Argent Eye

9

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"Over here!" I heard Kate's voice ring through the lab before I saw her, and turned to see her waving at me to get my attention. Her and the others were all sat along a long line of computers, all with the equipment already set up.

"So, what's happening?" I asked, putting my bag down and logging onto the computer next to Kate.

"Well, these guys seem to know what they're doing." Kate motioned to the likes of James and Ryan. "Me, on the other hand... I have no idea! I was kinda hoping you would know."

I laughed. "I haven't even looked at it yet."

I didn't wait for Kate to respond as I went to grab the equipment from the service desk. In the box was a load of wires and strange looking electrical boxes I'd never seen before, although I figured that once I'd read the instructions I might understand a little more.

"So, have you figured it out?" Kate asked, as I started plugging things into each other. I peered over at Kate who hadn't even attempted.

"You know it's in the instructions, right?" I said, motioning to my computer screen which had step by step instructions of how to set things up. I also noticed that she had exactly the same page up, but for some reason didn't seem to be looking at it. I knew this work was a good percentage of our coursework, so I wasn't just going to give the answers to her if that's what she was thinking.

"Oh." She said, as if she were somewhat surprised.

I continued to set my equipment up, and then proceeded onto the next part where you had to write the code. All of this was unfamiliar to me- I'd never seen it before, unlike some of the other guys who I could tell had done it a dozen times. This didn't have step by step instructions to it, however, I found that as I was reading through some of the annotations and examples, I was slowly beginning to get it. Kate, on the other hand, still looked lost.

"I don't understand it." Kate turned to look at my screen. "Woah." She said. "How have you done so much?"

I looked at her. "Huh?" I then peered at my screen. I hadn't done that much.

"You've done loads!" She exclaimed.

I frowned a little, and then looked at how much Sunny had done. "Sunny's way ahead." I said.

"But Sunny started before we did." She said.

"Well, we better catch up then." I stressed.

For some reason, I was getting irritated by Kate. She kept asking for help when she hadn't even tried it herself, as if I was just gonna hand her the answers. If this was any ordinary lab then I might have helped more, but this counted to nearly half the grade of the entire module. She had to work it out for herself, and with the given instructions I didn't understand how she hadn't even set up her equipment.

Kate didn't say anything as she turned back to her computer screen. I then saw her lean over to Sunny.

"Sunny, I don't get it." I heard her say.

"What don't you get?" Sunny asked, being nicer than I was.

"I don't even know how to set it up."

"Kate, there's a picture of it right in front of you." Sunny said, this time sounding only a little less irritated than me. Once again, Kate didn't say anything.

I was glad I wasn't the only one to be irritated by Kate's inability to read. However, I didn't want to sound like a bitch, so I didn't say anything. My Nan always told me that if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I realised then that my ears were filled with a strange, unfamiliar buzzing sound, which was only irritating me even more as I tried to carry on with the questions. But it was annoying me, so much so that I was finding it hard to concentrate. It was giving me a headache, too.

I saw Kate turn to me out the corner of my eye. She was going to ask me a question, but was hesitant. Perhaps she could sense my irritation. I knew she had her equipment finally set up, but that was the easy part.

"What is it, Kate?" I snapped, and the buzzing suddenly stopped. I sighed, and rubbed my sore head.

Kate's eye widened a little. "Sorry." She retorted.

"No, I'm sorry." I said. "I have a headache."

She pursed her lips a little.

"I'll be right back." I said, and made my way to the bathroom.

No one else was in here as I stood by the sink, listening to see if the sound would return. It didn't, and so I took a few deep breaths and popped a couple of paracetamol in the hopes that my headache might ease. I then went back into the lab.

When I went back, I felt bad that I'd snapped at Kate.

"What are you stuck on?" I asked her when I sat back at my computer.

She looked at me, and then realised I was trying to make up for snapping. "Oh, well, this bit." She pointed to her screen, so I just gave her a few clues to point her in the right direction.

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