Jayden's Cybermountain

by Katrina Cope

  “Yeah. You went all kind of weird!” Eva said. “You’re going to focus, or you won’t be able to do your work, let alone teach anything at Tae Kwon Do.”

  “I’ll work on it!”

  Jessica returned with a plate full of food and sat in between Aaron and Jayden. “It’s so great to be out with everyone else,” she said between mouthfuls. “So far, everyone seems very nice. By the way, there seemed to be a commotion goin’ on about someone named David when I entered the main buildin’ this mornin’. Does anyone know what that was all about?”

  The others all laughed a little.

  “Oh, that was one of the older boys trying to sneak into the girls’ bathroom.” Jayden smirked. “I don’t think Scarlet liked it.”

  “What a naughty boy!” Jessica exclaimed and laughed. “No. I could hear that she didn’t.” She swallowed another mouthful of food and asked, “So, what happens after breakfast?”

  “We have science first today,” Aaron answered, still having trouble taking his eyes off her.

  “Ew!” she responded. “That sounds like a really boring lesson.”

  “Actually, it’s not.” Jayden said, shaking his head. “Well, it hasn’t been for me so far. Professor Anna makes it really interesting and hands on—not to mention she’s one of the nicest teachers here.”

  “Sounds too good to be true. I’ll have to see for myself.”

  “It’s not to too to be true,” Eva said, agreeing with Jayden. “Professor Anna is really great.”

  “First, though, when you’re done with breakfast, we should go and find Robert,” Aaron said.

  "Who’s Robert?” Jessica asked.

  “He’s one of our friends,” Eva said.

  Jessica finished quickly, and they all took their plates to the area for dirty dishes and left the dining room in pursuit of Robert.

  “Let’s try the common room first,” Eva suggested while the two boys nodded in agreement.

  Once they reached the door to the common room on the first floor, they found that the TV was on and they could see Robert’s head peeking over the top of the couch.

  Aaron commented, “Do we know Robert, or what?”

  “Yep, we do,” Eva agreed. They moved around to the front of the couch. “Oh, Robert?”

  “Hmmm?” Robert gazed at Eva questioningly.

  “You still have food all over your shirt. Couldn’t you have at least changed?”

  “Oh!” he answered. It appeared as though changing into clean clothes hadn’t even crossed his mind. He looked around at the others and then noticed Jessica.

  “We have a new student—one of Jayden’s street friends,” Eva told him. “This is Jess.”

  Robert stood looking nervous. “Hey,” he said to her.

  “Hey to you, too.” She took a step closer to him and rubbed his belly like a person would the belly of a Buddha and teasingly said, “I can see you’ve been ’ere for a while.”

  Robert looked a little embarrassed that a pretty blonde girl had touched his bulging belly, but didn’t seem to really take offence.

  “How about you go change your shirt, and we’ll head to our first class for the day?” Eva suggested, taking the focus off Robert’s embarrassment.

  They waited for Robert while he changed and then headed out for the next class.

  Professor Anna was sitting behind her desk, looking as nice as ever. There were several scientific diagrams and equations written on the whiteboard behind her. She was bent over the paperwork on her desk and looked deep in thought until the students came in.

  “Good morning, students,” she greeted them in her usual friendly manner.

  The students responded with a “Good morning!” as they took their seats behind their desks.

  Jayden and his group entered the room with their new addition.

  “This must be Jessica,” Professor Anna stated when she saw her enter the room. She stood, and Jessica smiled at her. “Well! Aren’t you the pretty one?”

  Eva said, “You don’t need to tell us. We’ve had it from Aaron here already.” She yanked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating Aaron behind her. “He’s had trouble picking his jaw up off the ground ever since Jess walked into the dining room.”

  Aaron’s face turned red. “Eva, stop saying that!”

  “It was so pathetic that I had to have another dig.” She smirked.

  Professor Anna smiled. “Oh, Eva, leave poor Aaron alone. You’re embarrassing him.”

  “Yeah, Eva—leave poor Ari alone,” Jessica said, looping her arm through Aaron’s.

  “Ari?” spat Eva in disgust. “Now you’re just encouraging him.” She frowned at Jessica.

  Jessica turned back to Professor Anna. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard great things about you.”

  “Oh, how sweet!” replied the professor. “It sounds as though Avando has already been working on your speech.”

  Jessica smiled and her face turned pink. “Yes, he has. It’s not great yet, but I’m working on it.”

  When all the students had finished getting seated, the professor turned to the rest of the class.

  “For today’s lesson, we’re going to be making an electrochemical cell. Who can tell me what this is?”

  Eva’s hand went straight up.

  “Eva?”

  “There are two types of electrochemical cells. Spontaneous reactions occur in galvanic or voltaic cells and nonspontaneous reactions occur in electrolytic cells. Both types contain electrodes, where the oxidation and reduction reactions occur.”

  “Very good Eva. You’ve been doing your homework. Today we’re working with the galvanic cell.” She walked over to the whiteboard that showed a diagram of an electrochemical cell. “Normally, the anode of an electrolytic cell is positive, while the cathode is negative—since the anode attracts anions from the solution. However, with the galvanic cell, the anode is negatively charged, since the spontaneous oxidation at the anode is the source of the cell’s electrons, or negative charge. This leaves the cathode of a galvanic cell being its positive terminal. In both galvanic and electrolytic cells, oxidation takes place at the anode, and electrons flow from the anode to the cathode. In other words, it creates a charge for a battery. Now, usually this would be made with a salt bridge. However, today we’re going to make it a little more interesting—we’re going to make a human battery.”

  “So, everyone,” she added in a friendlier and less educational manner. “Grab your lab coats, pens, and notepads and go to the lab.” The students did so, following through to the lab and stood around the lab tables.

  “In front of each of you are two beakers. We’re going to fill one beaker with copper metal in 1M copper sulphate solution, and in the other we’re going to add zinc metal in 1M zinc sulphate solution.”

  The students started filling the beakers. Professor Anna waited until everyone had finished. “Now make two of your fingers into a V and dip one finger into each of the solutions.”

  “Um, Professor Anna?”

  “Yes, Robert?”

  “Is this going to hurt?” he asked, looking nervous.

  Professor Anna laughed. “No, Robert. You’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure? ’Cause I really don’t feel like getting hurt right now.”

  She smiled at his concern. “No one wants to be hurt. Yes, I’m sure. It’s only equivalent potential to the voltage of the standard cell battery.”

  “Oh, I felt it. It’s only a tingle,” Jessica said. “No, it definitely won’t hurt ya,” she told Robert.

  Everyone—including Robert—did it and gave a little exclamation of excitement from the charge.

  “Very good,” the professor said when all students had participated. “Now everyone needs to wash their hands thoroughly.”

  “Darling!” Curious to see who the speaker was, the students looked over and saw Professor Eric Showden standing at the open doorway of the science room.

  “Hello, darling,” responded Professor Anna.

/>   “Can I see you for a minute, please?”

  “Of course.” She excused herself and left the room to join him.

  “Darling?” Jayden whispered to Aaron.

  “Yeah. You know they’re married, right?”

  “Married?” he asked in astonishment.

  “Yes. Didn’t you notice that their last name is the same?” Aaron asked.

  “Not everyone with the same last name is married,” Jayden retorted.

  “Well, this time, they are.”

  “But, she’s so elegant and lovely and he’s just…I don’t know…I guess a little…creepy,” he whispered in disgust.

  “Creepy?” Aaron said, sounding shocked. “He’s actually very nice. What makes you think he’s creepy?”

  “Oh.” Jayden realized then that Aaron did actually like the male professor. “I don’t know. He just sends shivers down my spine. Maybe it just because he isn’t a people person.” He shrugged.

  The students went over to wash up as instructed. Robert was the first at the sink.

  “Come on, Roly. Hurry up and move over so that the rest of us can get to the tap.”

  Jayden looked a little shocked to hear such an unkind word here at the Sanctum. So far, everyone had been very nice. Admittedly Eva seemed snooty at times, but underneath he knew she was nice. He and a couple of other students looked over to the person talking. A boy who was a little taller than the rest of the students was looking at Robert with a sneer on his face—his brilliant blue eyes looked cruel. Robert didn’t respond in any way and he continued to wash his hands as if nothing had been said, but it was clear from his expression that he knew he’d been spoken to.

  “Hey, Rolly!” The guy kicked the back of Robert’s shoe.

  “Are you talking to me?” Robert responded, feigning innocence.

  “Yeah. I’m telling you to hurry up, Rolly.” He continued to let the sneer sound in his voice. “Oh, wait. You can’t hurry up, can you? If you did, you’d trip and roll on all of that fat, just like you did with the Jacob sheep paddock. Frankly, I’m surprised you fell face first into the mud and not Rolly Polly on the ground, rolling away like an oversized ball.”

  “You’re so funny, Damian,” Robert responded with a fake laugh. “Then again, you did such a good job by putting the fork through the irrigation pipes.” Not wanting a fight, he turned back to face the sink.

  Eva, who saw what was happening, picked up a plastic box that was sitting on the table. She couldn’t see what was in it but she had a good idea. After Robert finished washing his hands, Eva, who was standing near the sink with Jessica beside her, pretended to try to open the container, but failed.

  She turned to Jessica. “Can you please see if you can open this for me? My hands must be slippery, and I can’t seem to do it.”

  Jessica took the container and opened it. Once she’d done so, she took a look inside and saw that the box was filled with cows’ eyes. She screamed and threw the open container away in horror. The contents of the open box went all over Damian and into his curly, blond hair. The majority of the cows’ eyes fell onto the floor but a few got stuck in his curls. Instantly, the disgust that Damien was feeling was clear.

  The rest of the class looked at Damian and burst out laughing.

  Eva smiled. She couldn’t have imagined a better outcome.

  Damien looked furious as he started to look around for the culprit.

  Before he could speak, Jessica, still disgusted with the contents of the box and with shock still written on her face, blurted out, “I’m so sorry! I really didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry!”

  Professor Anna came back into the room. “What’s going on in here?” she asked with annoyance. She saw Damian and also managed to catch the last glimpse of Eva’s self-satisfied smile.

  Jessica blurted out, “I’m so sorry, Professor! I really didn’t mean it.”

  “I know that, Jess! I can tell by your face. Damian, clean yourself up. Just make sure you leave all the eyes here. Eva start cleaning the floor,” she commanded. “The rest of you, start cleaning up the tables.”

  Damian started to pick the remaining eyes out of his hair and, once done, headed for the showers. Once he’d left and Eva had finished cleaning the floor, Professor Anna called her over. “Eva! A word in the science room, please,” she said with irritation in her voice.

  “Yes, Professor Anna,” Eva responded, looking worried. She followed her into the science room and up to her front desk.

  “Now, what were you up to in there?” she asked, frowning.

  “What do you mean, Professor Anna?” Eva asked, opening her eyes wide.

  “Seriously, Eva! Your pretending to be innocent doesn’t fool me,” she said in a disappointed tone. “I saw the satisfied smile on your face when I entered the room. That’s a smile of someone who’s done something bad. It’s very out of character for you, so I’m giving you a chance to explain.”

  “I’m sorry, Professor Anna,” she finally said. “Damien was really horrible to Robert again.”

  “How?”

  “About his weight!”

  “Oh!” Understanding flashed over Professor Anna’s face.

  “I don’t like seeing people bullied—and Robert is one of my good friends. Yeah, he could lose a little weight.” She shrugged. “But he doesn’t deserve to be bullied over it.”

  “So what happened?” the professor asked, encouraging her to continue.

  “So I saw the dissecting container near me and knew that the contents would be gross, since they usually are. I pretended I that couldn’t open it and asked Jess to open it, ’cause she’s new and would have no idea what would be inside.”

  “Really?” asked the professor, seeming a little impressed by the clever her plan.

  “Yes. I’m sorry to say it, Professor Anna, but I couldn’t have been happier with the results.” Eva tried not to laugh.

  “No. I can imagine not, but I’m sure Jess would’ve preferred not to have been used as a pawn.”

  “I know.” She looked down briefly at her feet. “But she wasn’t harmed in any way. Neither was Damian—except for his pride.”

  “Well to be honest,” the professor admitted with a smile, “I think your plan was brilliant. I won’t tell Damien that you were the one behind the mess because I, too, do not approve of bullying.”

  Eva looked relieved.

  “However, I can’t allow you to waste our valuable dissecting organs to do unpleasant things to fellow students. So after classes today, you’ll have to go to Charlie and help him collect more cows’ eyes from our food supplies so that the experiments can go ahead with eyes that weren’t ruined. That will be your punishment.”

  Eva understood the reason for the punishment, but looked unhappy. The task she had to complete wasn’t going to be a pleasant one.

  - Chapter Twelve -

  The Invisible Sniper

  “Where the heck could Professor Showden be?” Aaron groaned. “We’ve been waiting forever.”

  The students were waiting with increasing impatience for Professor Eric Showden outside the video combat room for the unattractive husband of Anna to arrive. Their numbers spilled out onto the marbled common room

  “Oh, Ari. It hasn’t been that long.” Jessica stroked his arm.

  “Just ignore him, Jess,” Eva said. “He’s extremely impatient when it comes to one of his favorite lessons.”

  “Besides, it’s only been ten minutes,” Jayden added.

  “Yeah, but that’s ten minutes past the beginning of the lesson,” moaned Robert. “The room’s locked, too.” He jiggled the door handle repeatedly, grumbling when it refused to open.

  “Where could the professor be?” Aaron griped again. “He’s never late.”

  “Good day everyone.”

  The students spun to face the common room, where the voice had come from.

  “Good day, Avando!” was uttered by the crowd. The students instantly started to move to create a path, expecting that Avand
o was there only to pass through to his office, which was near the video game room.

  Avando smiled when he saw what they were doing. “Thank you, but you can stay where you are. I will be teaching your class today.”

  Murmurs of excitement passed between the students.

  “Professor Showden has been detained by a major technical error that he’s currently working on. He’s inside the rooms and has locked you all out so that he won’t be disturbed.”

  A guilty expression crossed Robert’s face as he looked at the door handle. He murmured loudly enough for Jayden to hear, “He must be really annoyed at me for jerking the handle so many times. It must’ve made a heck of a noise.”

  Jayden whispered back, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him it was you.” He smirked.

  Avando continued, “I apologize for keeping you all waiting, but I was at the rehab building, collecting our rehabilitated new students. Please welcome Taylor, Ben, and Declan.” He moved to the side, revealing the three new students who were standing behind him.

  Jayden and Jessica smiled at each other, and then at their friends from the street, happy to see them finally joining the main group.

  Avando continued, “Today, seeing that your room is off limits for now, we’re going to be doing something different. It’s a beautiful day, so I’ve set up laser skirmish outside. I will split you into two teams, and the team with the last person standing will win.”

  His face turned serious. “Anyone who shoots a member of his or her own team will lose double points. So make sure you know who your team members are.”

  They followed Avando out of the building to the area past the waterfall pool, which was a more densely covered section of trees and scrubs. Excited chatter sounded through the group.

  “What’s a laser squeamish?” Jessica asked Aaron.

  “A laser skirmish,” Eva corrected her.

  “Oh, yeah—that,” Jessica agreed.

  “It’s kind of like playing army. We’ve played it before,” Eva said “We all hide in camouflage and shoot at the other team with laser bullets.”

  “Bullets!” Jessica’s voice rose in alarm. “Do they hurt?”