Lawrence L. H. D. VdovushkinApril 29, 2009
8:46 PM"Now, if you look here, hydrogen gas is being produced at the cathode as before, but at the anode, we have a different gas. Remember, dilute sodium chloride will produce hydrogen and oxygen, but concentrated sodium chloride will produce hydrogen and
chlorine. It's simple:
concentrated -
chlorine."
9:01 PM"It's crucial to remember that you can get both alkanes and alkenes by cracking an alkane, but you can only get alkenes when you crack alkenes. In question 6, Darren wrote that one product of the cracking of octene was ethane; that's why the bromination part of the question was incorrect."
9:15 PM"A weak acid is one that partially dissociates in
water to form H+ ions. It won't form ions in any other solvents as far as you're concerned; formic acid will also dissolve in benzene, but it won't form hydrogen ions, because the carboxyl group won't be ionised by benzene."
9:36 PM"Potassium dichromate (VI) doesn't turn from green to orange; it's the other way round. Remember that acronym I mentioned at the beginning of the term? "DOG"? Don't forget that; it'll help you."
...
10:06 PMThe three hour study session was the last one held before the high school entrance exams. 2009 was a year where Lawrence was posted to a bottom-end graduating class. As far as the class as a whole was concerned, there was satisfactory progress throughout the year; still, there were three people at the bottom of the class who simply did not care. At least, until the last month leading up to the final exam.
Darren Tennison, index number 6; 29 out of 31 in class. Gerald Wertheimer, index number 14; 31 out of 31 in class. Jonathan Webb, index number 16; 30 out of 31 in class.That night's cram session was the 38th that Lawrence had held throughout the year, and the 16th for those three. Towards the end of the final term, Lawrence had also taught maths to the class on request, given that the maths teacher (a dainty, 60 year old Taiwanese-American who was known simply as Mrs Soong; no student ever found out her full name) was also stretched to her very limit with her 6 classes.
Darren and Jonathan were simply very weak and inattentive, but Gerald was a different story; somehow, he was more of a delinquent than any other student that Lawrence had ever encountered in his then 9 year long career.
It wasn't like he came from an underprivileged background or anything; in fact, his mother was a big shot Forex trader who earned thousands of USD a week.
Regardless, Lawrence tried his best to treat him like any other member of the class.
Gerald remained a delinquent, running into trouble with the school authorities (getting four suspensions, and only being saved from expulsion on Lawrence's, Mrs Soong's, and a third teacher's appeal) all the way till the beginning of March; it was then that he suddenly experienced a change of heart and became serious.
His results at the preliminary examinations suggested a dark outcome.
PARADISE MIDDLE SCHOOL
REPORT CARD
Name: Gerald Ansel Wertheimer
Class: 3G-2
Age: 15
Sex: M
Index: 14
F | D | C | B | A | A (Merit)
English: C
Maths: F
Chemistry: D
Physics: F
Biology: F
Social Studies: F
History: F
Geography: B
Class position: 31/31
Conduct: Poor
Still, Lawrence never treated him any worse than he did the rest of the class. Some other teachers were willing to sacrifice delinquents like Gerald in favour of more serious students (and, Lawrence admitted, it was even more effective), but Lawrence never subscribed to such a philosophy.
If a class was to do well, it would do well as a whole as far as was possible.
...
10:16 PM"Gerald..."
The boy turned to face Lawrence, who had taken a chair and sat down next to him. The other two had already left, their questions adequately answered for the time being.
Gerald was a muscular boy with a square jaw and small, hazel eyes; his skin was caramel brown despite him being an ethnic Austrian (though his family had lived in the States for six generations already), and his short brown hair was cropped at the sides, left a little longer at the top. He wore a pair of square wire glasses. When standing at his full height, he was at least a head taller than Lawrence, who already stood at a respectable 179cm.
"I'm done."
Lawrence shifted his chair closer.
"You're not. You can still salvage things with your two months of hard work. Realistically, you won't get to Paradise High School, but given the level of our standards, you
should be able to get to a decent high school if you don't let up-"
"What makes you think so?"
Gerald gazed into Lawrence's fiery purple irises, before turning away jerkily. He violently wiped a mercenary tear off his cheek.
"My grades are still shit. Everyone tells me I'll end up as shit. What difference... will two months make?"
"You'd be surprised", said Lawrence, placing a comforting hand on Gerald's shoulder, only to have it slapped off by the boy's powerful forearm.
"What do you know? You overachieving asshole."
"Gerald..." Lawrence withdrew his hand slowly, not knowing how to react.
"No! You'll never understand! You got an easy magna cum laude, didn't you? What would you know about a bloody idiot like me?" The boy seized the pad of foolscap paper on his table and crushed it with one hand.
"Calm down. I'm a teacher; I've seen 9 batches of students already, and I can tell you-"
"What have you done? Nothing! I'm still shit after this whole year, no thanks to you and-"
Here, Lawrence completely lost it; he stood up so violently that his chair skidded into a nearby table in the classroom.
"I've put in a lot of effort this whole year", he screamed. "Don't you tell me I didn't try to help you!"
"Maybe you should have put in more effort!"
"Maybe you should have fucking
studied and done
something about your own damn
life!!!"
The room fell into complete silence except for Lawrence's wrathful, heavy breathing and Gerald's sniffing. For ten seconds, the two faced each other in a tense, anguish-wrought atmosphere.
Eventually, Gerald took his bag, stood up, and bowed gently to Lawrence.
"I'm sorry", he said quietly, walking out of the room and gently shutting the door. With that, Lawrence took a few cold steps backward and sank back into his seat, sweat dribbling off his brow, his jugular vein throbbing and pulsating agonisingly.
That was the first time he had completely lost his temper as a teacher.
The next month passed in a stoic, emotionless silence. The high school entrance exams came and went. Results release day came. Students laughed, students cried, students cheered, students slumped back into their chairs, students wiped tears, students texted their parents; still, the whole of Class 3G-2 waited till the end of the staff meeting to thank their form teacher and to take one final picture
Only Gerald Ansel Wertheimer did not. During the result release period, he simply took his envelope from Lawrence, gently tore it open, glanced at the results slip briefly with an emotionless, unreadable countenance, and then walked out of the room without a single word.
That was the last time Lawrence ever heard of Gerald.
It was also what he considered to be his greatest failure.
The night of the last study session and the day of the results release were two blots that clawed at his mind till the present day.
...
"Don't worry too much about him. He has a tough constitution. Besides, I'm sure he'll remember you, even if he doesn't say anything."
"I suppose so. Still, Dr Yanagisawa... I can't help but feel as if I could have done
just a
little bit more for him..."
...
Class 3G-2 Year 2009
Form Teacher: Mr. Lawrence L. H. D. Vdovushkin
--
1- Alvin de Jong
2- Anselm Maris
3- Bella Telemann
4- Charles Castermann
5- Chōsuke Mio (三尾 長助)
6- Darren Tennison
7- Dominic Armitage
8- Francis Paulus
9- Frederic Lawliet
10- Gabriel Davidson
11- Gan Weijie (擀伟杰)
12- Gabrielle Conus
13- Gerald Connor
14- Gerald Wertheimer
15- Ingrid Dagursdóttir
16- Jonathan Webb
17- Junichirō Kusanagi (草薙 順一郎)
18- Karen Scotts
19- Kazuhiro Kubo (久保 和広)
20- Kendrick Letter
21- Laurent Smit
22- Lucille Mitchins
23- Nami Fujine (藤根 なみ)
24- Naomi Potter
25- Owen Erdinger
26- Queenie Unger
27- Saburō Shōji (東海林 三郎)
28- Samson Teng Juu (邓菊)
29- Teppei Hara (原 鉄平)
30- Vincent Clark
31- Winston Johnson