Hatchetfield.

the joker and the queen

Stephanie Lauter felt she was nothing more than a burnt out junior who was forced to take chemistry to graduate. The most boring of all the sciences. It felt like a different language, the way they talked about bonds and whatever the fuck she was supposed to be doing all year. But whenever she sat down in front of her massive textbook with a worksheet she was supposed to fill out, it felt like a brick wall magically built itself right in front of the paper- like it was physically blocking her from being able to figure it out. But it was the last week of classes, so for once she figured she might as well tune in to what the teacher was saying. From what she gathered, the class' final would be a group project where he would give each pair or trio a mysterious mixture and it was their job to figure out what was in it through trial and error, and a list of experiments they had theoretically done all year.

Shit.

Steph didn't recognize any of the equipment sitting at all of the thick black lab tables, set up behind the rows of desks where the teens were all taking notes, and photos of the rubric. She knew she was going to have to pair up with some random dweeb who she could swindle into doing all the work. It might not be the most ethical solution, but she is a Lauter after all.

"Hey. Hey geek. You understand this shit, right?"

"Uh. yeah?" The boy sitting next to her had thick black glasses and longer brown hair. With his nose almost always in a book and a fucking bowtie, he was the perfect candidate. "You're Peter, right?" He nodded his head. "Great. Do you wanna be my partner for the project? Fair warning you will be doing most of the work- but it could be fun!" Bad sell Steph. You're gonna be screwed. Is it too late to drop out? Her mind criticized.

Peter looked back at the two friends he had originally been chatting with, who gave adamant approval, jumping up and down in their seats like feral guinea pigs. "Alright."

~~~

The next day was the first of the project. So Steph walked over to one of the front lab tables, where Pete was already sitting, with goggles on. What a nerd, she thought.

Pete, on the other hand, was anxiously going through his notes to try to distract himself from the fact he was going to have to muscle his way through an hour of talking to the coolest girl in school. Something he very clearly was not. Ruth and Richie had spent all of lunch hyping him up, saying some things that he wished nobody would ever repeat, but nevertheless, he almost stopped breathing when Steph took her seat next to him; just as the bell rang. It was one-sided uncomfortable silence (Steph didn't notice) until the teacher handed the two a large vial of pale blue liquid.

"Alright. First impressions. What are we thinking, blended up smurf? Water with blue food dye? An actual chemical solution?" Pete laughed, without having a chance to think about any of the words that came out of his mouth.

"I dunno, I was gonna write down 'blue shit' and call it a day, but that works too." Steph smiled back. Both had wildly poor attempts at jokes, but she found herself laughing anyway. "What's the first step?"

~~~

The first step in the long list of helpful guides was to find the boiling point, although Pete was pretty sure that a bunch of high schoolers all handling mystery chemical solutions over open flames was a terrible idea; he obliged nonetheless.

"The fire's turning blue... and our solution's blue.. that has to mean something, right?" Steph asked, readjusting her goggles.

"Not exactly." Pete said, trying to not sound condescending with everything that followed. "The flame is turning blue because that's the hottest possible flame. But that does mean that whatever we're dealing with has a really high boiling point, which is super helpful." Pete started to write down something on his worksheet, while Steph was not so subtly looking over his shoulder at the answers.

Eventually things got easier. Even though they were the most simple concepts, she started to understand whenever Pete took the time to explain to her. She had started contributing to the project over the week, suggesting hypotheses, and slowly looking forward to the class after lunch.

After the first day, Pete had started to relax. Science was his strong suit after all, and after getting to actually know Steph over the course of the week, he realized that she wasn't one of the scary cool kids; but one that got to know him, and let him geek out about any topic she asked about.

~~~

"Hey! Did you see the grade?"

"Fuck, he already graded it? We got outta class like ten minutes ago." Steph checked her phone, anxiously opening the app.

A+

"Oh my god." Steph grinned. She couldn't even try to hide it. Pete matched with his smile, something that made Steph's heart flutter. That confused her, but she decided to listen to her heart.

"Hey, thanks for doing the project, I really appreciate it. And hey, my dad won't take away my phone now, so that's a plus."

"Hey, you contributed just as much as I did Steph. It was your idea that crossed off the final two combinations.

"Yeah, I guess. But I wanted to ask, do you wanna go to the end of the year carnival with me? It'll probably be lame, but everyone knows making fun of shitty school events is the best part of school." Steph asked, throwing all caution to the wind. A week ago she would've laughed at the idea of liking the geek who sat next to her every day for nearly a decade. But this Steph, the Steph with a passing grade in chemistry, didn't care.

"Really?"

"Really." Steph assured.

"I'd really like that, Steph."

"Cool."