The Meaning of Love

Chapter 6

"Don't do it."

"I have to do it."

"Elle," Lucas drawls. "Whatever you're thinking, stop it." he eyes me warily.

I ignore him and begin arranging the apparatus I'll need.

"We're going to get into trouble." he hisses in a hushed tone.

"When has that ever stopped us?" I snort then gesture at our leaflet which contains the details of our experiment. "Aaaand we're done with our lab work. It'll be fun."

He massages his forehead. "That's what you said last week. Remember the stink bomb you created?"

I smile at the fond memory. "Yeah. That was pretty amazing."

He gives me a 'what the heck' look. "You're insane."

"Let's make some magic," I exclaim and push the leaflets to one side.

I place on my safety goggles and strap on rubber gloves. Luckily, I have all the ingredients I need for my experiment. We already have saturated sodium iodide solution from the experiment we were assigned earlier on in class. And I snuck hydrogen peroxide from the cupboard, while Mr. Williams was busy. Now all that was left was the dish soap.

I check to make sure that Mr. Williams isn't looking, then quickly pour 2 ounces of hydrogen peroxide into a large graduated cylinder.

"Psst. Psst. Lucas," I nudge him "Be a darling and grab me that bottle of soap." I point at the bottle sitting by the sink.

He shrugs and lazily gets up to grab the bottle.

Could he walk any slower? I'm on a schedule here.

Once he brings the bottle, I take it happily and prepare myself for the final step.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"I'm creating an avalanche," I say and add a maniacal laugh then pour a little dish soap into the cylinder.

"Ready for magic?" I ask Lucas. "Say the magic word."

"Try not to burn your eyebrows again," he says in reply. His eyes remain plastered on the cylinder, an expectant look on his face.

I nod and lean back a little, Lucas following my actions. He, however, drags his seat a little away from me.

As soon I pour the sodium iodide, the entire mixture rumbles. Suddenly tons of white foam erupt from the cylinder, landing all over the lab table. Multiple heads turn around, trying to figure out the source of the noise.

"It works!" I clap and laugh, high-fiving a stunned Lucas. Some of my lab mates are staring in awe, sharing whispers between each other.

"What is all this?"" Mr. Williams booms, suddenly appearing in front of my lab table. Once he sees the mess, he sighs and pinches the bridge between his nose.

"Ms. Bloom, I should've expected this. Why do you always carry out your personal experiments, during class hours?" His eyes are trained on me, frown lines appearing on his forehead.

"Cause it's innovative?"

"Principal's office now," he says "You too Mr. Fields."

"Come on! I didn't even do anything today," Lucas cries out, throwing his hands up in despair.

"You should've stopped her," Mr. Williams says, obviously not willing to deal with us again.

Lucas grabs his bag and strolls out, I hurry behind him. Before leaving the class, I drop the papers on Mr. Williams desk. Lucas ignores me half way to the principal's office, and glares at me the rest of the way there.