Thursday 10th September 1989, 11:45
It was currently 11:45, third period chemistry, and the lab, which had once started out clean and pristine, without a single spillage or shard of broken glass, was now in complete pandemonium. There was no sanity left in anyone, it did not look like a group of high schoolers learning a required practical for their midterm tests, no, they could easily have been mistaken for a bunch of five year old's mixing special 'potions' with their mom's shampoo and their dad's shaving cream, as they ran about laughing and giggling, waving random instruments about, and not paying attention to the method whatsoever.
Test tubes, lots of test tubes, were scattered all over the desks, the Bunsen burners were unchecked, holes all the way open and the blue flame roaring, and no one had their safety goggles on or even had their hair tied back, chairs were untucked and bags littered the floor- the whole room was a safety hazard. Mr. Clarke, the science teacher, was slumped over his desk, having fallen asleep grading papers, and the rest of the class had done nothing to wake him up, to them, it meant a free period, where they could mess around with chemicals, not wear safety goggles, and not get yelled at by the teacher, it was a one way win situation.
...
In all honesty, the class had started out quite organized, and had made an attempt to be productive. Everyone had chosen a partner to work with and had started off on the right track, getting all the equipment, bringing it back to their desks safely, and managing to set it up somewhat similar to the diagram on the blackboard.
Eddie had not asked to be paired with Richie, nor did he particularly want to be, and seeing as this was a practical they would need to know in their exams, he wanted to focus. Knowing Richie wasn't very good at that, he had tried to find a different partner as quickly as possible, but it wasn't the easiest to get someone to willingly work with you when you were a loner. He'd given up approaching people after the third disgusted look thrown towards him, and had walked slowly back to his desk where Richie was waiting with a small smile on the tall boy's face.
"Where were you Eds? I thought we were partners,"
"Don't call me that. And uh...partners? Eddie said tentatively, looking up at Richie , who was still smiling hopefully down at the small boy, and Eddie sighed inwardly, he couldn't very well say no to him, it was quite hard, especially as he did owe Richie for helping him the day before. Eddie didn't have anyone else to work with so he thought he might as well give in, "Yeah... yeah we are... I uh...went to grab some equipment, but it I couldn't find anything,"
"Well no wonder you didn't you idiot, it's near the desk over there," Richie said, pointing to the far end of the room, where the rest of their classmates were crowded, fighting for the least stained heat mat, and glass beakers that didn't have large cracks in them.
"I knew that," Eddie huffed walking over to where the equipment was kept, weaving through the desks to the clump of people who stood there arguing. He stood on his tiptoes, trying to find the best way to get through the hoard, unable to see anything beyond the tops of their heads. "Shit," he murmured, jerking away as someone stepped on his foot.
He frowned, walking a bit to the left, then to the right and still not seeing an opening, he didn't want to be rude and push through everyone, but he and Richie really needed some equipment that wasn't severely damaged. Just then, a pair of hands moved him aside by his shoulders, and Richie rolled his eyes, walking into the cluster of people occasionally shoving some away with his elbows, and swiftly grabbing all the equipment they needed in just few minutes. He walked back out with a smug smile on his face, setting everything down on the desk, pulling out his chair and then sitting down to face Eddie, who had his arms crossed, the corners of his lips turned down.
"I was just about to do that you know?"
"Sure you were spaghetti head,"
"I was!" Eddie protested, pulling out his own chair and sitting down, "And I would have done if you hadn't shown up,"
"Ok Eduardo, whatever you say," Richie said, with a small chuckle, fishing out his book, from his rucksack and squinting at the blackboard, so that he could copy the diagram down, and then could start working on the practical.
Although you aren't meant to, Richie spent a good few minutes sketching out his diagram with neat shading and realistic accuracy, rubbing something out every few seconds only frown at it and rub it out again, trying to perfect it, even though it wasn't necessary.
"Hurry up rich, we don't have all day," Eddie said impatiently, having already copied down the diagram, shut his book and made space on the desk so they could set the equipment up. "Calm your tits, I'm almost finished," Richie murmured, scribbling on the last label reading 'Bunsen burner'.
"Ok lead the way professor K," he announced in a bad British accent, standing up to help Eddie.
"You're so weird," Eddie said, not looking at Richie, as small smile playing at his lips and he shifted things around to match the set up in the diagram,
"Right so uh...." Eddie looked over their table full of items, and back to the equipment he was holding together, eyebrows furrowing as he searched for the piece that would connect it all, "...uh... right....if you give me that long thing...no, not that, the...uh what's it called?
"What this?"
"No-"
"This?" Richie interrupted
"No not-"
"This?"
"No, the long thing, on the other side of that orange....thing... no Richie not that, does that look fucking long to you?"
"Oh I'll tell you what's long" Richie said with a smirk
"Richie!"
"What?" the boy said innocently, making Eddie roll his eyes in annoyance, he just wanted to get the stupid practical over and done with.
"Well why don't you come get it if you can tell what's long and what isn't?"
"Because I need to hold this thing together so it doesn't fall down! For fucks sake rich can't you just give me the long thing next to the orange thing, no, not that, next to THE ORANGE THING!"
"What, this thing?" Richie questioned, holding up an instrument lying next to the pale green heat mat.
"I SAID FUCKING ORANGE"
"YEAH AND I CANT SEE ANYTHING ORANGE" Richie hollered back, poking Eddie's face with a long beam, which he hadn't realised was lying next to a piece of orange equipment.
Eddie took a deep breath in.
Closed his eyes.
And let that breath out.
3 times, to calm himself.
"You," he whispered, snatching the beam from Richie's hands and poking him back with it, "are just a bit annoying,"
"Well," Richie said grinning, "I do consider it my best personality trait, other than being able to fuck your mom like a pro,"
"One, that's disgusting," said Eddie, scrunching up his face, focusing on somehow fitting the beam on to a clamp like it showed in the diagram, "And two," he continued screwing on the small metal bolts, "that doesn't even make sense,"
"Oh but it does Eds, just ask your mom tonight," Richie winked, resting his elbows on the table and watching Eddie work.
"Don't call me that." was all Eddie had to say before he went back to finishing the setup, which didn't take long, hardly more than 6 minutes.
...
"Aaaand.....there," Eddie said happily, dusting off his hands and smiling down at the setup that he had been able to finish himself, because Richie spent most of the time messing around with the knobs on the gas taps.
"Can we start mixing stuff together now?" Richie asked, drawing his attention away from the gas taps and to Eddie, who pointed at the method written on the blackboard.
"Well yes, but..." Eddie paused, turning to face Richie and saying with a hard look on his face, "You have to help this time, I'm not doing all the work."
"Pffft," Richie waved it off casually, "Course I will Eds,"
"Don't call me that."
"Sure thing professor kaspbrak, just tell me what to do"
Eddie rolled his eyes, "Ok give me that little bottle over there, it's labelled lithium, make sure you actually read the label because otherwise this could go wrong,"
"Right."
...
Richie walked back over to the table where all the equipment was, crouched down so he was at eye level and began to scan the rows tiny bottles, all with red caps and hundreds of messily scrawled green labels, "lithium...lithium... Lithium....I think....last bottle...yeah here we go," he whispered, straightening up and moving to return to their table, where Eddie had started the experiment, by pouring some water into their test tube to boil, getting the Bunsen burner ready, and was holding some protective goggles for Richie and him.
Richie had hardly started walking when someone yelled, "SHIT LOOK, THE IDIOT'S REALLY FALLEN ASLEEP, CLARKE'S FALLEN ASLEEP!" bumping into Richie, as they ran through the lab to talk to their friends. The push wasn't that hard but unexpected, and Richie had been startled, so startled that he dropped the bottle he was carrying, and it fell to the floor, the glass immediately shattering and its contents spilling everywhere, but the room had gotten so noisy now that their teacher was asleep, no one had noticed the bottle slip.
The boy immediately panicked, shit shit shit shit, he thought, crouching down to salvage at least some of the small pieces on metal, sifting through the tiny shards, fuck, pieces of glass pricked his fingers as he failed to find any of the lithium pieces.
"Richie? Hey Richie? Are you alright there? What are you doing?" he heard Eddie call, snapping his head up and jumping to stand quickly,
"What was that Eduardo?" he asked, pretending not to hear Eddie
"Are you alright? What were you doing on the floor? Have you got the bottle?"
"What?" Richie called back
"I said, have you got the bottle?" Eddie said, raising his voice a little
"I can't hear you," Richie mouthed, pointing to himself, then his ears and shaking his head vigorously.
Eddie sighed, looking around him until he spotted his water bottle, "Have you got the bottle?" he said loudly, while motioning wildly to his water bottle
"We need a new bottle?" Richie asked
"What? NO, I meant have YOU got the bottle? The sample?"
"A new bottle?"
"NO, have YOU got the bottle? THE ONE WITH THE METAL,"
"RIGHT, OKAY, I'LL GET US A NEW BOTTLE!" Richie yelled, sending him a quick thumbs up and scurrying off to find another Lithium bottle, he knew full well that Eddie wasn't asking for a new one, the fact was that they needed a new one, and Eddie would most definitely be pissed if he found out Richie had smashed the first.
"NO! Richie please get back here, DONT DO THAT WE NEED IT, THE BOTTLE RICHIE, THE ONE YOU HAD, I said GET BACK HERE ASSHOLE!"
The other boy paid no attention, kneeling down to read the tiny labels again, his eyes watering a little as they strained to find one labelled lithium, "come on...come on...come on... ium...lithium...uh...." He took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes, and then squinting at the bottles once more, they all looked the same, and had the same sort of label....they couldn't be that different....they probably did the same sort of thing right? Right. He grabbed one and ran off back to the table, "Here you go professor," he said, "One bottle of uh... Lithium."
"Thank you rich," Eddie mumbled, "Would have been better if I didn't have to yell so much," he was a bit annoyed over all the time they wasted but grateful for Richie helping nonetheless. He quickly unscrewed the bottle cap, not bothering to check the label, and measured out 10 grams of the substance. "Here, put these on," Eddie said, handing over a pair of protective goggles to Richie, who strapped them on quickly, transforming into an even dorkier version of himself, his eyes looking huge through his glasses lenses and the cheap plastic of the goggles.
Eddie laughed a little, watching Richie blink multiple times in an attempt to see clearly, "I can't see shit." the taller boy announced, making a move to take them off, and Eddie slapped his hand away, "You can't see shit now, if you take those off, you'll never be able to see shit if something goes wrong here,". Richie decided to keep the goggles on, preferring not to go blind so soon.
"You ready?" Eddie asked, getting the small spatula with the metal on it ready, "We're gonna put this in the water and see how it reacts, if we've done it right, there should be a small fizz and a pop,"
Eddie poured the metal into the tube, and at first nothing happened. But then, it started to fizz, it started to fizz a lot.
"Richie? Are you sure that was lithium you got us?"
"Uh...."
The substance in the tube was boiling fast, the steam was already forming in small clouds
"UH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN UH?"
The water began to hiss
"I uh... I'm not uh... that sure," Richie said with a nervous smile as the liquid in the tube started rising.
"WHAT?"
The bubbles began to float, inflating horribly then popping and spraying liquid everywhere.
Eddie rushed forwards to grab the discarded bottle with the remnants of the
mystery metal they had just used.
The steam was getting thicker, almost looking yellow
" POTASSIUM! RICHIE!" he yelled, "THIS IS FUCKING POTASSIUM!"
"So what?" Richie said, alarmed at the sudden outburst
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS DOES, ITS ONE OF THE MORT REACTI-"
Suddenly a bright purple flame shot up, a piercing whistle and a harsh bang, and the test tube overflowed and exploded, shooting tiny shards of glass everywhere, the liquid inside spilling out onto the table and drenching everything on it, the textbooks, exercise books and their pencil cases.
It was dead silent.
No one said a single word.
The solution still sizzling and quietly popping while everyone stared at it.
Shocked.
"What in the name of sweet heavens is going on here?"
...
A/N
Well? I hope that was good hehe, I didn't know what else to do for a filler oof oh well
I've been trying so hard to stop myself from uploading all the chapters I've got so far but AGHH I need to write a few more chapters to make sure I don't fall behind
Also its half term for me starting Friday so we may get more updates orrrr I'm going to be working on a new reddie animation that I've been promising for ages
Thank you for reading :)) and I hope you guys have a great day, stay safe and keep hydrated, I love you all so muchhhh <333