My grandmother (love is patient sequel)

3x+7=5x+3

So Christmas had officially come early for me. I had my very own chemistry kit and I could do my own experiments! As imaginable, I spent the rest of the weekend at auntie Haf's house playing with my new chemistry kit. If things stayed like this forever I'd never be unhappy.

Monday was like a cold slap to the face.

"OI. NERD!"

This was obviously directed at me. From Will. The bully with no apparent brain.

"What do you want Will?"

"Don't use that attitude with me, faggot."

"Sorry."

"Here's my chemistry homework. I need it by period 3."

"Ok."

I wasn't in the mood to disagree with him. I was tired and cold. I also didn't want to be beaten up this early in the day. His homework wouldn't take very long. I knew he was given homework that he might be able to use whatever was rattling around in his predictably thick skull to complete. In registration, most people would sit and talk to their friends. I do not have friends to talk to. So I decided I'd see how much of Will's homework I could finish in form.

THE PERIODIC TABLE

It was a one-sided sheet, A5. This wasn't going to take long.

Name four elements in the periodic table.

How stupid are the bottom set? I'll do easy ones so it sounds more like he did the work.

Carbon (C), Oxygen (O), Magnesium (Mg), Fluorine (F)

In an atom, where is the nucleus located?

a) Floating inside the atom.

b) In the middle of the atom.

c) Rotating in the outer shells of the atom.

d) The atom doesn't have a nucleus.

Jesus Christ. Are they really that stupid?

b) In the middle of the atom.

On the pH scale, what colour indicates:

A strong acid?

A strong alkali?

A neutral solution?

How is it humanly possible to be this thick?

Red

Dark purple

Green

Use the space below to draw a particle diagram for a solid element.

Pfft. I could do this in my sleep.

In the space I drew neat circles in organised rows and columns. I even coloured them green to distinctly show that they were all the same element. Done with 15 minutes to spare. I then made the mistake of making direct eye contact with my form tutor.

Oh no.

"Tomos! Tom if you will. Tom Tommity Tom Tom. Tom the cool dude. Tom Lig my man!"

"Hi Sir."

My form tutor, Mr Bidlin, was an odd one. "Binlid" as he has been nicknamed. He's a skinny man, probably in his twenties. Of course this means he thinks he can be cool and seamlessly talk to teeagers whilst holding their attention for more than 2 minutes He taught English, one of the least preferred subjects by the stereotypical students of my school. He recognized that I have no friends except when homework is due so now makes a point of trying to talk to me.

Lets make one thing certain.

I do not like talking to people.

"Sooooooooooooooooooooooo" he wandered over to me.

"So?"

"So. What'd you do over the weekend?"

"I went to stay at my auntie's house."

"Very nice. Did you have fun?"

"Yes."

He signalled to me as if for me to tell him more.

"We did science stuff."

"How nice."

Awkward pause. Oh God. Say something Tom. Come on brain. Think! Think!

Stupid brian.

"Think."

"What was that mate?"

"Think."

"Sorry bruv. I can't tell what you're whispering."

"Think."

"Think?"

"THINK."

"No need to raise your voice. What's wrong Tom?"

"THINK. THINK. STUPID HEAD. THINK."

At this point, I was unable to control my actions. I was delibratley hitting my head whilst tears streamed down my face.

"THINK. THINK."

With that I was walking out. There was nowhere to go. There must be somewhere to go.

Ah ha!

Toilets.

The school had recently got new toilets where each stall was like a different room.

I jumped into one and locked myself in. Despite the fact that the toilets had only existed for about a month, the walls were already coated in graffiti. I seemed like a popular topic in this graffiti. Not all of it was about me. Definitely some though. With tears still running down my face, I somehow thought reading the graffiti was a good idea.

"Tom Ligori" spelled frustratingly wrong, "is a girly faggot"

"Nerdface Liggi shags sheep"

"All fags go to hell especilly tomas li"

"Tom liggo sucks dick for chemistry homework"

"Fag lig isn't accepted by his own father"

This was too personal. I had to go somewhere else. I would hang my head in shame anywhere but I'd rather not cry with even the walls criticizing me. I had to escape. I had to run away. That wouldn't be too hard considering the fence around my school was always open and easy to climb if not. The problem was where I was going to go.

Ah ha!

"Ring ring..."

"Ring ring.."

Come on.

"Tom. Why are you calling me? You're meant to be in school."

"Auntie Haf, I need help. I had some sort of anxiety attack and I escaped-"

"Escaped?"

"I jumped the fence."

"You jumped the fence? Oh my God Tom."

It was only now that I noticed the true extent to what I'd just done. I couldn't go back now though.

"I can't deal with school anymore. I can't handle any of it Hafi. Please help me."

"Fine. I'm at work though. I'm on my break in 5 minutes. If you walk to the park on the way to the lab I'll pick you up."

"Thank you so much auntie Haf."

"Don't let them catch you or we're both in serious trouble."

Despite the fact that I was doing something extremely bad that was certainly going to get me into trouble, I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit excited. I'd just done something that not even the most intimidating people at my school do.

Auntie Haf's little skoda pulled up next to me.

"Get in Tommy. We're going on an adventure."