CO-ED

Cafeteria Chemistry

Never without a book in hand.  

It was the usual setup for Jamie - on his left was a chemistry book, closed and with a flimsy spiral notebook on top of it. A pen rolled away the last amounts of inertia it had and settled between the notebook’s wire bind and the curved, almost dog-eared cover. 

Beside his papers was a plate; two cups of rice matched with a slab of meat in brown sauce. Jamie dug in; his spoon carved the dome-shaped clump of white and brought the spoonful to his anticipating palate. 

“This one has a little less pepper than before. Not enough of a kick …” he stared at the dish.

Jamie’s eyes were glued to the now-untouched food until someone’s hand tapped him from behind. A soft thud traveled from his nape to the head. 

“Hey man, your food won’t eat itself” a boy’s voice, almost squeaky but on the verge of a lowering pitch followed the tap “Not unless you’re trying to eat food telepathically”

It was Giancarlo’s plump hand that made the movement. He was with two girls: to his left was a skinny freckle-faced form with clothes that hung loose on her, to his right was a rather dignified-looking female with sharp-framed eyeglasses and a square face. Both of them giggled at the sight of the still-startled loner. 

“Ah, you three. Sorry about that” Jamie scratched his head right before he looked at his lunch and proceeded with consuming it in hefty bites. He looked at them with a half-stuffed mouth before saying, “What-sh up-ff? You’f been outtaph theh librareeh prettih shoonh”

“We are done with the assignments” Giancarlo pounded a fist on a large notebook on his clutches “It was not as hard the teachers made it sound” 

“Much of the answers were found on the first books we picked off the shelves” Betsy’s smile was as sharp as the angled frames of her spectacles “We didn’t really have to expound on them.  Basic explanations were all that was needed”

“Greath greath” Jamie brought the last spoonfuls of meat and rice to his mouth, making slushy sounds as his teeth broke down and softened the food for swallowing. 

Jamie set aside the now-empty plate and scanned his eyes on the trio before putting the book and notebook right before him “You guys have anything on the chemistry project? I swear I’m having a tough time trying to think of something ‘both scientific and artistic’. That is the theme of course”

“Are you into your bombs again Jamie?” Giancarlo looked at him with curved, slightly laughing eyes “That ‘Volcano Detergent Blaster’ was cool, but I think you overdid the blast part” 

The two-foot volcano replica came to mind. It was thought at first by the class as another usual sample of running lava, until Jamie activated the mechanism that made a blast similar to firecrackers on lead pipes. It caused a ruckus that drew the attention of the other classrooms – and the school’s security personnel. There was no fire, but one of the guards went in and doused the whole work in foam anyway. 

“That one?” a half-grin etched on Jamie’s face “I think I could do worse on that if I did not reinforce the containers for the chemicals. At least, the whole thing worked, and it was fun till it lasted” 

“Your love of explosives will one of these days get you into trouble” Carly threw her arms down and laughed right before saying, “No wonder you’re christened ‘Jamie the Terrorist’…”

“Hey, this might give off a boom too” Giancarlo wore a half-grin looking at Jamie “Remember that girl we saw looking at you a few weeks ago?” 

“What?” Jamie’s eyes were peeled off the Chemistry book and looked back at Giancarlo. 

“We found her at the corridor on the way to the library a while ago” 

Carly grabbed the opportunity to talk ahead of Giancarlo “That is, if she really did go there. She could have changed her mind if she saw Gian here slobbering all over her” 

“Hey…!” Giancarlo’s head reeled back as the two girls laughed “I did not do that, but I can’t blame myself if I really did” He let out a chuckle. 

“That girl is kinda cute,” Betsy said. 

“Plus she’s a member of the cheer dance group,” Carly remarked “At least you won’t need to stalk the dancers from afar and finally be up and close with one of them” 

“Ah… ha ha ha” Jamie’s logic went to the back of his mind. He scratched his head at the remark. 

Jamie set his elbow on the table and let his fist cradle his left temple. He would often watch the cheerleaders’ practice as an act of curiosity. He would stand at a good part of the school building where an old but handsome willow tree obscured its view from the gymnasium. That’s where he would pull out a telescope the length of a small water bottle and ‘watch’. The act drew curiosity, peculiarity and disgust from those few unknown students who passed by. It was a normal sight for Jamie’s classmates though – he was the only one to sport such a device in the entire school. 

Brown eyes: that was all he recalled. Jamie’s mind did not have enough room to fully recall who she was or what made her different from those sweating in shirts, jogging pants or the skirts they wore during warm-up.  

“Hmm… say what? Why don’t we make glow-in-the-dark alum crystals and make a simple diorama out of it?” 

“Sounds posh” Betsy’s voice of approval was also coupled with her desire to sit down “I’ll take care of the artsy stuff for that” 

“Hmm… great”  

He was lost in thought at the presence of somebody who entered the cafeteria. Pairs of eyes, different-colored ones with various owners, were on Jamie; he was quick to resist looking at them any longer though as he shifted his view away and returned to his three classmates. 

“As I was saying…” Jamie’s gaze returned to the three “What do you think will work better? Neon blue, neon green or lemon yellow?” 

“We can have a blue-green theme” Giancarlo was the first to answer; the girls nodded at his suggestion. 

“Cool. Pitch in your ideas after school. I’ll go for a bit of a walk. The noise here is getting a little too bugging on me” 

Jamie took both notes and the book and stuffed them on his pack. He felt the stare, but his focus was on something else. Was she really in the library? He shook his head, darted out of the cafeteria and went through the open grounds.