free falling
by: Tearless Sonnet
dedicated to: Dreya love :)
"Free fall is defined as," Mikan recited, "uniformly accelerated motion, or an object that falls only by the action of gravity. Air resistance is neglected."
She looked up at Natsume, pushing the bridge of her fake glasses further up her nose. "I don't get it."
The two Alice students were studying in the library, in preparation for their final in Physics the following day. The word 'studying' didn't apply to Natsume, obviously. He was just dragged there by the pig-tailed polka-dot wearing idiot, made to 'tutor her' since he was 'a freaking genius that didn't need to study like other hardworking students who obviously deserved better grades with all the effort they put in.'
Natsume sighed, rubbing his temples. "Why the hell am I here? You should study on your own, Polka."
Mikan pouted, drumming her fingers on the table's surface. "You're supposed to be my tutor. Tutor me already."
"I've already done that! For the past three hours."
"Well, obviously, you're not doing a good job of it if I haven't understood anything you've been saying for the past three hours!"
"Obviously, you are an idiot if you can't get what I've been repeating for the past. Three. Hours." He grit his teeth. Three good hours of his life. Wasted. Nothing he was saying managed to stick in that girl's nonexistent brain. It all went in one ear and out the other. God.
He sighed again. One last try. Let's see if this approach will work on that stupid girl. "Alright," he said, pausing as something caught his eye. There, sitting innocently on the table, was a pale pink package of howalons that, in Mikan's own words, acted as 'food motivation' for helping her in reviewing.
He reached out and picked it up, estimating its weight in his hand. Mikan eyed him nervously. "You're not going to throw that away, are you?" she asked, biting her lip. Her gaze remained glued onto the pink pack. "That's wasting food."
"I'm not throwing it," Natsume scowled. "I'm going to drop it. There's a difference."
Mikan's mouth dropped. "It'll still touch the ground, you food-waster!"
Natsume groaned. What did he do to deserve such punishment? Luckily, no one else was in the library except them, or else they probably would've been kicked out by now. Not that they would actually be kicked out. He was Natsume Hyuuga, after all. Natsume Hyuuga does not get kicked out. He leaves with all the dignity of a scorned cat, tail up and nose in the air.
Hah, he made a funny. (Because everyone knew his code name was 'Black Cat' and that was clearly the funniest thing you've ever heard in your life.) Honestly, he should just tell them all that joke, to prove that no, he didn't have a pole up his ass. Really.
"So what, are you doing to throw that or should I eat it myself?" Mikan said, frowning at his silence. She toyed impatiently with the mechanical pencil in her fingers, spinning it round and round.
"I'm going to drop it," he repeated, and then took her pencil case in his other hand. He nodded appreciatively, seeing that it weighed a significant deal more than the howalons.
"That's mine!" Mikan protested.
He grimaced. "Yeah, I figured," he replied sarcastically. "You're the only one besides Ruka who'd own a pencil case with these ugly ducks on it."
She threw him a dirty look. "I'll have you know, I think they're rather cute."
He snorted. "Right. Whatever. Just watch."
Natsume got up from his chair lazily, standing at his full height of six feet and two inches. He held the two items in his hands, at equal positions, before dropping them at exactly the same time.
They hit the floor at the same time with one loud thump. There was a resounding silence for a minute.
"…Was I supposed to catch that?"
Okay. He gave up. He freaking gave up on teaching an idiot like her. It was absolutely impossible.
"They hit the ground at the same time," he said, quickly losing the little patience he somehow retained from the past three hours. "Despite their difference in weight. That is because the acceleration due to gravity is always the same value."
"What?"
"For example, if you fall through a window and I drop a peanut at the same time, neither of you will touch the ground before the other. You'll die at the same time. Because the acceleration due to gravity is always negative nine point eight meters per second squared. Which is why free fall is called 'uniformly accelerated motion.' Because its acceleration is always the same."
There was another moment of lengthy silence.
"I still don't get it."
…Maybe a field demo would work better on her and he should just push her down the stairs. It would save humankind the trouble.
One short piece with little to no plot whatsoever, hurray. I know I haven't posted anything in forever, don'tkillmeplease. Anyways, this is dedicated to my lovely Dreya (daa3fan) who encouraged me to get off my couch-potato ass and start writing again. This is for you, love. :)
(Btw, I have a long test next week in Physics about free fall, acceleration, velocity, and stuff like that, so this is basically a reviewer lol. Seeee. Rational self-interest.)
(...I also have an Economics test the day after, as you can see.)