Alex Camero was a young prodigy. She did not realize it, nor did her family, but she had the potential to become the fifth greatest mind in the history of her world. It was a standard of excellence that four other minds had barely achieved: Peixoto, Picasso, Rafael, and Gaudi.

I am getting ahead of myself. Alex believed herself to be only mediocre. Her musical talent was not exceptional, her physical prowess was unsatisfactory, and her academic work was below average. Her Father was an emotional man, prone to outbursts of rage and hatred that left his four children emotionally scarred. He punished Camaro and her siblings for their shoddy performance by locking them in their rooms, sometimes for days. Alex Camaro was a bright child. She was curious about everything.

This surprised her family, who did not expect their daughter to amount to much. The family thrived financially, but her mother worked at a mortuary to avoid spending time with her children and her husband. She preferred the company of the deceased. Alex was left alone during the day. Her curiosity and sense of abandonment gave rise to odd jealousy of the corpses. She found her mother’s work fascinating.

At the mortuary, Alex’s mother embalmed corpses for a living, and Alex was too young to understand the full gravity of the task. She saw the corpses as people, not bodies. To her, a corpse was a foreign object.

Alex Camaro’s Father was a jealous man. He was always watching Alex and her mother. He would go into rages at the dinner table, smashing plates against the wall and screaming curses at his family.

When the nights became particularly bleak, Alex would mount her sticker-covered bicycle to ride to her one haven: the campus of the local Science College. She had taken to hanging out in the halls of the Computer Lab after school and begging students and researchers to let her watch them as they programmed computers with punch hole cards and reams of data tape.

Alex would watch the giant machines work day and night tirelessly, fascinated by their power and heavy load. They were, to a degree, reliable. You could communicate with them simply, and they would understand.

She lived in chaos, and she had learned to make her home in it, but her mind was angled lines and vernacular logic.

She had a keen sense of visual problem-solving. She could spot patterns in the most random of data. However, she could not understand how to solve the problems connected to her life. Her family always took precedence over her interests, and she learned to live without a sense of self.

She had no idea what she wanted.

The world was unpredictable, and her Father was unstable. She learned to be stoic and uncommunicative.

Alex found solace and guidance in programming textbooks given to her by the head of the Computer Science department. He was a kind man, a widower with a daughter about the same age as Alex. She devoured the books, memorizing entire pages. When she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer. A sense of helplessness stifled Alex’s grief.

She watched her mother’s body fail, and she could not do a thing about it. Her mother had always been a dreamer. She had always seen her job as an embalmer as an interim step of sorts until she could pursue her dream of becoming an actress. It was a dream that went unfulfilled.

Alex escaped her home life by enrolling at the local college, where she was able to join the Computer Science Program for credit towards her Associate’s Degree. Her professors recognized her potential and gave her the courses she needed to succeed.

They often encouraged her after class and helped her all they could. She was their star pupil. When she transferred to UCLA, she did so with the hopes and beliefs of the entire college behind her. Her Father said she would fail without him. Alex believed she would fail with him.

Alex Camero was a young prodigy. She did not realize it, nor did her family, but she had the potential to become the fifth greatest mind in the history of her world. It was a standard of excellence that four other minds had barely achieved: Peixoto, Picasso, Rafael, and Gaudi.

I am getting ahead of myself. Alex believed herself to be only mediocre. Her musical talent was not exceptional, her physical prowess was unsatisfactory, and her academic work was below average. Her Father was an emotional man, prone to outbursts of rage and hatred that left his four children emotionally scarred. He punished Camaro and her siblings for their shoddy performance by locking them in their rooms, sometimes for days. Alex Camaro was a bright child. She was curious about everything.

This surprised her family, who did not expect their daughter to amount to much. The family thrived financially, but her mother worked at a mortuary to avoid spending time with her children and her husband. She preferred the company of the deceased. Alex was left alone during the day. Her curiosity and sense of abandonment gave rise to odd jealousy of the corpses. She found her mother’s work fascinating.

At the mortuary, Alex’s mother embalmed corpses for a living, and Alex was too young to understand the full gravity of the task. She saw the corpses as people, not bodies. To her, a corpse was a foreign object.

Alex Camaro’s Father was a jealous man. He was always watching Alex and her mother. He would go into rages at the dinner table, smashing plates against the wall and screaming curses at his family.

When the nights became particularly bleak, Alex would mount her sticker-covered bicycle to ride to her one haven: the campus of the local Science College. She had taken to hanging out in the halls of the Computer Lab after school and begging students and researchers to let her watch them as they programmed computers with punch hole cards and reams of data tape.

Alex would watch the giant machines work day and night tirelessly, fascinated by their power and heavy load. They were, to a degree, reliable. You could communicate with them simply, and they would understand.

She lived in chaos, and she had learned to make her home in it, but her mind was angled lines and vernacular logic.

She had a keen sense of visual problem-solving. She could spot patterns in the most random of data. However, she could not understand how to solve the problems connected to her life. Her family always took precedence over her interests, and she learned to live without a sense of self.

She had no idea what she wanted.

The world was unpredictable, and her Father was unstable. She learned to be stoic and uncommunicative.

Alex found solace and guidance in programming textbooks given to her by the head of the Computer Science department. He was a kind man, a widower with a daughter about the same age as Alex. She devoured the books, memorizing entire pages. When she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer. A sense of helplessness stifled Alex’s grief.

She watched her mother’s body fail, and she could not do a thing about it. Her mother had always been a dreamer. She had always seen her job as an embalmer as an interim step of sorts until she could pursue her dream of becoming an actress. It was a dream that went unfulfilled.

Alex escaped her home life by enrolling at the local college, where she was able to join the Computer Science Program for credit towards her Associate’s Degree. Her professors recognized her potential and gave her the courses she needed to succeed.

They often encouraged her after class and helped her all they could. She was their star pupil. When she transferred to UCLA, she did so with the hopes and beliefs of the entire college behind her. Her Father said she would fail without him. Alex believed she would fail with him.