Once upon a time, Rachel married John-Friedrich Jr., much to his family’s chagrin and dismay.

“She’s… a bit weird. Doesn’t talk much and she dresses weird and, if she wasn’t just 20, we’d suspect that Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rainman was written about her.”

Additionally, they thought she’d drag him down because of her age, her “obliviousness,” and the narrowness of her “special interests.”

They had great dreams for him, you see.

He was in an accelerated graduate program for some computer-related career that was highly technical and most-hush-hush, indeed.

His GPA for over a year and seven months had been the highest in the program.

Until now, for the required capstone class had stymied all 300+ students in the program, who had been forced to enroll in the capstone for a second time, as a grade of Passing was the only way to, erm, pass the class. And the only way to get that Passing grade was to complete an entire book of mathematical puzzles before a certain date and time.

The puzzles contained many patterns, and a few long-forgotten calculations.

The students were allowed to get any assistance at all, whether human or computer-aided or completely ai.

Which was all fine and well… but for the fact that each puzzle took the most advanced ai agents a dozen or more hours.

EACH.

So no one had passed the class, yet. People lost interest before half the book was complete. And John Friederich’s fam was more than bummed, as it had been their contributed resources that both developed the baffling technology as well as this program. If their JF—heretofore the heir to this fortune and technological empire—could not learn this or make it work, then…

But on the other hand, his family had made a token offer to him: complete this program and we’ll forgive you for marrying that weirdo.

Young JF had almost despaired… until one week before the due date, when he found his beloved with her nose stuck in a book. His puzzle book. And she was muttering up a storm to herself.

Oblivious though she was, she had stumbled upon the book and seemed to be having a field day filling it out. She only had three left. And she wasn’t even pausing for breath. (And was that a creepy smile on her face???)

The next day, young John F. turned in the fully-completed book.

His family members stepped forward (having materialized out of nowhere) and embraced him, not sparing a glance at the young lass who knew more about this baffling tech than did they, the chief investors.

She had knelt over a milkweed growing out of a tiny crack in the pavement and was patting it as though it were a very fluffy puppy, oblivious to her in-laws’ slight, or, well, not aware of them in the… slightest.

As the large and mysterious family dashed away like the Pevensies or something, he wandered over to her and took her hand.

The family were out of his hair, and had not seemed to recall their earlier promise to him.

When another company came calling, he wasn’t worried about it puzzles and problem-solving in the slightest; his own personal math whiz could get him through any and every puzzle he’d ever face.

And because they were in perfect unity with one another, they could also face any and every challenge together…