Porcelain behind Glass

Chapter 6: Experiment

Rachel scowled heavily, barely preventing herself from smacking Milan's head. Was he an ape or what? This was the third time she had set up the apparatus and he had ruined the experiment again. A klutz like him could barely turn the stopcock in time, and forget about taking a reading.

Exasperated she looked away for a moment, stretching her cramped arms behind her back. Niam and Monica had already finished taking their readings and had moved on to the calculation part. Danish and Marisa were probably taking their last reading, though judging by the way Marisa kept blabbering, it was probably going slow on their end too.

Rachel found herself staring at Danish a moment longer- at the way, his hair fell on his brows, his grey eyes narrowed in concentration and his plump pink lips pursed. As though sensing her scrutiny, Danish looked back at her and Rachel found herself unable to look away. For a long while they stared at one another till Milan poked Rachel's arm. Rachel looked away, her heart thundering, and glared at Milan.

"You oaf, is it so difficult to turn a stopcock! This is the fourth time I will be setting up the burette and you haven't got a single reading yet. We still have to make it to the physics lab before 8 pm!" yelled Rachel in frustration. "Or we can let this experiment go and you fail the chemistry practical."

Thereafter the experiment finished pretty quickly as Milan behaved himself under Niam and Monica's watchful eyes while Rachel herself took the readings. Fuming under her breath Rachel did the necessary calculations herself before flinging the sheet at Milan. 

"But you didn't explain....," trailed off Milan.

Marisa put a finger to his lips shushing him, "Believe me you don't want to see her riled up."

Danish smiled to himself, finding the idea of a riled-up Rachel intriguing.

Thereafter in the physics lab, Rachel carefully set up three pairs of equipment, muttering under her breath. Several variations of ape, klutz, and idiot were heavily interspersed with calm down. Danish would have found the sight funny had Rachel's eyes not been so red.

"There I have set it up. You have to move this switch and take the reading at this point. Repeat it thrice and the average will be your answer," explained Rachel diligently.

"Will we take the reading at this point or this?" asked Niam perplexed.

Rachel shook her head, taking the pen and paper handed over to her by Monica she patiently explained the theory behind the practical they would be doing.

Rachel was a good teacher, thought Danish. She had broken up the whole concept into smaller easily understandable parts. Something their professors failed to do.

"So did you understand?" asked Rachel looking up.

"Sure, that was easy," boasted Milan.

Niam slapped his back, "That was because Rachel made it simpler."

"Yes," nodded Marisa enthusiastically. "I understood it too."

Monica facepalmed while Danish grinned.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Then get to work."

The three pairs returned to their equipment. Danish watched Milan intentionally sabotage the setup whenever Rachel turned her back. At one point he swore he saw Rachel bang her head on the table. He was going to smack Milan's head when someone else intervened before he could.

"Rachel, you work with Danish. Niam can work with Marisa. Leave Milan to me." Monica bared her teeth in a feral smile.

Rachel was too exhausted to argue, she just lumbered over to Danish's side and sat on the stool. Putting her head down, she was out for the count. Danish carefully pushed her hair away from his hand.