Precious Souls

Chapter 2

                                                     Chapter 2

Hugging my binders and folders close, I weaved as best as I could through clumps of students making their way to their next class. Finally, I spotted the Chemistry room door and slipped inside. In the middle of the room, I sat down on a stool, set my folders on the counter next to the sink and my bag on the floor, and looked to my right. My lab partner, Andy Rivers, was hunched over on his stool, texting on his phone. I smirked.

“Who’re you texting?” I asked suddenly, startling him out of his texting zone.

“Huh? Oh, hey Ives,” he smiled. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing much… So, who are you texting?” I pestered. Ally, Andy, and I had known each other since kindergarten, so we were used to each other’s moods and everything.

“None of your business,” he joked, his thumbs flying across the keyboard of his phone. I glared at him until he looked up. “Geez, okay! I’m texting Alicia. Happy?”

“I guess.” I shrugged. Alicia was Andy’s girlfriend. She was okay, not snobby, but not terribly nice and friendly as some were. They’d only been going out for a couple of months; Andyguy na always jumped from girl to girl.

I was about to ask him something when our Chemistry teacher, Mr. Tairep, called the class to attention.

“Settle down, phones away,” he called. Reluctantly, most if not all the class grumbled and shoved their phones back into their pockets, Andy included.

“Now, today, we’re going to do something exciting. We’ll be doing an experiment on Paper Chromatography! You have permission to ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’.”

Most of the class laughed, but Andy and his friends were the ones that shouted “Ooooooh!!!!! Aaaahhhhh!!!!!” I grinned and shook my head.

Andy was I guess what you would call a ‘skater dude.’ He had dark, almost black hair that covered part of one eye, tanned skin from being outside 24/7, and always wore a different hat and sneakers. Andy and his friends went skateboarding after school almost every day. Sometimes, Ally and I came to watch out of boredom, but I was pretty amazed by his tricks and stunts nevertheless.

Back to the present class, Mr. Tairep instructed all of us about the experiment we were going to do that hour and a half.

“Well class,” he announced, looking around at all of us. “Paper Chromatography leads into Alcohol Chromatography, which involves alcohol and paper.”

The class murmured when Mr. Tairep mentioned alcohol, but he shook his head.

“Nice try. You will not be consuming the alcohol into your bodies! Instead, we will be able to experience the different outcomes when you do this exam. Now,” he told us, clapping his hands together. “Your lab will be on page 74 of your textbooks. We will discuss it, then you will complete the assignment and pass it in with your partner.” mes

“We can use my book,” I volunteered, and Andy nodded. I reached for my book, and then flipped through the pages to the page, which was titled “Paper Chromatography”.

“Everyone ready? Books open? Right then,” Mr. Tairep instructed. “So, our focus of today’s experiment is to analyze four different types of black ink using paper chromatography. Does anyone remember what chromatography is from the notes we took yesterday? Miss Cameron, why don’t you take a shot at it?”

Cameron, who had been doodling in her notebook, looked up, surprised.

“Uh, it separates the stuff in a mixture?” she guessed.