The Scarlet Chamber

Chapter Five: Baking Soda Volcano

"For the last time no we're not!" Shouted Aaron his eyes bloodshot with rage and frustration. "It makes the most sense Aaron." Eve shrugged her arms cradling a bottle filled with clear liquid that smelled pungent and sour. "NO! It does not! God, why did I have to get stuck with you lot!" When Aaron realized that Eve was one of his esteemed group mates he was already apprehensive about the whole project but when Noah the kid that's always putting shit in his mouth who got caught wiping his ass in the hallway and Clark the smarter half of dumb and dumber joined up too this whole project was damned to hell.

"I'm telling you, man!" Clark started with that infamous laid-back tone that sounded like he was talking through a box fan. "If we just make a Baking Soda Volcano we can beast this project easy!" Aaron had to restrain himself from strangling Clark as he began to explain the project for the 15th time. "It's a biology PRESENTATION! As in we have to do it on the COMPUTER, a Baking soda volcano isn't going to work!" Noah sneered at Aaron his chubby finger rubbing a booger on Eve's matted sweater. "Quit being an asshole! We can just find a picture on the internet and put it in the presentation!"

Aaron didn't know what was worse the fact that Noah shot spittle every time he talked because his cheeks were so fat they crushed his tongue or the fact that Eve looked so disgusted that her usual bronze complexion had run pale. Actually, it was kind of a shock to the system that Eve even had emotions, before she seemed almost robotic she didn't really say too much, and when she did speak it was ominous and creepy. Aaron guessed that she simply needed time to open up but that notion didn't stay in his mind very long.

"BIOLOGY is the study of LIFE! A volcano has NOTHING to do with that!" "Um, the light from the volcano brings the sky to life!" Clark said with an air of superiority. Eve put a finger to Aaron's mouth cutting off whatever his lips moved to say. "Sorry, Aaron but you're outvoted!" She said with a super vapid smile. Now Aaron wasn't just suspicious of Eve's new energetic demeanor but he was starting to doubt her intelligence as well.

Clark, Noah, and Eve's talk of the project slowly found its way out of Aaron's ears and away from his focus as the boy's eyes wandered around the room hungrily eating away at all it had to offer. Between the faded pink paint on the walls and the fuzzy purple carpet, the four were sitting on Aaron couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Not his own of course he had never been here after all but rather nostalgia for all the memories Eve undoubtedly had in this withered old chamber she called a room.

"Hey, dickhead!" Aaron's observations were smashed to pieces as he found all eyes were on him expectant and impatient. "Do you have any baking soda or not! So fucking rude man, just ignoring people!" Noah nodded in agreement as Eve's head shrunk into her sweater hoping her parents didn't hear Clark's loud swearing. "No, I don't Clark." "YOUR FUCKING USELESS AARON!" Eve looked panicked as she grabbed Clark by his jacket desperately trying to calm him down. "Guy's you can't be so loud my parents are-" Aaron stood up and puffed out his chest Clark towering mere inches above him. "How are you mad at ME for not having baking soda when you don't have it either!"

"Guy's you really need to-" Clark stepped toward's Aaron his hands finally slipped out of his pockets. "Don't you snap at me Twizzler, do you even know who the hell I am!" Aaron closed the distance between the two boys the tension between them thicker than the imprint Noah's butt left in the carpet. "Yeah, I know who you are! Your the guy who comes to school forty-five minutes late because he got detention for a crime he got no credit for! Your the guy who has twinkle toes custom made because you thought the term edgy meant having your bangs cut like a fucking ostrich or wearing pants so tight that you have to have them surgically removed every time you have to take a leak!" Clark seethed at Aaron's comment his face contorting into a hideous scowl.