Charlie
Chapter 1
I was sitted on my favourite bench at the back of the class playing online chess and contemplating my next move, when a hand placed a brightly coloured picture of a butterfly on the table.
Yes! It was one of the most rare ones I had seen: with its yellow wings outlined with equidistant circular black dots and asymmetrical blots of purple eye-like patterns on each wing.
"Thanks, Har-" I stopped mid sentense when I realised it was Harry who had brought me the picture and not his twin Harper.
"Harp's not coming to school today; dentist appointment," he explained.
"Right, he'd mentioned something of the sort. Thanks for dropping it off," I said sliding the picture into my notebook.
"Why do you collect the darn pictures anyway?" He asked his eyes wandering to the lab entry.
I also turned my head to look in front, and there she was; Julie Hart. She was in short everything I wasn't. She was the prettiest girl in school, had perfect blonde hair, perfect teeth, perfect skin, sexy legs and her dad had spare millions lying around in the bank.
"Too bad she's a dyke -no offense," Harry said watching as she walked to the third bench and sat down with the other popular kids.
"None taken since I'm not a lesbo. How do you know she's gay anyway?" I asked thinking of the scandal that would create if the great grand-daughter of one of the founding fathers of Easton was to marr such a perfect family record, and not to mention; her father was a highly respected member of our small society. Yeah.
"I asked her out and she refused," he said shaking his head sadly.
"Maybe you aren't her type," I suggested.
"She didn't even think about it! She just said no," he said defensively, "look at me, we'd make hot children."
It wasn't a secret that Harry and Harper were a gorgeous pair of identical twins; but Harry was all too aware of it and considered himself a gift to all the girls of Easton High.
"I suppose you would. Maybe she has a boyfriend?" I asked.
"No. I heard that she had her last boyfriend while we were still freshmen. So, who has she been doing the last three years?"
"We don't all need sex to survive Harry."
"But we need it every now and then and I can swear she's getting some! Just look at her! She looks like-"
"Can we talk about something other than if anyone is getting into Julie Hart's drawers?"
"Mr. Stout?" Our chemistry teacher called out looking at Harry as the rest of the class turned to look at us. "I'd like to start the class now if you don't mind."
"Sure thing Mr. Walker," Harry said sauntering back to his bench.
"In twos I want you to carry out this neutralisation test and calculate the moles," he said handing out a stack of papers to be distributed around the class. "That goes for you too Miss. Goodstart."
Well, that was shit. I enjoy doing my work and always do my work alone, but now I had to probably carry out the experiment with someone who considered me a freak.
There was suddenly an upsurge of noise as everyone started pairing off and looking for the necessary acids and bases.
I just sat there knowing that no one would really want to pair up with me.
Harry? He'd rather pair up with a girl he could hook up with later, and unfortunately Harp wasn't here.
"Hey? Can I work with you?" Julie Hart asked having just appeared in front of my bench.
"Er," shit! All the words I know seemed to have disappeared at that point. She was even more devastatingly beautiful up close.
"Are you ok?" She asked placing her hand over mine.
Oh, freakin' hell.
"Uh huh," I said nodding vigorously.
"Are you having a spasm or something?"
No, I'm just talking to the most f-able girl in school!
"No, a a migraine. I can feel the back of my head throbbing," I lied looking at her long bright pink nails versus my short black ones.
"Maybe you should go to the infirmary, if it hurts too much."
"No, no, I get a migraine every other day. It's acute, so it's not such a big deal."
"We should probably get the agents before somebody decides it's funny to switch water with sulphuric acid," she said finally releasing my hand almost reluctantly.
Ok...
"Sure thing," I said sliding off my stool. "What do we need?" I asked pointing at the instruction manual she had rolled up like a scroll.
We collected all the reagents and instruments before we put the set up together on the bench.
"We need 25ml of the base in the conical flask," I instructed waiting for her to fill the pipette.
"We don't have a volumetric cylinder," she said shrugging her slim shoulders.
"That's why we have the pipette; suck up," I encouraged looking at her fleshy lips.
"I'm not good at sucking things," she explained.
We paused for a while and all that time we were just staring at each other as the implication of her statement ran wild like an Australian wild fire.
"You should try because in the finals no one will do it for you," I said handing her the pipette. "Just make sure to keep your thumb near your mouth to avoid drinking the base and preventing it from flowing back into the container."
She proved to be a natural born 'sucker' when she got it right after the first two trials.
I wrote down the observations and conclusions only remaining with the calculation of the moles -since I didn't have my calculator with me.
"I'll finish the remaining bit at home," I said folding the sheet.
"I don't know how to calculate moles," she said blushing a bit.
"I guess I can teach you some time," I offered.
"How about today after school?" She asked sounding very eager to learn moles.
"Ok."
Mmh...
