The Unwanted

Chapter 3- Time's up

Chapter 3 - Time's up

I couldn't hold it in any longer, it began to overwhelm me, forcing me to... laugh. My laughter echoed off the walls. The volume growing larger by the second. I couldn't contain myself. Maybe it was the pressure being released, or maybe I had just snapped, but at that moment all I could do was... laugh.

"You did say it was funny," I said as I fought through the laughter.

Mr Ramsay stood up and let out a huge smile.

"Isn't it?" he laughed.

The whole class began to give different expressions. Some puzzled, some angry, some smiling with us. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed with all those eyes on me, so I took my seat once again and we got back to work.

45 minutes later, the bell rang to signify the end of the lesson. I immediately stood up and packed up my old, dusty, black bag, as a silhouette hovered behind me. Sophia Zellner. She was a smart, beautiful girl in my class with gorgeous long blond hair that she'd flick over her shoulder. She walked around with confidence in everything she did. The complete opposite of me. I had no clue how to converse or behave around her. But she didn't give me much of a chance to think about it.

"Hey, Alex." She smiled. "I have to ask, how'd you know the answer was Polar?"

I stood there looking at her. I couldn't respond. I didn't know how. My nerves had gotten the better of me

"I figured out it was either going to be grizzly or polar, but I couldn't decide which" she continued, "I was wondering if you could explain it to me"

I tried to force words to come out.

Nothing.

I continued to stammer for about two minutes until her expression began to change. Her unnatural wide-eyed and longing stare soon began to change. Her eyes were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. Her stare became a burning hard glare. Her usual warmth gone faster than the speed of light. I soon realised even her focus was somewhere behind me as if I had become invisible to her or she could not bear to see me at all. Between the perfect stripes of eyeliner, her gentle blue eyes were no more than cold ice. My instincts made me take a step back.

"I didn't want to believe it, but they were right, you're nothing but a cheater," she said in a completely different tone of voice.

Cheated? What was she talking about? Who are they?

"It must have been Anthony that gave you the answer. I should have listened to the other girls when they told me not to waste my time on you."

As she walked past me, I could feel the coldness from her ice. She headed straight for Anthony. She felt so close yet so far, with each of her steps seeming to last for an eternity. I couldn't blame her for assuming I cheated. From the way I answered her, it was a logical thought.

"Anthony, how'd you know it was polar?" she said in her regular, faked, warm voice.

"I think you're mistaken, Sophia," Anthony replied with a confused look on his face, "it was all Alex, I didn't tell him anything. I had no clue."

"Really?" she questioned as she rudely grabbed his jotter and opened to the page he had been writing on.

It read, "Good luck buddy :D"

With a confused look, she turned back towards me, "So why couldn't you answer my question?"

"It never said that I couldn't," I finally responded with a smile as I became disillusioned.

"Oh," she smiled, "sorry."

I explained to her that the riddle was meant to confuse people who thought too logically. The point was to examine all angles and combine those ideas. It is true that the answer was the characteristic of the bear, but the reason was due to the property of water and the bear. I figured Mr Ramsay was not about to give me a biology question in a chemistry class.

"The chemical property of water," she realised as her eyes widened.

Exactly.

The chemical name of water is H2O. At the beginning of the year, we learnt about electronegativity, which is the relative attraction of an atom to the electrons involved in a covalent bond. These difference in electronegativity create a separation of charge known as a dipole, which causes some molecules to be 'Polar'. H2O is one of these 'polar' molecules due to the slightly positive charge of the Hydrogen atom and the slightly negative charge of the oxygen atoms.

"And like dissolves like," She interrupted, "the bear wasn't drowning it was dissolving"

It was a known fact that polar molecules only dissolve in other polar substances. The bear was a 'polar' bear. It was dissolving in the water which was also 'polar'.

Her concentrated look had broken down into a peal of laughter.

"Mr Ramsay was right," she said as she wiped away tears from her eyes, "that was funny."