Something about the kiss...

Singed

We were doing a practical today in science. We were going to get our Bunsen burner licences.

We all had to line up in pairs that were chosen for us. I was soooooo hoping to get paired with Emma, or at least Stacy.

They were both in this class as well.

But I guess life just isn’t that fair. I was last to be called out, I guess that was expected with my last name always at the bottom of the list.

‘Myth’

‘Yes’ I hesitantly replied.

‘Yep, OK, you will be partnered with… Tom.’

‘Greeeaaat’ I muttered under my breath, just quiet enough that Mr Gold wouldn’t hear.

‘Since there doesn’t seem to be enough desks, why don’t the two of you work up the front at my desk.’

‘Um, OK then…’

I got paired with Tom…. Yep, that’s right… Tom.

He was one of Lauren’s little ‘minions’, and of course he had just happened to hear about Nathan and my little episode with Lauren this morning, so he was extra pissed with me.

But no… not only that but we had to work up the front of class, because that way if Tom does something to embarrass me, everyone will know, and of course that’s just what he wants.

Mr Gold took us through the simple instructions for lighting a Bunsen burner, first you set up the equipment, then you light the match, then you turn on the gas, then you put it over the opening, and voila, you have lit a Bunsen burner.

But you must remember to keep the hole closed while lighting.

It was such a shame that Nathan wasn’t in this class, I’d feel much better, and safer if he was, especially with me being partnered with the one person in class that I really DID NOT want to be partnered with.

Tom went first; he followed the procedure, for once, and got it right. With lots of help from me though, if I had turned the gas on when he told me to… let’s just say he would NOT have his licence.

He was the second person in the class that had gained the licence.

But the thing that really bothered me was how he was treating it like a trophy, showing it to all his ‘friends’, and making it seem that him having  it was making him the smartest person in the room.

Damn he was such an idiot.

‘Boys’, I muffled quietly to myself just as Mr Gold started talking.

‘OK, let’s swap jobs; we only have half an hour so let’s get cracking’.

The only reason it would even take a person 30 minutes to see 11 groups light a Bunsen burner is if you were Mr Gold, even though he was quite young he was one of the slowest people I have EVER met.

I was the first person in the second half of people for Mr Gold to come up to.

I lit the match and protected it from wind with my hand, and then turn to Tom.

‘Hey, could you please turn the gas on now’, I asked as politely as I could while still sounding sincere.

But little did I know that he had already turned it on, at the very least of 30 seconds before I had asked.

I was inching he match closer to where it was meant to be, but when I got just over 30 centermeters away the ball of gas that had been growing burst in a fiery ball of flames.

A few of the people in class muttered out crap or shit, while other let out a small yelp.

Of course they were watching…. I flicked my head back almost jarring my neck and ran out of the classroom. I was heading to the bathrooms.

When I got inside I flicked on the tap full blast and cupped my hands to catch cold the water.

I splashed it on my face then patted down my hair with my still damp hands.

looked up to see singed hair framing my face, and my eyebrows weren’t looking too flash either.

‘Shit!’ I cried as the horrible smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils.

As I was inspecting the quality of what was left of my eye brows Emma walked in.

She was such a good friend, and as I didn’t have too many she was definitely a keeper for the long run.

‘Oh my gosh, are you OK?’ She asked in genuine concern.

‘Do I look OK?’ I asked as a serious question.

‘Umm…”.

‘No, no, no, not um, um is never good’, I screeched turning back to the mirror.

‘OK, calm down Myth, it’s… fixable’.

‘Yeah, well does fixable take less than 10 minutes to fix?’

‘…’

‘I didn’t think so’.

‘Why don’t you just wet your eyebrows and just try and… spread the hair out. Kind of like a comb over but for a part of your face.’ She added with a cheeky smile.

I knew I wasn’t in the mood for jokes but that did kind of cheer me up.

‘Haha,’ I giggled sending my face downwards towards the sink. ‘Do you think my hair is at least OK?’

‘Well… you could probably miss your next haircut, but it looks fine.’

‘Well, fine is fine… I can deal with fine’, I said with a smile creeping up onto my face.

Sometimes I hated how easily someone could cheer me up, especially trying to hold a grudge.

‘You know, we only have 20 minutes left, do you want to hang out here?’

‘Sure, but won’t the teacher get a bit suspicious?’

‘I don’t think so, It looked pretty bad, and when you ran out part of your hair was on fire… so I could just say you burnt your nose or your ear and we ran to under water for 15 minutes and then thought that there was no reason to return to class’.

‘Sounds good to me… and my face for that matter’, I responded, feeling a little relieved that I wouldn’t have to return to class and face the rest of the class.