I'm Happy Just to Dance with You

~Chapter 41

George and I were walking home together. We had planned to do the paper today, since it was due tomorrow.

He opened the door to his house and a burst of a sweet smelling aroma filled my nose. His mother's been baking again. There was a fresh plate of cookies that had steam rising from them on the kitchen table.

"Shall we get to work?" I asked, setting my books on the table.

"Yep," he said.

I opened my textbook and flipped to the page the teacher suggested would help us the most. On that page was a chart of the Periodic Table.

"Which one do ye want to do?" asked George.

I looked at the book some more. "I'm not sure. What about you?"

"I have no clue," he said.

I scanned the book a few more times then came up with an idea. "I know," I said, "what we can do. I close my eyes and put my finger on a random one. Whichever one it lands on we do the paper on."

"Sounds good t'me," he agreed.

I covered my eyes with my hand and placed my finger on the left page. I looked at the element my finger landed on. "Lithium," I said.

"I don't know anythin' about lithium," said George.

"I don't either," I said taking a cookie. "Ow!" I said as I dropped the cookie on the paper. The cookie was hotter than I thought.

"Are ye okay?"

I put my finger in my mouth. "Yeah, I just didn't think the cookie would be that hot."

I carefully lifted the cookie off our paper, trying not to burn myself again. There were crumbs left on the paper and I flicked them off with my free hand.

"Do ye want some milk with yer cookie?" asked George.

I nodded my head. "Lithium is mainly used for medicines and treatments," I read aloud from the book.

I wrote that down on the paper in way that was much longer than a sentence, along with the introduction. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."

"Let's make it easier with a record," said George walking over to his collection. He put the needle on the record and Little Richard's "Keep a Knockin'" filled the room.

"Is that the record that I bought you?" I asked, looking up at him.

He smiled and his cheeks turned slightly pink. "Yeah."

That made me blush as well. Memories of that day flooded my mind, not paying much attention to anything until I heard George calling my name.

"Julia!"

"Oh, sorry. What?"

"Ye went blank for a minute."

"Oh. We should get back to work," I said. I picked up the pencil.

There was a silence as we both awkwardly flipped the pages of our textbooks.

"What else are we supposed to put in the paper?" George asked.

I took a deep breath. "I have absolutely no clue," I said.

"What about where it's most commonly found?" he suggested.

"Brilliant."

I flipped back and forth between pages. There was nothing about where it's found. "Do you have an encyclopedia or something that can help?"

He got up from his chair and went upstairs. It was a few minutes before he came back carrying a book with a big L on the leather cover.