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 Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:01 pm
Tatiana Konstantin hated science. Well, she didn't hate it. She found it fun when they were doing experiments in class. Remembering formulas was easy when she remembered to study--she could and would rattle off the Periodic Table of Elements for you cold--her uncle had paid her a dollar for every element she could remember when she was a sixth grader, and it had stuck. Testing rocks for their chemical properties, hey, that was cool. She liked that. Making pH indicator fluid from red cabbage? Not. So. Much. Probably if she'd been in class on the day they did it, she wouldn't be so completely bitchy at staying after school. Probably if her best friend hadn't just returned from the dead, stuck as a junior, she'd be a little friendlier. But she hadn't been in class, and her best friend was off testing to try and get her senior status. And Tate? Tate was pissed. With a shriek of rage--no one else was in the lab, no one would notice--she ripped off her goggles and threw them across the room. That was the third time she'd ******** up a relatively simple formula. Her favorite white shirt had a stain in a perfectly garish shade of neon green. Sure, she was wearing the apron and the gloves, but ******** it if she could remember not to trip over her own goddamn bookbag, ********>," said Tate emphatically. "<******** this."
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:27 pm
Elle did not hate science. It was pretty much the only thing she was actually good at, besides finding parties as well as trouble. Alas she, like Giselle, was fighting to get her proper class status after a year missing, and had had to miss the day's lab in order to test into the correct level. She should be a junior now, no more of this sophomore crap. One more year stuck at home with her mother sounded too nightmarish to imagine, and Elle was doublestepping to make up for lost time.
The spiky-haired teen thumped down the hallway in her asskicking boots, heading down to the classroom to make up the lab after hours and get the data for her lab report. She supposed she should be glad that her delay was in the area of her strength and shouldn't take terribly long, but unless it was something that looked good on her resume, Elle hated anything that kept her after school.
The girl pushed open the door to the lab just as Tate threw her goggles and stopped, staring across the room at the senior, blinking slowly. She didn't say anything as she stepped inside, letting the door swing closed behind her, and cautiously put her messenger bag up on one of the lab benches. Elle debated on minding her own business, almost turning away. But it would be rude to ignore her, considering that they were the only two in the lab.
"... something go wrong?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as she noticed the stain on her shirt. Tate looked agitated. She didn't want to have that ire aimed at her, glancing at her as she pulled the lab sheet and a notebook out of her bag.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:26 pm
Tate whipped around, scowling for a moment; it vanished when she spotted Elle, replaced by a look of vague irritation. There was no mistaking that she was unhappy about being interrupted in her private hissy fit. She carefully set down the rubber gloves she'd been wearing, pressed them into the table as if they might run away as she stared.
"I haven't seen you around," said Tate, which was like saying You're not a senior. She would have remembered seeing someone with that particular haircut around. And... hadn't she seen it? Almost a year ago... "...Do you know the red cabbage pH thing? I keep ******** it up." Sourly, with an expression to match. Well, no wonder, she didn't look all that pleased--or sound all that happy, either.
She picked up the beaker full of reddish-purple liquid, held it up to eye level. "I don't even know what I'm doing wrong," she sighed, "Chemistry sucks. Can't wait until it's over."
They were two days into a new semester.
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:17 am
Elle winced a little at the look Tate now gave her, knowing that she was dealing with volatile materials here. She'd better not catalyze a bad reaction. Hurr hurr. The dark-haired girl was pulling on a rubbery lab apron, going with the 'stay silent' option. One did not ******** with upperclassmen when they were in a bad mood. Not if they wanted to finish their lab quickly and painlessly and go be a hooligan in the streets of Destiny City or whatever.
She assumed Tate was struggling with a difficult procedure, perhaps multiple titrations? Upper level Chemistry was more challenging; not above Elle's head, but she reasoned it was possible that someone working alone would have some difficulty. But when Tate said something about the red cabbage pH thing-- not even really an experiment so much as learning about pH and the use of indicators-- Elle turned to look at her again.
"Are you serious?" she asked, with just a little bit of pity in her tone. Elle did feel mildly sorry for Tate. When others had difficulty with things that came naturally to her, she was somewhat confounded. It was weird to think that she might actually have a talent at something. It was nearly her duty to help the poor hapless girl out. She needed the karma boost, anyway.
"I can like. Help you with that," Elle offered charitably.
"Man, school sucks. At least you're graduating soon," she added a little sullenly, envying her position.
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:42 pm
She shook her head, glaring again. Of course she was serious, chemistry was too stupid to waste her time lying about. Now, if it'd been in English class, or maybe History, she'd be set. Creative Writing, even. Science class, not so much. "I know what it's supposed to do," she muttered, "I keep getting the wrong results. I'm thinking about faking it."
Tate did not mind faking it normally, but she'd already started and put a half hour of work into it. She would rather not make all that effort go to waste.
"Graduating and going nowhere. What're you, a junior? I saw you last year, then you vanished. What happened?" That was Tate: Everywhere and nowhere at once. She was cursing under her breath as she started, again, to strain out the cabbage bits. "Wait, that organ ring, right. That sucks."
Tate was talking just to talk at this point. Her attention was on the disgusting cabbage residue, not the junior/underclassman.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:12 am
Elle glanced wistfully down at her own lab that needed done as she went over to join Tate, watching her strain the cabbage and wondering what she could possibly be doing wrong, looking over the compounds they were supposed to mix into the red cabbage liquid. It couldn't be that hard, seriously. Poor Tate. She sounded bitter and pissy, but Elle couldn't really blame her for that. At least she wasn't snapping on Elle's a**.
"Yep, that's what they tell me, anyway," Elle agreed, not really wanting to get into it. She was trying to have a good afternoon, not get herself into another weird and melancholy mood. She had excellent stuff to smoke and there was so much random s**t to wander around and do in the city whilst one was high. Not brood over that. Instead she watched how Tate proceeded, trying to figure out how the ******** she could make a mistake with this.
"I'm lucky if I get to graduate on time. You're not going to college?" she asked, more to be polite, glancing at the other girl's face, noticing that she wasn't paying attention anyway, and leaned against the lab bench, looking down at her own lab sheet. Titrations. Gay. That was apparently all that high school chemistry was about.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:36 pm
"They're giving the organ ring survivors a perfect 4.0 for their missing semester," said Tate, "some kind of reward for trauma. So even if you don't graduate on time, you'll have a great GPA."
Tate's problem was an insidious, silent one. She'd done it right; it wasn't a mistake of hers, not really, unless you counted not washing the beakers for herself before beginning as a mistake. The beaker she was using for the hydrochloric acid had had a thin sheen of lemon juice on the bottom. Though the red cabbage PH beaker had been washed at least a thousand times, she hadn't washed the beaker of hydrochloric acid.
She was not good enough at chemistry to spot anything more than the colors turning just the wrong shade of red.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:53 pm
"I wish, then I wouldn't have to work my a** off playing catchup," Elle grumbled. "I honestly don't see what you're doing wrong, man," the girl quirked an eyebrow. "You used red cabbage, you strained the liquid... it's got to be something wrong with the stuff you're testing. You didn't even wash these after your other tries?" Elle picked up one of the beakers. The girl proceeded to dump all of them out and rinse them, rolling her eyes while she was turned from Tate.
"Ok, this one is ammonia..." the girl started to measure out new portions of the acidic and basic suspensions, just enough to get a result. She hoped it worked this time, otherwise she'd have to conclude that maybe Tate did fail that hard. Maybe that wasn't red cabbage. Whatever.
"Try it again. If it doesn't work this time, I'll tell you what it's supposed to be," Elle shrugged, turning to start taking out her own lab supplies.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:18 pm
Tate watched. "I never switched the substances in the beakers," she said; "so I couldn't get them mixed up." With a sigh, she relabeled the beakers with bits of tape; she was pretty thorough when she wanted to be.
A growl, not at Elle but at the beakers; she very carefully started to pour the red cabbage liquid into the containers, then waited. And waited. And--
"Hey, it worked," said Tate, leaning forward onto her tables. Hrm. Well, that meant someone in the AP chemistry lab was not cleaning their materials right.
Probably the fact that she hadn't noticed it herself meant that she shouldn't be in AP chemistry.
After a long moment, she said, "Thanks." It didn't sound insincere... which was about all it had going for it. "What's your name, anyway?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:09 pm
Elle nodded as Tate told her it'd worked, busy assembling her own lab materials, trying to get that s**t over with. She didn't say 'I thought so' or anything else uncharitable. Some people just didn't get chemistry. It wasn't her place to judge. Come to Elle, good karma! No more ******** to delay her graduation!
She glanced over her shoulder when Tate thanked her, and she figured she ought to be gracious about it. "You're welcome," she said, raising one eyebrow at her, not any more warm than Tate. She'd already turned back to her lab when Tate asked her what her name was.
"I'm Elle," Elle told her, and then, after a moment, said "What's yours?" She didn't expect the senior to want to hang around any later than she had to, God knew Elle would be busting down the double doors as soon as she got the lab over with. Still, it would be kind of cool of her to help her with these dumbass titrations...
Wait, the girl hadn't even remembered to wash her beakers. Hmm. Maybe not.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:26 pm
As much as she wanted to go, Tate still had to fill out the goddamn lab sheet and then write up her report. And this report would be so absent of the stupid mistake she'd made, it wouldn't even be funny. Hurr.
She sat down at one of the computers, turned it on. If she left with this incomplete, she'd never finish it, and then-- Well, no, Mr. Petrova wouldn't, as he had his own kid to fuss over again. Damn. Sometimes Tate didn't know how to feel about Giselle's inglamorous return from the dead.
"Tate Konstantin," said Tate, "really it's Tatiana but if you call me that, I'll punch you."
She was almost kidding.
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