The Alpha Bet by Hale Stephanie

Author:Hale, Stephanie [Hale, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-09-21T21:00:00+00:00

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It’s Wednesday morning and I am skulking around the edges of the auditorium looking for Charlie. Luckily I’m here before he is, so I choose a seat in the farthest corner away from where we normally sit. I tuck my hair into the ball cap I borrowed from Jentry and hunker down into my seat. I know I should just talk to him but I don’t think I could look him in the eyes and tell him I didn’t want to see him anymore. I figure if I blow him off long enough, he’ll lose interest.

I peek over my shoulder to see Charlie at the top of the auditorium looking around. He shrugs and takes a seat in our normal row. He tucks his hair behind his ear while removing a notebook from his backpack. I’m glad I’m sitting down because just that simple gesture practically makes me swoon.

I flip open my notebook determined to give my full attention to Professor Pike. Between my Alpha tasks, keeping Mom off my back, Sean’s blackmail, and just keeping up with this new look, which requires way more maintenance than I ever would have thought possible, I don’t have time for a boyfriend. I’m not even going to think about Charlie anymore. Satisfied with my decision I write today’s date at the top of a fresh notebook page and ready myself to soak up some new chemistry knowledge.

“How many elements are in the periodic table?” Professor Pike’s voice booms over the auditorium.

“One hundred seventeen,” several voices yell out. I grip the edge of my desktop to resist the urge to scream out. Surely someone else in this room knows that element one hundred eighteen, while it hasn’t existed for more than a few milliseconds, does exist after being created by American and Russian scientists.

“Come on, people,” Professor Pike grumbles, obviously disgusted. I swear I could almost hear crickets chirping outside, the auditorium is so quiet. I squirm around in my seat restlessly. A girl next to me eyeballs me probably afraid I’m about to have an accident. I can’t help it though. It is physically painful not to answer Professor Pike’s question. How can no one know this? Do these people not have www.dailyscience.com bookmarked? The word is just about to escape my lips when I hear someone else yell something out.

A garbled answer echoes through the otherwise silent auditorium.

“Was that English?” Professor Pike responds.

“Ununoctium is the one hundred and eighteenth element,” Charlie yells out, unclenching the pencil in his teeth.

I don’t hear how Professor Pike responds to Charlie’s correct answer because I have melted into a puddle of girl drool in my chair.

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