(A/N): I forgot to mention one little detail: Mara and Mick are still dating. Anyway, read on.
Mara shrugged off her shoulder bag and flopped down on the couch, closing her eyes in relief. Today had been long and stressful for her. Being school rep and all, she had to stay at the school for several more hours than the rest of the student body. Right now, she just wanted to relax, to sleep, to forget all her-
"Mara, Jerome's in our bedroom waiting for you. He says you're late for something…?" Alfie said as he entered the common room. Mara groaned and rolled over off the couch, landing face-first on the ground with a thud.
"Ow." She mumbled into the dusty old rug before she heaved herself up. "Tell him I'll be there in a moment…" Mara said, trying to rub the exhaustion from her eyes. She heard Alfie's footsteps become fainter and fainter until she heard a door open and shut.
Mara reached for her bag and took out the chemistry assignment and her text book. She wasn't going to give him the answers; she was just going to use her paper to make sure his answers were right.
She trudged her way to Jerome's room, slightly dreading what would happen. You never know when Jerome and Alfie are going to play a prank on you, so you always have to be on guard.
Knowing quite well what may lie beyond the door, Mara opened it cautiously. To her relief, honey did not fall on her nor was she pelted by water balloons. All that was in the room was Jerome and Alfie, both of them reading. Except, Jerome was reading something by James Patterson and Alfie was reading a comic book. Figures.
"Ah, Mara, you're here." Jerome said, closing his book. "Let's get started, shall we? Alfie, leave the room."
"You don't have to be so rude about it." Alfie said as he got up. Before he left the room, he shot Jerome a "You're getting lucky tonight" look at him when Mara had her head turned. It took all of Jerome's strength not to throw his book at Alfie's head, but he did shoot him a death glare in return.
Mara flopped down next to Jerome on his bed and opened the text book. "OK, so we were talking about Transition and Post-Transition metals in chemistry today. All you have to do is list them all; name and lettering."
"That's all? Really? That's sort of anticlimactic…" Jerome said, looking down at the text book.
"If it's so easy then, how about you tell me all of them to me?" Mara challenged.
"Ok then." Jerome went for the text book, but Mara jerked it out of his reach.
"Ah-ah-ah," Mara said, scolding him as if he was a little boy. "You have to tell them to me. By memory."
Jerome looked at her, dumbfounded. "B-but I fell asleep in class! There's only a handful that I remember!"
"Then it sucks to be you, because you're not leaving this room until you recite all of them."
Jerome glared at her for a second before closing his eyes. "Ok, let's see… The transition metals I remember are…um…Iron…Cobalt…Nickel…Zinc…Silver and Gold…and Copper..." Jerome opened his eyes and saw Mara nodding in approval. "Oh, and Mercury."
"Good, good… Now what are the letterings?"
"Gah! Iron is Fe, Cobalt is Co, Nickel is Ni, Copper is Cu, Zinc is Zn, Gold is Au, Silver is Ag and Mercury is Hg." He rushed out.
"And what about the post-transition metals?"
"Mara, you're killing me here."
"The sooner you answer me the sooner I'll let you look at the text book." She said in a sing-song way.
"Bloody hell…" Jerome mumbled under his breath. "Lead, tin and aluminum are the only ones I know."
"Lettering?"
"I don't know."
"Jerome, we're not leaving this room until you answer the question."
"I don't know, ok? Now if you would just hand over the text book-"
"No!" Mara said. "I'm testing your mind to see what you can remember."
"Stop being so difficult and give me the bloody text book!" Jerome lunged for the book, but Mara hid it behind her back and laid down on it. Jerome struggled to release the book out from under her, but she never gave up.
After several minutes of what seemed to be wrestling, Jerome gave up. "You're evil, you know that?"
"I'm not evil; I'm just a great tutor." Mara said smugly. Suddenly, Mara started noticing little things; how Jerome was on top of her, his hands on either side of her head, propping the boy up. How their faces were only inches apart and how there was a small smile across Jerome's face.
Jerome noticed this too. His smile was gone instantly. "I'm sorry." He whispered as he staggered off her. "Listen, I think you should go now." Jerome said, pulling Mara off his bed and out the door. "Sleep well." He mumbled before he slammed the door in her face, avoiding her gaze the entire time.
"Wait, Jerome, my homework! Don't you dare copy off it!" Mara fumed, banging on the boy's door. Mara grunted in frustration and banged the door one last time before she stormed off. I can always get it from him in the morning…
Mara stormed into the kitchen, where she ran into Mick.
"Mara, are you ok? Where were you?" Mick asked when he saw his girlfriend's face full of anger.
"I'm fine; I was just helping Jerome with his chemistry homework." Mara answered as she sifted through the cupboards.
"Oh really?" Mick said with a hint of anger in his voice. She caught this.
"Mick, don't worry, nothing happened. You have nothing to be jealous about. If anything, Jerome's afraid of me." Mick couldn't help but laugh.
"Jerome afraid of you? That's a good one."
"You may never know." Mara said. She looked through the cupboards one last time and huffed. "Well, since I can't find anything to eat, I might as well go to bed. Night Mick."
"But it's only eight o'clock!"
"Yeah, but I've also had an amazingly long day. I'm astonished I haven't passed out yet."
"Well, good night then." He said as he made his way towards his girlfriend and planted a kiss on her cheek.
Mara slowly made her way to her room, each step making her drowsier. Once she arrived, Mara instantly dove under her blankets and fell asleep, not even bothering to change into night clothes.