Ironclad Love

Chapter 3

"Yo, Peter! Can I see your chem homework for Duanos?" Thomas asked his friend the next day during break.

"Yeah sure. Here," Peter said as he handed Thomas the previous day's chemistry assignment, "I skimmed this off the answer key yesterday, so it should be correct I think. Better finish before class though. You've only got ten minutes, fifteen if you include passing period, but then you'd be late."

"It's fine, it's fine," Thomas shrugged off his friend's concerns while he rapidly copied down his work, "I got this."

Elaina walked by Thomas on the way to Ms. Duanos' classroom during break and noticed him copying Peter's homework, causing her to sigh as she passed by him.

It was her normal routine to spend her break and lunch time in the classroom of whichever teacher she had next because it was easier that way.

"Oh hey!" Ms. Duanos said to Elaina as she walked into the classroom, running around erratically as she tried to do whatever she was doing in the classroom, "Oh! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Here's the handout for today! You can start on it if you want to!"

Elaina laughed. Ms. Duanos was one of the only people who didn't give her a weird look for her metal arms, and Elaina thought Ms. Duanos' erratic personality would've made her perfect for some comedy TV show, but didn't quite know how she became a teacher.

She previously had Duanos last year for biology, so they were already fairly well acquainted going into Elaina's sophomore year. The year was almost over now, making Elaina wonder if she should take AP biology, partially just to have Ms. Duanos again as a familiar teacher.

Elaina sat down at her seat and started working on the POGIL. Despite Ms. Duanos emphasizing group teamwork, she allowed Elaina to work independently as a special case knowing how her peers often treated her, and knowing she was more than competent enough to be a one girl group.

A little while later, the bell rang and everyone slowly started to enter the classroom while still in discussion with their friends.

As they did, Elaina continued to work on the chemistry POGIL, almost done with the backside of the first page. She immediately went to go get a teacher check once the class officially began after the second bell, signifying the end of passing period, had rung and Ms. Duanos had situated herself.

"It's all good," Ms. Duanos told Elaina after she checked Elaina's answers with the answer key.

Elaina walked back to her desk and continued to work on the POGIL. Around three fourths of the way through class, she had already finished and gotten all of it checked and corrected. Using her extra time, she decided to finish up the rest of her remaining Algebra 2 homework from her first period using her download of the digital textbook on her Chromebook.

She took out her Chromebook and connected her mouse. She selected her "Algebra 2 Textbook" bookmark, took out her lined paper, and began diligently working on completing the remaining homework questions.

Thomas saw Elaina finishing up the chemistry POGIL and start working on their Algebra 2 homework, and couldn't help but think of how diligent and hardworking Elaina was, and how noticeably cute she looked as she focused solely on completing her work.

By the end of class, Elaina had managed to finish all of her Algebra 2 homework as well.

As the bell rang, Elaina packed up her binders, Chromebook, and mouse as she headed to her fourth period: PE.

PE didn't have a specific classroom, but the teacher always had them meet at the lunch tables by the locker rooms since they needed to change into their PE uniforms.

Elaina walked into the girls locker room, entered her locker combination, and changed into her PE clothes, putting on a white shirt and tucking it in her blue shorts.

As usual, she was in and out before most of the girls even entered the locker room. Since her school strangely had homeroom right before fourth period, she brought out her binder, pencil, and eraser to do her chemistry extra credit review sheet and second period world history worksheets during homeroom and while she waited for the class to start.

A few minutes after homeroom started, the PA system came on as the ASB council president led the school in the pledge of allegiance and informed the student body of the daily announcements. Elaina took note of all the important things as she worked on her chemistry review sheet. By the end of homeroom, she had finished her chemistry review sheet for the lesson they had done in class today and the beginning of her world history worksheets.

That day, they had a substitute teacher for PE, so they would just be walking laps around the track the whole period. Elaina ran back into the girls locker room and put away her work materials, bringing with her a copy of Shadow and Bone that she had checked out of the library to read as she walked.

Elaina walked her laps in solitary isolation. She could hear her classmates continuing to laugh at her and make fun of her metal arms as she tried to ignore them.

No matter how much they did it, they never seemed to grow tired of ridiculing her.

All she wanted to do at that moment was stop walking laps and run away and hide, but, instead, she kept her head buried in her book as she continued to walk her laps.

She couldn't help but think of Thomas at that moment. He was the first classmate to ever be that nice to her, though she knew it was likely because his friends had dared him to. Despite knowing that the date was likely just a dare from his friends and his words were probably as empty as they seemed sweet, she couldn't help but get her hopes up, wishing that she was wrong and that he would continue to keep in contact after the date, but he hadn't, and things just returned to how they were before.

~~~

I'd also like to credit my high school teacher for allowing me to portray her as a character in this book!
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