The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

25: Are. We. Lost?

Add substance Y to X. I glanced at the top of the page to check which chemical X was. Then I picked the bottle out from the rack, unscrewing it and squeezing exactly two drops from the dropper. The mixture turned into a deep shade of purple.

I put the bottle away and squinted at the next instruction. Shake the test tube for a minute and add 3 cubic centimetres of...? I frowned at the Chinese characters, momentarily forgetting what chemical it meant. I adjusted my laboratory goggles and called over to Bai Yang, who was my lab partner, "Bai Yang, what's this chemical?"

Bai Yang, who was refilling a conical flask, leaned over to look at our instruction sheet. "Uh..." he hesitated, looking puzzled. "I think... potassium nitrate?"

"You think?" I scoffed. "Bai Yang, I need your help in translating this because I'm horrible at Chinese. Are. You. Sure?"

Bai Yang looked indignant and slightly annoyed, waving me away. "Yeah yeah, I'm sure it's potassium nitrate,"

Still suspicious, I picked the bottle labelled with a particular chemical formula from the rack, passing it to Bai Yang. "You do the next step,"

"Why me?!"

"Because you'll be suffering your own consequences if you had gotten the chemical's name wrong," I smiled smugly, watching Bai Yang roll his eyes at me. I unclipped the test tube from the test-tube holder and began shaking it gently, watching on suspiciously as Bai Yang used a syringe to measure 3 cubic centimetres of potassium nitrate. I double-checked the paper again, trying to decipher the characters to see whether we had made a mistake or not. I sucked in a breath. I mean, if it is a dangerous chemical, they won't leave it in the school, right? What's the worse that can happen?

I transferred the test tube with the thoroughly shaken solution onto the rack as Bai Yang cautiously squirted the potassium nitrate into the test tube. I shifted backwards a little.

As the last drops of the liquid left the syringe, the mixture began to bubble dangerously. My eyes widened and Bai Yang scooted backwards hastily. The test tube then exploded, the mess spilling all over our bench and a bit of the mixture staining the corner of my worksheet. Shards of glass flew in all directions, and one sailed close enough to me just to fall onto the ground beside my shoe. "Oh my god!" I shrieked as I heard a scream from someone at the back of the class.

Ai Qi, who was sitting at the bench behind mine, leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Uh, you added potassium chloride correctly, did you?"

"I'm never trusting you again, Bai Yang!" I groaned in exasperation, grabbing a paper towel from Ai Qi's bench and picking up the glass shards on the floor. Bai Yang looked slightly shell-shocked at our misfortune but nevertheless began to clean up the mess on our table using the table rag.

"At least I got the 'potassium' part right," Bai Yang shot back, grumbling as he wiped the liquid off the table. I threw the remainings of the test tube into the wastepaper basket next to our bench.

Qiao Chen, who was coincidentally Ai Qi's lab partner too, came to the front of our bench, a dorky grin on his face as he propped his chin up with his hands and rested his elbows on our table. "Now now, guys--"

"Go back to your bench and stop bugging us," Bai Yang muttered, flicking the cloth at him, missing his face by inches.

"Hey!" Qiao Chen shouted, causing our teacher to look in our direction as she entered the lab. Thankfully, during our mini accident, she was out to go to the washroom, so she couldn't witness our explosion, plus Bai Yang and I didn't have to end up with a lecture on being careless. I glanced at our table. It looked seemingly clean enough to not let the teacher suspect anything. I pushed my stationery case onto the corner of my worksheet to cover up the brown stain.