Chapter Three - A Colony of Idiots

They had finally chosen a desk. Unfortunately, very unfortunately, it was a desk in the most isolated corner of the library – the emptiness of the library was already bad enough as it was. 

“This desk is perfect!” Dean exclaimed childishly while smirking.

“Quiet…peaceful. Ideal place to sleep,” the one with hair so dark it looked almost black commented. He pulled out a chair, stuck his legs up on the table, leaned back and shut his eyes.

“Ace!” Hunter laughed, punching the ‘resting’ one in the arm. Ace jolted and half-scowled as he took his legs down, opened his eyes and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk.

Meanwhile, I was still standing, seriously wondering whether or not I should run for my life. It was too late; Dylan pulled out a chair and pushed me in front of the seat and pushed down my shoulders. I sat down with all my belongings as close to me as possible. Four pairs of eyes stared at me; one pair a dangerous dazzling emerald, one ice blue, one light brown and the last –and sleepiest – one very dark brown.

I could feel the goosebumps coming up all over my skin. Dean’s piercing blue eyes continued analysing me while Dylan swung on his chair.

“Tell me, you first class student, how do you feel about smoking?” Hunter questioned, pulling out a pack from his pant pocket.

My heart started beating like crazy, my mind frantically thinking of ways to get out of this situation. I couldn’t look at them properly without imagining salivating wolves. Hunter put the pack on the table and slid it towards me. I watched it as it came to a halt just by the edge of the table in front of me. “Try one, nerdy.” It didn’t sound like an invitation, but more like a threat. I sat still and silent.

After about five seconds of intently staring at my probably very frightened expression, he laughed, sat back and folded his arms. “So tutor, teach us.”

“Um…” I murmured.

“Mrs Smith told you to tutor us, so work your magic,’ Dylan said, opening up a textbook, holding it up towards me, waiting for me to grab it.

Reluctantly, I grabbed it and flicked to the page we had been discussing in class.

“Um…you guys know the basics….right?” I was partially afraid to ask the question.Why? Firstly, they could have seen it as an insult to their intelligence, but secondly, maybe they actually didn’t know.

“No?” Dylan replied, a confused look plastered on his face.

“Nope. Does not ring a bell,” Dean seconded.

“You are here to teach us,” Hunter glowered.

I forced myself to hold back a groan and flicked back to the very first page. This was going to be one tedious session. I wasn’t going to complain about tedious though, because their version of ‘exciting’ was my version of ‘dangerous’.

“Okay, so…an atom is made up of three sub-atomic particles,” I took a breath and drew up the diagram on a scrap piece of paper.

“Is it really this big?” Dean asked.

“Obviously not,” I replied, struggling to speak as though I didn’t think he was completely brainless.

“Then draw it to scale!” Hunter complained.

“Then I might as well draw nothing. Do you know how small it is?”

They all finally agreed to settle with my diagram and I was able to continue explaining. “Firstly, electrons have a negative charge, protons have a positive charge and neutrons have no charge.” I looked at each of them to make sure they were nodding. All of them did except for the sleeping one and Hunter.

“I’m not going to nod,” he scowled, realising I was waiting for him to nod.

“The nucleus is in the centre of the atom, and this contains the protons and neutrons. The electrons are outside in the electron shells. There is no certain location of electrons, so we use the electron cloud as an approximation of where the electrons will be.”

By now, I worked out I had completely lost them. I rolled my eyes, screamed out loud and strangled each of them…in my mind of course. On the outside, I kept a straight face and continued to explain everything one baby step at a time.

“I get it!” Dylan exclaimed triumphantly.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Dean muttered.

However, Hunter still looked at me blankly but didn’t say a thing.

“Okay guys, the library’s closing in five minutes so make sure you pack up your gear,” the librarian reminded, looking slightly too afraid to come near the guys.

I shoved my books and pens into my bag and stood up. Overall, this hadn’t been too bad. They hadn’t done anything after all. Hunter quickly pulled a sticky note off from my book and scrawled something on it. They all stood up and began leaving. Just as he walked past, Hunter stuck the sticky note to my forehead looking rather smug.

 I pulled the sticky note off my forehead and read it. ‘Tutoring Order. 6pm sharp. 23 Pine Street’. I took the opportunity to glare and frown and express all the other emotions I’d been suppressing when he’d been looking. Finally satisfied, I too left the library.