CHEMISTRY

AURORA

Gabe slung his arm over my shoulder and whispered into my ear, “Who were you talking to, babe?”

“Just greeting the new kid.” I smiled at him and put a fry in my mouth. “He’s funny, I think we could be friends.”

Gabe laughed, “You try to be friends with everyone, babe.”

I tilted my head and said, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“You’re just too nice sometimes." He pinched my cheek with a pout.

I rolled my eyes at him and continued eating, letting my ears tune into the other conversations so that I didn’t have to hear another lecture from Gabe about being too nice.

My third class of the day was Mr. Hammond's chemistry class, one of my favorite teachers. He makes chemistry fun and he jokes around a lot, he kind of reminds me of Bill Nye – the way that you kind of think of him as a goofy uncle figure.

I walked in with a skip in my step, excited to see one of my favorite teachers, when I was pleasantly surprised to find the new kid Kiran already seated at the back corner table.

Our eyes met and I didn’t even think before walking over to him, “Mind a partner? I figure you would want to partner with someone you already know instead of a stranger.”

He leaned forward slightly and asked me, “Isn’t that how friends are made? Talking to people you don’t know yet?” There was a line between his brows as he slightly squinted his eyes while he asked.

I like his sense of humor, it’s refreshing, and not a lot of people here are sarcastic in humor.

I laughed, “Very true, in that case, I’ll just be right here in case you need an escape from whoever ends up sitting next to you “ I pointed to the table in front of him and sat down directly in front of him.

More people began to enter the classroom. And I turned on the stool to talk to Kiran, “You know another way to make friends and meet people?” He lifted an eyebrow at me so I whispered, “Go to a party.”

He rolled his eyes and inhaled deeply before looking down. “Why are you so hellbent on me going to this party? I don’t even know who’s throwing it.”

“Gabe is.”

He laughed again and I got to see him smile, I couldn’t help but smile back at him. He mumbled to himself, “Yeah, I’m definitely not going,” then he looked at me and whispered, “but thanks for the invite,” and tapped his hand twice on the table between us.  What does he have against Gabe?

“Hey now, Gabe is a good guy. Sure, he can be a little rough around the edges, but there’s good in there.”

He only stared at me blankly. I stared back, adjusting my posture during our staring contest, silently challenging him.

“No.” He looked back down and began writing something in his notebook.

I only smiled and shook my head. There were only a couple of seats left open in the classroom, one of them being next to Kiran. I had a feeling that he didn’t want to be at the table with the last remaining seat – it’s like being picked last for basketball in gym. It’s not a good feeling.

A big, burly student in a letterman jacket came in and glanced around the classroom for an empty seat. I knew this guy from Gabe – his name is Jackson, and he slacks a lot in his classes. I knew that Kiran would be doing all the work and Jackson would take credit at the end of the day if they were to partner, and Kiran seemed like the kind of person who wouldn’t appreciate that.

“Last chance,” I said to Kiran while I played with the pencil between my fingers.

I could see him clench his teeth and he practically snarled as he forced out, “Okay, fine.”

I grabbed my bag and hurried back towards him, apologizing to the girl next to me as she mumbled with a frown on her brows, “Oh, come on!”

I leaned down to her and whispered, “He’s your cousin, you can handle him,” referring to the incoming Jackson.

She grumbled and I hurried to sit next to Kiran with a smile. I was pleased with myself but hoped I wasn’t acting smug at all.

The seat that I had been in was now taken by the big jock Jackson, who folded his arms on the table before laying his head down. I peeked over at Kiran who was looking at him and slowly shaking his head.

I leaned closer to him and whispered, “You’re welcome.”

He gave me a look that said ‘knock it off.’ I guess I was acting smug. Dammit, Aurora, you know better than that! I mumbled a quick apology to him and took out my stuff for class and placed it on the table.

I noticed in my peripheral vision that Kiran was looking at me, so I looked back at him and noticed a look of incredulity on his face.

He dropped his head towards the table as he looked at me and asked, “Did you just apologize?”

I shrugged, “I was acting smug, so yes, I did.”

He smiled at me again, and I had to look away before he saw me blush. He has a charming smile.

“Alright, class, let’s begin. My name is Mr. Hammond,” the teacher spoke up and wrote his name on the board for us, “Today we will begin our class by opening our books to page 32, and there we will find the difference between physical properties and chemical properties of matter – that is where we will begin.”

Since Kiran was new, he didn’t have his own book, so I placed mine in the center of the desk for us to share. He whispered a thank you to me and I grinned at him in response.

I really wanted him to come to Gabe’s party and meet some people – I really think he would get along with some of the people here! He was funny, in a dry humor kind of way, which I thought was refreshing, and I think a lot of other people will find it nice as well.

There was one point in class where Kiran was turned away from me, and I took it as an opportunity to sneak a piece of paper inside his jacket pocket with the address of the party, time to arrive, and my cell number in case he gets lost.

"When do you get your headphones back?" He casually asked halfway through class and my heart skipped a beat thinking he caught me putting the note in his pocket.

"At the end of the day. Anything that gets confiscated here gets held for the rest of the day."

"That sucks," he mumbled.

"No worries," I smiled, "I always have a backup," I pulled my jacket sleeve down slightly to show him the buds in my palm. He raised a brow at me so I unzipped my jacket to show him the wire that was threaded from my pocket and up through my sleeve to my hand so that every time I rest my head on my hand I can listen to my music. I rested my head on my hand with my ear near the buds so that I could hear the music and smirked at him.

"Clever."

"Thank you."