My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

"There's a biology exam on Friday, make sure you prepare! This exam counts for 25% of your final study score for biology."

It was the usual teacher warning. Though, this specific warning did carry at least a little bit of importance. This was the first test we would ever have that actually counted towards the final score of high school, codenamed ATAR. Whatever the case, I wasn't worried at all. Other people have their aspirations planted, like getting into a specific university and doing a specific major. Each major had specific ATAR minimums and so on, so people would push themselves to reach these barriers. ????n????????ℯ????d.＆nbsp;????o????

It was a contest for those who were willing to throw away their livelihoods for the chance of getting into a good course.

I didn't really care, firstly, I'd be able to achieve a pretty high score without much hassle and secondly, it wasn't like there was anything I wanted to do afterwards anyways. I didn't care to become a doctor or a lawyer or any profession that required high marks. To be completely honest, I had no idea what I wanted to do.

Maybe if I never found out that I was a side character, I would've lived my life, doing absolutely nothing, just making my way through each day, monotonously, with no hopes or dreams.

This might've been a blessing after all.

Eventually, everyone was dismissed and made their way out of the classroom. Still to this day, I didn't have anyone I was really close with, it wasn't necessarily that I was lonely, because I never craved that type of connection. Although, I was going to need to become a lot more social if I wanted a chance at becoming the Main Character.

My next class was chemistry, which was very similar to biology in the way that it was boring and easy. I had finished the about ten minutes of homework the night before, after the swimming festival. As my shoulder nudged against those of the people all crowded in the tight walk-way towards the other side of the science classrooms, I decided to make a note to myself on my phone.

I needed to make some friends. pan(da-n0vel.c)om

I sat in the very back right seat and watched the pointless ramblings of the teacher at the front. "We have a group assignment today." She announced, I wasn't particularly surprised, we did do a lot of practicals in chemistry. The old me would've just asked if I could do the project alone, which the teacher usually agreed to out of pity, but I decided I might try and actually get in a group this time. Sometimes people would ask for me to join their groups, but it was just because I always got the highest score, and I would reject them because of this unnecessarily shallow intention.

All the students quickly walked around, getting into groups of three. I just watched from the side lines. I noticed that there was a group of four boys in a heated conversation, the result was a group of three and a single boy isolated. Everyone else had just about formed their groups so I decided to make my way over to the lonesome boy. "Hey, want to be in a group?" He looked at my with glistening eyes like I was some sort of angel. "Y-yes!" He shouted, awkwardly loudly, the situation gave me second-hand embarrassment but I didn't mind that much.

With that, every group was given a procedure and we were let free to go in the lab section of the classroom. It was quite well equipped with the usual science equipment like beakers, bunsen burners, pipeclay triangles and various other glass containers and tools. However, our relatively prestigious school also included some niche equipment such as a Polymerase Chain Reaction machine which was justified by a teacher, "I requested it from the school after it was added to the study design," was her reasoning. The machine ranged from between $15,000 to $90,000 dollars and I'm pretty sure I've never seen it be used even once. It's only application was showing it to us a few times so we could look at it, although a picture of it would've done about as much.

It was somewhat awkward because I did not know the boy's name. Usually, people are supposed to remember the names of everyone in their class, even just coincidentally from hearing their names used over and over in class, but even so, I didn't know his name. He seemed unusually motivated, I assumed this was likely due part by my offer to get in a group with him. Eventually, I just decided to ask him, "Sorry, but what's your name?" His face dropped for a moment before replying, "My name's Derrick."

We were doing a ionic compound reaction experiment. The experiment was so basic that I felt it was even more of a waste of time than normal class. The practical activity sheet had a list of equipment we needed and the steps for the tests. I slowly made my way to the storage area and picked out the items we needed, a bunsen burner, a crucible with a lid, a tripod, a pipeclay triangle, a bottle of magnesium and various other things including some safety equipment.

I looked over at Derrick who seemed to be in a universe of his own. "We don't need those," I told him, as he seemed to have some tweezers in his hands instead of tongs, which I had already gotten. He seemed to be shocked by my accusation and proceeded to frantically read the instruction manual. "But here it says to get tongs." I tried to tell him the nicest voice I could muster, "and those are not tongs." Upon hearing what I said, he seemed to be in disbelief, choosing to pull out his phone and search up tongs.

Usually, I didn't like to participate in group projects anyways. However, today it as even more annoying than usual.

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