The Label Maker

CHAPTER FOUR: EXPLOSIONS

Gwen was ready to sock RJ in the nose. Even though he was helping her in a way that didn't make her want to pull her hair out, he was very argumentative... Over everything. Everything Gwen did, RJ questioned. After three more steps Gwen had enough. She suddenly snapped like a broken board.

    "If you have a problem with the way I am doing things then do them yourself. Here," she sneers. She set the beaker and dropper down on the table top gently, despite her rage and swapped seats with RJ. He didn't seem phased by her outburst. That upset her even more.

    "Were you even taking notes on the procedure?" She asks, turning to him, looking at his blank notebook.

    "Didn't think we needed them. Besides, your six pages of notes from the demo lab should be enough," he states, not even looking at her. He was to engrossed in what he was doing with the lab.

    "You are always sup-" She stopped herself. Arguing with RJ wasn't worth it. She knew she would lose either way. Instead, she furiously scribbled down notes, summarizing all of the previous things that happened. By the time she was caught up there were notes everywhere. They weren't even in between the lines. The writing made her cringe. Wherever there was open space, she simply filled it. There were drawings with captions, short explanations, definitions, and even random words all over the page. Once every available space was filled she moved to the next page. She was barely even looking at what was actually going on. She was just listening to RJ talk about it. The water turned this color when this chemical was mixed in.

    It was observation after observation. At one point she questioned if what RJ said was true and asked how that related the lab. He never answered her, but still she wrote it down. She even circled and starred it. Eventually when RJ started to talk less and less she started to write hypotheses and explanations and draw up conclusions of her own, not even bothering to collaborate with her partner on the matter. She was about to start on her third page of scribbles when she felt a lurking presence behind her. She turned around slowly to find herself staring up at RJ. He looked impatient.

    "What?" She asks, twirling her pen around her fingers.

    "I need my notebook back," he demands, thrusting his hand forwards.

    "I don't know what you are talking about, but this is my notebook," she protests.

    "Um, no it's not. That's mine," he defends. To prove her point she flipped to the front to reveal her light blue Five Star cover. Except the front cover was not light blue, it was gray. She scowled.

    "I seriously just wrote all those notes in your notebook?" She asks in disbelief.

    "It appears to be so," he laughs to himself. Gwen didn't find it funny. She closed the notebook and shoved it against RJ's chest. She wasted half a class period writing down quality notes and she isn't even going to have them. She quickly gathered her noteless notebook and shoved it in her backpack. She threw her lab coat off, tossed her goggles in her lab drawer, and shouldered her backpack. She still felt RJ's presence behind her. She tried to ignore him, but she wanted to know what he wanted. She stopped in her tracks and spun on her heel. Yet again, she was standing before him.

    "What do you need?" Gwen asks as nicely as possible. She didn't want to snap. She didn't want one person to ruin her day.

    "If you want the notes I can photocopy them. It's not a big deal," he informs.

    "No thanks," she says, repositioning her backpack on her shoulder.

    "You sure?" He asks, trying to hide his smile.