Teach

Chapter 4A

Biology droned on. I half laid on my desk, trying to keep my eyes open even though I could hardly register what <> was saying. Something about RNA...Uracil...RNA polymerase...Transcription. I knew that I would have to revise this chapter nearer to the exam.

To my right, Roadrunner was holding out his Human Reproduction assignment, which he had not yet submitted despite knowing it was 2 days late. "Hey, um...I need help with human reprod again."

Before I could say that he could ask anyone at all and he would likely get a better explanation, he pointed at question 9, which was a MCQ question, "How come I get option 3 for oestrogen, but progesterone doesn't match up? The other options don't look right either."

I forced myself to look at his paper, because it would be rude to decline after he had already posed the question. Quickly, to my own surprise, I found the error. In my defense and - not - in Roadrunner's favour, the mistake was obvious. "You're wrong on oestrogen. It doesn't maintain the endometrium - that's progesterone's job. Oestrogen stimulates the production of luteinising hormone, which in turn stimulates ovulation."

Roadrunner stared at the paper, his eyes evidently blank for a second, before facing the front again. "I'll never understand all these hormone things. They're just too complicated for my brain cells."

"Do you need me to teach you?" "No, it's fine...I'll work it out on my own someday."

"Someday..." I shook my head and returned to my work. Just then, <> asked a question about the difference between DNA and RNA. The whole table looked over to 浩诚 who, sure enough, raised his hand at the speed of a bullet to <>, who immediately called him with a smile that said, I expected that, on his face.

And of course, 浩诚 rattled off the full, perfect answer to the teacher's question as though he had swallowed the textbook. "DNA is double stranded, while RNA is single stranded. RNA has uracil in place of thymine. DNA has a fixed ratio of G:C and A:T, while RNA does not have a fixed ratio of G:C and A:U."

<> seemed to be racing with 浩诚's words as he wrote everything on the whiteboard. When he finished writing and was just about to explain all these differences in greater detail, 浩诚 quickly corrected him. "For RNA, it's not the ratio of adenine to thymine. It's the ratio of adenine to uracil. That's what I said."

<> looked like he was half contemplating whether to ask his student to shut up. This manifested in a glare before he erased the word with a little bit more force than was required and wrote the correction there. Without another look at 浩诚, he hastily continued the lesson.

We were able to finish transcription and translation by the time the lesson ended, though I felt as though I had learnt nothing. All I heard was the tapping of 阿哲's pen on his table as he thought and I had half a mind to grab it from him, as well as the gabbing of Roadrunner and Yi Xun next to me as they bugged me with questions that made my head spin. Yi Xun I could understand slightly - he had just started learning today, after all, and was bound to need time to catch up.

But Roadrunner. I had this sort of inexpressible, unexplainable rage at him for not being able to understand very simple concepts and having to ask me every small little thing even though I had told him every time that I was horrible at Biology. What was even worse was that he did not seem to understand what I said to him due to his poor ability at the subject, and the fact that the star student was on his other side yet he chose to disturb me with all these questions. Why can't he just...magically be good at Biology? Or is he really that academically weak? I could not stop asking myself.

As I saw him staring at the question paper which had been crumpled to a dog-eared sheet by now, running his fingers through his hair and groaning in exasperation, I thought that I could not handle this any longer and turned away.

Something quickly distracted all of us, though. A knock. Yi Xun went, cautiously, to open the door.

It was a girl. Quite petite, looked a bit Secondary One. She had short hair and big brown eyes, and looked up at us with some apprehension in her demeanor and voice.

"I'm sorry...Is Roadrunner here?" "Hey Roadrunner, someone's calling you." Yi Xun immediately whipped his head around and summoned Roadrunner, who looked up haggard and nodded thanks. Placing the assignment gently on the table, he gave a stretch and walked slowly over to the door. A glimmer of recognition escaped his eyes as he saw the girl, but nothing more. As he disappeared behind the door, Yi Xun pulled the doorknob until it was about ajar before walking back.

"What's up, Yi Xun?" We immediately asked as he took his seat.

"I don't know. I have never seen that girl. Partly because I'm new and all that, but...you get it...I don't know her. Roadrunner seems to, though." We watched Roadrunner have a short exchange with the girl for about a few minutes before he nodded, and turned around to re-enter the classroom. The girl walked off, and we did not hear the contents of their conversation.

As Roadrunner came back in, 阿哲 casually asked him, "So what happened? Who is she?" Roadrunner moved back a few steps, and his face flushed slightly red. "She's nobody. Just a junior." 

Roadrunner's athletics club got a surprisingly high number of girls over the ages, and it was particularly so in the Secondary One cohort as he had mentioned to us before, with only 2 boys out of the 13 that had made the cut. "Her name's Zoe. I couldn't quite catch what she wanted, but she was muttering something about a friend...who wanted my number for a school project. She speaks very softly, and I couldn't bring myself to ask her to raise her voice. I can't imagine what project would want some guy's number for."

阿哲 facepalmed. "Roadrunner," he said seriously, "you can be such a doofus sometimes. She's in love with you, dude, and she's using some weird school project as an excuse!"

Roadrunner seemed to have finally realised something, and looked up in a half-angry shock. "Well, I don't want any sort of relationship! I've got quite enough in my life to deal with!"

浩诚, who was peering out the window this whole time, replied calmly, "Then go after her, friend, and make this clear." Before he could add anything more, Roadrunner had bolted out the classroom and was racing down the corridor. We saw him stop her near the stairway and explain himself, if looking a bit awkward in doing so. The girl seemed not to be too happy with this response, but after some exchange on their part she walked off, and Roadrunner returned back to class.

"浩诚, what the heck!" He shouted as he entered. "Now Zoe hates me! How will she even see me as a senior during CCA again! I'm never asking you for dating advice. Ever!" He paused and his face got even darker.  "Not that I need dating advice!"

"Chill, Roadrunner..." But Roadrunner slumped back on his chair, looking still disappointed. "Perhaps a 创义族 meeting will really resolve something for us."