Love Potion No. 9. 1/2

Chapter 2: Chemistry between us

Lapis was woken up from her sleep by a rough poke to the arm. She groaned and slowly lifted her head up to see who had woken her up.

"Ah, Miss Lazuli. I hope you enjoyed your nap, but unfortunately the class period is over. You might want to get moving to your next class." Said Ms. Opal, looking slightly disappointed.

Lapis gave a nervous laugh, said her thank you's, got up and made her way out of the room.

Lapis walked down the busy hallways, making her way to her next class. English, with Miss Agate. 'This should be fun.' Sh thought. 'I forgot to do the assignment from yesterday, and I'm already on her bad side.'

Lapis slowly entered the English class, keeping her head down as she moved to her seat at the back. Fortunately, Miss Agate was busy grading papers from last period, so she didn't notice Lapis sneak in.

Lapis made her way to the back and sat down next to a tall, slim pale girl. "Hey Pearl." Greeted Lapis.

"Oh, hello Lapis!" Pearl said, a small smile on her face.

Lapis sat down next to Pearl and let out a sigh of relief. "Man, this day just keeps going on and on!" Lapis exclaimed.

"It's only 2nd Period..." Said Pearl.

"I know! Yet it feels like it's been half a day already! I just wanna go home, man." Lapis responded, sinking deeper into her seat.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I am having a spectacular day so far. First Period went amazingly with my Engineering proj-"

"Jeez, you're almost as bad as Peridot. Almost." Lapis said, interrupting the beginning of Pearl's tangent.

Pearl let out a small laugh. "I don't think anyone's as bad as Peridot. She has me beat in almost every class." She said.

Lapis snickered. "It's nice to have a break from her, even if it's for a class period."

"You can say that again. I have her my next two periods!" Pearl replied.

The school bell rang, and Ms. Agate came up to the board, spouting off on some new grammar terminology. Lapis quickly tuned her out and pulled out her phone, spending the rest of the period looking through her social media.

Once English finished, Lapis made her way toward her only likable class of the day: Art. It was the one class she actually paid attention in.

Lapis entered the art room with a happy expression only for it to falter a little upon seeing that Peridot was already the classroom. But, she quickly recuperated her good mood as she sat all the way on the other side of the room from Peridot.
This was one class where Lapis didn't need to copy off of anybody.

Bismuth soon entered the classroom, seeing and then sitting down by Lapis. The rest of the class entered afterwards, with the last student entering right as the bell rang.

The art teacher, Ms. Sardonyx, made her way to the front of the class. "Good morning, everyone!" She said in her overly positive voice. "Today we have a wonderful assignment planned. We are going to work on perspective! So could you please partner up with someone in the room!"

Lapis and Bismuth looked at each other and gave a high five. They already knew they were going to be partners since they entered the class.

Soon enough, everyone the class partnered up, some of the groups made of friends, some made of couples, everybody had another in the class.

Everyone except Peridot.

She sat in her little corner in the front of the room, very much alone. Nobody even approached her to ask if she had a partner. Peridot's mouth soon turned into a slight frown she she slowly started to take out her art supplies.

Ms. Sardonyx came up to Peridot, a worried expression on her face. "Peridot, sweety, are you SURE you don't want me to put you in a group? I know you've been struggling a little with this class an-"

"It's quite alright, Ms. Sardonyx. I'm sure I can figure it out. Besides, I'm pretty sure no one WANTS me in their group..." Peridot said somberly.

Ms. Sardonyx frowned but gave a nod of approval and went back to teaching the lesson.

The rest of the class period passed almost to fast for Lapis and painfully slow for Peridot. Lapis had managed to perfect 3 different perspective views each with its own picture.

Peridot had barely managed to start on her first.

As soon as the bell rang, everyone eagerly packed up to leave. As Peridot started to leave the class, Ms. Sardonyx tapped on her shoulder. Peridot turned around to see a piece of paper being handed to her.

"Peridot, can you be sure to get this to your parents?" The art teacher said.

Peridot gulped and nodded as she grabbed the piece of paper and placed it in her bag. She already knew this was about her less than stellar grades in the art class.

Lapis and Peridot each went their separate ways for the next three class periods. They were nothing to write home about: They were boring classes (even by Peridot's standard) with no one in them they could talk with to pass the time.

They're 7th period was the next one they had together.

Chemistry.

Peridot practically bounced towards her chemistry class. 'Finally, a class that actually relies on facts!' She thought as she entered the classroom, sitting down and immediately getting her stuff ready for the class.

Lapis, however, had to drag herself to the classroom. 'Great, the one class where Peridot is ALLOWED to go on 1000 word rants...' She thought as she pushed open the door and trudged her way to her seat next to Peridot, practically falling into it before letting her backpack fall to the ground and slumping into her chair.

Peridot looked up from textbook she had her face buried in to see who had sat down next to her. She gave a slight smile upon seeing it was Lapis.

"Oh, hello Lapis! It's good to see yo-"

"Peridot, please don't talk to me right now. My last two periods have been annoying as fuck, and I can barely deal with you when I'm in a GOOD mood. Go back to your nerd stuff." Lapis replied coldly.

Peridot seemed to sadden at this statement. She knew Lapis only said this because she was currently annoyed, but it somehow felt more truthful than anything she had said before. Peridot slowly went back to reading her text book.

Finally, the 7th period bell rang, the rowdy class settled down, and Ms. Fluoride made her way into the classroom.

"Good afternoon, class! I hope you've had a good day so far. We aren't doing anything to difficult today, just an easy lab and a quick worksheet!"

Peridot's face lit up up in hearing the word 'lab', while Lapis simply sighed. Peridot loved doing labs in Chemistry, she practically mastered them at this point. Lapis, on the other hand, thought the time was better spent sleeping.

"Whoever you're sitting next to is your partner for today. Please make your way to the nearest chemistry station! The instructions will be written down there." Ms. Fluoride instructed.

Peridot quickly got up, making her way to the nearest chemistry station. Lapis slowly got up and made her way to the station. It was covered in test tubes, beakers, and strange devices that Lapis never bothered to learn the names to.

Peridot already finished reading the instructions, and turned to face Lapis.

"Okay, so the lab should be easy enough, all we need is some Zinc, a hot plate, some Nickel, a little bit of Lawren-"

"Yeah, yeah sure Peridot. You just take care of it, okay?" Lapis said with a yawn. "You should know our deal by now."

"O-Oh... Right, our deal... I'll just... handle it. By myself. Like always." Peridot said, thinking back to what Amethyst had said earlier.

'She literally is asking you to do all her work while she sleeps through class!'

Peridot sighed and started looking through the chemicals for the right ingredients.

Lapis laid her head down on the counter-top and closed her eyes. 'Let Peridot handle the nerd stuff,' she thought. 'I need sleep.'

And sleep she did, for almost the entire class period. Until she was rudely awakened by multiple pokes in the shoulder and a familiar, annoying voice.

"Hey, Lapis. I'm sorry for awakening you, but I need your help. I need you to grab some Lawrencium from the cabinet. I ran out." Peridot asked.

Lapis let out an annoyed grunt and tried to shift into a more comfortable position. "Can't you do it yourself? I'm trying to sleep here." She responded gruffly.

"I would, but I need to monitor this solution to make sure it doesn't overflow. Please? It's just a quick trip to the cabinet and then you can go right back to sleep!" Peridot bargained.

Lapis let out one more annoyed grunt before slowly getting up. She had a point. It was just grabbing some chemicals. It wasn't like she was doing the actual work.

Lapis slowly made her way to the chemical cabinet were Ms. Fluoride kept her spare supplies. She opened the cabinet to grab the element, when she realized something.

She didn't actually know what she was looking for.

Well, she HEARD Peridot say something about an element. She could just ask her what it was. But that was way too much work for Lapis right now. 'At least make an effort...' She thought.

The element started with an L, right?

Lapis looked around the cabinet for something that would jog her memory, when she found it. A light, clear pink fluid in a strange looking bottle

Loveratium.

Lv.

'This must've been what Peridot was talking about,' Lapis thought. 'It started with L, looked nerdy. The whole nine yards.'

She slowly made her way back to the chemistry station, where she found Peridot messing with the dials on the Hot plate and jotting down some notes.

"Here, I got your nerd juice here. Now can I go back to sleep?" Lapis asked.

"Oh, quickly Lapis, bring it here! The compound is about to lose stability!" Peridot said, almost shouting.

Lapis quickly passed her the liquid and went back to sit in her seat. Peridot added the chemical to the compound, before she finally realized something.

Lawrencium wasn't pink.

"H-Hey, Lapis... you did pass me Lawrencium, right?" Peridot asked, slightly nervous. The compound was bubbling a lot more... violently than before.

"I don't know, Peridot. Does it look like I care?"

"W-While I don't mind the fact that this carries very little importance to you, I really need to know which element you handed me." Peridot squeaked, fidgeting. The compound had now turned a deep shade of purple.

Lapis sighed. "I think it was Lv, or something like that. I grabbed whatever you told me to grab."

Lv?

Uh oh.

Loveratium did not react well with Nickel. Or any other element in the mixture Peridot made.

"Uh, Lapis, I think i-it might be best if you moved right about now." Peridot said as she made her way away from the compound.

"I'm not moving from this spot until the final bell rings." Lapis responded sharply.

"No, Lapis. Please move away now. I think you might be in danger." Peridot pleaded.

Lapis finally moved her head up from the counter top.

"The only thing I'm in danger of is you annoying me to death. Now just leave me alone!"

"Lapis, look out!"

*SPLATTER*

Oh.

The concoction of chemicals finally reacted and splattered bright purple goo out of the container.

All over the hair and shirt of one very shocked and very annoyed Lapis Lazuli.

The entire chemistry class was silent. Everyone was staring at Lapis Lazuli and Peridot.

"What. The hell. Is this?" Lapis said, slowly rising from the seat.

"W-Well, um, you see uh... I don't, well..." Peridot stuttered, obviously very scared of what a filthy and obviously angry Lapis Lazuli would do to her.

Lapis slowly turned around and started menacingly walking towards Peridot. Peridot looked around for Ms. Fluoride or some other authority figure that would protect her.

No one like that was found the classroom.

Peridot gulped.

"Did you just get a bunch of science goo in my hair?" Lapis said, violently grabbing Peridot's collar and pulling her close.

"It w-was an accident, I swear! That only h-happened because you handed me the w-wrong chemical!" Peridot pleaded. She was completely pale white and trembling from head to toe.

"So you're saying it's MY fault?" Lapis growled, tightening her grip.

"N-No No, of course not!"

Lapis looked like she was ready to bite Peridot's head off. And she probably would have, if not for one saving grace.

*RING*

The final bell.

Lapis dropped Peridot to the floor. She hit the ground with a loud thump.

"The only reason I don't knock you out right now is because I wanna get home and as far away from you as possible." Said Lapis, before walking over to the nearby emergency shower, and quickly washed he chemicals out of her hair.

After she was sufficiently clean, she grabbed her backpack and walked fast to the exit, but before she left the classroom, she turned around and looked Peridot dead in the eyes.

"You better have some way to make up for this by tomorrow, or you can consider our little arrangement over." Lapis threatened.

She left the classroom in a rush. As soon as she did, the other students slowly filled out of the classroom, already whispering about what was going to happen to Peridot the next day and what Lapis was going to do to her.

Peridot just laid on the floor, completely terrified and unable to move.

She was in trouble now.