Old Habits Die Hard

9

Barry walked into the chemistry class and took his seat. The class slowly filled as the start of class drew closer. He played on his phone until the bell rang, and then put it away as the teacher began speaking.

"Alright, class, today we're going to do a lab today," she stated. "You will be working in pairs with the person sitting at your lab station with you." Barry glanced at the seat next to him, which was empty. Great, I can do it alone, he thought. "Yes, Blaine?" Barry turned to glance at Blaine who had raised his hand.

"What if our partner isn't here today?" he asked.

"It looks like Mr. Allen doesn't have one either, you two can work together," she said. Barry sighed softly. He had nothing against Blaine, but it wasn't hard to tell Blaine and Sam were best buds, and well, yeah... "I will pass out the instructions, and then you are to collect your materials and get started."

Barry could tell Blaine was looking at him. Despite not looking in his direction, he could feel it. After a moment, Blaine assumed that Barry wasn't going to move and collected his things, making his way towards the empty seat beside Barry.

"Hey, Barry." Blaine greeted the boy beside him. 

Barry looked over at him and nodded. "Hi." He remained silent until the instructions were handed to him. Barry looked them over, "This should be easy." He commented.

Blaine took a peak at the assignment. "Really? You think so?" He asked, he appeared confused by them.

Barry nodded, "Yeah." He told him. "I've done this before. I was around eight or so. I worked on it with my brother and my dad. It was kind of fun if I remember correctly."

Blaine looked at Barry in surprise, "When you were eight?" He asked. "This is AP Chemistry!" He pointed out. Barry shrugged.

"I've always enjoyed science," he stated. "I mean, there's a reason my dad helped me with it, because he wanted to make sure I was doing it right, but it's not really that hard."

"Are you going to major in chemistry?" Blaine asked.

"Close," Barry replied. "Forensic science."

"That's cool," Blaine said. Barry shrugged.

"I guess so," he said. "I'm going to grab the stuff we need."

"I can help," Blaine stated. "What do we need?"

"Uh, we need some of the copper sulfate, it doesn't matter how much," Barry said. "I can get this set up if you wanna get that."

He handed the crucible to Blaine who nodded. Barry began to set up the rest of the stuff while he waited for Blaine to come back.

Barry got distracted after a few moments. He glanced to his left. They were one the first floor and directly across from him was a track field. That definitely brought back memories. Not bad ones this time. Of course, he was at Fairview back then...but these were some of the good memories.

He vividly remembered running across the field, the wind blowing in his face, his friend cheering him on. God he missed it. He missed it so much. But he couldn't bring himself to try out for the track team again. Especially in Central City.

"Barry!" Blaine called out to him, knocking him out of his thoughts. 

"What?" He asked. "Oh, sorry...I was just thinking of something..."

Blaine looked over at what the other boy had been looking at while Barry put the crucible over the bunsen burner and lit it. "The track field." He commented. "Have you been on a track team before?" He asked, watching Barry start the timer on his phone.

Barry nodded, "Yeah. A couple years ago."

"Oh...why'd you stop?" Blaine asked. "You wouldn't answer me when I was calling you. You must have liked it a lot."

Barry smiled, "Yeah. I loved it." He glanced out the window again. "I got kicked off the team." He answered his previous question.

"Oh. Why?" Blaine asked curiously.

Barry paused. Vanessa. He thought to himself before shaking his head slightly. "I missed too much practice after my girlfriend broke up with me." He told him. Of course, Barry wasn't lying. But he wasn't sharing the whole truth.

"Oh..." Blaine nodded. 'He's definitely not Sebastian.' He told himself. Sebastian would not have been caught dead with his hair like that. And those clothes. Of course, they weren't bad. But to Blaine's knowledge, they weren't Sebastian's style.

"If you miss it so much, why not try out? I think they're holding tryouts next week." Blaine suggested.

Barry paused for a moment. "Uh...I'll think about it. I'm not really in shape anymore."

"You will be after being in glee for a bit," Blaine said. The timer on Barry's phone went off, cutting off their conversation. "Now what?"

"We wait for it to cool, and weigh it," Barry stated.

"What's your brother like?" Blaine asked. Barry sighed.

"He's...I don't know," he said. "I don't talk to him much, he lives out of the country and time differences make it difficult to."

"Why doesn't he live with you?" Blaine asked.

"Different foster families," Barry answered. "I don't really want to talk about it though."

"Okay," Blaine replied, slightly shocked at the new information. Barry didn't like the awkward silence and asked,

"What about your family?"

"They're nice," Blaine said. "I've got a brother, Cooper, he's a little bit of a jerk sometimes though."

"Not siblings unless they annoy you once in a while, right?" Barry asked. Blaine laughed a little.

"Yeah," he said.

"I think this cooled down enough," Barry stated, and weighed the ceramic cup, marking down the numbers on the worksheet. "And now we repeat the process."

Blaine watched Barry repeat the process of lighting the flame and putting the thing back on it. "So, I know you don't like Sam much-"

"Yeah, he kind of attacked me on the first day," Barry cut him off.

"I just...he thought you were someone else," Blaine explained. "This guy on a rival team last year looked like you, and he did some awful things to us. He saw you and thought you were here to sabotage us."

"That doesn't excuse violence," Barry stated. "I get it, you're friends with him and we're all going to be in glee together, but I don't ever see myself liking Sam. I can tolerate him, as long as he leaves me alone."

Blaine nodded, and they finished the lab in silence.

_____

Happy Halloween.