Chapter 7- More Than One Type Of Experiment
The classroom stank of bitter chemicals and accidental concoctions, and its low ceilings kept the rotten air down to ground level, making the students cough and retch. Some did not complain though, and Randall was one of them. He took a seat near the back of the room, folding his legs uncomfortably and curling his tail around himself as Jay sat to one side of him. The seat on his other side remained empty for a good ten minutes until a bell rang, and one last student hurried through the door struggling with a pile of books. His slime had completely ruined them now, and as he squirmed his way next to Randall, plopping the sodden books down on the table, the lizard- monster shuffled over subconsciously, protecting his precious scales from the slime.
The monster didn't seem to notice this though, and sat down after greeting Randall with a ridiculous smile stretching across his blue face. The classroom door swung open one last time, two teachers entering, and the quiet chattering amongst the students gave way to a silence. Randall could see the faces of the two teachers quite clearly despite the lack of light; one was the Professor he had been acquainted with earlier, and the other he remembered giving that speech to South House after being recognised as the new Headmaster.
Professor Fern faced the class, the Head standing by her side, barely reaching her waist. Randall could feel Jay's body stiffening as they saw the Professor. Jay was staring at her like a rabbit in a car's lights, afraid to look away because of what she might do.
Randall sat back in his chair. What was it with Jay? Hadn't he ever heard the saying "never judge a book by its cover?" Jay yelped as the Professor began to speak, causing many students to turn around and give him that weird look he knew all too well.
"Obviously not."
"Welcome, everyone, to your first Monster-World Science lesson. Usually, I would be teaching you, but because of a few unexpected changes to do with the teaching staff here at Crynferse, your teacher for this subject will be your new Headmaster, Mr Stefani." Professor Fern paused to let this sink in, and a few panicked looks were shot across the room. "I expect you to treat Mr Stefani with the same respect as you would any other Professor, if not more. And, if there is any trouble, Carmen," She waved a hand towards the South House Captiness. "Carmen will report to me immediately. But, as this is your new Headmaster, I'm sure such action will not have to be taken. Remember, this is not secondary school anymore. You are all adults, so I shouldn't need to tell you what behaviour I expect in these lessons. So, make me and everyone else who is a member of South House, proud."
She hobbled out of the room, shutting the door gently behind her, leaving a group of very anxious students in the hands of the Head. Carmen could feel the tenseness that was floating around the room, and turned around from her front row seat to smile at her fellow students smugly. She caught sight of Randall and Jay and sniggered haughtily. Randall smiled back, flashing his bright white teeth, and gave her a somewhat threatening thumbs-up. She hurriedly turned back around.
Mr Stefani walked behind the desk at the front of the classroom, and stood on a podium that was hidden out of view behind it. He suddenly seemed to grow half a metre or so, and, as he faced the class once again, glared at the few who thought this funny. Then, reaching down into one of the desk's drawers, he pulled out a long, black stick and started to whack parts of the map of the Monster word that had been stuck to the board, asking students where each place was located. Dozens of them raised their hands eagerly, trying to impress their new Headmaster, even though many thought of him as a joke.
Randall, on the other hand, wasn't particularly bothered; he had never really been up for being the goody-two shoes of the class. Carmen did though, he noticed, and she had made a definite impact on the Head's thoughts of her- he asked Carmen the whereabouts of places many a time, trying to catch her out, but didn't succeed. In the end, he gave her a small commendation, telling her how impressed he was, and told the rest of the class to take a leaf out of her book.
"She's such a show-off," Jay whispered to Randall while making a paper aeroplane out of a piece of paper that he had found in the depths of his bag.
"Well, at least she's making an effort," Randall retorted, eyeing Jay's little paper creation. Jay shrugged, and carried on folding the paper to his liking, making a lot of unnecessary noise. A minute later, Randall grabbed the aeroplane that Jay had put so much effort into making, screwed it up, and stuffed it into his friend's bag.
"But-"Jay faltered.
"Ya hear that?" Randall said, shutting up Jay for a second.
"Do ya know what that's called?" Randall whispered.
"Being unnecessarily mean?"
"Of course you wouldn't know what it's called. You've probably never heard it in your life."
"Heard what?"
"Silence. Say it with me...si-lence..." replied Randall, making gestures with his hands.
"Boys!" called out Mr Stefani, disrupting Randall and Jay's conversation. "Don't talk while I'm teaching. Everyone here has a right to learn, even...you." The Head looked at Randall degradingly, as though he had just stepped on something unpleasant and had the unfortunate task of cleaning whatever-it-was off. Randall unfolded his arms, shocked at Mr Stefani's comment.
"What's THAT supposed-"
"Randall, don't," said Jay in an undertone.
"But-"
"Just leave it, Ran. You know this is stupid." Randall looked away, still outraged, not with the Head, but with himself. Why did he have to get so annoyed at every little thing that was said to him? He had had to put up with this for so many years already, yet he still wasn't used to it. But why?
"Leave it, Ran," Jay repeated, trying to calm his friend down. "Just ignore him. You know he's wrong about what he thinks of...well, you get what I mean."
"Yeah. As wrong as you." Jay gave up. He hated talking to people that were annoyed, but with Randall, it seemed as though he could get himself worked up at everything. He understood that Randall had had a rough time of it, but still...
Bored of his friend's antics, and also wanting to calm himself down, Randall let his eyes and his mind wander. He didn't seem to know a single soul in the classroom, other than Jay, that is, and, as he looked around, he judged some of his fellow students by their outward appearance, even though it was usually a principle of his not to. Most of them seemed alright- about half of the class were of Fungus' size, and not many were as big as Jay. Weirdly enough, that thought seemed to comfort Randall. No, everyone seemed normal enough- a few furries here and there, a slimy or two- but most just had plain skin. There were no others of Randall's kind, of course.
Then, he saw her again.
The one who had spoken such harsh words to him before, sitting in the corner of the room with her usual clique surrounding her, which was slightly surprising; she had always seemed more of an outsider who tagged along with that group just for the benefits that she would receive. And the protection. She never once raised her hand to answer any of Mr Stefani's questions, Randall noticed, obviously not wanting to bother. There was a horribly haunted look about her face, and her wide eyes didn't help; her pupils were unnaturally large, giving her quite a fearful look.
Suddenly the usual babble and chatter of the students arose once again. Several got up, still talking amongst themselves, and got into small groups. Randall stopped rocking his chair and faced Jay.
"What's going on?" he asked, returning to reality.
"We've got to get into groups to do some kind of experiment. Honestly Ran, weren't you listening?"
"Not particularly, no." Carmen came in front of Randall and Jay's desk, still smiling that wry smirk of hers in that exasperating manner.
"I'm sure Professor Fern wouldn't like to hear that, would she? I'm disappointed, boys. I thought that after your little encounter with her this morning, you would have learnt to be more cautious. I guess you proved me wrong."
"Just as many have before us," Randall replied, fed up of Carmen's interfering ways. "Don't you have a Professor to suck up to or something?" Carmen walked off, peeved at Randall's cleverly timed insults.
"Whoo! You showed her, Ran!"
"Y'know, I'm starting to agree with you, Jay. I don't like her either."
"I knew you'd side with me!"
"Don't we have to join a group now?" Just as Randall had said this, a short, pale blue monster stood in front of Randall and Jay's desk, accompanied by Fungus.
"I-is it suitable for us to join you?" the backward-kneed monster stuttered, not wanting to intrude.
"Sure," said Randall. "Pull up a couple of chairs." They did as they were told, and sat down with the sheet of paper telling them what they were to do.
"So, what's your name?" Jay cheerfully asked the unknown individual in their group. He had a bright shock of white hair atop his head, and four eyes, two of them prominent while the other two, which were much smaller, were closed and sat higher upon his head. His forehead was abnormally large, and his torso was upright, supported by two short legs and feet embalmed by sharp claws, as were his many fingers. He had four arms, which were currently folded. As he was spoken to by Jay, who had held out his hand (which was now becoming somewhat of a trademark,) he unfolded his arms and held out his own shaky, four-fingered hand.
"Xenon," he answered after a long pause. "Xenon Stefani."
"Did you say 'Stefani'?" Jay asked in a disbelieving voice. "You're saying that your father is-"
"Jay, leave the poor guy alone. He doesn't need you picking at him in our first lesson," Randall said forcefully, stopping Jay in his tracks. Jay seemed to shrink, embarrassed.
"So, this is one of Mr Stefani's kids then," Randall thought to himself. "I wonder who the other one is." Randall was snapped out of his thoughts by Jay.
"Okay everyone, lets read this sheet and find out what we have to do." They crowded around the single sheet of paper that was in the centre of the desk, then, after five minutes, split into twos to begin the experiment- testing the different minerals that could be found around the Monster World. Jay went with Fungus while Randall went with the newly acquainted Xenon, and they collected all the equipment necessary for the experiment.
As they poured acids over the minerals, Randall glanced at Xenon from time to time. They didn't talk about what they were doing unless discussion was needed, and Xenon seemed quite a shy character, so Randall didn't want to pressurize him. He had that same haunted look that that other girl had had; as though they had both been through something so terrible that it would disturb them for the rest of their lives. His eyes too seemed wide open and alert, yet also tired, weary.
"We've run out of acid. I'm gonna go get some more. It's on the front desk, isn't it?" Xenon nodded in reply. Randall made his way across the room, heading towards Mr Stefani's desk. Unfortunately, because of all the experiments going on, there was only one path to the acid that Randall was trying to acquire, and blocking that path was that same group of girls that, in all honesty, Randall was getting very tired of. But where was the girl that had spoken to him earlier?
She didn't seem to be there. A wave of relief spread over Randall. He could handle these irritating girls any day of the week without a single problem. Becoming more confident of himself, Randall waltzed right through them, pushing any that stood in his way despite their girlish cries of protest, and managed to reach the desk without much trouble.
"Excuse me, ladies," he said, grinning. He thrust the last one aside. "So sorry." But, as he realized who else was at the desk, his poise disappeared, his eyes widening, and that nauseating feeling came rushing back to him. It was her. Again.
Randall took a deep breath and walked up to the desk as slowly as possible without it looking as though he was purposefully trying to avoid her. She was rustling around a big box of acid containers upon the desk, goggles raised and gloves on. Randall raised his own goggles, not wanting to look stupid or geeky. He stood side by side with her, but she didn't seem to notice him and carried on searching for her neumonica acid. Randall also began to rummage around, and, once he had found what he was looking for, he grabbed it tightly with a three-fingered, gloved hand, just as she reached for it. Her hand rested upon his, and he looked up at her, trying to hide his worry. But she could read him like a book.
Looking down once again, she took a different bottle and then faced Randall once more.
"He'll never forgive you. Never. Revenge will be his," she hissed, still managing to sustain that subtle calmness about herself.
"And mine."
She strolled off, her tail brushing against Randall momentarily. He flinched at the contact, and then took the bottle of acid out of the box. As he began to return to Xenon, still reeling at the more recent of his experiences with this girl, he passed the cluster of girls that had bothered him before. They all stared at him, some of them whispering to one another as he went by them without a second thought. The short, stocky one stood up and innocently stuck one of her feet out.
Randall stumbled slightly, but managed to catch himself before falling. But, as he took several unbalanced steps forward, another student, who was carrying a large tray of the minerals that they were using, turned around facing him, and they clashed. Unluckily, this other student was several times the size of Randall, weighing much more, and as he turned around, the lizard-monster bumping into him, he subconsciously pushed Randall out of the way.
Acid and minerals went flying, and the girls screamed making everyone else in the classroom jump in shock. Randall hit the hard ground with a thud, everything blurring, becoming unfocused...
And there she was again. Why was she following him, with that same empty look in her eyes, that same exhaustion in her posture, that same exigency in her voice? She was always there, always, but why? There was only one answer- she wanted something from him, no, she NEEDED something from him. But what? What? WHAT?
The thumping headache quietened down, and an empty silence ensued. Black was the only colour that Randall could see.
The classroom stank of bitter chemicals and accidental concoctions, and its low ceilings kept the rotten air down to ground level, making the students cough and retch. Some did not complain though, and Randall was one of them. He took a seat near the back of the room, folding his legs uncomfortably and curling his tail around himself as Jay sat to one side of him. The seat on his other side remained empty for a good ten minutes until a bell rang, and one last student hurried through the door struggling with a pile of books. His slime had completely ruined them now, and as he squirmed his way next to Randall, plopping the sodden books down on the table, the lizard- monster shuffled over subconsciously, protecting his precious scales from the slime.
The monster didn't seem to notice this though, and sat down after greeting Randall with a ridiculous smile stretching across his blue face. The classroom door swung open one last time, two teachers entering, and the quiet chattering amongst the students gave way to a silence. Randall could see the faces of the two teachers quite clearly despite the lack of light; one was the Professor he had been acquainted with earlier, and the other he remembered giving that speech to South House after being recognised as the new Headmaster.
Professor Fern faced the class, the Head standing by her side, barely reaching her waist. Randall could feel Jay's body stiffening as they saw the Professor. Jay was staring at her like a rabbit in a car's lights, afraid to look away because of what she might do.
Randall sat back in his chair. What was it with Jay? Hadn't he ever heard the saying "never judge a book by its cover?" Jay yelped as the Professor began to speak, causing many students to turn around and give him that weird look he knew all too well.
"Obviously not."
"Welcome, everyone, to your first Monster-World Science lesson. Usually, I would be teaching you, but because of a few unexpected changes to do with the teaching staff here at Crynferse, your teacher for this subject will be your new Headmaster, Mr Stefani." Professor Fern paused to let this sink in, and a few panicked looks were shot across the room. "I expect you to treat Mr Stefani with the same respect as you would any other Professor, if not more. And, if there is any trouble, Carmen," She waved a hand towards the South House Captiness. "Carmen will report to me immediately. But, as this is your new Headmaster, I'm sure such action will not have to be taken. Remember, this is not secondary school anymore. You are all adults, so I shouldn't need to tell you what behaviour I expect in these lessons. So, make me and everyone else who is a member of South House, proud."
She hobbled out of the room, shutting the door gently behind her, leaving a group of very anxious students in the hands of the Head. Carmen could feel the tenseness that was floating around the room, and turned around from her front row seat to smile at her fellow students smugly. She caught sight of Randall and Jay and sniggered haughtily. Randall smiled back, flashing his bright white teeth, and gave her a somewhat threatening thumbs-up. She hurriedly turned back around.
Mr Stefani walked behind the desk at the front of the classroom, and stood on a podium that was hidden out of view behind it. He suddenly seemed to grow half a metre or so, and, as he faced the class once again, glared at the few who thought this funny. Then, reaching down into one of the desk's drawers, he pulled out a long, black stick and started to whack parts of the map of the Monster word that had been stuck to the board, asking students where each place was located. Dozens of them raised their hands eagerly, trying to impress their new Headmaster, even though many thought of him as a joke.
Randall, on the other hand, wasn't particularly bothered; he had never really been up for being the goody-two shoes of the class. Carmen did though, he noticed, and she had made a definite impact on the Head's thoughts of her- he asked Carmen the whereabouts of places many a time, trying to catch her out, but didn't succeed. In the end, he gave her a small commendation, telling her how impressed he was, and told the rest of the class to take a leaf out of her book.
"She's such a show-off," Jay whispered to Randall while making a paper aeroplane out of a piece of paper that he had found in the depths of his bag.
"Well, at least she's making an effort," Randall retorted, eyeing Jay's little paper creation. Jay shrugged, and carried on folding the paper to his liking, making a lot of unnecessary noise. A minute later, Randall grabbed the aeroplane that Jay had put so much effort into making, screwed it up, and stuffed it into his friend's bag.
"But-"Jay faltered.
"Ya hear that?" Randall said, shutting up Jay for a second.
"Do ya know what that's called?" Randall whispered.
"Being unnecessarily mean?"
"Of course you wouldn't know what it's called. You've probably never heard it in your life."
"Heard what?"
"Silence. Say it with me...si-lence..." replied Randall, making gestures with his hands.
"Boys!" called out Mr Stefani, disrupting Randall and Jay's conversation. "Don't talk while I'm teaching. Everyone here has a right to learn, even...you." The Head looked at Randall degradingly, as though he had just stepped on something unpleasant and had the unfortunate task of cleaning whatever-it-was off. Randall unfolded his arms, shocked at Mr Stefani's comment.
"What's THAT supposed-"
"Randall, don't," said Jay in an undertone.
"But-"
"Just leave it, Ran. You know this is stupid." Randall looked away, still outraged, not with the Head, but with himself. Why did he have to get so annoyed at every little thing that was said to him? He had had to put up with this for so many years already, yet he still wasn't used to it. But why?
"Leave it, Ran," Jay repeated, trying to calm his friend down. "Just ignore him. You know he's wrong about what he thinks of...well, you get what I mean."
"Yeah. As wrong as you." Jay gave up. He hated talking to people that were annoyed, but with Randall, it seemed as though he could get himself worked up at everything. He understood that Randall had had a rough time of it, but still...
Bored of his friend's antics, and also wanting to calm himself down, Randall let his eyes and his mind wander. He didn't seem to know a single soul in the classroom, other than Jay, that is, and, as he looked around, he judged some of his fellow students by their outward appearance, even though it was usually a principle of his not to. Most of them seemed alright- about half of the class were of Fungus' size, and not many were as big as Jay. Weirdly enough, that thought seemed to comfort Randall. No, everyone seemed normal enough- a few furries here and there, a slimy or two- but most just had plain skin. There were no others of Randall's kind, of course.
Then, he saw her again.
The one who had spoken such harsh words to him before, sitting in the corner of the room with her usual clique surrounding her, which was slightly surprising; she had always seemed more of an outsider who tagged along with that group just for the benefits that she would receive. And the protection. She never once raised her hand to answer any of Mr Stefani's questions, Randall noticed, obviously not wanting to bother. There was a horribly haunted look about her face, and her wide eyes didn't help; her pupils were unnaturally large, giving her quite a fearful look.
Suddenly the usual babble and chatter of the students arose once again. Several got up, still talking amongst themselves, and got into small groups. Randall stopped rocking his chair and faced Jay.
"What's going on?" he asked, returning to reality.
"We've got to get into groups to do some kind of experiment. Honestly Ran, weren't you listening?"
"Not particularly, no." Carmen came in front of Randall and Jay's desk, still smiling that wry smirk of hers in that exasperating manner.
"I'm sure Professor Fern wouldn't like to hear that, would she? I'm disappointed, boys. I thought that after your little encounter with her this morning, you would have learnt to be more cautious. I guess you proved me wrong."
"Just as many have before us," Randall replied, fed up of Carmen's interfering ways. "Don't you have a Professor to suck up to or something?" Carmen walked off, peeved at Randall's cleverly timed insults.
"Whoo! You showed her, Ran!"
"Y'know, I'm starting to agree with you, Jay. I don't like her either."
"I knew you'd side with me!"
"Don't we have to join a group now?" Just as Randall had said this, a short, pale blue monster stood in front of Randall and Jay's desk, accompanied by Fungus.
"I-is it suitable for us to join you?" the backward-kneed monster stuttered, not wanting to intrude.
"Sure," said Randall. "Pull up a couple of chairs." They did as they were told, and sat down with the sheet of paper telling them what they were to do.
"So, what's your name?" Jay cheerfully asked the unknown individual in their group. He had a bright shock of white hair atop his head, and four eyes, two of them prominent while the other two, which were much smaller, were closed and sat higher upon his head. His forehead was abnormally large, and his torso was upright, supported by two short legs and feet embalmed by sharp claws, as were his many fingers. He had four arms, which were currently folded. As he was spoken to by Jay, who had held out his hand (which was now becoming somewhat of a trademark,) he unfolded his arms and held out his own shaky, four-fingered hand.
"Xenon," he answered after a long pause. "Xenon Stefani."
"Did you say 'Stefani'?" Jay asked in a disbelieving voice. "You're saying that your father is-"
"Jay, leave the poor guy alone. He doesn't need you picking at him in our first lesson," Randall said forcefully, stopping Jay in his tracks. Jay seemed to shrink, embarrassed.
"So, this is one of Mr Stefani's kids then," Randall thought to himself. "I wonder who the other one is." Randall was snapped out of his thoughts by Jay.
"Okay everyone, lets read this sheet and find out what we have to do." They crowded around the single sheet of paper that was in the centre of the desk, then, after five minutes, split into twos to begin the experiment- testing the different minerals that could be found around the Monster World. Jay went with Fungus while Randall went with the newly acquainted Xenon, and they collected all the equipment necessary for the experiment.
As they poured acids over the minerals, Randall glanced at Xenon from time to time. They didn't talk about what they were doing unless discussion was needed, and Xenon seemed quite a shy character, so Randall didn't want to pressurize him. He had that same haunted look that that other girl had had; as though they had both been through something so terrible that it would disturb them for the rest of their lives. His eyes too seemed wide open and alert, yet also tired, weary.
"We've run out of acid. I'm gonna go get some more. It's on the front desk, isn't it?" Xenon nodded in reply. Randall made his way across the room, heading towards Mr Stefani's desk. Unfortunately, because of all the experiments going on, there was only one path to the acid that Randall was trying to acquire, and blocking that path was that same group of girls that, in all honesty, Randall was getting very tired of. But where was the girl that had spoken to him earlier?
She didn't seem to be there. A wave of relief spread over Randall. He could handle these irritating girls any day of the week without a single problem. Becoming more confident of himself, Randall waltzed right through them, pushing any that stood in his way despite their girlish cries of protest, and managed to reach the desk without much trouble.
"Excuse me, ladies," he said, grinning. He thrust the last one aside. "So sorry." But, as he realized who else was at the desk, his poise disappeared, his eyes widening, and that nauseating feeling came rushing back to him. It was her. Again.
Randall took a deep breath and walked up to the desk as slowly as possible without it looking as though he was purposefully trying to avoid her. She was rustling around a big box of acid containers upon the desk, goggles raised and gloves on. Randall raised his own goggles, not wanting to look stupid or geeky. He stood side by side with her, but she didn't seem to notice him and carried on searching for her neumonica acid. Randall also began to rummage around, and, once he had found what he was looking for, he grabbed it tightly with a three-fingered, gloved hand, just as she reached for it. Her hand rested upon his, and he looked up at her, trying to hide his worry. But she could read him like a book.
Looking down once again, she took a different bottle and then faced Randall once more.
"He'll never forgive you. Never. Revenge will be his," she hissed, still managing to sustain that subtle calmness about herself.
"And mine."
She strolled off, her tail brushing against Randall momentarily. He flinched at the contact, and then took the bottle of acid out of the box. As he began to return to Xenon, still reeling at the more recent of his experiences with this girl, he passed the cluster of girls that had bothered him before. They all stared at him, some of them whispering to one another as he went by them without a second thought. The short, stocky one stood up and innocently stuck one of her feet out.
Randall stumbled slightly, but managed to catch himself before falling. But, as he took several unbalanced steps forward, another student, who was carrying a large tray of the minerals that they were using, turned around facing him, and they clashed. Unluckily, this other student was several times the size of Randall, weighing much more, and as he turned around, the lizard-monster bumping into him, he subconsciously pushed Randall out of the way.
Acid and minerals went flying, and the girls screamed making everyone else in the classroom jump in shock. Randall hit the hard ground with a thud, everything blurring, becoming unfocused...
And there she was again. Why was she following him, with that same empty look in her eyes, that same exhaustion in her posture, that same exigency in her voice? She was always there, always, but why? There was only one answer- she wanted something from him, no, she NEEDED something from him. But what? What? WHAT?
The thumping headache quietened down, and an empty silence ensued. Black was the only colour that Randall could see.