Age 15, highly-intelligent, serious-minded, and unusually self-assured for her age, she is adept at eluding her parents’ efforts to pry into her private life and boys’ attempts to lure her into romantic attachments. Like Rom, her goal is to excel in science, but unlike Rom’s grand plans to create a scientific legacy, her approach is more modest and humanistic; to achieve her full potential and hopefully make a contribution to society, perhaps in the new environmental field. Her passion for science, demonstrated in her butterfly hatchery and bird documentary projects, is what initially attracts her to Rom, even though he ranks below her in popularity because of his brainy-nerdish social outlier status. Impressed with his fractal science fair presentation and science hero Mandelbrot, she falls into a relationship of shared scientific interest with him that presages a spark of something much deeper between them.
Wendy strives to be a “good girl,” but is occasionally led astray by her wilder, fun-loving best friend, Cheryl. Such is the case with their extended double fling with popular older jocks Spencer and Brett disheartening the Science Club boys who are also competing for the girls’ attentions. Wendy plays along for a time, half-heartedly letting the suave, witty Spencer try to win her over, yet keeps finding herself more drawn to Rom and his unusual mind and unique persona. But she remains conflicted about getting in deeper with Rom as both science partner AND romantic interest because of her independent nature and conviction about not being ready for a serious relationship with ANY boy. She sometimes finds Rom’s eccentric genius exasperating, and at one point annoyed by his obliviously inconsiderate behavior, “punishes” him by going out with another boy, Julian, whose advances she keeps putting off.
Wendy is pulled by both Rom and Cheryl into sticky situations over the objections of her more prudent and sensible side, but she invariably rises to the challenges presented with poise and resourcefulness, turning them into new opportunities for personal growth, as when she acquires a new female mentor in tv news personality, Penny Parker, and takes the first step towards realizing her ambitious science foundation dream. Despite her chronic ambivalence about Rom both romantically and scientifically, her empathetic bond with him persists and grows. She becomes a supportive and empathetic confidant to Rom when troubles and obstacles cause the break up of Science Club and threaten to overturn the fractal enhancement enterprise. Drawn into collaboration on the project despite her reservations, she becomes a stabilizing influence and moral tonic to Rom’s headlong exuberance as they are gradually quantum-entangled together in a Receiver Group of The All.