Deerstalker - a Sherlolly story

Perfect Chemistry

Tap, tap, tap…. Molly’s foot went against the linoleum floor of the classroom. Usually she would have someone to talk to before class began, but Advanced Chemistry was the one class where nobody she knew was in. That probably wasn’t a coincidence. 

Molly let her mind wander to the past few days. They had gone by surprisingly quietly, compared to her first one. She had not seen Sherlock around since the incident.

“Good morning class,” A middle-aged teacher greeted the class as he walked into the room, a black leather bag in his hand that seemed to be overflowing with papers.

“I hope you all prepared the assignments that…” The old man began, but stopped as he spotted Molly. “Ah! Look at that. We have got ourselves a new student.”

He peered at her from behind his ridiculously thick glasses, as if they still did not manage to let him see her clearly.

“Molly Hooper, is it?” He had gotten the slip that told him about her transfer from regular chemistry out of that black bag of his. Molly wondered if he unintentionally looked like a caricature of a science professor or if he secretly tried really hard to keep up this image.

“Yes, I’m Molly.” She answered softly, feeling her cheeks get hot.

“Nice to meet you Molly, I’m Mr. Abott. You have chosen a good day to start this class, because we are doing a lab today.”

Mister Abott started to go over some safety rules and explained the experiments they had to perform. They consisted of simple precipitation reactions between salts, Molly had already done a similar experiment at her previous school.

“Besides performing these experiments in class today, you will also be expected to write a report about your findings. I expect you to work in pairs,” Mr. Abott told the class. Molly felt her stomach drop. Oh god, no. The moment she had sat down at her seat in the front, she had noticed she was the only one not sitting beside someone. Isn’t it great being the new girl? She thought.

“I see we are with an uneven number today,” So the teacher had also noticed. “So I suggest…” For a second time that hour Mr. Abott stopped mid-sentence. Someone was standing in the door way.

As soon as Molly spotted his dark curls and pale skin, she felt her stomach start to twist and turn. She cursed herself for having such a reaction to his presence, she was supposed to have forgotten all about him.

“Sherlock, you decided to come for once. I was going to let you get a late slip, but it seems like you might actually be useful here. You can be our new student’s partner for the next project,” Mr. Abott told the boy, sounding more tired than angry as he pointed him to the seat next to Molly.

Oh god. Please. No. Molly’s stomach had started doing summersaults. She could hear a giggle coming from the back of the class when Sherlock sat down beside her.

“Okay class, you can start performing your experiments. Remember to write down all your results, because you will need them for the report.”

“Ummm….so… you missed the instructions, so maybe I could explain them to you first,” Molly said to her partner who had not even bothered to look at her. Never in her life had sitting beside someone been so awkward.

“No need. It’s a simple precipitation reaction. Ionic bonds break, new ones are formed. In test-tube one and five the salts will dissolve, in the other tubes they will not,” he spoke quickly, but certain. His eyes were still trained on something far off in the distance, no one but him could see.

“Oh, you seem to understand it quite well. We can go ahead and perform the experiment then. I can start mixing the salts and you could add the fluids…if you’d like,” she tried to ignore his obvious disinterest. He probably meant well. Maybe there was just something more important on his mind.