Girls called Alessandra

CHAPTER 10 - STONES

"Are you sure Garry? Why do you think so?" Mr. Gavin had a quizzical look on.

"I think the stone will reach the ground first because it's heavier," Garry answered with half the confidence of what he had before. Naturally, when the teacher followed up it meant more often than not that his previous stand was wrong.

Garry glanced down at Thomas. His friend cheered him up, "Why would a piece of paper fall faster than a stone?"

All the rest who knew the answer had evil smirks on.

Mr. Gavin called Garry in front. "You hold this stone for me. And another one hold this sheet of paper. Oh, who would like to volunteer? Let's see-"

"Jude can do it," suggested Mia.

"Sure, Jude, will you join us in front?"

Jude silently walked over and held the paper in his hand.

"Now, listen. Hold it at this height. Yes, there, there. We'll see which of them reaches the ground first. On the count of three, let go. One, two, three, drop!"

Of course, the stone fell faster. And with a thud and silent horray from Garry, it touched the floor.

Thomas punched slightly on his chair. "Dang, I was right."

But Luke, Eugene, and Alie and the rest had disinterested looks. An experiment for preschoolers, that was what it was.

"Oh, the stone reached the ground first. But what if we remove the wind and the air. Tell me Jude, how do we accomplish that?"

"Accomplish what?"

"How do we remove the wind and the air so that they don't affect the result?"

"Turn off the fans?" Jude replied, much to the amusement of the class.

"That's actually right," Mr. Gavin chuckled. Sometimes, questions have absurd answers.

After the fans stilled, they dropped them again.

Thomas looked triumphant. The stone fell first again.

"The paper drifted in the air. How do we prevent that from happening?"

Jude crumpled the paper.

"Yes, you got it. Now, let's do it again. Remember, drop them at the same time."

Garry was stunned. The stone and the paper, they fell at the same speed and reached the floor simultaneously.

"That's what we call free fall. In free fall, only gravity acts on the object. Air is neglected. Objects in free fall when dropped from the same height, no matter the size and mass, will fall at the same speed and reach the ground at the same time."

They had a quiz that very same period.

The Class Burgundy had resigned themselves to the conjecture that Jude was bluffing. During class hours he was unabashedly quiet and only dared to take on questions that he knew the answers to perfectly. In the face of difficulty, he would back down, using silence as a shield so that others would be called instead.

Thus, by Friday, what was once wonder towards this mysterious guy was now replaced by animosity.

"He came here to be popular," Thomas said.

Luke shook his head, "I could never have guessed that someone would want attention this much."

At lunch, Jude became part of Alie's group. But towards him, she was also feeling a little bit of derision. 'Is he a famewhore?'

But then, all this time, why didn't he even have friends?

Alie wanted more than anything to ask the crucial question. But she was afraid to blow a fuse.

Jude, disregarding his initial arrogance, was overall a funny guy. He was rapidly making friends, sweeping the room with his cheerfulness

Mathematics. Even in an elite class like Burgundy, not a lot of them fancied it. Especially during long quizzes.

Alie had studied hard for it. Mrs. Lu rearranged the seats, crushing their hopes of cheating with their usual seatmates and friends. Alie ended up sitting at the back while Jude was in front. Luke was right next to him.

Linear equations. Alie wasn't a genius like Luke or Matthew. She had to spend nights to get the hang of it all.

Ten items. She was on the fourth when she looked up. It was against Mrs. Lu's rules to even remove one's eyes off their own paper. But now, Alie's gaze landed on Jude's back.

He wasn't writing anymore.

'Is he done already? No, it can't be.' But he was not writing on his paper anymore.

Luke seemed to have noticed too. He felt pressured sitting next to Jude who appeared to had finished, and thus hastened up his pace. He was just on the seventh item whereas this scum was already done. It was stomping on his pride as both a man and as a genius.

But then again, it's likely that Jude already gave up.

They checked their papers right after, the whole while Alie's head stooped low. She did not make it. She only got to number eight.

Mrs. Lu's hoarse unfeminine voice carried over the bustling noise in the room, "SILENCE! Who wants to start? Ms. Alessandra, go ahead."

Alie was confident in number one at least, she spent five minutes on it. She looked at the paper she was checking. Joseph's. His answer was 7 and 5. 'He didn't get it right,' she thought. She recalled her answer instead. "X is equal to 6 and y is equal to 8."

Mrs. Lu's wrinkled forehead further wrinkled as she said, "Sorry, it's not, Ms. Alessandra. Yes, Luke?"

"X is 7, y is 5."

Relieved sighs resounded in the room, many seemed to have hit the bull's eye. They were tensed up at first after hearing Alie's answer. Good for them she was wrong.

Alie then just realized her mistake. She misread the equation! '6x+2y=52 and 13x-y=86.' It was a minus, not another plus. That was why it took her so long just to solve it.

Alie felt crushed again and by Luke of all people. Could she ever surpass this mountain? He kept throwing her stone after stone, shaming him as if she had committed something so terrible in her past life. She shook off her dejection. If she could get the next seven items right, she'd still earn a passing mark.

In the end, she only got 6 out of 10. Not  bad but not that good either especially for a person of Alie's nature.

Surprises were not over yet for Alie, however. Mrs. Lu read out the names,
"Here's our highest scorers, Eugene got 10, also, Lika, Darrel, and George. Many got 9. Luke, Joseph, Kylie, Jude, Francis, Benie, and Jon without H. And our lowest scorers, I won't mention your names, you know who you are. "

Did she just hear that right?

Jude got 9? Three marks above her. Jude who leeched off her efforts and copied her homework on the same topic?

She felt so betrayed. She knew it was too illogical and self-conceited of her to feel this way but she could not help it.

It was the heaviest stone ever.

At class dismissal, Jude walked up to her and offered, "Let's walk together."

She only threw him a blank gaze and headed off on her own.

Jude tried to reach for her hand. His soft baby hands. She felt it again. But now, she shook it off.