The Scientific Jerk

Chapter Twelve

I wonder if being a jerk is a talent or it is a way of hiding your feelings.

Cassie's flu was finally gone and she finally cared enough to come over to my house.

"You never told me about your trip to Captain's house" she asked as I braided her hair.

Trip to Captain's House; I met the dark soul Christina, then the electric water mirror which included my latest awkward encounter with Captain, the science room, and the discovery of Captain's name along with the reason I was called Aluminum. Significant day.

"We just worked on our fireworks," I lied.

I rubbed a brush into a soft pink eyeshadow. An inch before the brush met Cassie's eyelids, she grabbed the brush and pulled it away from her face.

"Very funny Al, but I'm a makeup virgin." She gave me a sarcastic smile.

I raised my eyebrow and shot her a questioning look. "Does that mean you're calling me a makeup whore?" I asked.

Cassie rolled her eyes and said, "Captain's sister is a makeup and an actual whore."

I hadn't really thought that much about Christina. She did wear far more than I did. And her black dress could hardly fit a 4 year old. How was she even related to Captain?

And speaking of Captain or Brad or whatever his name is, he isn't being all scientific only to his chemicals. He's so different from what I thought he was. And apparently he sure likes Aluminium a lot. And it's not only the metal I'm talking about.

I had to go to Captain's house again. Christina wasn't visible anywhere this time. We worked on our fireworks again in his science room. I didn't bother going to the shelf that highlighted Captain's feelings. It felt so different over there. Most of the time, we would work silently but there were times we would pick up a conversation.

"I see that you turned my science coat purple," Captain's voice was low this time.

"It's been a week, do you not like it?" I asked.

"No, it's very nice. It's just out of the blue to have to customize it." He replied.

"You into fashion?," I knew what was he going to say.

"I am actually," he replied with an unexpected answer. "I just don't try that hard for it," he said.

Captain is into fashion? Yeah right! That's like saying vampires love exposing themselves to the sun.

Before I fired my comment to Captain, an idea popped into my brain.

"Prove it," I said.

Captain looked at me. "Prove what?" He seemed confused.

I pulled out a fashion magazine from my bag, I always kept one. I laid the magazine on the table.

The cover page had a black and white picture of a shirtless guy, wearing an expensive watch and advertising a "Calvin Klein's" boxers.

"I want you to prove that you can dress like any of the men in this magazine," I demanded.

He picked up the magazine and pointed at the shirtless guy on the front cover.

"Like this gentleman?" He said, he smiled from one side of his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Not necessarily him, there's plenty of guys throughout the magazine, with clothes on!" I said, a little louder than my regular voice.

Captain gave a little breath out smile, "deal," he said. He took the magazine and placed it on his work table. "Until then, let's get to work Alumin."

I could feel a rush of chills just going through my body when he called me that. My heart skipped a beat and I stood still for a second.

"Let's work!" I said in my shaky voice.

The thing about Brad, and the favourite element incident is that it stayed in the back of my head since the moment I found out. And occasionally, that thought would pop up, and surprise me.

No matter how much I tried to regret it, the Science Club coat was my second favourite thing to wear. It just made me feel like I had a different side of me.

And no matter how interesting I thought science was, whatever Mr. Stanley taught in class made me more bored than babysitting an elderly.

Yep, babysitting an elderly. My dad makes me do that. I go that place where the seniors live and volunteer to help the old people. It's so boring, like all the old ladies like to watch "Knitting Wars" and all the Grandpas love drinking beans and tomato juice while talking about political stuff from 50 years ago. And my job is to help them at any activity, and make sure they don't die.

While Mr. Stanley was reviewing Newton's Laws, a boy walked into the classroom. Almost every jaw in the classroom dropped when they saw him. I didn't recognize who he was.

He had gel spiking up his hair. He wore a varsity jacket with his sleeves pulled close to his elbows. And he had nice pair of jocky shoes.

He walked up to Mr. Stanley and whispered something to him. The boring teacher smiled, nodded, and then look at the back of the classroom, where I sat.

"Allison," he said. "Please go to the Science lab with Captain."