In a desperate attempt to salvage my exam tomorrow, here's last minute chemistry. Alice, you're up! Teach that Yukimura, would ya!

Yukimura's POV:

Ike-sensei finished his science lesson today and packed up. Since it was the final period, we could go home.

I was sitting in my seat, mouth agape like an idiot.

"What the hell...?" I muttered.

I didn't understand any of it. It was science, wasn't it...? Damn, I hate chemistry!

Sakigamiya walked up to me and laughed. "Your face is priceless."

"You picking a fight?" I grumbled, staring at my blank notebook. "Seriously, I don't get how people write and pay attention at the same time."

"No, just curious, that's all. For once, you didn't nearly fall asleep. You really like science, don't you!"

"H-huh? No I don't. I'm only doing this because I don't want to be in E Class anymore."

"Then lets have another study session right now."

Geh? She's being serious?

Sakigamiya pulled up a zabuton and sat down at my cruddy chabudai.

Oh wow, she's being serious...

"You sure? You can home if you want. I can struggle through it later."

"I can't risk you not understanding it. You're actually making progress, unlike some people..." Sakigamiya cast a glance at the back of the room.

The back was crowded with dumbasses, like those loners Kouji and Takanori. Not to mention that bully, Yamaguchi and those gyaru. What was their names again...?

I didn't care enough, so I forgot about it and turned my attention back to the stunning goddess in front of my eyes.

Sakigamiya-sensei!!

She was smiling really cutely. Then Hono came over to our table.

"Alice-chan, are you not going to come?" Hono asked. With her was Demiza and Kazuraba.

"No, sorry. I want to help Yukimura-kun!" She beamed.

Today is a really good day!!

"A study session, huh? Is it alright if I join you?" Hono said.

"Me too, me too!" Demiza said.

"Yeah, sure! The more the merrier!"

Woah... I was going to be studying surrounded by cute girls! Today really is my lucky day!

Heh, finally, life's turning in my direction.

"What about you, Yukina-chan? You want to join too?" Sakigamiya said.

Kazuraba scratched her cheek and thought about it. "Um, well..."

"If you don't want to, that's fine."

"N-no, it's not like that... it's just, um..."

"She has plans with me." Takanori said, grabbing her by the wrist. "Let's go."

"E-Eh? Yuu-kun?!" Kazuraba was as shocked as me...

Takanori pulled Kazuraba away, which made Hono and Demiza start cheering Kazuraba on.

"Woo, Yukina-chan! Have fun on your date~!"

"Take pictures for us!"

"G-guys, it's not what you think!" Kazuraba squealed as Takanori moved her along.

As soon as they were out of our sight, all of us laughed.

"Those two are definitely dating. She can't hide it from us forever." Hono smirked and sat down.

"Takanori having a girlfriend is unlikely. You sure he didn't just kidnap her?" I said.

"But those two are screaming romantic partners." Hono sighed listlessly. "It would be so nice to have a boyfriend!"

"Takanori-san and Yukina-san aren't dating, for sure. After all, Takanori-san's one of the big three loners." Sakigamiya said. Yep, I definitely could agree with her.

"Yukina-chan's so nice, going out with such a plain guy like him." Hono said.

"Are you still on that train of thought?" Demiza laughed as she sat down.

"I'm a believer of their relationship." Hono said proudly.

She was really upbeat and peppy. No wonder she and Sakigamiya were close friends.

"Anyways, we've gotta study." Sakigamiya said. "Let's go over what Ike-sensei taught us today. Extracting metals and equilibria!"

I didn't have any intentions of cheering.

"Let's look at the chart Ike-sensei handed us. It shows the reactivity series of metals. Generally, the more active the metal is, the more vigorous the reaction, and it loses electrons more easily to form positive ions, or cations. So at the top of this chart, it shows that potassium and sodium are most reactive. It shows us two different reactions - water and dilute acids."

I remember doing acid and alkalis in middle school since I squeezed the lemon juice into some guy's eye and for detention for it. It was funny, though. I remember that lemon is an acid at least.

"When metal reacts with water, a metal hydroxide and hydrogen is formed."

"It can be written like this, right?" Hono wrote down "Metal + Water -> Metal Hydroxide + Hydrogen".

"Correct. For example, sodium reacts rapidly with cold water, melting into a ball and fizzing about on the surface. The chemical equation would look like this."

Sodium + water -> sodium hydroxide + hydrogen

"In a symbol equation..."

2Na + 2H20 -> 2NaOH + 2H2

"So, why does it have all the big 2s in front of it, Yukimura-kun?"

Oh god, she picked on me? Let's see if I can cast my mind back to middle school...

When we did chemistry, what was I doing...?

I was thinking hard about it...

Ah, I reached the conclusion!

I was definitely sleeping in that class because it was so boring!

"...no idea."

Sakigamiya pouted. "It's to balance the equation. You need to have the same amount of elements on each side for a balanced reaction."

I'll definitely remember it now if it's you telling me!

"In general, the more reactive the metal, the more rapid the reaction is. Now, let's talk about reactions with steam. Metals that react slowly will react quickly with steam. In these reactions, a metal oxide and hydrogen are produced. Ria-san, take the lead?"

"Metal + Steam -> Metal oxide + Hydrogen" she wrote.

"Great. For example, magnesium reacts slowly with cold water. However, if steam is passed over hot magnesium, a vigorous reaction occurs and you can make another chemical equation."

"Can I try?" I asked. Time to show off!

"Oh, that's unexpected. Go ahead!"

I wrote down Magnesium + Steam -> Magnesium oxide + hydrogen.

"Perfect! You got the hang of this!"

It's more like this is balls easy and I understand things better when Sakigamiya is explaining it. I could listen to her sweet voice for hours and never get bored...

"What about the symbol equation, Taiga-san?"

Demiza put a pen to her chin and thought about it. She then scribbled down "Mg + H2O -> MgO + H2".

"Wow, you guys are better than I expected... you sure you need tutoring?" Sakigamiya laughed.

No, I definitely need tutoring for the next parts...

Sakigamiya basically explained that reacting metals with dilute acid is similar to reacting with water, but instead a salt and hydrogen is formed instead.

So you take magnesium and dilute hydrochloride acid and react them together to get:

Magnesium + hydrochloride acid -> magnesium chloride + hydrogen

Basically, you take the two elements that's not hydrogen, smash them together, and that's the salt. The more reactive the metal is, the more rapid the reaction is. A metal below hydrogen in the reactivity series won't react with dilute acids.

So basically the copper, silver and gold just don't react with water or acid period. Makes sense why we use it as jewellery now... if it doesn't react, it doesn't change. I think that's cool!

I want to buy a gold bracelet for Sakigamiya for a present, but when I looked online, it went for way too many points. It was way out of my budget! So I'm saving up so I can buy one for her.

"Remember, hydrogen is always given off when a metal reacts with water, steam or dilute acid. That's a given!"

I remember Ike-sensei told us that in these reactions, the metals lose ions and form cations, which are positive ions. The metal is oxidised and water is reduced. It's like in electrolysis, where use you use the mnemonic OILRIG. Oxidation is loss, reduction is gain. So the metal loses an electron, to water gains an electron.

Speaking of electrolysis, it also has to do with electricity... which how I ended up learning it. The inert electrodes are placed into electrolyte and when you pump electricity into it, the electrodes become a cathode and anode. The cathode is negative, so the cations will be attracted to it. Some magnetism stuff in physics I haven't learnt yet.

It's cool to see it all come together, even if I understand just the bare bones basics of it.

"The higher up a metal, the greater the tendency to form cations. The lower down a metal, the greater its resistance to oxidation. Now, let's look at displacement reactions. A more reactive metal can displace, so replace it, a less reactive metal from its compounds. For example, magnesium is more reactive than copper, so it displaces copper from a copper sulphate solution."

Magnesium + copper sulphate -> magnesium sulphate + copper, I think. Because you just replace the copper with magnesium, like Sakigamiya said. She drew a diagram to explain it further.

"So this is the blue copper sulphate solution. I'll add magnesium," she drew black lumps at the bottom, "and stir together. As this happens, a displacement reaction occurs, changing the solution into magnesium sulphate, which is colourless, and the metal becomes copper powder, which is coating the magnesium." She drew that in orange.

"So they're just kicking each other out? Nice." I said. "Magnesium is asserting his dominance as alpha chad while beta copper moves like the simp he is."

Hono looked at me strangely while Demiza burst out laughing. Sakigamiya smiled and shook her head. At least I got her to do that much.

"Reactivity series can be deduced by carrying out several displacement reactions. You dip a piece of metal into a salt solution, and test different combinations of metal and salt solution. So if you had a copper sulphate solution and dropped in magnesium, there would be a brown coating on the magnesium as it displaced it. Now, we have to look at displacement reactions as redox reactions."

I groaned. This shit is where I dozed off and didn't understand crap.

"A balance equation for the reaction between magnesium and copper sulphate solution can be written in terms of the ions involved."

Sakigamiya wrote: Mg + Cu^2+ + SO4^2- -> Mg^2+ + SO4^2- + Cu

The indices represent the charge they have. Cu^2+ means the copper lost two electrons so it's a cation.

"The sulphate ions appear on both sides of the equation, and don't take part of the reaction. We call these spectator ions; ions that are exactly the same on both sides of an ionic equation. The equation can be written without them."

Well, thank fuck. I'm not writing out that long ass line of nonsense. Sakigamiya wrote: Mg + Cu^2+ -> Mg^2+ + Cu

"This equation is an example of a balanced ionic equation. It can be split into two half equations."

She wrote down: "Mg -> Mg^2+ + 2e^-" and "Cu^2+ + 2e^- -> Cu". Wait, that's also used in electrolysis! That's just oxidation and reduction!

"Magnesium atoms lose electrons, so they're oxidised. Copper ions gain electrons, so they're reduced. Since it happens at the same time, the reactions are called redox reaction. It's like a ship name. You combine reduction and oxidation together."

My mind was blown. How did I not see it sooner?!

"Displacement reactions are just one example of redox reactions. Electrolysis is also redox. Also, reaction of metals with acids can also be described as displacement or redox reaction. Only metals above hydrogen in the reactivity series will react and displace hydrogen from acids."

Sakigamiya wrote down: "Zinc + sulphuric acid -> zinc sulphate + hydrogen" and the symbol one "Zn + 2H^+ -> Zn^2+ + H2", omitting the spectator ions, SO4^2-.

"This a good example. The zinc displaces the hydrogen, so it becomes zinc sulphate. Can anybody give it to me in half equation form?"

"I'll try!" Hono wrote down her attempt.

Zn -> Zn^2+ + 2e^-
2H^+ + 2e^- -> H2

"Correct! Good work Ria-san!"

Whatever, I could've answered it if I tried. I can't try-hard or else I'll look like a dork in front of Sakigamiya. I wanna be the cool type of boyfriend.

"So, we can use displacement reactions to our advantage when extracting metals. While un-reactive metals like gold are found in the Earth's crust as uncombined elements, the majority of metals are found combined with other elements to form compounds."

This just brings back memories when I played Minecreate, where we'd find gold ore and I'd blow other people's houses up using TNT. Good times.

"These are called ores and they're found in the Earth's crust. They are rocks that contain enough metal or metal compound to make extracting worthwhile. But not all ores are created the same. There's low-grade ores, which contain a small percentage of metal or compound, and high-grade ores, which contain a large percentage. It's more expensive and wasteful to extract from low-grade ores, but most high-grade ores has already been used, so there's no choice. Funny enough, we started running out about three decades ago. It's kind of crazy when you think about it."

Three decades ago? That's like... the 2010s! That's way far back.

"Anyways, the extraction methods used depends upon the metal's position on the reactivity series. Theoretically, we can just use electrolysis on any metal, but you'd need to do it on a large scale which wastes electrical energy, thus making it unbelievably expensive."

"So how did they extract it with displacement?" Demiza said.

"The solution is pretty ingenious. If a metal is less reactive than carbon, it can be extracted from the compound by heating with carbon. In other words, a displacement reaction."

Sakigamiya wrote an equation: Metal oxide + carbon -> metal + carbon dioxide

"For example, you can turn copper oxide into molten copper by heating with carbon. Copper oxide + carbon -> copper + carbon dioxide. In this case, oxidation and reduction is also applied here, since oxidation can also mean gaining oxygen by a substance, and reduction can also mean losing oxygen by a substance."

So copper would be reduced, and carbon would be oxidised, cuz the copper lost oxygen, and the carbon gained the oxygen to form carbon dioxide.

"The impure copper would be purified by electrolysis. This table I found on my phone shows the extraction methods used for different metals."

The metals that require electrolysis would be potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and aluminium because they're more reactive than carbon, but zinc, iron and copper can be heated with carbon to displace the metal out.

"So for iron, it can be displaced as well since it's less reactive than carbon. You extract iron from the iron ore by putting it in a large container called a blast furnace. This method is a lot more cheaper than using electrolysis. However, in the case of a metal that's more reactive than carbon, electrolysis becomes necessary."

Aha, time for my time to shine. Good thing I revised this by accident!

"Let's take aluminium for example. Even though it's more abundant, or common, than iron in the earth's crust, aluminium is more expensive than iron because to extract it, you need to use electrolysis. Firstly, you need to turn the aluminium ore into an electrolyte that's an ionic compound. Since aluminium is insoluble in water, it has to be molten to act as an electrolyte."

"Doesn't aluminium have like... a really high melting point, though?" Hono said.

"Yes, which makes it even more expensive to break down. Instead, to reduce the cost, powdered aluminium oxide is dissolved in molten cryolite, which melts at a lower temperature than aluminium oxide. Anyways, once you have the apparatus set up, you'll take two electrodes made from graphite and place it in the molten aluminium."

It's my time to shine... I've been waiting for this moment to flex.

"So when electrolysis occurs, at the negative electrode called the cathode, the aluminium ions gain electrons and form aluminium atoms." I said.

Sakigamiya looked like she was caught off guard by my response.

"Eh? Yukimura-kun, you know electrolysis?"

"Of course I do. It's a middle school-level topic."

"B-But you learn it in high school..."

That lie did not go well.

"Uh... then guess I'm a science prodigy."

"You're a prodigy at bullshitting, Yukimura-kun." Demiza said with a puckered face.

"Shaddap midget."

"I'm not that short!"

"Anyways, at the the positive electrode, the anode, oxide ions lose electrons and form oxygen gas. So oxygen is... oxidised and aluminium is reduced." I finished off.

"Well done. That's completely correct!" Sakigamiya smiled.

Yep, that was a good flex.

"Though, the oxygen actually reacts with the graphite anodes, since it's made of carbon, which forms carbon dioxide, causing the anode to gradually wear away. As a result, the anodes must be replaced frequently, adding to the cost of producing aluminium."

Screw it, aluminium is what I use to wrap my sandwiches, if I have to pay extra for it, then so be it. Stimulating the Japanese economy is the least I could do as a true man.

"Oh crap, it's already this late? I need to go, sorry!" Hono panicked and stood up.

"Eh? What's wrong?" Sakigamiya said.

"I have volleyball training tonight and I need to go home to get my kit! Thanks for the help today, good work!" Hono said as she rushed out. "See ya tomorrow!"

"What a clumsy girl." Demiza chuckled.

"That would be Kou-san, actually." Sakigamiya said. "Anyways, Ria-san has a point. It's quite late. Want to call it quits here?"

Oi, why are we quitting just when I proved I'm not a dummy...? C'mon, I'm not that hopeless! Please continue to tutor me!

"Sure. I want to go to Rina's Restaurant to buy a banana crepe anyways." Demiza said.

"Cool, I'll go with you!" Sakigamiya said.

Why is a banana crepe more valued than me?!

"W-Wait you guys! We should continue studying! We gotta get good scores on the midterms!" I exclaimed.

"Don't you mean only you need good scores? Me and Alice-chan are pretty secure." Demiza said.

"You barely scraped half, that's not pretty secure!"

"I've also been studying like you. You can do it by yourself, can't you?"

"But it's better with friends! It's better with Sakigamiya-san!"

"Well, that's true. Just ask her to do it another day then."

"I might be exhausted or lazy or not want to study. I'm still in the mood, so make the most out of it!"

Sakigamiya glanced between me and Demiza.

"Sorry Yukimura-kun, but I'm also hungry. If you wait here, me and Taiga-san will be back with takeaway. Hell, I'll even get something you want if you wait."

I scratched the back of my head. Well, if it's Sakigamiya who said it, I can't dispute it.

"...alright. I'll wait for you guys."

"Great! What would you want for us to bring back?"

"Chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce. All of the barbecue sauce. Rina's barbecue sauce is the best thing on their menu."

I stand by this fact! Their barbecue sauce transcends realms and gods! They are on-par with Sakigamiya's absolute brilliance!

Sakigamiya laughed. "Seriously? Alright, I'll get you your chicken nuggies."

"Don't call them that! It's chicken nuggets! A true man's food!"

"Whatever you say, you little kid." Sakigamiya giggled and left with Demiza.

"I'm a grown man, damn it!"

I sat down in my seat and began reading the group chat on my phone. Looks like Mitsuba's raving about a D Class girl's boobs this time. Horie Kanon, huh?

I've seen her around. Her boobs are fucking gigantic. They're nearly as big as Chabashira-sensei's and she's a grown adult.

It makes you wonder what kind of monster boobs she'll have when she's grown up. If she doesn't become a JAV idol or something, it'd be a waste of good genes.

Ishima and Kawaguchi are just laughing at the guy, but he has balls to talk about it so openly to us. Guess he's never heard of keeping your fetishes to yourself.

I then checked the message boards since it's always good to keep up with gossip.

One post caught my eye, upvoted right to the top of the boards. It's by a student named Kiya Iemitsu. It says he's part of the news club on his description, but this post he's made is just pure rumours.

"The Fake Queen of GEN : Satsubatsu Himura"

I read through it. Basically, he's saying that she's only Queen because her father's the headmaster and he pulled the strings so his daughter could be Queen.

He advocated Hina to become Queen and have Satsubatsu be completely removed. Damn, does he hates her?

Most of the people messaging on the board agree with this guy, for some reason. Seems pretty outrageous, in my opinion. Though there's a lot of A Class students defending her and calling Kiya a lying bastard.

I moved onto the next most popular thread. Some revision guides and stuff for the midterms by a girl named Tokihara Mitsuki. Her description says she's one of the school's librarians. Guess I never noticed her before.

Her face is the avatar for her user. She's admittedly cute, with large wide eyes and long black hair. I pinned her post to my feed so I can read it later. Might be useful.

Some more scrolling and I got bored. I messaged Nora a little bit and we talked about Rina's barbecue sauce. He agreed with me that the barbecue sauce was the shit.

Then I went to watch match of the day highlights. Premiere League football would be so much better if I could actually understand what the commentators said. I wish I could understand English.

It felt like ages before they'd return.

I slumped onto the floor, alone in this empty classroom—

—I sat up and gripped my open shirt.

I huffed, pulling my hair.

That horrible feeling just now...

I'm not returning back to my old ways...

I'm not a loner like those guys...!

I'll never have to be like Takanori, Ikesugi, or Kouji ever again...!

I have friends...

Friends like...

Mitsuba...

Nora...

Sakigamiya...

So why do I...

Feel so...

So god damn...

LONELY?!

I flipped my chabudai on its head, spilling what was on the table all over the floor.

I punched the wall.

I kicked and screamed.

Yet no one could hear.