Chemistry




Katie Williams was my lab partner in Chemistry. She smiled at me as I sat down at our table. That was odd. She usually didn’t smile until she wanted to ask for help with her side of the experiment.

The pouring parts, and the putting things in the fire parts, of course. Not the theory parts.

No one came to me for help with the theory.

“That was sweet,” she said. I looked around, dumbfounded, as if I had no idea what she was talking about. I mugged it a bit, so she couldn’t tell that I really had no idea…

She giggled. “Letting Jennifer read Chip’s announcement. That was sweet.”

I looked confused but this time it was completely faked. “You mean Electra’s announcement of Chip’s scholarship?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, alright, Electra’s announcement. It was still sweet.”

“Well, it was her idea. She wanted to tell Chip congratulations.”

Electra climbed up out of my pocket to protest. “The announcement was HIS idea, to get Chip to come see us, and it worked.” “Good for you, Conrad,” Katie said. She seemed surprised that I had an idea that worked. “What did he say?”

The two of them talked about Chip, dissecting his every word and expression and the topics he brought up, and his exit line.

I think.

Class actually started WAY before they were done. Mr. Peacock started handing out a worksheet, and I needed to concentrate on that.

I slipped my sylph to the lab table so she could go whisper with Katie for half the period.

Every so often, she’d run over to my sheet, point out an error, and run back.

Mr. Peacock saw one of these fly-bys and me taking my eraser to the answer.

“Are you copying off Miss Williams, Mr. Loudon?” he asked. Katie bent down over her worksheet, quickly catching up. Electra stood stock still, staring at my sheet.

“No, sir, Electra is too smart to give me the answers, she just tells me when there’s an error.”

He watched me work out the problem once more. “Better,” he grudgingly said. “But still wrong.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. I erased once more. He moved on to look at other worksheets. Electra came back to my side of the table and watched.

“Hmmm-MMM!” she warned me. I moaned. She went to the textbook and stood at the top of one paragraph. I read it slowly.

“AHA!” Suddenly the penny dropped, the idea became clear. I polished off the problem in an instant of perfect understanding. Everything lined up and made perfect sense.

Electra, reading my work upside down, clapped her hands to her face and sank to her knees, moaning. “You don’t get points for being funny!” she cried. “Do it for real!”

I raised my hand and admitted a complete lack of understanding of the problem. Mr. Peacock took me through it slowly. He actually seemed happy that I’d asked for help.

Weird.



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Index

11. Tears

13. Feelings