Page 48 of This I Know
“I didn’t hear from you.”
I fall back to reality at the sound of a female’s voice. It’s the girl who gave me her number. She’s just arrived.
“I assume that means you got it done?” She sets her things down next to me. Now she’s the one invading my space; I move over a little to give her huge bag more room. “I’m not a nagger, but I need this.”
“I got it done,” I say. I hand over the paper.
She pulls it out of my hand. “Thank you, God.”
Dramatic, much? I smirk to myself, and Avery catches my eyes again. I can’t tell what she might be thinking. She’s obviously interested in me, but I think I pick up a hint of disgust, too. I smile at her, and I think I see a brief flash of humor run across her face, too.
I’m satisfied. I’ll take that smile. Our first shared, mutually-positive moment, however brief and potentially meaningless. It’s better than the hostility I’ve gotten up to now.
The bell rings.
“Good morning,” Mr. Miller shouts, his deep voice climbing over the sound of the now-full classroom. He sets his chalk down with a clink and claps his hands together. Then he leans both his hands on his desk as surveys the crowd. “How is everyone today?”
No one responds, and he doesn’t say anything, either. His head keeps moving, slowly, from one side of the room to the other. I get it – he’s counting us. Or at least he’s counting our groups.
He stops scanning and lifts himself. “You can stay in your groups, but everyone needs to move their tables so we can do some lab work. We’ll be using the data you’ve collaborated on and apply it to some real-world experimenting today.” He returns to the chalkboard, leaving us to our nerves. “Fun, right?” he says to the wall.
We move our tables around the equipment we’ll be using. I do most of the legwork, not bothering to wait for help. The other boy in our group is a tall, gangly guy named Cameron, who seems nice enough but talks even less than I do. Which is to say, he says nothing at all. He tries to help by lifting the corners farthest from where I’m standing; I appreciate the gesture, but he’s weak, and has trouble with it, and in the end he only makes it harder to do this quickly. The table settled at last, Mr. Miller hands each of our groups a page.
“These instructions are very important,” he says. “You need to follow them correctly, and incorporate the data you’ve collected. If you’ve done everything correctly, this should turn out okay.”
Well, great.
We take turns reading through the paper, then get to work.
We have to move closer together. By some stroke of luck, or fate – or maybe it was some hidden intention on my part – Avery and I end up with our chairs side by side on the same side of the lab table. The two other members of our group are across from us, the most anxious of which is the girl. She’s actually standing up as she focuses on pouring her liquids perfectly, on after the other, pausing every once in a while to glance again at the instructions.
“Can I borrow that?” I say to the girl, pointing across the table.
She reluctantly pulls her attention away from what she’s doing to hand me a test tube. I get to work, also in silence, hating the awkward nothingness that is passing between Avery and me.
I’m working, but I’m also watching her. She’s leaning close to me, trying to read the instructions, which are facing me, and she’s also glancing at the array of papers laid out in front of her. She’s clutching her own test tube in one hand.
I pass her the instructions.
It’s immediately obvious the action was unexpected. She takes the paper gingerly, as though trying to move as invisibly as possible, all the while refusing me the pleasure of her eyes again; instead, as an avoidance, she looks at my passing hand.
To get this done we need to share the pouring of chemicals. Our group members across from us get theirs done first, and each item is gradually passed around.
Avery needs the vial I’ve just finished using. I set it down to my left, close to her but not close enough for her to be comfortable. She’s going to have to reach into my personal space this time.
She does, quickly grabbing the vial and yanking it back to her side. She pours the ingredient into the tube she’s been working on, and thenBOOM.
Her test tube explodes.
The sound is so sudden and so loud that the whole room seems to shake around us.
She jumps.
I jump. My hands still instinctively shot up to my ears in response to the loudness that’s so close.
The bossy girl across the table jumps.
Cameron barely flinches.
