Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm sorry in advance if this is a dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer online. So my science teacher told us that elements in their pure form have to lose or gain electrons to have a full valence shell in order to become stable. To do this, they take or give away electrons. For example Beryllium needs to lose two and chlorine needs to gain one. What happens if a molecule of each of those elements come into contact with each other? What would happen? Would they just not react with each other or would something else happen?

Hi Moose,

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