How To Rule Your High School

Chapter 3: The New Guy

Tyler was handing me a beaker of hydrochloric acid when the classroom door opened. I was so focused on the burette I didn't look up, determined not to miss the measurement as the meniscus sank steadily towards the flask below.

"Wow, check it out! New kid," Tyler whispered next to me, as he added a few more of the blue copper sulfate crystals to the weighing tray. I furrowed my eyebrows, watching the liquid level in the burette slowly drip down to where I wanted it.

"Was it 12 or 13 mls?" I asked him, peering down into the flask below the burette. Nope, not a sign of pink.

"Umm...12.76," Tyler said, checking our calculations, "Why? It's not working?"

"I swear I'm jinxed," I said, leaning across him to riffle through the pages. If there was one thing that could overpower the shivers that should be racing through me as I brushed by Tyler, it was chemistry of the academic kind.

"Damn," I muttered, swirling the flask a few times. Dashes of pink appeared, then faded.

"Hold it up to some white paper, you'll be able to see the col-" Tyler began, passing me a piece of paper when Mr. Grant spoke up.

"Class, we have a new student today," he said. The already quiet class went dead silent as all our goggle-covered eyes turned to the front of the room. Pushing my lab goggles onto my head to see better, I exchanged a curious look with Tyler. Sure enough, the new kid we'd seen walking into school that morning was standing next to Mr. Grant. But unlike most new kids, he didn't seem to flinch at all the attention he was suddenly getting. He just looked at us calmly, eyes passing from face to face. I looked him over once again, only to be shocked by the bag dangling at his side. Just like Dakota's, it was covered in pins and graffiti. I couldn't read them from my spot at the back, but I was pretty sure Dakota would approve.

"Mr. Ethan Wheeler will be joining our class," he said, looking over his attendance sheet then up at Dakota's lab group near the front, "You three, next lab I want you to split up. Ethan will join you today, but next class I want it to be two per group,"

"Ten bucks says DK brings him to the Dark Side by lunch," Tyler whispered, "Did you see that bag?". We shared a stifled laugh but weren't quite quiet enough. As Ethan made his way to Dakota's bench, he looked up at us. I tried to smile, hoping it looked friendly and not condescending. Ethan just raised an eyebrow, not looking amused. My smile died as I turned back to the burette. Maybe I hadn't looked as friendly as I'd hoped.

"Looks like she already has," I muttered back, sliding my goggles back onto my face and swirling the flask again.

"You know, being nice people and all, we should probably warn him about DK's problem with illicit substances," Tyler muttered a little while later. I chuckled.

"You never know, he might be straight from the deep South and savvy in the arts of meth cooking," I mumbled, teasing Tyler, "How funny would it be if they turned out to be Breaking Bad - high school edition?"

"Dixie hater!" Tyler hissed jokingly. I chuckled some more as I swirled my new solution.

"So tell me about this surf competition on Friday," I said, filling the silence. The only surfing competition I'd ever been to was one of Tyler's, last summer, which was where my big fat crush on him had roared to life in earnest.

"It's the qualifying round," he said, jotting something down on the paper, "You're welcome to come if you want, I promise I won't wipe out and murder my ankle again,"

"Oh stop," I said, "You were great last time! You looked really good!"

"I spent half the day in the medic's tent," he said bitterly, but then his tone brightened as he looked at me, "But the company was definitely awesome,"