Maze

18

Mr. Sturges was the perfect cure for the insomniacs with no fees.

The way he delivered his lectures with such a flat intonation had people wrestled themselves not to drift off into sleep, although some gave up. A few were brave enough to sneak their phones underneath the table, but judging from all the stories I have heard of those who got caught red-handed... yeah, I didn't think it was worth the risk.

Besides, I kind of have my own little entertainment right beside me.

My attention had been constantly switching between the teacher and Edward. I could not help it; this guy had been spinning his stationary wedged between his fingers. He didn't seem to put any ounce of effort on doing it, while here I was, struggling to rotate my pencil for a single round.

As remarkable as his skill was, needless to say, Mr. Sturges was far from impressed.

"Stop spinning your pen, Mr. Carvellia, please? Thank you," chided the eternally irritated teacher, casting Edward a sidelong glance before reverting back to his slides. He rolled his eye, but he slammed his pen on the table and stopped. Welp, there goes my only distraction for this time...

Now that there were no sources of amusement, the class dragged through, as if it had been hours since it commenced. All I could catch was endless strings of chemical equations, images of compounds, and blocks of sophisticated paragraphs I rather chose not to comprehend. He somehow makes this topic look like only the experts can understand...

As the infectious drowsiness from the other students tried getting the best of me, I decided to draw some calligraphy—or what seemed to be calligraphy—on my notebook. Perhaps it did not kill as much time as I hoped, but it surely lifted my spirits.

"Okay, I got a worksheet based on what we learned today. Work on them individually," he said. "Once you're done, grab your homeworks for the weekends."

Much to everyone's comfort, Mr. Sturges had finally concluded his speech. Even though with the assignment galore, no one groaned or showed visible discontent, unlike what they typically did with the other teachers. I mean, I would be much more fine working rather than listening to him talking for the entire hour, let alone day.

I was about to loosen myself when there were only 2 questions. However, that relief came tumbling down when each of them had their parts and had huge spaces. While the others clicked on their pens and started writing, I followed suit and frantically scrambled over my books. I think he said something about redox... wait what? I don't remember him explaining this!

Glancing towards Edward, he had already begun writing his answers. Moreover, my classmates were practically dead silent as they worked on their assignments as if it was some sort of an exam. I gulped, trying to swallow the rising panic inside of me, but it was all futile. Please don't tell me I'm the only one clueless here...

Physics already made me feel like a loser, and I did not want to feel much dumber. Rarely in my life does cheating appear so appealing but... let's do this.

I leaned towards Edward, observing his responses. He might have not noticed, as he carried on with his answers... or perhaps he did know, since when his head slightly jerked towards me, he shifted his paper towards me as if he was blatantly displaying his work.

Thanks Edward, you saved my–

"Ms. Wilton, work on this by yourself!"

When Mr. Sturges yelled out my name from behind, a shriek nearly flew out of my lips. All parts of my spine crawled at his shrilling voice while I instinctively hurled back to my seat. Gifted with a handful of gazes skewering through my body, I shrank back with a boiling hot cheeks and chest. Well, who thinks this is a good idea again?