The Genius

Chapter One

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Rose, a ginger-haired girl in our year screeched as her phone came on in Ben's hands. Ben shrugged, handing the android phone back to the excited girl.

I rolled my eyes as I tried to concentrate on my physics textbook. Aiyana who was reading a book on her phone wasn't paying much attention to the scene at the table. Rose finally left after Ben gave her some pointers, bringing back the air of silence on our table.

"You should start charging them," Aiyana muttered under her breath, not taking her eyes of her tablet as she scrolled upwards with a teal painted fingernail.

"I can't do that, and it's not like most of the problems they bring to me are that much of a big deal anyway," Ben muttered, running a hand through his short curly hair as his brown eyes eyed Aiyana's untouched piece of cake.

"Are you going to eat that?" he asked, making Aiyana sigh with an eye roll. She gestured with her free hand that he could have it, earning a toothy grin from Ben.

"I agree with Aiyana, you should start charging them," I said, highlighting a block of text with my green highlighter.

Ben was a tech genius. He could literally fix anything. I think he's the only person I know that can open up and mess with an iPhone. He was like a god in school, bringing crashed laptops back to life, giving gadgets a whole new look by tinkering with their parts, recovering lost data, and helping kids hack into the school's blocked wifi every once in a while.

Ben wasn't a book brainiac like Aiyana and me. He excelled in math in all forms of algebra, calculus, and statistics. He also did very well in Physics and Information Technology, but he usually needed my help to make a decent score in Chemistry, and sometimes Aiyana had to coach him throughout the term to make a pass in English and Economics.

"I don't know," Ben started, digging into Aiyana's cake, "that doesn't seem very nice."

I smiled at his reply. Ben had this odd sense of morality that was extremely peachy and detached from reality.

Aiyana let out a loud sigh, making me turn to face her. She was still concentrated on her phone, biting her lips every once in a while as her finger continued to scroll.

"What book?" I asked making Aiyana look up for the first time. Her brown eyes complimented her equally brown skin, her wavy hair was put up in a bun and the sides were gelled stylishly.

"Native son," she muttered, returning her attention to her phone.

"I will never comprehend how someone can read such a fat a*s novel," Ben said, obviously remembering the purple hard copy Aiyana had carried about two days ago.

Aiyana ignored him, rolling her eyes. "I have history next period, what about you guys?"

"We have chemistry," I answered, running a hand through my brown hair before adjusting my white rimmed glasses. Chemistry was definitely one of my favorite subjects. Miss Jones was the best teacher I've ever had for a subject.

The bell went soon after, making all three of us get up from the table without hesitation. That was a basic trait we all shared — we didn't like being late.

"See you guys later," Aiyana managed to say as she stuffed her tablet into her sling bag before walking off. Ben and I had to drop our trays before heading up to the third floor for chemistry.

I chuckled when Ben paused every once in a while as we walked up the stairs to complain about how he was 'dying' on our journey to class. For some reason, our school had thought it was a good idea to put all the science labs on the top floor.

We soon got to the top floor and Ben let out a loud 'Hallelujah!' before rushing into the chemistry lab. I walked in soon after finding Miss Jones alone with a student at her table. I raised a brow at the scene realizing that I'd never noticed the guy that was chatting away to Miss Jones with a smile before.

"Who's that?" Ben asked, reading my mind.

"I don't know," I muttered as I dropped my bag on the table up front. Ben took the seat next to me, earning a threatening glare from me.

"What?" Ben asked in mock surprise as he took out his lab coat from his bag. Ben knew I hated sitting with him in biology and Chemistry. I might be his friend but I'd rather not have him as a lab partner, all he ever did was look on until I carried out the experiment alone out of frustration.

The other students had started coming into the class and the lab was soon buzzing with murmuring. People were still messing around with their phones since Miss Jones wasn't looking.

I impatiently scribbled on the corner of my notepad as I waited for Miss Jones to start class.

"Okay, since I told you about our practical beforehand I assume that you're all ready for it. Quantitative analysis might look simple but there are so many rooms for a mistake that you just have to be careful," Miss Jones finally said, gaining the attention of the class. People put away their phones quickly. If anything, Miss Jones was known for confiscating items and refusing to give them back for weeks. No one wanted their phone to be one of those items.

"Also, this is Ji-Hun. He's a new student so please be patient with him," Miss Jones said turning her attention to the dark haired boy that was sitting on a stool by her desk.

People started muttering under their breaths after that. We weren't used to new students at my school. I can't even remember the last time I saw someone new irrespective of their grade during the start of a new school year.

"You can work with Wyatt today," Miss Jones muttered, looking from Ji-Hun to me. Ben let out a low groan before packing up his books in preparation to find another partner.

"I actually have to work today," Ben whined as he slung his bag over his shoulder. I rolled my eyes as I watched him leave, Ji-Hun came to take his place soon after. He dropped his bag next to the seat beside me, getting on it before throwing a smile my way.

"Hey," he muttered as we collected the question and answer sheets that were being passed around. I smiled, feeling a little odd at his friendliness. I wasn't used to talking to anyone but Ben and Aiyana. Ji-Hun nodded when he realized I wasn't going to answer, before turning to scribble onto his sheet with his left hand. My eyes widened in interest when I realized he was writing from an odd side.

"You're left-handed?" I asked, tilting my head a little to watch him write. His handwriting was neat, print like. He also held his pen oddly, his fingers more than a reasonable length away from the tip. He was holding his pen as if it was a brush.

He dropped his black pen after scribbling down the necessary information on the record table. "What, is using my left hand weird?" he asked with a small laugh.

I shrugged, proceeding to fill out my own table. "Only ten to fifteen percent of people in the world are left handed so it's pretty unique."

"Thank you?" he muttered, making me chuckle. I watched as his face reddened a little as he pushed back his straight bangs away from his forehead. I smiled at that, although he was trying his best not to show it, it was obvious that he was nervous.

"I think we should set things up, titrating takes a while," I said, changing the topic.

"Yeah." he nodded in agreement as he watched me set the stand. I gave a mental sigh of relief as he prepared the solution. It looked like he knew what he was doing and that was a relief considering it meant I won't be the only one doing actual work.

We worked in fair silence until Ji-Hun groaned as he mistakenly swallowed base for the fourth time in a row. I laughed, watching as he wiped at his mouth with the back of his clothed hand furiously. We were about an hour into the experiment but I wasn't worried we were ahead of the class by two readings.

"I hate this, why do they only have the manual ones?" Ji-Hun complained as I watched him empty the pipette into the sink beside us.

"We're never going to finish this test," I laughed as I watched Ji-Hun wipe his mouth with the sleeve of his teal jumper again. "I think you should also put on your lab coat."

"I'm a rebel," Ji-Hun whispered before sticking out his tongue.

"You're just giving yourself more laundry," I pointed out, earning an amused chuckle from him.

The rest of the practical class went on with us engaging in small talk as we worked. Apparently, he and his family had been living in the US for the past year and a half and had only just moved states. He also had a sister who was a senior here.

"Thank you, for the first time I didn't end up doing everything by myself," I said as we cleaned up our work area. The next class was a few minutes from now. Ji-Hun nodded, as he rinsed the beakers under the tap water.

"What do you have next?" he asked as I arranged my sheets for submission.

"Biology," I said as the bell for the next class went.

"Ah, I have Information Technology. I guess we have to part ways now," Ji-Hun said with a grin. "It was nice meeting you."

"I could say the same," I said earning an eye roll from him. I smiled to myself. I wasn't sure why I was being so friendly, it wasn't like me but I was enjoying myself.

We parted with the rest of the class and Ben was soon by my side asking me what Ji-Hun and I had been talking about. I just smiled, ignoring him as I parted ways with him at his Building Tech class and headed to Biology.