amity

01

✿ IN WHICH HARPER HAS BREAKFAST WITH
AN ABOVE-AVERAGE CHEMISTRY STUDENT ✿

        HARPER HATED BREAKFAST at school. The menu was the same everyday: whole-wheat bread sandwiching soggy slabs of ham, raisin-bagels paired with an inadequate spread of cream cheese, and orange juice made from concentrate. On good days, he might be fortunate enough to get his hands on meager slices of reheated bacon.

        Today was different, however. Harper would be eating with Jon Luo, chemistry extraordinaire, fellow competitive swimmer, and class partner. The whole situation didn't exactly promote radical changes on the menu - in fact, there were none whatsoever - but it was nevertheless refreshingly new.

        They had run into each other in the hallways before first period, although truthfully, it was nothing but inevitable (after all, Jon's locker was two lockers away from Harper's). Harper was tired, having spent the night watching The Walking Dead reruns, and upon seeing Jon, Harper was reminded of the chemistry homework that he never actually started. So, as one would imagine, their conversation went something like this:

        HARPER: [waving] Yo, Jon.

        JON: [sorting locker] Harper.

        HARPER: [fidgeting] Did you, by any chance, finish the stoichiometry problems?

        JON: [not getting it] Yeah.

        HARPER: Do you maybe want to check answers with me?

        JON: [still not getting it] I'm good.

        HARPER: Dude, I need your help, okay?

        JON: [surprised] Sure.

        [HARPER and JON walk to the cafeteria, with HARPER trying to sustain a (one-sided) conversation about Daryl Dixon and Glenn Rhee.]

        Harper stood behind Jon in the breakfast line, craning his head over Jon's broad shoulders in order to mentally call dibs on a tray of food. His mind was swirling with too many thoughts: why did that four-eyed pipsqueak take his breakfast tray (he was obviously glaring at it possessively), why are weekends only two days instead of three, why is chemistry a required course, and for God's sake, why are Jon's shoulders so broad?

        Broad shoulders. Harper stilled and then shook his head, trying (with much effort) to divert his attention away from Jon's physique. It wasn't the first time he noticed this feature of Jon's, after all, Harper was on the school swimming and diving team with Jon. But alas, the more Harper willed himself to stop thinking about Jon's muscled 'swimmer's back,' the more his thoughts multiplied into weird fantasies (one of which involved Jon giving him a piggyback ride). What the actual hell, Harper.

        "You okay, man?" Jon picked up two trays and passed one to Harper.

        "What?" Harper stared blankly at Jon, graciously taking the proffered tray into his own hands.

        "It sounded like you were talking to yourself or something," Jon said, quirking an eyebrow. Harper swallowed, but decided not to answer (it was embarrassing enough that he had unknowingly voiced his thoughts).

        They walked to an empty table in the corner of the cafeteria and plopped down across from one another on matching plastic chairs. Jon began to carefully pluck out the raisins from raisin bagel while Harper dug (excavated, really) through his bag for his chemistry worksheet. Finding the slip of paper, Harper brandished it and exclaimed, "I found it!"

        "Great," Jon commented through a mouthful of bagel. "Work on your own for now and I'll help you with whatever you don't get." Harper's spirits sank at this statement because first period was twenty-five minutes away and he hadn't been paying attention much in class. In short, Harper Evans didn't know shit.

        Of course, being as proud as he was, Harper chose to take up the challenge - how hard could ten chemistry problems be? In the five minutes of his stubborn independence, he learned that: a) Jon chewed with his mouth closed (which was a relief), b) Jon had thick dark eyebrows (they were like caterpillars, but they looked surprisingly good on him), and c) he, Harper, seriously didn't know shit about chemistry.

        "So, how are those problems going?" Jon asked, humor lacing his voice.

        "They're not going anywhere," Harper conceded. Jon picked up his bag and chair at this confession and moved to sit next to Harper. Then, Jon took Harper's pencil and analyzed the first question before speaking again.

        "Here's what you do." Jon glided his pencil over the work problem. "Since you're converting to grams, set the numerator and denominator to mols so that they cancel out." Brushing a strand of raven-black hair from his face, he looked up at Harper. "Does that make sense?"

        "Yeah," Harper said, lifting the neglected breakfast sandwich from his tray to his lips and took a bite (purely obligatory, mind you) before setting it down again. His eyes shifted between the words on the worksheet and Jon's large pale hands.

        "Okay. Now multiply by this number." Jon gestured toward the number in the question. "You get 87.23 grams, right?" Harper nodded. "Remember, there are three significant figures, so you have to round your answer to 87.2."

        "How about number two?"

        "Same principles," Jon smiled, and, giving the pencil back to Harper, he began to explain the workings of conversions and its scientific importance.

        Despite Harper's returned smile, he just wanted to get out of there (screw chemistry, you know?) because truth be told, touching shoulders with Jon evoked everything but impassiveness.

        And Harper loved being impassive.

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[a/n]: sorry it's so short (and crappy) ugh. i've written this whole thing in the heat-of-the-moment, so for now, updates will be pretty sporadic (idk what i was thinking with this). i hope y'all enjoyed it. vote, comment, follow, whatever floats your boat. anything is terrific, especially the fact that you, my precious reader, have chosen to open this book.

thanks so much, everyone. x

dedicated to @diversify bc who doesn't like diversity + a challenge? c: