Empire of Vampires ✔️

Chapter Thirty-Six

They were in the chemistry lab the next morning, and the whole class was in an unruly mood amongst the excitement of carrying out cool experiments. Mr. Pearrell was showing them a pink chemical compound which turned clear when he swirled it around. 

He kept adding pink drops to the clear solution and swirling it until the pink completely disappeared, turning into a purely clear liquid. The students were completely enthralled and Marie kept begging him to show it again and again.

The teacher seemed really pleased to have all his students' undivided attention for once. He pridefully repeated the experiment with showmanship and pizzaz, as he fulfilled their excited pleas for more.

'I'm doing this so many times, now you cannot forget this particular reaction,' he warned.

Marie had already forgotten what those chemicals were called. She just stared at the exciting potion, hypnotized with wonder.

Mr. Pearrell moved on to the next experiment where he started heating up some other compounds on the Bunsen burner, and pouring them into test tubes to show how the liquids didn't mix. The students were seated around a large rectangular table and he paraded around it, showing it off up close to each of them.

'Can I touch it? Please sir?!' Evan begged the same question of every chemical they came across. Mr. Pearrell had kept him quiet through the morning by allowing him to hold a piece of solid carbon dioxide.

Evan had held on it to with the greatest difficulty, switching it from hand to hand when it got so cold that it burned. He refused to let go until it finally sublimated. And even then, he'd joyously sniffed in the gas that it produced.

'No.'

'Pleaseee sir, just a little bit,' he pleaded, almost falling out of his seat in begging.

'Alright, but it's very hot,' Mr. Pearrell allowed, not knowing what else to do with the boy.

Evan almost fell out of his seat again in excitement. He reached out with his index finger and touched the base of the test tube for a long moment. He pulled back in surprise and pain from the slight burn.

'That's so hot,' he gasped.

'Yes. Because I heated it.'

The teacher held in a long-suffering sigh as he moved on around the table.

Marie was sitting beside Andrew and playing with the stirrer. It was a smooth transparent rod about the length of her hand. She was holding it up to her eyes and looking through the distorting glass.

She spun around in circles on her round high stool, whipping her head around to look at the class in every angle. The chair was made on a single silver rod with a blue, plastic seat fixed atop it, and it was spinning around precariously fast.

'Don't spin on that, it looks like it might twist off,' Andrew advised.

'Don't be a wet blanket.' She hit him with the stirrer rod.

'Ow! What was that for?' he exclaimed laughingly.

His laughter only managed to encourage her mischievous actions further, and she giggled and kept whacking him with the stirrer.

'Stop, stop it'll break. I'm serious.' He was laughing so hard that he didn't sound serious at all.

She didn't stop and the stirrer broke.

'I told you it'll break.'

'I thought you were just saying that so that I would stop hitting you.'

'No! I really meant it-' Andrew burst into laughter again, just as Mr. Pearrell walked up behind him with a stormy look on his face.

'You BROKE the stirrer?!' He glared at Andrew. 'These are very difficult to find!'

'I'm sorry sir, it was an accident,' Andrew meekly apologized.

'Accident? No don't lie, I saw her hitting you,' he accused, planting his hands on his hips and angrily staring at Andrew.

'Yess... she hit me,' he repeated, glancing at Marie who was still happily waving around the broken rod and not getting in trouble for her mischief.

'And I saw you nicely laughing while she hit you!' Mr. Pearrell continued on, pointing an accusatory finger at him, 'I can see that you're the instigator here, motivating her mischief with your laughter.'

'No sir, it was my fault,' Marie jumped in gallantly, 'I kept hitting him when he asked me to stop.'

'Dear, sweet child!' Mr. Pearrell exclaimed, 'Trying to take the blame to save your friend! No, Andrew is the culprit here and I am certain he goaded you into behaving this way.'

Andrew was speechless as he was promptly kicked out of class. He morosely leaned against the glass door and looked into the forbidden classroom.

Marie was almost dying trying to contain her laughter. She was tearing a little and snotting. She felt bad for Andrew, just a little bit, but the situation was too hilarious to bear silently.

Five minutes later, she was kicked out too.

They moved on to the next experiment soon after, however, and the two were called back in. Mr. Pearrell was heating various liquids and pouring them into a large bowl that sat in the middle of the table.

'See, now I can't mix them properly without the stirrer,' he was saying as he gently shook the bowl. He shot Andrew a pointed look as he said this.

The teacher got some volunteers to drop in pieces of metal into the liquid mixture; probably zinc, but Marie instantly forgot when the whole bowl started frothing with bubbles. The whole class oohed and aahed. 

Evan stared longingly at the bubbles and went to dip his fingers in, but Mr. Perrell smacked his hand really hard before he could get too close. He threatened disintegration and sent Evan to wait facing the wall in the corner, deciding that he couldn't be trusted.

~~~
There's always that one kid in lab who just wants to touch everything...
That kid is me xD

Ooh and the stirrer thing really happened! My friend kept hitting me with it and I told her it'll break, but she thought I was lying cause I just wanted her to stop hitting

And then it broke

Thanks for voting! :D