Chapter 106 - Team Scarlet's Drama

Each team headed out to their respective venues after the cleaning up. For some reason, the classroom looked better than it did in the morning. The boys really went all out to clean even the whiteboard and the top of the curtains. the writer couldn't express her gratitude enough. Although there was still the smell of food lingering in the class, it wasn't something that couldn't be dealt with quickly with air fresheners and opening the windows.

Nathan called out to the two boys who agreed to help him with the notes. "Can you look over them for me? Is there anything else that I'm missing out? Sorry, I haven't exactly been in class for a while so I might miss out on some parts."

Tom took the notes and looked over them with Si-Han who frowned. "It's difficult to understand your notes."

That comment made the air freeze. Nathan was expressionless but Tom definitely heard that inaudible cracking of his heart when his classmate said that. The Korean boy wasn't the most tactful person around and the playboy was quick to do damage control.

"Don't worry about it, the notes are rather thorough. They completely cover the important points. It might be better if we could add some study tricks and tips after reorganising them."

Despite those words, the physicist still looked broken. Lin Lin who was in the vicinity helping Scarlet to rearrange some desks for their study session rolled her eyes. The boys were definitely hopeless.

"Scarlet big sis... I think you need to sort that out before things fall apart..." she whispered.

Scarlet turned around to see the three boys standing over a set of handwritten notes. The atmosphere was awkward and the writer raised a brow. Observing people was her speciality. Why did Si-Han look so tense? His expression was tight with his lips pressed thinly together. Tom looked troubled and Nathan looked shattered.

"Hello there, what are you guys doing now?"

Tom was quick to respond in hopes of salvaging the situation. "Just in time, Scarlet! Could you help us look through the notes Nathan has done? Si-Han and I will help arrange the desks."

Without waiting for Si-Han's response, the playboy dragged him over to help Lin Lin who was struggling with a chair. 

"What's wrong?" Scarlet asked in a low voice now that there wasn't anyone in the area. That shattered and vulnerable expression wasn't something she thought the physicist would show. Nathan was a socially awkward person with an emotional intelligence completely opposite of his logical intelligence.

"Are my notes not good enough?"

Scarlet took a brief look at the notes and noted that while the points were accurate, the presentation needed working on for the slower students to understand.

"Your notes are good. However, we need to refine it and dumb it down a little for some of the students in the E.C. Class. Let's revise it together?"

Nathan wasn't listening. His mind was too focussed on the part of not being good enough. Scarlet noticed the anger creeping in as well as a look of self-hate. She panicked a little.

"Nathan? Let's work with the others, alright? You did a great job."

"But it's not good enough, is it?!"

Nobody was expecting an explosion from the physicist who was clowning around with them only a few hours ago.

Nathan snatched the notes from Scarlet's hand and tore it into half, shocking everyone in the class.

"Nathan!" Scarlet exclaimed. Despite the difficulty of having one leg in a cast, the writer picked the notes up gently. By now, the rest of the team was helping in any way they could from finding tape to getting tissues for the crying scientist.

Lin Lin who was earlier hostile to most of the boys in the class offered her handkerchief to Nathan. Samuel helped to tape the notes back with Jinru. Si-Han stood before the boy, not knowing what to say while Tom got him a chair.

Nobody said much and allowed the scientist to cry. Scarlet had a basic understanding of Nathan and like Elfie, this must be the first time he made friends. For children, they often get hurt because of the things others said, not understanding why. Looking back, Scarlet knew that it was the same thing for her. She would use to run around alone and watch people simply because she didn't want to interact with everyone who only thought of her as weird and creepy.

However, ever since she entered the Wilde household, that feeling changed. She wanted to be closer to everyone. Back then, it was hard for both Alex and her. Suddenly having your friend as your sister and seeing your parents treat your friend better than you must have been tough on Alex. She said things that hurt Scarlet badly back then but the writer never once blamed her sister. Over time, she came to understand that words are like a knife. When used correctly, it is a useful tool. When used wrongly, it could hurt a person.

"What happened back there?" Scarlet asked Tom who looked uneasy.

The playboy led Scarlet away and dragged Si-Han with him. The other did their best to watch over the unstable scientist and Lin Lin took it as her responsibility to make sure that nobody did any more stupid things while Scarlet was busy. Seriously, she took her eyes off the boys for five minutes and this happened.

"This guy," Tom ribbed Si-Han, "aid some rather insensitive things."

Si-Han dared not meet Scarlet's look. Tom didn't have to elaborate much for Scarlet to guess what happened back there. Si-Han was the complete opposite of Tom. His aloof nature made it so that he didn't have much interaction with people. If he wasn't wearing his mask to the public, Si-Han was actually a very blunt person who doesn't really take time to sugarcoat things.

"Let me guess, Nathan's notes were a little hard to understand?"

Si-Han nodded slowly. 

Scarlet sighed and patted the tall boy on his head, taking him by surprise. "I don't blame you. While the notes are comprehensive, Dragon wouldn't understand them. You're not in the wrong, let me talk to him."

Tom felt uneasy. Nathan might have calmed down but he still felt like a bomb that could go off at any time.

"Do you think she'll be ok? That guy's smart but also highly unstable."

Si-Han sighed. "This is a pain."

Tom rolled his eyes and smacked the actor. "Don't let anyone hear you say that. I can't believe your personality changes so much on and off camera. Can't you call out your on-camera personality to handle this situation?"

Si-Han blinked. "But I'm not working right now. Don't want to do it, too troublesome."

Tom gave his friend a disgusted look and walked away. Si-Han stood there like a statue and continued to observe how Scarlet tried to reason it out with Nathan who sat there stubbornly. None of her words was reaching him.

The actor rolled his eyes. In his heart, he'd seen plenty of immature people at work. Nathan was one of those kinds of people he hated the most. He didn't need someone so easily hurt and a drama queen in the team. So what if Nathan was smart? If the notes couldn't be understood, it wasn't going to be of any help. Considering there were rare idiots like Dragon in the class, Si-Han wasn't wrong to say that.

In the end, the actor still walked over to help the German and class leader to fix the torn notes. After sticking three pages back, Si-Han stopped.

He pulled out his notepad and started to copy the notes instead. the taping can be done by the other two but in order to get that stupid scientist to understand what it meant by effectiveness, Si-Han needed to create an example.

It didn't take long for Si-Han to create notes for one chapter of Science in the presentation that was basically idiot-proof. Even Dragon should be able to understand it if he tried.

Nathan was inconsolable and Scarlet was considering her next course of action when Si-Han walked over and shoved a piece of paper in Nathan's face. Tom looked nervous at what Si-Han was attempting. He didn't want a fight to break out but he couldn't clear the misunderstanding with the two affected parties not talking.

"Your notes. I rewrote them using your points. Check it."

Nathan was resistant at first but he met Si-Han's eyes and decided that the actor was sincere. he reached for the paper and glanced through the note that was rewritten. It didn't take long for understanding to reach his eyes. After reading it the first time, Nathan sat up properly and scrutinised each line.

"I think it could be more helpful to include the reference of the periodic group's properties here," he said.

Si-Han smiled. "I don't know the properties of the periodic group. Aren't you supposed to be the expert?"

Nathan laughed. His confidence regained and the hurt he experienced earlier gone. He looked at Si-Han again and beamed. "That's right. Tell me what else you need to know, let's remake those notes."

Scarlet and Tom heaved a sigh of relief when the two boys started discussing the details of the information that were missing. Lin Lin merely rolled her eyes.

"Boys... how typical," she sneered and went back to her seat.

Tom smiled at Scarlet and gave her a thumbs up. The writer sagged her shoulders forward before pulling herself upright to continue on to her seat.

"Jinru. Samuel. Let's start the lessons, shall we?" the writer smiled.

Thankfully, the rest of the afternoon progressed smoothly without a hitch. Lin Lin sat with Scarlet and aided whenever she could. Tom joined Si-Han and Nathan in making notes, acting as the secretary and typing them into a word doc.u.ment using Scarlet's laptop so that they could mass print them when it is ready.

Danny dropped by at some point but the kids were too engrossed in what they were doing to notice it. Earlier, he was informed by the teacher teaching in the next classroom that she heard crying coming from the E.C. Class so he came by to check on them after attending to some situation with the other teams.

Seeing them work together harmoniously allayed all of Danny's uneasiness. It was time to write his third progress report for the day and update Wilmer about his children.