The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

9: What's Left of Your Tiny Brains

"Qiao Chen, you're not--"

"Ughhh," Qiao Chen groaned, ignoring my attempts to calm him down. "I don't what in the world the teacher was talking about just now. Not that I ever did, honestly,"

Ai Qi sighed, looking first at Qiao Chen slumped on his desk, papers askew, then at Bai Yang, who seemed to be in his own world as he stared at the paper so intently that it almost looked like he could shred it with his eyes. Then Ai Qi looked down at me, as I was sagging low in my seat while I squinted at the printed Chinese characters, trying to make sense of what the question meant.

It was a break at the moment, where we could take a mental rest for fifteen minutes before the next class started. Some students had decided to stay in the classroom to complete their work or take a nap, while most had gone out of the class to stretch their legs. Ai Qi had come over from her side of the classroom at my request for help with the earlier physics class. A tutor for one had then become a tutor for three after Ai Qi had kindly offered to help a struggling Qiao Chen and Bai Yang as well. As the smartest one out of us four, she was more troubled with how she was going to teach us, while we three were facing difficulties with our homework.

"Uhm..." Ai Qi sucked air through her teeth nervously.

"I hate school so much," Qiao Chen complained again. "I just wanna play tennis," he pouted, then shifted his chair back and positioned his head just above his desk. 

My eyes widened. "Qiao Chen, don't--"

He sighed, then proceeded to bang his forehead on the table. "I,"

Bang.

"Don't,"

Bang.

"Understand,"

Bang.

"Anything,"

Bang.

"Hey!" Bai Yang suddenly called out loud, jumping out of his stance and startling all of us at once. "Keep it down, you're creating too much noise pollution,"

"Noise pollution, you say?" Qiao Chen immediately stood up, refusing to back down. "What gives you the right to say that, when you yourself are a hazard to society?"

Bai Yang got up as well, a glare evident in his expression. "Well, of course, I have rights to say that to someone like you, you look like you belong in the garbage dump,"

"Stop it, both of you!" Ai Qi scolded, her face a mask of annoyance. "Why not use what's left of your tiny brains to solve those questions on your paper instead of fighting all the time!"

I giggled as I saw how both boys' expressions transformed into one of shame and guilt, and they hastily sat back down on their seats after being yelled at, and roasted by, a girl who was literally a head shorter than them.

"Jeez," Ai Qi shook her head in exasperation. "This is exhausting. Yue En, have you understood the question yet? My translation is bad, I can only point out and describe very vaguely what the question is asking for,"

"I'm trying," I sighed. "Okay, Ai Qi, what does this mean?" I turned my paper upside down to let Ai Qi see.

"It wants you to find the angle of where the object will land after it is dropped from this," she points to the diagram on the paper, "This height at the angle of 67 degrees, then it bounces on the slanted rubber surface and the range of where it is likely to land. You'll have to draw the answer accurately too,"

I furrowed my eyebrows at her explanation, and for a few seconds, I was trying to comprehend her words. A sudden wave of realisation hits me hard. "Oh! I get it now!" I said excitedly, then I began to scribble my working down.