Lucas was not having a good day. Though, strangely enough, it have nothing to do with the black hole the school was sitting on top of. She was stuck in his head again, and it was worse than usual this time. Every waking thought, she filled his head to the point of no return.
Every time Lucas' head would fall into his pillow after saying goodnight to Marshall, he was fall into a deep sleep of dreams about Josie. Who would have thought that a science geek like him would have fallen for the skater girl like her? Maybe it did have something to do with the black hole after all…
Lucas and Marshall were sitting outside during lunch having an argument.
"Look Lucas. Just because he has a computer chip for a brain, does not mean that he has infinite knowledge."
"I never said that. He would have the equivalent knowledge, data and programming of the computer chip. And with a computer chip like that, it may as well be infinite." Retaliated Lucas.
"That's virtually impossible," Marshall stated.
"You'd think that with us being in the science club and all, your definition of 'virtually impossible' would have changed by now."
Marshall looked like he was about to say something, then he thought better of it. "Good point."
Corrine sat down next to Marshall. "Hey guys. Have you seen Josie? We were supposed to work on our English assignment together but I haven't been able to find her."
"Nope," Lucas said.
"Typical Josie," Marshall said with a laugh.
"This is not funny, Marshall. It's due next period and she hasn't even started her part of the work yet." Corrine said, getting hyped up.
"I think I just found her," Lucas said, looking off to his left. Marshall and Corrine followed his line of sight.
The school had recently put a new speed bump in the parking lot, perfect for the skaters to practice their Ollie's and 360s. Josie raced at full speed over the bump, flipped her board and gracefully landed and rolled towards them.
"What's up?" She greeted them.
"Josie, you were supposed to meet me for the English assignment." Corrine started lecturing her.
"Corrine, calm down. I've got it all under control. My part of the assignment is in my bag." Josie fumbled through her backpack and produced the paper.
"When did you do this?" Corrine asked. Josie said she hadn't even started when she woke up.
"During social studies. I was so bored that the only bearable thing to do was to finish it," Josie said.
"Oh. Well, thanks." Corrine said.
Lucas smirked. She could be so unpredictable sometimes.
The bell went to signal them all to class.
While Corrine and Josie had English, Marshall and Lucas had advanced mathematics together. Normally Lucas would be intensely focused in maths, but he still couldn't get his mind off Josie. He wished he had the courage to ask her out. She probably likes Vaughn anyway.
Lucas hated being jealous of Vaughn. Sure, he was fit and athletic, but he was living proof that evolution can go in reverse. And despite being in the science club, it's not like it had improved his personality any. Lucas had always seen him as simply Victor's son, who was not to be trusted and didn't belong hanging out with them. And he was right. He was only planted there by his father to act as his spy. Perhaps that's why he hadn't been handing around with them as often as usual.
Apparently Josie and Vaughn weren't on speaking terms at the moment. Probably yet another lie that Vaughn had got himself tangled up in.
At least she can always trust me, Lucas thought.
"Lucas. You okay? You seem kind of quiet lately. Is this about Josie?" Marshall asked.
Lucas sighed. "Do you think she still likes Vaughn?"
"Nah. After the stuff he just told his father about the vortex, I don't think Josie will ever forgive him."
Lucas had to admit. Hearing that made him feel a whole lot better. Marshall observed a smile creep onto his friends' face. Lucas tried to hide it by looking down at his work. It was a feeble attempt.
"Just ask her out, Lucas. Whenever she's in trouble, who's the one that she always comes to for help?"
Lucas remained silent, too shy to say anything.
"Trouble in paradise?" Tyler asked, turning in his seat.
"Get lost, Tyler," Lucas said. He was not in the mood to deal with the most arrogant bully of the school right now. Or ever.
Tyler ignored him. "Word of advice, Randall: Trent's way out of your league."
Lucas scoffed. "Right, thanks for that Tyler," he said sarcastically.
The end of school bell rang, just in time to end their conversation with Tyler. Who did he think he was anyway?
It was just the four of them, plus Z at the science club that day. Z had managed to get his hands on a bucket full of dry ice.
"Now," started Z, walking around their desks. "Before we do nuts, can anyone explain to me why the carbon dioxide gas released from the experiment floats to the ground, rather than up?"
They all knew the answer, and Z knew it, though they were all too lazy to raise their hand. Expect Corrine.
"Carbon dioxide has a higher density than oxygen as carbon dioxide has a molar mass of 44, whereas oxygen has a molar mass of 32, therefore the carbon dioxide sinks to the bottom, where it sits under the oxygen in the room." Corrine recited.
"Textbook, Corrine," Z said.
"Can we play with the fog now?" Josie groaned impatiently.
"One more question," Z said, getting excited.
Josie let her head collapse on the table. Lucas observed how tired she looked. He wondered what was bothering her.
"Josie," Z said. "You seem like you want to answer this question. Why shouldn't one touch dry ice?"
"Are you kidding me? Do you want to get frostbite?" Josie said, laughing at him.
Corrine was almost about to explode, from withholding the answer.
"Yes, Corrine. I know you know the answer. What about you, Lucas? You've been unusually quiet today."
Marshall tried to explain why. "Yeah, that's because he can't stop thinking about-"
Lucas hit Marshall in the side before he could utter another word. Luckily for Marshall he hit like a girl. "Like Josie said. Solid carbon dioxide is extremely cold. I think it's something like negative hundred Fahrenheit. If you touch it with your hand you will get frostbite and severely burn yourself."
"Excellent Lucas. Now we can play with it."
Z lifted the bucket of dry ice into the sink. Since Josie was so excited about this experiment, he let her do the honours. Josie turned the tap on and the gas immediately filled over the sink and spread across the floor like mist. The bucket held so much dry ice that the gas kept on flowing.
"It's like we're walking on clouds," Josie said with a huge grin across her face as she danced around the room. She looked so beautiful in that moment that Lucas felt an electrifying sensation run through his body. He wanted to kiss her, but he would never have had the courage.
When all the dry ice had fully reacted, it left about two feet of mist in the science room. Josie was right. It was like walking on clouds. All four of them laughed with beaming smiles on their faces while Professor Z watched them in delight. This was why he loved teaching. Especially teaching his four favourite students. He often wondered how he had ever taught at a school without them.
After science club, the four of them met in the TV room to watch one of the movies that Marshall had downloaded from the internet. However, Marshall and Corrine couldn't stay to watch the whole thing. They were going on their first date that night. Corrine had been fretting on and on about it to Josie in their dorm for the entire week. Though in Josie's mind, Corrine had nothing to worry about. They were both already head over heels for each other.
An hour later, Marshall and Corrine left to go out to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away from Blake Holsey.
"See you later," Lucas and Josie said.
"Take care of Lucas for me, Josie."
"I sure will," Josie laughed, looking at Lucas.
After Marshall and Corrine left, both Lucas and Josie had lost interest in the movie. It wasn't as fun watching Marshall's movies without him. Instead Lucas set up the chess board.
"I will beat you this time, Lucas Randall," Josie said, with determination in her voice.
"I'm sure you will," he teased.
"Just let me win once. Just this once." She pleaded.
"I can't make any guarantees."
Josie pouted. "Oh well. At least you'll always lose at hearts."
"Well, you can't be a genius at everything," he shrugged, remembering his chronic losing streak.
For the rest of the night they continued to bicker and talk, as Lucas captured almost all her pieces, rendering her king completely defenceless. Though, being Josie, she refused to give up.
"You're going to have to give up sooner or later. You only have one pawn left and he's not even anywhere near your king."
"You're right." Instead of surrendering her king, Josie moved her pawn to the far end of the board. "Ha. I get my queen back."
Without a word, Lucas took Josie's resurrected queen with his rook which had been left forgotten on the corner of the board, until now.
Lucas smirked. Josie blinked.
"I hate you," she said.
"I'm going to take that as a "You win, Lucas."" He laughed.
"No way, you haven't checkmated me yet."
"It's clearly a stalemate. You can't just keep your king running around the battlefield surrounded by all his fallen men. And not only has your king lost the love of his life, but when he had finally been given another reason to hope, your queen basically kills herself before she can move."
"Yeah, no thanks to you. And hey, I took your queen too. At least my king got to see his love one more time."
"Sure, only to get slaughtered again."
Josie tried to suppress a laugh. "That's completely irrelevant."
"You're impossible." Lucas said.
"Rematch?" Josie challenged him.
"Bring it on," he said, as he started resetting the pieces.
It was going to be a long night.
AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this. I'm not sure how many people still read Black Hole High fanfiction since it's ten years old now, but if you guys like it enough I'd be happy to continue. So tell me what you think.