Superposition (Starting Position Sequel)

Chapter 5

Professor Ashford was in extra high spirits when I walked into the lab the following morning – unsurprising considering the guy lived in a world of high spirits. His wild grey hair was splayed all over the place, his eyes shone like two crazed orbs, and the smile stuck to his mouth bordered on maniacal. In fact, he looked like he had a hand stuck on a plasma globe.

I took a seat at an open desk and started dissembling the contents of my backpack when someone slid into the seat beside me.

"Hi, Ben."

I turned to find the dark hair and eyes of Hannah. "Hi." Placing a notepad and pencil on my desk, I added, "You ready to see some ionic reactions?"

She grinned. "I dream about ionic reactions."

An hour later, Hannah and I were hunched around a section of the lab table with a collection of vials scattered around containing blueish brown liquid. Hannah was closely watching the vial inside the Dewar flask while I kept time.

"Okay," she said. "We've reached dark blue."

I stopped the timer, and Hannah glanced at the stable number. "Pretty similar to our last attempts. Nice. Okay, want to run the numbers?"

We reached for our notebooks and carefully began using the equation to find the activation energy of persulfate with iodine ions. In high school, and even in my first two years at Columbia Gorge Community College, I didn't come across many people who loved chemistry like I did, and Hannah was one of the first I'd met who seemed as though she lived and breathed it – not that I lived and breathed it, but it was an important feature in my life.

"Done." She rolled her pencil aside.

I finished a few seconds after, and we exchanged solutions.

"Nice," she said. "We nailed it. Want to get Ashford to check it over? Maybe he'll let us out early."

"Sure." I waved my hand and caught Ashford's attention almost immediately, and he lumbered over. In the hour of making rounds, his hair seemed to stand about half a food higher.

"Well, well, well, why am I not surprised you two finished first?" He snatched my notebook. "What do we have?" A few hums and tongue-clicks later, he said. "Perfect. Just perfect. Nice work, you two. I almost think I should break you up for the next lab. The other two of your group members – Irwin and Moritz – aren't seeming to fair as well as you both. What did I tell you, Ben? They may need a helping hand." He glanced over his shoulder to Iggy and Morris, who were both red in the face and looked to be having a strained argument.

"Please don't," Hannah pleaded. "I want Ben as my partner for the remainder of the year if it's not too much to ask." Her mouth twisted into a pout, causing Ashford to chortle.

"We shall see, m'dear." He grinned – still maniacally – and spryly rolled on his heels towards me. "Now, since you both did so well, you know the policy: leave at your earliest convenience after you clean up your station. But, Ben," he added, and I stopped reaching for the vials. "A word?"

Hannah eyed us suspiciously. "I've got it. Don't worry," she said, motioning to the vials.

I followed behind Ashford until we arrived at his desk. He sat down on top – somehow finding a clear space – and looked me dead in the eyes. Their craziness had not yet subsided, and I felt my insides twist.

"Have you thought about your plans after graduation?" he asked.

"Oh," I said, slightly dumbfounded. "Um, how do you mean?"

"Are you going to enter into a graduate program?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I've had plans to work towards a master's in chemical engineering since I was in middle school – that's my major now."