Charge

“So, this is how you should draw the Lewis structure.” I said with a chalk in my hand explaining Chemical bonds to Nicolas.

“Hold on for a second, can you repeat all of that, you are going a little too fast.” Nicolas interrupted.

“You should raise your hand, or else I am sending you to the principal’s office.” I threatened him, pointing the chalk at him.

“Why is there even a classroom in here?” Nicolas then asked.

“This lab is a pretty big one owned by only two people.” I started to explain. “It takes a lot of space so the government decided that some schools are allowed to have class here or follow our science experiments. That is why the ground floor is full of classrooms.”

“That must suck.” Nicolas leaned on his arm.

“It does, and a class should be here in 10 minutes, so let me explain this once again.” I wiped the chalkboard clean. 

“Let’s take H2O for example. We start with calculating the total valence electrons. If you look in your periodic table that I handed out, you will see that water has 1 valence electron and oxygen 6, but since there are 2 hydrogen atoms in water, you should do 1 valence electron times 2.You should then add all of them up to get a total of 8 valence electrons. The next step is the octet rule. Every single element has an octet structure of 8 besides water that has two. And since there are 2 H in H2O, you should times 2 with two. Add it up and you will get a total of 12 electrons. You should then minus the valence electrons with the octet rule, so 12 – 8, this is equal to 4. Then you should divide it by two. No matter what, it is always dividing it by two. 4/2 = 2. Now you know that there are 2 bonds in this molecule. Next step is drawing it. It should look like: H – O – H. The last step is the formal charges. To calculate the formal charges, you should take the total valence electrons of an atom minus 1 per bond minus 2 per free electron pair. For water it is: 1 – 1 times 1 – 0 times 2 which is equal to 0. For Oxygen, it is: 6 – 2 times 1 – 2 times 2 which is also equal to 0. With all these calculations, you can conclude that all of these atoms have no charge.” 

I then look at Nicolas. “Do you get it?”

“Uhm… no?” He answered. He was so confused, I could swear that steam was coming out of his head.

“You are absolutely useless.” I said back. “We are almost there, hold on for a little. The next part that I am explaining is the electronegativity. Looking at your periodic table, you will see that H has an electronegativity of 2,20 and O has an electronegativity of 3,50. This means that 1) H2O is a covalent bond and 2) H is positive and goes in the direction of a negative O. You should write it in a ‘ς’ symbol.”

“You are a terrible teacher.” Nicolas said, annoyed. He couldn't follow with anything.

“No, you are a terrible student.” I said back.

“No, you really are a terrible teacher.” Mizuki was standing at the door drinking coffee.

"Hey, no drinking in a lab!" I pointed at Mizuki with the piece of chalk. 

"We aren't even in a lab." She explained. "This is a classroom." 

"And sometimes teachers bring dangerous materials here because moving to a lab upstairs take too much time." I fought back. 

“Can you just get to the point of why this is important?” Nicolas then asked.

I sighed, annoyed with Mizuki's stubbornness. “My theory of how you can control water is by controlling the charge of each atom.”

“So, you have a theory, but how are you practically going to prove it?” Mizuki then asked, genuinely curious with my plan.

I grinned. “Oh, I have a plan, but it is going to get a little hot.” I said dramatically.

×××××

It was 6 PM. All classes has left for the day. I decided to do our experiment on the top floor because it has the most spacious lab in the building. I grabbed a copper rod and attached it to the floor in the back of the lab with a screw in the floor. Nicolas was standing in the front of the lab waiting for instructions.

“Uhm… How long should I wait here?” Nicolas asked.

“A couple of minutes.” I answered. “This might take a while.” I then took a chemistry textbook and gave it to Nicolas. “Here’s a chemistry textbook. Try to learn the basics of chemistry in this time of waiting.”

“S-Sure…” He said opening the book and starting to read it.

I then exited the lab and headed to the basement. Floor -3, where all the controls of the pipes and stuff were situated. I read each pipe carefully and started turning a knob.

“Is there a reason why you are changing the temperature of the top floor’s lab shower?” Mizuki was suddenly standing at the door, mixing a substance in a volumetric flask by flipping the flask upside down 3 times.

"Stay in the lab while you work with dangerous substances." I complained, still turning the knob.

"Shut your trap and just answer me." Mizuki got angry again.

“I just need to find a way to create a lot of steam quickly.” I said turning the heat knob to the max.

“This is why our power bills are so high.” Mizuki whined.

“Oh, shut up. It is nothing compared to the time you blew up the top floor into absolute smithereens.” I reminded Mizuki of an old accident. “Almost lost your science license.”

She got angry. “Shut up! That was a valid and reasonable experiment! You don’t understand my dedication to this work!” She then took a deep breath to calm herself. “So, would you tell me why you’re trying to steam Nicolas to death?” she asked.

I started to walk up the stairs to the top floor again. Mizuki followed. “Use your chemist brain and you will figure it out.” I said entering the lab of the top floor. I then grabbed a rope and tied it to the shower handle. From a distance I pulled it, letting steaming hot water come through.

“Wait, what is going on?” Nicolas asks getting worried again.

“I need you to visualize something.” I said, still pulling on the rope. “Imagine the water molecule. Try to make every negative O charge point at that copper rod.” I said pointing at the copper rod. “You have to keep doing this. If it gets too hot, just run out of the lab. I don’t want to accidentally kill you. Got it?”

“I-I’ll try my best.” He sounded nervous.

“Alright Mizuki, let’s go.” I said pushing Mizuki out of the lab, I then closed the door while still pulling on the rope, leaving Nicolas alone in a steaming hot room. The temperature rose quickly. Nicolas began to sweat. It was unbearable, but he wanted to at least try out my theory.

Nicolas closed his eyes and started to visualize the water molecule. He stretched out his hands towards the copper rod, helping him stay stable. Two hydrogen, one oxygen. The O is negative. Point it all to the copper rod. Keep it going. Put more charge, put more molecules, more atoms, more energy. And then…

A blinding flash appeared. A sonic boom could be heard. The sound waves were so loud and powerful that they shattered all the glass, including the windows in the lab. I stopped pulling on the rope and ran back to the lab. Opening the door, I saw Nicolas sitting on the floor, shocked by what he had just witnessed. I ran towards him and held up 3 fingers.

“How many fingers am I holding?” I asked him.

“Uhm… 3?” He answered. I was relieved to hear that. His vision and hearing was still good.

“You must have a power or two more than just controlling water to survive that.” I helped him stand up. “Let’s get you to some place to rest.”

×××××

“Aki, what if you were wrong?” Mizuki asked, clearly unhappy about my working techniques and the damage I've made to the lab.

“Then Nicolas would have to retire at a young age.” I answered, writing a math equation while Mizuki clean up the glass.

Nicolas was lying down on a bed in the ‘nurse’s office’ taking rest, there was no nurse there, it is just a medical room in case of accidents.

“You just proved that Nicolas could make thunder. Now what?” she asked.

“Now that I have proven that Nicolas can control the charges of atoms, there is one step left. That step is finding out why he can control the charges.” I started to explain. “If I can figure out that it is something biological, everything will be easy. But most probably if push comes to shove, poor little Nicolas will have to learn quantum mechanics.”