The Last Apothecary

Chapter 27.

Thankfully, I managed to make it to Science without getting jumped by a classmate. Every alternating day, I had had to worry about being harrassed, but there hadn't been much aside from a few annoying whispers here and there, and, given my track record, it wasn't like that was anything new. It had just barely been over a week since the incident, but with the couple safety measures and curfew in place, the news finally seemed to be quiting down. About time too. I slid into my seat, looking up at the board labelled: Finally! Out of lab safety!

As the bell rang, Mrs. Fushiana stepped inside the classroom, closing the heavy wooden door behind her. "Okay!" She clapped her hands together, striding over to her desk. "As you can see, we are out of the Basics of Energy unit, out of the Basics of Biology unit, and thank the gods we are finally out of Lab Safety. You know what this means?" There was a general shaking of heads all around. "It means we can finally get into the experiments. Less textbook reading and busywork, and more of all the hands-on things I've been promising all year."

"That being said, the first lab is going to be one of my favorites. We're going to light candy on fire to see how much energy it consumes. Calories and Jules and all that, just like the worksheet last class. So partner up in groups of two, and when you're ready, come get some goggles from up front."

Liesel immediately looked at me, excitment plain to see behind her wide, circular glasses. Her face screamed one thing. Partners?

I ran my hair through my bangs, letting them flop heavily back down onto my forehead. I sighed, mind trailing back to two nights ago, how she kept apologizing even as we dropped her off. Even when I'd told her it was fine. Ah what the hell? I turned to her. "Want to be lab partners?" It wasn't like she was going to ask first.

She nodded excitedly. "I'll get the goggles!" With that she was bounding off to get them, skirts swishing behind her. She came right back, with two in hand as well as a set of worksheets and a tray coated in miscellaneous equipment. She started to set it up eagerly, tubes and tongs taking up the table. "So how do you want to split this up? N-not that we have to if you don't want to. I can write the report and you can just watch the experiment if you'd like." Her brown eyes flit worriedly back to me, face flustered as she offered up one suggestion after another.

"I'm sorry, what?" Do the report while I just watch?  I shook my head. "We're partners. Don't get me wrong, this is my worst subject, but I'm not about to dump everything on you. Let's just split everything fifty-fifty."

"Really? That would be perfect," she replied cheerfully. With that, we lit up the bunsen burner to the temperature listed in the instructions, placing what looked like a tower of metal over top. The only thing left to do was drop in candies with a set of tweezers. I reached over, grabbing a hard, banana-shaped one and crushing it with one of the hardcover books Dekoran made me keep in my backpack. It wasn't exactly the same as a mortar and pestel, but it worked well enough.

"Why are you crushing it? That's not in the instructions." She pointed at the packet again, obviously confused.

"Yeah, but it's easier to fit it in the tube this way. See?" I brushed the yellow powder off the edge of the table and into my palm, before sprinkling into the tube to place over the fire. "Besides, crushed up ingredients work better than whole ones since it spreads it out more."

"You mean for the experiment, or is that the Apothecary in you talking?" She laughed as she brought her face closer, inspecting it.

I blinked at the comment."I mean, what is Science but potion-making for Humans, rig-" 

I would have finished if the classroom door hadn't suddenly been flung open with a bang. My shoulder jumped as I twisted around to find Dekoran in the doorway, panting as if he had heard me talking blashempy from the other end of the school and ran all this way to come yell at me.