Mrs. Achebe was running late, as usual. I was sitting on the lab stool, twirling my pencil, when I noticed someone dart through the back door out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to see Veronica, scanning the room as if she was looking for someone. She let out a sigh that seemed like relief.
The stool next to me slid out, and I didn’t need to look to know it was Veronica. I glanced around the lab for an empty seat, but there were none.
The only open seat was next to me. Usually, Jung would sit there, but he was out sick with a fever. So, Veronica ended up next to me.
Fifteen minutes later, Mrs. Achebe finally showed up. She gave some excuse about helping someone on her way, which made her late. We all knew she was lying, but no one ever complained.
“Okay, class. Today we are going to prepare a colloidal solution of ferric hydroxide as your experiment,” she announced.
We had already written down the theory in the previous class, so we got up from our stools, ready for the experiment.
“I hope everyone remembers what we did last class, right?” she asked. Everyone responded with a “yes.” Today, it was our turn to perform the experiment and record the readings.
“Excuse me, ma’am…?” Veronica’s voice came from beside me. She had her hand raised, trying to get our teacher’s attention.
“I’m a new transfer student, and I don’t have the experiment or the previous ones written in my notebook. Can you please help me with this?” she asked.
I put on my lab coat and started gathering the materials for the experiment.
“What’s your name, dear?” Mrs. Achebe asked the new student.
“Veronica Sullivan, ma’am,” she replied.
“All right, Veronica. We can solve this problem. Ace, dear.”
Mrs. Achebe called my name, and I looked up at her.
“Can you help Ms. Veronica? Give her your notes and explain the experiments to her. Can you do that?” she asked.
I nodded and replied verbally. She smiled and sat down to take attendance. I turned to my right to see Veronica already next to me with a pencil and a notebook.
“So what are we doing today?” she asked, not even bothering to thank me for my help.
I adjusted my glasses and handed her my notebook to read while I collected the distilled water, a beaker of the ferric chloride solution, and a few other things.
I waited while she read the experiment, and then I took some time to explain how it worked. To my relief, she was quiet the whole time, occasionally nodding at different points.
Then we started the experiment.
“You’re the same guy who sat next to me in the cafeteria yesterday, right?” she asked out of the blue as the solution began to turn red. I hummed in response.
“Ace?” she asked, and I looked at her.
“Ace Knights,” I replied.
She tilted her head to the side, studying me for a moment before speaking again. “Can you help me with other subjects as well?” she asked.
I nodded. “Sure. You can borrow my notebooks, and if you have any questions, you can ask me. I’d be glad to help you,” I said, cringing internally at my last sentence.
“Thank you,” she said, and I smiled at her. Her appreciation for my help was enough to make me warm up to her.
We continued with our experiment, and I helped her understand some points about the ferric chloride solution.
She turned out to be a good listener, staying quiet and attentive while I wrote down the readings in my notebook.
She copied them down, and as she was handing me back my pen, I accidentally knocked her hand with my elbow, and the pen fell to the floor.
She looked straight into my eyes, and I felt a pang in my chest. My face felt hot, and my heart started racing.
She had deep brown eyes and a side braid. There was a mole under her left eye, and her features were sharp.
She was about my height, maybe a little taller. But I couldn’t assess her any longer as I was snapped out of my thoughts when she bent down to pick up the pen.
As she did, she stepped closer to me, and I could smell her perfume. It was a woody scent that had me sniffing the air.
But before she could catch me acting weird, the bell rang. I quickly gathered my things.
I told her she could take my notebooks, and I left the lab through the back door, ignoring her confused look.
