Touched by the Fear

[13]

Hollis stared at the board, trying to decipher what Mr. Harris was writing. If there was anything that she was worse at than Algebra, it would be Chemistry. She tilted her head to the side, reading the chemical symbols that meant absolutely nothing to her. She squinted, as if that would possibly help her understand the chemical gibberish. Nonetheless, Hollis copied everything down in the notebook and hoped that Mr. Harris would provide at least some explanation.

While she wrote, she heard the constant whisperings that belonged to Scott and Stiles. Although she couldn't hear just what was being said, the noise itself was distracting. Turning around, she glanced over at the two who were oblivious to her stares.

"Hey," she whisper yelled.

Stiles and Scott looked up quickly, directing their attention towards her.

"Hey!" Stiles said cheerfully, a smile lighting up his face.

Rolling her eyes, she couldn't help but smile. "Can you guys keep it down a bit? Chem is hard enough as it is, and you two talking about who knows what is kind of distracting."

Scott nodded to her words, a sheepish look on his face. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Sorry."

Stiles also nodded his reply, giving her a thumbs up.

Shaking her head, she turned back to the front of the room. Her eyes landed on her notebook, which was now filled with different chemical interactions. Hollis frowned at the sight of them with a sigh.

The seconds ticked by and she sat there, listening to the tapping sound of chalk on the board. As she sat there, Stiles voice drifted towards her, breaking her out of her thoughts. Again. She was about to turn around and ask him to keep quiet but Mr. Harris beat her to it.

"Mr. Stilinski, if that's your idea of a hushed whisper you might want to pull the earphones out once in a while. I think you and Mr. McCall would benefit from a little distance. Yes?" Mr. Harris asked, though it was more of a demand than a question.

Hollis turned around, seeing the dumbfounded looks on their faces.

"Uh...No," Stiles answered, shaking his head.

Despite his response, Mr. Harris pointed to two empty desks on either side of the room. Reluctantly, Scott and Stiles gathered their things.

"Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much," Mr. Harris said, a pleased look on his face. He turned back to the board and scribbled a few more things on it before turning around again. "Someone tell me what this equation means. How to solve it, what it forms." His eyes pierced the room, taking in the worried faces of the students. "Anyone?" When no one replied, he said, "Hollis."

She looked up to see his attention was focused solely on her. "What?" She asked, wide-eyed.

"Not paying attention already?" Mr. Harris asked, shaking his head. "I asked you to tell me what any of these equations meant. How about this one?" He asked and pointed at a difficult looking one.

"Oh, uhm...." Hollis looked down at her notebook. She nervously flipped through her notes to the previous lessons, hoping to get an idea.

"I'm waiting," Mr. Harris said impatiently.

Sighing, she looked up. "Honestly...I don't know," she answered truthfully.

"I'm guessing you didn't do last night's homework then," Mr Harris said.

"No, I did. I just-" Hollis interrupted.

"If you had, then you'd know the answer. That's two strikes against you, and it's only the second week. Very disappointing."