Skin Deep

~ Four ~

Warning: The experiment described in this chapter is purely fictional and therefor you should not try it at home! 

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I considered myself extremely lucky that Matt was not in my chemistry class. Instead his brother sat with his new lab partner, Kate. I also got the unexpected pleasure of working with her former partner. Kate had chose Rachael Burns as her partner on the first day of class. Rachael was one of Kate's most deluded followers and as it just so happens one of the state's finest science Olympiads. 

"So...Kate is working with someone else today?" I wasn't sure if broaching this subject would touch on her notoriously sensitive feelings. 

"Yeah," I was astonished to see her smiling. "She's just trying to make the new guy feel welcome." Her voice was tainted with admiration. Yup, clearly delusional. 

I watched Kate pretend to have trouble putting her safety goggles on. She employed her new partner to help her and giggled as he slid the elastic band over her hair.  

"That's very hospitable of her." I said, because if you can't say anything nice you should say something sarcastic that sounds nice. 

Rachael and I made a surprisingly great pair. She repetitively saved our experiment from my horrible measuring skills and I turned her verbal instructions into very sophisticated notes. We worked so well together that I felt sure enough to break my concentration with more chatter. 

"Do you have any other classes with the new guys?" I asked while trying to find some resemblance between Matt Milner and the Milner across the room. 

"Yes." She poured some amount of white powder into a plastic beaker half full of blue liquid. "I have first period English with Malachi," She glanced up from her work to follow my gaze. "But I don't have any classes with his twin, Mathew." 

There was that word again. Could they really be twins? 

"Oh." She gasped followed by an "Oh no" as we began mopping up the overflowing fizz from the beaker. 

"Was that supposed to happen?" I asked as I pulled a string of paper towels from the row. 

"Not exactly." I had never, in my eleven years of school with Rachael, witnessed her ruin a science project. "I must have poured too much." 

Mr. Grazer, our professor, stopped a river of wayward chemicals from escaping over the edge of the table. 

"What went wrong here, ladies?" He asked with an odd lift in his voice that only truly enthused people can achieve.  

At the sound of his words the entire class turned to face us. Rachael's face morphed to maroon. She stammered for a moment trying to find the right words then she shot an embarrassed glance toward Kate and Malachi.

"My fault." I said before she could recover. "I measured out too much...um... " 

"Chlorate." Rachael finished. 

"Yeah, what she said. Then it just..." I gestured to the mess of wet paper towels. 

"Fizzed over." I grimaced at her lack of a more scientific term. She shrugged in return. 

"You'll need to do the whole experiment over to see the results." I would have groaned at Rachael if not for the fact that I was totally clueless on my own. "Unless Miss Varrens and Mr. Milner will share their project with you." 

Malachi smiled and motioned us over. Kate looked as if her welcoming mood had just worn out. We smiled back.

Malachi's eyes were bright and clear unlike the endless portals of his brother's. They didn't stun or entrance me the way Matt's had, if anything they reflected the cheerful amusement of his mood. Although she was doing a great job of hiding it, Rachael was obviously ecstatic. She marveled at how smart Malachi seemed to be. He had no trouble understanding her instructions, but still he seemed to enjoy hearing her inform us all of every interesting (and not so interesting) fact about the experiment. At one point he had held up a dark green liquid when she had informed him that it was time to pour the powder.