Queen Of Science

At first, it seemed like a normal morning. The sun was shining, and the birds were chirping. Miles was laying on his side and his arm was draped over Camilla"s waist. As he gradually gained consciousness, Miles noticed something peculiar against his stomach. The object was a little more than two feet tall. As Miles rubbed it, he noticed that it was fuzzy, and the smooth parts were squishy. Confused, Miles opened his eyes a little and looked at the object.

"Hhm? It"s a stuffed penguin. Why is there a stuffed penguin?"

Not completely awake, Miles starts patting his wife"s shoulder and trying to wake her up. Maybe she knows why there is a penguin in their bed.

Groaning, Camilla rolls over to face her husband.

"Ughh. Why are you awake this early? Is it Friday? I thought it was Sat.u.r.day."

"Yes, it"s Sat.u.r.day. The penguin in between us woke me up. Why is there a penguin toy in our bed?"

"Uh- what? There isn"t a penguin toy in our bed."

Lowering her gaze, Camilla notices Fern laying near her abdomen.

"That"s… not a penguin. That"s our daughter in the penguin onesie that she wore last night."

Miles blinks and responds, "Oh, it"s just little Fern. Let"s go back to sleep then"

.

.

"Wait…"

"We put Fern to bed in the nursery. How did she end up with us?"

The couple looks at each other with wide eyes and then looks down at their baby. After a couple seconds, Miles whips his head to look at Camilla and says, "Our baby can teleport!" Camilla smacks him on the back of the head and exclaims, "No, you dumbo! I sometimes seriously wonder how you are a lawyer."

Woken from her dad"s poking and prodding, Fern watches her bickering parents with a complicated look in her eyes.

Fern was so tired last night that she never came up with a way to explain her change in sleeping location. She first considered acting cute and hoping that her parents would be too distracted to ask questions, but that does not seem to be an option. Then, Fern thought about showing her parents the website that she made, but the risk of being treated as a demon or alien is too high. Although Camilla and Miles seem like intelligent, caring people who would never be disgusted by their intelligent baby, who knows? They aren"t dumb enough to think that normal 6-month-old babies are capable of creating an educational website. Thus, Fern decided that she would convince her parents that she felt lonely sleeping alone, so she escaped her crib and climbed into bed.

"Mama!" Fern looked up at mother with doe-like, watery eyes and reached towards her face.

Camilla sits up in bed and hoists Fern onto her lap. She coos at Fern and says, "Hey baby, how did you get in bed?"

In response, Fern stands up on her mother"s lap. Wobbling a little, she turns to face the bedside. Once she waddles to the side of the bed, she sits down and dangles her feet off the side. At this point, her parents are scared that Fern will jump off the bed and towards her uncertain death, so Miles rushes to pick her up and place her on the ground. After Fern is stabilized on the ground, she resumes her waddling and goes to the door.

As Fern makes her way out the room, Camilla and Miles follow closely behind. Camilla manages to grab a video camera and start recording Fern"s first steps. Miles and Camilla have never seen Fern walk before! This is a milestone! They don"t dare distract little Fern by express their excitement out-loud, but they are screaming in their mind about how cute and smart their little baby is.

Once Fern waddles down the hall and into her nursery, she looks back at her parents and screams, "mama! papa!"

Miles, misunderstanding the situation, hugs Fern and puts her into the crib. Immediately, Fern starts crying and looks at Miles like he just told her that science is lame. Panicked and unsure, Miles desperately looks at Camilla. She puts the camera down onto a shelf and walks over to the crib, picking Fern up. Camilla starts to rock little Fern back and forth while rubbing her head.

"Do you not like the crib? Did you want to sleep with mommy and daddy?"

Relieved that Camilla figured out what she was trying to say, Fern tugs on her mom"s hair as if to say yes.

"Well- I suppose that you can sleep with us tomorrow. To be honest, I was a little sad that you didn"t need us to sleep anymore."

In the end, Fern lost her opportunity to work on the website at night. However, Fern made her parents feel like they are needed, and she showed proved her intelligence by walking.