FREEPORT — Kayla Zboran's latest intellectual puzzle involves human hair and motor oil.

Zboran, a Freeport High School sophomore, is not a typical 15-year-old. Biochemistry excites her.

Any one of the five musical instruments she can play can get her blood pumping.

She was a professional ballet dancer in the production of “The Nutcracker” when she was 7.

She can finish a cross country course in under 20 minutes, and she has her life planned out for the next 25 years.

Most 15-year-olds don't know what they are going to do in the next 25 minutes.

But not Zboran.

“This is a big decision that hangs over my head every day,” Zboran said, smiling. “Are you going to be a biochemist or cave in and be a music person and be in the arts?”

Zboran's eyes light up, though, when she talks about her biochemistry experiments.

As long as she can remember, she has wanted to be a scientist.

She's undertaken several complex projects in her young life, the latest involving what color and texture of hair best absorbs used motor oil.

“Basically, I'm exploring when people dump used motor oil in their backyard, how do you get it out of the environment?” Zboran said. “Hair is a proven method.”

Zboran is surrounded by computer people. Her mother, Beth, teaches computer science at Freeport High School and Zboran describes her 17-year-old brother Kyle as a “computer geek.”

“I'm not a computer geek,” Kayla Zboran said. “I'm a different kind of geek.”

And a busy one at that.

When she's not trying to save the environment with experiments, she's in the marching band, in school plays and musicals, and running cross country and track.

She gave up dancing, she said, so she could do all of those other things.

“It was getting to be up to four days a week,” Zboran said of her ballet. “If I would have continued doing it in seventh grade, I wouldn't have been able to run cross country. I wouldn't have been able to do science or all the music stuff I do. It was basically ballet or everything else.

“Still,” Zboran added. “I miss it.”

The teen fills the void with music. She can play the piano, flute, saxophone, trumpet and piccolo.

She's learning how to play the guitar.

While she said she is best at the flute, piano is her favorite instrument.

“She plays the piano every day for hours and hours,” said her mother. “Every morning before school and every night when she gets home.”

As for her future, Zboran smiles, takes a deep breath and explains her plan in detail.

“I'm going to become a biochemist and then retire at 40, because that's what they all do,” she said. “Then, I'm going to go back to school for music.”

Zboran will get an early start on her life's work.

She was home-schooled during her early grades, then attended private school where she took the fourth and the fifth grades in the same school year.

She's a year younger than her classmates at Freeport High, which can be a source of stress for Zboran.

“It's a disadvantage,” she said. “There's a kid in my grade who has the same birthday as I do, but he's 16 and I'm 15. Everyone else is getting their (driving) permit, and I'm not. I'm going to graduate at 17.”

But Zboran seems far more mature than most of her classmates.

“I kind of match with them well sometimes,” Zboran said. “A lot of my friends say I'm more mature for my age. Then you have the 17-year-olds who act like they are 2.”

However, there are times when Zboran misses out on being a teenage girl. Her myriad activities don't leave much time for being, well, a 15-year-old.

“I'll have friends say, ‘It's $4 movie night, would you like to go?'” Zboran said. “I have to say, ‘No. I have a band concert,' or something else.”

Still, Zboran wouldn't change a thing.

And she's still finding new hobbies to jam into her already busy life, whether it's dek hockey or skiing.

Ummm, scratch the skiing.

“Too busy,” Zboran said, smiling.

<B>Age:</B> 15<B>Address:</B> Freeport<B>Family: </B>Father, Joe; mother, Beth; brother, Kyle<B>Employment: </B>Teaches music lessons<B>Education</B>: Sophomore at Freeport High School<B>Interests:</B> Dance, music, science, running.<B>Quote: </B>“This is a big decision that hangs over my head every day. Are you going to be a biochemist or cave in and be a music person and be in the arts?”