Romance With My Nemesis

CHAPTER 5: THE CHEMICAL EQUILIBRIUM

I was sitting near the window of our classroom, gazing outside at the soccer team playing on the field. My attention was interrupted when Ms. Cana, our Physical Science teacher, entered our classroom.

"Good afternoon, class!" Ms. Cana warmly greeted us.

I quickly turned my gaze toward Ms. Cana and joined my classmates in returning her greeting. She powered on the projector and accessed her lesson files.

She began discussing "The Chemical Equilibrium." After a half-hour lecture on equilibrium and Le Chatelier's Principle, she initiated an oral recitation, asking, "Can somebody explain the effects of Chemical Equilibrium?" In response, I raised my hand, indicating my readiness to answer the question. From my peripheral vision, I noticed the new student sitting beside my table stirring from his nap, immediately turning his attention to me as I raised my hand.

"Alright, Ms. Lee, what are the effects of chemical equilibrium?" Ms. Cana signaled for me to rise from my seat.

I stood up from my seat to discuss chemical equilibrium. "Let's take, for instance, the reaction between sulfur dioxide and oxygen that yields sulfur trioxide," I began. Approaching the whiteboard next to Ms. Cana, I picked up a whiteboard marker and wrote:

2SO2(g) + O2(g) ⇌ 2SO3(g)

Completing the notation on the whiteboard, I turned to face my classmates and continued my explanation:

"If the concentration of SO2 or O2 is increased, Le Chatelier's principle predicts that the equilibrium will shift to decrease the concentration of the reactants. Increasing the rate of the forward reaction will..."

"Suddenly, Cassander raised his hand with an inscrutable expression, stood up, and walked in my direction, his gaze fixed on me."

I suddenly couldn't escape his intense gaze, and I completely froze, my eyes locked onto his. "I... Uhmmm... Wh..." I stammered, trying to ask him what he was doing, when he suddenly passed by me and walked toward the whiteboard. He leaned on the whiteboard, erasing the number "2" that I had written in "2SO2." Then, he reached for another whiteboard marker and changed the "2" into a "3" to make it "2SO3."

I turned to face him and felt a surge of anger as I realized how he had corrected my mistake in front of my classmates and teacher. After making the correction without saying a word, he placed the whiteboard marker below the whiteboard, put his hand in his pocket, held his chin high, and continued walking back to his chair.

There was complete silence for a few seconds until Ms. Cana broke the tension in the class. "Ha...ha...ha... Thank you for correcting Ms. Lee's mistake there, Mr...?"

"Cassander," Cassander's deep and resonant voice, exuding masculinity, made the girls in the class squeal silently as he spoke his name.

"Alright, Mr. Cassander. Please continue with your discussion, Ms. Lee." She said, gesturing for me to proceed.

I finished my discussion but couldn't help but glare at Cassander, who was getting on my nerves. He seemed unfazed, simply resting his arm on his desk and drifting off to sleep once more.