Theresa Harper

Who Is She

Theresa Harper teaches AP Chemistry at a Denver high school and co-owns a small computer consulting firm on the side. She is organized, well-liked, and professionally competent in two fields simultaneously. She publishes the occasional article in scientific journals. She keeps difficult people from fighting with each other. She is, by most measurements, one of the more functional adults in any given room.

She woke up on a concrete floor in a burning building on the night of November 14, 1992, and everything she knew about chemistry suddenly applied to herself.

Before

She grew up in a Denver she mostly outpaced — skinny and gawky in junior high, too smart for most of the people around her, and gradually competent enough that none of that mattered. She has few close friends and many people who consider her one. Flash Simpson is the closest thing she has to a genuine friend — they’ve been business partners long enough that most of the performance has worn off.

She has a consulting firm with Flash and an engineer named Brian Jurgen that almost makes money. She has a teaching job that does make money. She has a Subaru. She has articles in journals. She has a life that is, objectively, fine.

After

Denver, November 1992.

Scenes