The Externals Reloaded - Chapter Fifteen

 THE LAB MASTERS

Another rowdy Monday arrived at Johson's College. It was characterized by students running around to copy assignments they didn't intentionally do during the weekend, seniors punishing junior students for even the slightest bit of stain on their socks, and non teaching staff hurrying to clean the school environment. Moreover, a teacher discovered some people had used the home economics room and resolved to investigate the matter since no student wanted to take responsibility for it.

In the SS3 classroom, Dare found himself a new hubby, which was none other than threatening to make Lily fail her practicals in the upcoming examination due to Friday's humiliation. Naive Lily was greatly troubled by this despite the amount of practicals she had with Quinn the previous day. Khadijat tried taking her mind off it with words but that still didn't work. Quinn saw everything and was tempted to do something that would put her mind at ease but his pride still wouldn't let him tell her a single alphabet talkess of a statement that depicts how much he cared for her.

At lunchtime, the SS3 students of Grace Model College went to the cafeteria. Each of them had saved enough money to get enough spoons of either jollof rice, fried rice, porridge, or beans and bread with chunks of meat or fish for themselves. Guys who cared enough also saved for their girlfriends. Zach had wanted to do the same for Lily but of course, she declined such a sumptuous meal for a fried egg roll and barely full bottle of Zobo. Unfortunately, when the most anticipated aspect of lunch was about to begin, when these people were about to feel the impact of the meals they had ordered for and show off to their opponents, a junior was sent to tell them Scitist (their lab teacher) wanted to see all of them in the lab. Even students of other departments weren't left out.

None of them were happy about being deprived the right to eat lunch peacefully, but none dared to disobey scitist's order. With broken hearts, they left their cutleries and headed for the science lab as fast as they could. Everyone was curious to know what was going on but their curiosity level wasn't as high as Lily's. She feared that something might have gone wrong during their lab session and they were about to be punished for it. Poor Lily tried to seek some sort of comfort from Quinn's eyes but he wouldn't even spare her a glance. It looked like he didn't care whether they got caught since no one could hold him to ransom as a foreign student or was ready to blame her.

"Are these really all the SS3 students in Johnson College?" Scitist said as everyone assembled themselves in the chemistry lab.

"Sir, why did you call us here? We're not part of your department", Impatient Khadijat was bold enough to ask him.

"You'll find out soon", Scitist smiled instead of getting mad at her.

"Can't we just start this impromptu meeting already?" Dare said rudely. He was the most hungry of all. His mom refused to give him dinner because he didn't do the dishes and went to play football with his friends all afternoon. He also couldn't eat breakfast because he woke up late.

"Are you sure everyone's here? There'll be grave consequences.." Scitist was interrupted by Lily who was walking slowly behind others.

"Sorry for being late, sir" Lily apologized.

"There's nothing to be sorry about my dear", Scitist gave her a look of admiration.

"Scitist, I'm going to get an ulcer because of you", Fatima complained bitterly.

"Alright, let's get down to business", Scitist played a video about what transpired between Quinn and Lily the previous day.

Apparently, Scitist does keep tabs on what happens in the lab through a GPS device he recently planted there to monitor the growth of his students. So, he saw all the amazing things both did on Saturday and was quite impressed that he decided to show the whole class. He also decided to remove the old lab officials and give them those titles because they showed more enthusiasm about the subject than those people ever did. At the end of the day, Lily was happy because they were well celebrated and no one found out they spent the night together. Actually, the home economics teacher sensed someone was in there but wasn't in the mood for a ruckus.

"Oh my God! I'm so proud of you right now, friend", Khadijat patted her cheeks as they came out of the science lab.

"Who knew a student from GMC would become the assistant lab prefect at Johnson College? This is totally incredible", Jess screamed to the irritation of the opposition party.

"How did you do that? You're so gifted. I'm so jealous right now!" Omma kept on saying.

"Girls, stop making a big deal about this. Quinn did most of the work", Lily blushed.

"What about all the theories you were quoting to help him out?" Kenny patted her head. "You're such a genius. I should never have called you stupid for reading practical textbooks causing we weren't doing them. I'm sorry".

"Seriously?" Lily was taken aback by his words.

"You can stop by my house to tutor me later. I'll prepare a bottle of wine for you", Kenny winked.

"Like he has a private lab or something close to it", The girls giggle.

As students match out of Johnson College later on, Lily headed towards the home economics room to clean the mess they made there on Saturday. Without prior notice, Quinn joined her there. He didn't seem to have a problem with helping her wash the dishes or mopping the tiled floor of the room which was stained with dust, and food spices. When they finished doing that, Quinn lost balance and his whole body landed on the wet floor.

With adequate knowledge of first aid procedures, Lily was able to revive Quinn and gave him a glass of milk afterward. He wouldn't tell her the reason behind his passing out but she found through a video call with his best friend that it was probably because he had been skipping meals a lot. Then, she offered to cook him a meal again. At first, he refused because he didn't want to keep having things to do with her but later changed his mind since one taste of her meal had been keeping him from eating other meals. Moreover, she said that was her own way of thanking him for his help.

"So where did you learn how to cook like this? Did you go to a catering school?" Quinn was forced to talk to Lily after taking a bite of her boiled rice with turkey stew and fried plantain cubes.

He was more comfortable talking to her when other students were not in sight. Egoistic man!

"A catering school?" Lily chuckled. As worse as she taught her cooking skills she never considered going there cause no one could waste money to enroll her there.

"What's so funny about that?" Quinn wondered. He had tons of female classmates back home who enrolled for catering classes during the summer. Beth was part of those. In fact, that was how she learned how to make him the perfect cabbage plate.

"I'm sorry", Lily thought he had offended him and he would probably never speak with her again.

"It's okay. How did you learn how to cook like this?" He surprisingly rephrased his question.

"I guess my aunt was much of an influence on me even though she doesn't stay home that much. She's a good cook", Lily finally answered, carefully selecting her words.

"You can say that again", Quinn said, leaving Lily bewildered for some minutes.

Their alone time wasn't about eating alone. They made a toast to the success of their new positions, exchanged contact, and started making plans on how they were going to conduct the lab practicals they did one more time with their lab mates so everyone would have a better understanding of it. To achieve that, they spent hours watching YouTube videos and would have probably spent the whole night in school again if the gateman hadn't come to send them away. Since it was already late, Quinn accompanied Lily to the hospital against her will but didn't enter so his identity wouldn't be revealed by the nurses.

No one expected Dare to be happy that his position as assistant Lab prefect was transferred to another person but he was. He only hated the fact that Lily had to be that person and she was also a student of GMC. This made him so angry that he woke up early to go to school on Tuesday morning so he would have the opportunity to bully her however he wanted, without any interruption. Even after claiming to hate Lily, he was the only one who knew she was always coming to school one minute past seven every day. However, Lily loved doing that so she would have time to silently revise her notes before other students came.

"Hey, good morning. Can you please adjust?" Lily said nervously to Dare as he carried the first part of his mission - blocking their classroom entrance so she wouldn't be able to enter.

"I can't unless you give me a kiss", He replied with his eyes fixated on hers.

"Please, Dare. I really don't want any trouble this morning" " she begged with her palms pressed together.

"When did kissing become trouble? I promise you're gonna enjoy it", He smirked and got so carried away with staring at her lips that he didn't notice when Quinn entered the class and she quickly followed suit.

Throughout lunch, Lily kept complaining about how Dare was making school uninteresting for her girlfriends who advised her never to give in to his desires and give him a tough time as well. Unfortunately, Lily lacked the charisma and energy to do that. All she cared about was passing her WAEC examination with flying colors and making her dad proud. She had cried most of the night seeing how much he suffered trying to get better because of her. Everything he ever did, the jobs he applied for, and the journey through which he got injured was because of her.

Not all the science students were happy about the tutorial practical that Quinn and Lily organized after school. While the duo was busy teaching them how to mix chemicals and prove theories, some minds had wandered off to either the delicious bowls of fried plantain or stir-fry awaiting them at home, their favorite ball show or soap opera whose viewing had begun. Only 0.9% of students fully paid attention to what they were teaching. Quinn didn't like this because, for the very first time, he was keen on helping Nigerian students. So, he resolved to do his best to carry everyone along.

"Hey, why should a conservation of mass experiment be carried out in a closed space?" He started by asking Zach a question.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you well. Can you come again?" Zach replied and he repeated the question but he couldn't answer. That was quite embarrassing for him because Lily was there.

"Dare, would you please answer that question?" Lily said, hoping to get back at him since he had been troubling her and it didn't seem like he was concentrating.

"It's necessary so the carbon dioxide doesn't escape", He answered confidently. "A lesson for me to trap you in an enclosed space so you won't be able to escape me".

"Watch your tongue man!" Funnily enough, Quinn wasn't furious yet his voice commanded authority. With that, Dare kept quiet knowing he had the authority to send him out of the lab.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
So you're still reading. Thank you so much, it really means a lot😁🥰Hope you're enjoying the progression of the story? If you're rooting for team "Quily"....lol let me know in the comment session oo. Don't forget to recommend to others who enjoy reading novels and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Yours faithfully,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa😍