Chapter 203 The Side Character Has A Scholarship - Part 2 [Chloe]

I was already having enough of this, so I just ignored him and began doing the experiment. Maybe I should've gone by myself after all. I set up the bunsen burner, plugged it into the gas outlet and weighed the crucible and magnesium on the scale. After basically setting up the entire thing by myself, Derrick finally decided to come back over, claiming that an image justified that what he had were tongs. It was simply incorrect. What he was holding was obviously tweezers, and he had scrolled down quite a significant amount before locating that image. Common sense would've shown that those tiny tweezers were obviously not meant for this experiment.

I decided to just let him have his way and proceeded to begin the experiment. "I want to start the bunsen burner," I passed him the box of matches and let him start it up. He crudely fiddled with the matched and placed it above the burner, "why isn't it starting," it seemed he wasn't listening very hard when we were taught this. I twisted the little cap on the base and turned on the gas. "Try it again now," I told him. This time he was able to light the bunsen burner, with a pretty clear, blue stream of fire coming out.

I had already done most of the other steps, so I put the crucible on top of the pipeclay triangle on the flame and waited for the reaction to occur. It was a very basic magnesium oxide reaction, so there wasn't really anything interesting going on. The discussion question in the workbook was also extremely fundamental, and the experiment wasn't even remotely necessary to answer the questions. I looked over to see Derrick with another crucible, weighing it and the strip of magnesium. "It's fine. I've already done that," I told him.

After a little while, the reaction slowly occurred. There was nothing really that interesting aside from some gas-like substance leaking out when I opened the lid of the crucible. I jotted down everything I needed for the assignment and decided to call it a day. As I began to pack away the equipment, Derrick called out to me, "what answers did you get!" I gave him my workbook and let him copy away on it. I didn't really care what he did, but it didn't seem like he was going to be very useful, so this would be no different from a solo assignment. Most people would be hesitant to be so accommodating to a teammate like this, but I couldn't care enough.

After packing away the equipment, I made my way back over to my desk and started writing out a draft of the assignment. We were given two weeks to finish and hand in the assignment, although I definitely could finish it by tonight if I wanted.

Derrick came and sat next to me. He moved his seat close to mine, and I could feel his breath on my neck, which was quite uncomfortable. He seemed to be copying down everything I was writing and having no thoughts of his own.

After a period of time, I finished my draft and decided to do something else for the remainder of the lesson. Most of the other people hadn't even finished their experiments yet, let alone their draft. I didn't want to get too far ahead. "Hey, why are you stopping?" I was at the point where I couldn't be bothered answering Derrick and instead read one of the romance novels I had saved on my computer.

Still, I couldn't completely ignore the fact that Derrick's stinky breath was constantly on my neck, way too close for comfort.

***

Suddenly, the unpleasant feeling was gone from my neck.

I looked over to see what was happening. I saw Derrick being pulled away by Teru, "You need some more social awareness, she was obviously uncomfortable with you being so close." He tried to rebut, "but I just wanted to see what she was doing..." Teru looked down at him, he glanced over at me before returning to his conversation, "Actually speak to her then and don't be so close, people don't like it when other people invade their personal space." Derrick seemed to be listening to Teru and reflected on his actions. It was very nice of Teru to do something like that for me.

After a little while, Teru came over to me and also had a look at the novel I was reading. "Hopeless romantic?" He asked.

Something like that.

He didn't really stay for long and went back to help his group. Derrick didn't bother me for the rest of the lesson, either. I read through around twenty pages before the bell eventually rang and signalled the start of lunch. I thought about my experience in chemistry today and decided that I would think a bit harder before deciding to partner up with somebody.

I was in the mood to have some canteen food today, so I made my way to the overcrowded long line that trailed into the serving area. The inside of the cafeteria building was like a modern, aesthetic café. It had bright chairs and large windows, bringing in lots of natural light. There were also some shrubs and other indoor plants scattered around. I waited in the line for about five minutes, the line was honestly shorter than usual, and there was less mayhem near the front from misbehaving students.

As I got to the front, I had a quick look of the food and decided on my order. "What can I get for you today?" The cafeteria lady seemed to be in a rush, they had recently had a change in attitude due to some events which happened in the canteen, so they were a lot less accepting than before. "I'll take a cheese pizza and a tropical green smoothie." The smoothies came in pre-packaged bottles so they weren't exactly the best but I took great care of my health so I got it. The pizza was obviously not very healthy but for some reason I really felt like having it today. "That'll come to $6.50." I took out my phone and scanned it on the EFTPOS machine.

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