Chemistry

Day one

Day one of sixth form. Day one of this school year. I'm lucky that my sixth form college is a part of the secondary school that I went to. I already know where all the rooms are. I know most of the teachers. It's familiar. So just a tiny bit of my anxiety is reduced. Only a small bit though. My anxiety is still through the roof. There's going to be knew people in my classes and it's terrifying. I'm not good with new people. I also have to get the public bus now. I used tog get the school bus but the council don't pay for college students to get on it. 

I get to college and immediately phone my friend Mia. 

"Hey Alice, where are you?" She says as soon as she picks up. 

"I'm in the coach park, are you here yet?"

"Yes, yes, I'm coming, hang on I'm on my way, don't go anywhere. Oh i see you."

"Miaaa, I missed you so much," I only saw her a week ago, but I still missed her. 

"Come on let's get to form," I follow Mia towards room 568. It's a room in the business department, so I wouldn't have reason to go there otherwise.

I was a little worried that our form tutor would be weird or horrible, but Mr. Wood is really nice. I didn't know we would have him. He used tot each me Physics last year. After Sir had given us all a planner and a map we went down to assembly. We filed in and sat on the chairs in rows. 

"Welcome back to all our old students, and welcome to our wonderful college for those of you who are new..." Oh my God, this assembly thing was already taking way too long. 

"I'd like to welcome Mr. Marcel, who is new. He will be teaching some of you Chemistry and he's playing a key role in our sixth form department this year." There were whispers of 'he's fit' and 'i could have a piece of him'.  I rolled my eyes to myself and soon assembly was over. 

We had to go straight to our first class after assembly. I had Chemistry. I was a little nervous as Chemistry is really hard and I know that some of the other students in my class are really smart. I wait with a boy I don't know outside the room. 

"are you new around here?" the guy asks,

"ahh no, I came here before, I'm guessing you are then?"

"yeah, I went to Twilldale High before I came here"

Our teacher turns up after a few more students arrive. There's maybe eight of us in the class. Five boys and four girls I think..

"hello, hello, as you know I'm new around here and I'm probably more nervous than you are so please be nice" Our teacher says. He's Mr. Marcel. The new teacher. There's a few whispers amongst the girls who are all sitting together. I know two of them. The others I don't recognise. I sit at the back on a row with five seats. Jack, the guy I spoke to outside sits next to me. The girls are infront of us and the other boys sit to the sides.

"okay, let me take the register, Jack,"

There's a 'yes sir' from everyone when sir calls their names. James Waker is in my class and Holly Ellis, both are so so smart and I find them intimidating.

The end of the register comes and that means my name.

"and Alice"

"yes sir" I reply quietly. Mr. Marcel looks up and smiles.

"the quiet one of the class, okay then. Today were going to start with atomic structure. It's a little boring to Stert with we've all done this content a million times before so I'm going to give you a booklet with it all in and we're whiz through it quickly."

Im already thinking about how I've forgotten all the easy content and he's going to pick on me and I'm going to look stupid and it's all gonna go wrong on the first say and....

I feel a nudge in my side.

" ouch, what was that.... " I trail off when I see Mr. Marcel looking at me. His curly dark hair flops as he tilts his head. His Hazel eyes are wide, but soft. My blue ones look up to meet his gaze.

"sorry er, um, what was the question?" Im embarrassed that I even had to ask.

"I asked if you were alright?" there's a hint of concern in his voice.

"oh right, er yeah I'm fine"

"good, now I'd like you to highlight the information you think is most important and answer the questions at the back of the booklet. They told me not to have an easy first lesson, so I made the last question difficult. You should be fine in the rest."

Mr. Marcel stops a second to write something down, before distributing the booklets around the room. He pauses when he gets to my desk and then swiftly walks away again.

I open the booklet. There's a post it note on the inside page with a note.

You're grades are high, nothing to worry about, dont panic. See me after class?

I scrunch up the note before Jack can read it and shove it in my pocket. I look up at Mr. Marcel to see him already looking at me. I avert my eyes back to the booklet and start highlighting. I get through it quite quickly and move on to the questions.

They're easy as sir said. The last one isn't even that bad. I write my answer on the dotted lines and close the booklet. Most of the class have already finished, only Samantha's still writing.

Sir begins to speak as soon as I put my pen down. "right everyone done? Good." he continues without waiting for an answer.

"Time of flight mass spectrometry. Anyone know what it means? What is the aim, how do we do it?" I don't know, but I've heard of it before.

Mr. Marcel looks at me. His gaze lingers before asking James.

"isotopes sir, its used to work out the different isotopes in a sample"

"good."

The class drags on as i take notes on the TOF mass spectrometer. When the bell rings, I pack up my stuff.

I go to leave the lab, I had no intention in seeing Mr. Marcel after class. I'm about to leave the room when I hear my name.

"Alice,"

I turn around to see Mr. Marcel looking at me expectantly. I sigh and take a few steps back into the room as he closes the door behind me.

Hi, this is the first chapter of this story. I'm hoping you'll like it. Feel free to comment what you like/don't like the story as I'm publishing as I write. Chapters should be up every few days, weekly at the minimum. Hope you enjoy.