Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 5 acidic thoughts

Well, it wasn't my absolute favourite class that I took. It's my favourite class which we have together. It was science. I'm pretty sure that Mr.Buckthorn had a massive influence on where my brother went in his life and honestly I wouldn't blame Aiden for that. Mr.Buckthorn was the best thing that ever happened to this school. I feel like the entire school rests on his shoulders. There wasn't one student who could say anything bad about him, other than those who generally have negative opinions on popular subjects.

It was a very good way to end the day, Mr.Buckthorn's class was always so calming and fun. We still learnt a lot about science, I didn't have bad grades int he class and we still followed the curriculum. Mr.Buckthorn, or more commonly known to his students as Dean, knew just how to make anything seem fun and interesting. He connected the subject to things that we would witness in our everyday lives.

Take this lesson for example, as we were waiting to be let in we were greeted with a warm smile. He stood outside with us until the bell went, warmth in his excited brown eyes. He even taught us a magic trick with straws. It was casual and friendly but it was still technically break time. During the first week of school he let us sit where we liked. After that week, he made a few changes, in order to maximise productivity and minimise distractions. For some reason he let Emi and I stay together, we both agreed that this was a mistake but went along with it anyway.

"Right class, today we're going to be learning about acid." He wore his white lab coat as he paced in front of the class. He had admitted to us that it just made him feel rather cool. "So, who can tell me about acid, alkali and all that jazz?" He always tried to get an understanding of what we knew first.

I looked around to see nobody was raising their hand. I sighed and raised my own. He pointed to me with a look of appreciation. "They're uh on a scale called the PH scale. It goes from 0 to 14. 0 is acid and 14 is base or alkali?" I formed it in a sort of question. Though with each nod I got from Dean I felt my confidence growing. "Acid is things like battery acid, obviously, and alkali are things like baking soda. You can test these by using those uh, colour changing strips?" Though I was still uncertain, I felt like I should keep going.

"Very good Harlow! It's actually pretty funny that you'd mention that. That's exactly what we're going to be doing today." He praised with a clap of his hands. He then pointed to the back of the room rather dramatically. "To the back everyone!" Emi and I gave a silent groan. We liked the experiments. Emi liked to mess around with chemicals more than she should, but it was a pain having to stand around. "Today we're going to be using these strips and looking at many different liquids to see where they fall on the Ph scale. I hope you were smart enough to bring some paper over here." Half the class gave another groan as they went back to grab their books. "Every time." I heard him mumble under his breath with a chuckle.

The actual lesson was rather interesting, we were a little bit far behind in the curriculum due to previous teachers being less than adequate. The past few years we had teachers who made us question how on earth the got hired. They didn't enjoy teaching or kids. Teaching kids was surely something that they didn't volunteer to do.

Either way, the lesson with Dean went rather well, until the end of the class that is. "Harlow, can I speak to you please?" He asked as he came over to Emi and I's table. Of course, I wasn't going to say no. I let Emi go on ahead and I took a deep breath. We had one more class after this, I hope i'm not too late.

"You wanted to see me?" I approached his desk cautiously, he may have been my favourite teacher but this was strange. He had a warm look on his face still, I wouldn't be here for long. I could hear the noise and racket of there being people outside, waiting for Dean to come and answer the door.'

"Yes, I was just wanting to check up on you." I should've expected that. It was something which made my breath hitch and my palms become sweaty. It must have been a rather visual reaction as he looked at me concerned. "Hey, it's alright. You don't need to tell me anything you're not comfortable with. I just got concerned after ...what happened the other week." I knew exactly what he was talking about.

This was why he was one of my favourite teachers, he didn't pry too much. He cared about his students, which was much more than the other teachers here. "I'm coping." I tried to sound confident and sturdy, it didn't come off that way. "It's just been really stressful. " I didn't want to say too much, I didn't want to put my problems onto him."Things are just piling up, higher and higher." I felt like I had to keep going once again.

"You know, I'm always here if you need me, even if I'm not your tutor." His eyes were friendly, caring. I wasn't sure if it was just new to me, something told me there was something wrong, somewhere. "There's also the counselor if you need to visit them." I nodded my head and sighed slightly. Just because I had a, for lack of a better word, panic episode, it doesn't mean that i'm any different.

Everyone started treating me differently after that. In some cases it was better and in some cases it was worse. People were walking on eggshells around me, mainly teachers and some of the nice students. Whilst some others are just being plain mean and making everything worse. "I know. I'll see you tomorrow, I've got to go." I just wanted to get out of there.

"See you tomorrow Harlow." He waved as I left the room. Front he corner of my eye I could see him shake his head and look back at his computer. I had the fight of my life when I saw Emi standing by the door with a raised eyebrow.

"I wish you'd stop doing that." I said to the eavesdropper. It was near impossible to hear what was happening in classrooms and yet, she seemed to pick up every word of the conversation. She did this frequently, especially when we're early to classes. She said that she couldn't help herself, I just called her a nosy nelly.

"Wanna tell me what happened?" She asked as we started to walk through the nearly empty halls. "You didn't tell me anything about this, and you know that I wouldn't listen to gossip." I was avoiding this. I hadn't told Emi what happened, in my mind since she wasn't there, she didn't have to know.

"I had a panic attack. Don't worry about it."