An Introduction to Chemistry

“Remember class, lab sections begin this week,” the young auburn haired professor says. “With that, let’s get into the material.”

“Wait,” you say, stumbling into a seat, “class starts in five minutes right?”

The dark haired girl next to you shoots you a harsh glance. “Were you deaf last week? She said she’d start and end class five minutes early, because there’s too much material to cover otherwise.”

What the fuck? What is it with this school and making students suffer? You guess this is what you signed up for by coming to Stonewall, and you lean back in your chair resignedly.

“As we now know, the Born-Oppenheimer approximation gives us a good starting point for molecular quantum, but we will need several refinements to develop good models for molecules with many electrons. From the second part of your homework, you’ve got your crash course in linear algebra, so we’re going to move onto the LCAO model, which stands for linear combinations of atomic orbitals… You sir, without the notes!”

You jolt, broken out of your rapt attention, and look around to see who the professor’s calling out.

“Yes you, the guy in the grey shirt that’s looking around.” The lecture hall has got to have at least 200 students sitting in it. How has she even noticed you? “Where are your notes?”

“I was paying attention, professor…”

Professor Styles

“It’s Professor Styles, in case you’ve already forgotten my name. Perhaps you neglected to pay attention during last week, but I will reiterate one last time for your benefit. If you’re not taking notes, I assume you know what I’m teaching already. Do you, Mr…”

“Alex Knight, Professor Styles, and um…” you wonder whether you should tell the truth or not. “To be honest, I’m broadly familiar with it, yes.”

“In that case,” the professor says, putting a hand on her hip. “Would you care to explain to us how you would predict the geometry of trans-tetrazene (N4H4)?”

You rack your brain, and you swear you would have known how to answer this before summer break, but you draw a blank, and noticing that the entire class has its eyes on you, you start speaking anyways: “So looking at the end Nitrogens, they would each have three bonds and a lone pair, right? That makes… um… I’m guessing a pyramidal structure? Not really sure…”

You go on for a little bit more, and the professor frowns, looking fairly unimpressed. Half the class seems to be smirking at you, and the other half is kind of cringing along with you, and you **** yourself to sit down, even though you know you haven’t gotten it right.

“Wow,” the professor says. She’s silent for a second, her cute face looking conflicted as she decides what to do with you. “Um… yeah, some of the ideas there were right, but you would need to do far better than that to credit on an exam. And… Alex, come see me after class? We should talk.”

Shit. The answer hits you just as the professor finishes speaking, in its full detail, and you frantically scribble it down in your notebook before you can forget it. Come on, you knew all of this, it was just the long summer where you didn’t really touch your studies…

Professor Styles continues teaching, the rest of the class moving through material that you’re mostly familiar with, although you do learn a decent amount. The dark haired girl sitting next to you seems to be sneaking glances at you too, but you’re not sure if she’s trying to mock you or not.

When the class ends, five minutes late, as the girl warned you, most of the class rushes out, having somewhere else to be.

“I’m Beatrice,” the girl says, sticking out her hand, which you shake. “Sorry you had to suffer through that, I guess I should’ve warned you...”

Beatrice

“Chemistry was kind of… my thing in high school? Like I geeked out probably more than was healthy,” you say, thinking of those days you stayed back after school just to work on a cool lab experiment. “Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, the answer fucking came into my head the moment I sat down, and I’ve been kicking myself for not getting it faster.”

“Man, that sucks,” she says, giving you a warm smile, and then a big hug, which you happily return. “I kinda needed this,” you mutter, and to be honest, you really kinda did. It helps that she has a nice rack to press against your chest, but that’s not it.

She breaks away awkwardly a second later, gives you kind of a wave goodbye, and then scurries off. You need to head down the steps of the lecture hall to go talk to your professor now, but you think you might just be able to win her over to your side.

Styles -10
Beatrice +5