.” Tamzen froze in place as several dozen pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. The professor frowned at her, their annoyance clear. “No, no...by all means, take your time. It is not as if you are learning anything of importance here, after all…”

“Yes’m…sorry ma’am,” Tamzen murmured as she sank into the nearest seat, face blazing scarlet. The Professor stood in silence for the space of another breath and then returned her attention to the rest of the class.

“As I was saying before we were interrupted, after the midterms, you will be working in pairs on a case study that will be assigned to you. You will need to investigate the situation, develop project requirements, and put together a proposal for a solution, including a prototype, if appropriate.” A low murmur rose from the room as students started looking around and tried to catch the eye of a friend or previous project partner. The professor cleared her throat loudly. “There’s no need for any of that - I am quite aware that *some* of you have already found a partner who you know will do the lion’s share of the work and let you coast, so I will be assigning the groups for this project…” A groan rose up from the students as she began to call off pairs of names.

Didi tried not to look in Tamzen’s direction. Ever since Sunday night, when she’d left the note at the radio station coming out as a werewolf, Tamzen had been avoiding her. She didn’t know why she’d expected anything different; just because Tamzen liked Fluffy didn’t mean she wanted to hang out with a monster. And Tamzen was already so nervous.

Still, the rejection stung, and she was afraid Tamzen had tipped off Arsling, that she’d set a monster hunter on her. That she wanted Didi -- Fluffy -- ‘’dead’’. She almost didn’t hear the professor announce:

“Hunter...and Shaw…”

She gulped, hopefully not too visibly, and slowly turned towards the red-haired girl to gauge her reaction.

Tamzen was frozen in shock, which was the only reason that she wasn’t trying to hide under the desk out of absolute mortification. She had barely talked to her roommate since Tamzen had admitted her crush on Didi, and they had carefully avoided talking about it - had Arsling told the other girl?  She might give out advice on the radio, but honestly that was mostly telling people what they already knew, or sometimes what they wanted to hear - she had no idea what to do with this...mess, even with Xander’s advice. She carefully avoided Didi’s eyes, focusing instead on their professor, who had continued full steam with her explanation of the project.

“...will be worth 40% of your final grade. Your assigned cases and project deadlines will be here for you to pick up at the end of today’s class - you are being given the choice between two cases for this project. Please have a summary of the key issues in both cases, along with a discussion of which case your team has chosen to work on - and why! - turned in by the Friday after Spring Break.”

Professor Jansen reached down and touched a key on her desk, pulling up a new file. “And now, time to move on to today’s case study - the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway collapse…”

Tamzen had stayed behind after the class ended, wanting to talk to the professor about the group assignment. She had barely gotten a syllable out before Professor Jansen held out one hand to silence her.

“Does this pairing put you in any danger?”

Tamzen had been forced to admit that it did not.

“If that changes, you will let me know, and we will make adjustments. Otherwise, I expect that you both will act like the adults you are capable of being, and work together on this project....” she smiled a too-sharp smile at Tamzen. “And don’t think I won’t know if you try to just split up and work separately.”

Tamzen raised her voice in protest, only to be cut off again by the professor. “Make it work, Ms. Shaw - consider this practice for working in the field. You are dismissed.” Jansen turned to another waiting student, making it clear that their discussion was over.

She slunk out of the lab, and looked around, wondering if Didi had waited after taking their case files.

Sure enough, the blue-haired girl was outside, a short way down the hall tapping at her phone. She was leaning against the wall trying to feign a relaxed posture, her bag by her feet. When Tamzen emerged, Didi’s eyes flicked to her immediately, and she had to work even harder at that casual pose.

“What did she say? Are we getting reassigned?” she asked, with a guarded tone.

Tamzen sighed and slumped against the wall next to Didi, gazing straight ahead across the lobby. “I didn’t even get a chance to *ask*. She informed me that we were to act like adults and work together - and strongly implied that there’d be *consequences* if she caught wind that we were trying to work around that requirement.” She glanced over at Didi briefly. “So. I guess we’re stuck.”

Didi’s eyes were searching as she studied Tamzen’s face. Up against the wall like this, she realized how tall the redhead was, even slouching. She’d always thought it was just because she was looking up at her in Fluffy-form.

“I… there’s just one thing I need to know, first.” The normally-confident derby girl seemed more concerned than Tamzen had ever seen her -- with the possible exception of Sunday’s shenanigans at PLO. “What did you tell Arsling?”

Tamzen looked at her, perplexed. “Huh? I got the impression when I had talked to her that *you* had already told her everything…”

Didi paled and her breaths came a little quicker. “She *already knew*?” She looked away, her eyes tracing fast from place to place as she thought about what this meant. “*Were* you going to tell her, though? How did it come up?”

Tamzen fiddled with the end of one of her pigtails, inspecting her hair for split ends. “Of course I was going to tell her - she’s your friend, Didi. Odds were, it was going to come out eventually, and she deserved to hear it from one of us.” Satisfied with her inspection of her hair, she tossed it back over her shoulder. “Anyways, I’m not sure why you are so worried - she really took it in stride.” She thought about that, then shrugged. “Okay, so there was a *teensy* bit of awkwardness, but I’m pretty sure it was because the two of you had just…” Tamzen coughed delicately. “*You know*ed...together.”

“Do you really think she’ll still want to be my friend? Why would she, when you--” She bit her lip and looked to the ground, a wisp of blue hair falling over her face. “It seemed like you’d be happier never seeing me again.”

Tamzen fidgeted with the cuffs of her oversized sweater. “No! I…” She wasn’t entirely sure why this girl, who she had barely talked to outside of class, was concerned about not seeing her. She took a deep breath. “Look, this thing between you and Arsling...that’s got nothing to do with me. And...well, I needed a couple of days to come to terms with it, and I didn’t want you to have to deal with me while I was being weird about it. That’s all.”

“So, she already knew…” Didi nodded. “It might have been safer for you to tell her, at that point. The daytime part of it at least. But please don’t tell anyone else.” Her face was tight. “So… you did come to terms with it? You want things to be the way they were before, or…?”

A hurt look flashed briefly against Tamzen’s expression, and for a moment she seemed to have almost pulled away somehow, even though she hadn’t moved. “I...yeah.” She nodded once, sharply, and forced herself to relax, to smile - to act as though everything was fine. “I’m over it - everything back to normal. Nothing to tell, right?” She looked down at Didi’s bag. “So...when did you want to get together and look through these case files? I’d rather get this assignment done before Spring Break...”

Fluffy paced through the forest, debating whether to show up at the station that night. She hadn’t gone back since Sunday night, the night Tamzen hadn’t been there to meet her, the night she left the note. When Tam shunned her the next day… she thought that was that. But had the redhead really come to terms with it, like she said? Did she want to go back to being friends? Her reaction at the end of the conversation made Didi worry; it hadn’t seemed like she was all that happy. Was it because she was laying a trap? Was Didi being foolish going to meet her?

She looked up to the sky, to the slice of moon shining down. Human thoughts couldn’t resolve this; she decided to follow her instincts, loping towards the radio station.

Tamzen was sitting on the back steps of the studio, waiting for Fluffy as she had every night this week. To be honest, she had been starting to get worried that something had happened to them - unthinkable as that might seem! She smiled, pushed herself to her feet, and hurried down the stairs to meet her fuzzy escort.

“I was starting to think I was going to be left to eat all this jerky myself,” she teased as she reached into her pocket and fished out two pieces of jerky. She handed one to Fluffy, and tore off a piece of the other with her teeth and started chewing on it.

The wolf was hesitant, giving the jerky a thorough sniff before taking it and chewing slowly. It seemed like she wanted to ask a question.

Tamzen reached down and ruffled her companion’s fur apologetically. “Yeah, it is a bit stale isn’t it. Sorry - it’s been in my pocket all week.” She squatted down in front of Fluffy and pressed her face into their fur. “I’ve really missed this, my friend.”

Fluffy huffed and leaned in, feeling the same. Tamzen wouldn’t betray her, and it was okay if she’d thought about her crush and decided all she wanted was a wolf friend. Maybe it was better if Fluffy didn’t even talk, if they really did go back to the way things used to be. Feeling Tamzen close and warm and caring, though, Didi had to admit that she had kind of wanted more, and for Tamzen to want to be close to all the sides of her, and not just Fluffy.

She found herself leaning into the hug with enough weight to push Tamzen gradually over, and kept nuzzling at her even then.

Tamzen giggled as Fluffy pushed her backwards, and held on tighter. The week had been far too...*messy* for her liking - having Fluffy back meant that maybe things were starting to go back to normal.

*Thank god.*