The Law of Attraction

Prologue

beautiful cover by @people-suck- !!!

--------------------------

Leila

I remember I sat on the hard navy-blue chair that gave my butt a chill–courtesy of my public school's fantastic taste in school furniture. My hands gripped the side of the chair, waiting anxiously for my fourth grade teacher to finish her winding spiel about the boring parts of the experiment, while the only part I cared about was wanting to be a volunteer.

When I walked into the classroom, it was obvious. Paper towels neatly lined on the large "science experiment" desk at the front, an assembly line of interesting liquids and measuring tools lined neatly at the top of the table, and a big beaker in the middle.

"Blah blah blah iodine blah blah blah clock blah molecules blah" Ms. Debby droned on and on about the experiment, and my science-loathing self hating every second of it. I just wanted to volunteer and not have to answer any questions.

I was looking for the key words–the tilt to her voice that signified the approaching of a question. The, "So..." so that I could run up to the experiment table and have fun!

"This might be too advanced for you all, but I thought it would be a fun experiment to expose you to things when you study chemistry in high school and college!"

I blanched. No way was I going to take chemistry in college! We had one whole unit of this stuff and between the molecules and ions and atoms the only thing I learned was that opposites attract (which still doesn't make sense!)

"So..." Ms. Debby led with the inevitable question. My head snapped up. I was ready. I got my arm winded up and prepared.

"Any volunte-" My arm shot up before Ms. Debby even finished her sentence.

"Yes, Leila," Ms. Debby sighed, "Come up here," she was tired of my antics but smiled a knowing smile.

As I sauntered up to the table, chest out and pleased with my hand-raising speed that got me the coveted spot at the front table. Ms. Debby, however, took her time in searching the room for the next victor.

Plenty of kids had their hands raised, arms outstretched so far I was sure they would dislocate it. Ms. Debby quickly glanced at me, and the side of her lip quirked up, as if she knew something I didn't.

"Hmm..." her eyes slowly landed on William. He was a shy blue-eyed boy, with reddish curls that rose up half a foot and seemed to defy gravity. He was so skinny he seemed like he would topple over if I poked him, and his skin was so white that I'm sure if he spent more than fifteen minutes in the sun, his skin would turn bright pink. He was a stark contrast to my olive skin, wavy brown hair, and his ice blue eyes the complete opposite of mine–such a dark brown they could be considered black.

Ms. Debby quickly glanced at me, and then at him, his arms tight by his sides, clearly not raised. She gave a long look at him and he blinked nervously, knowing that his name was about to be called.

"William, come up here!" she gestured him over excitedly.

He peeled himself off the icy chair, dragging his feet to the front table. After what seemed like a millennia, he finally got to the front, but positioned himself on the farthest end of the table, well away from the paper towel and glass beaker we were supposed to be experimenting on. We caught glances and I gave him a side-eye. Tumultuous thoughts ran through my brain. Did he think I had cooties or something? We're in fourth grade for God's sake, we're not stupid second graders that run around recess screaming "Leila's got cooties!!!" with cold-induced boogers dripping down their nose.

"Well, perfect!" Ms. Debby clapped her wrinkled hands together, and a bright white smile grew on her face. "We have two amazing volunteers at the table here, and they will be helping us conduct the experiment!" I glanced at William, keenly aware of the fact that he was in fact not a volunteer, and based off of his reluctance, most likely wouldn't be a great help.

"Will, come over here and pour the potassium iodide solution into the beaker," Ms. Debby instructed him, hands on her hips in an expecting manner.

He stumbled over and pulled his hands out of his pockets, moving towards what I guessed was the solution in front of me.

I then guessed at what to pour next, just simply moving down the line of ingredients. It went back and forth, me pouring hesitantly, Will moving on to the next solution, moving back and forth between us. I noticed Will's shoulders open up, his movements become quicker, and his steps more confident. He could barely wait after I finished my step to get started with his, causing a few spills in between and earning an annoyed look from me.

Ms. Debby smiled the whole way through, arms crossed and no longer instructing us, but was telling the class information that I was half-listening to, as I was too engrossed in pouring clear liquids into other clear liquids. We soon reached the end of the assembly line of ingredients.

"Now, Leila, take a spoon and mix everything together." Grabbing the spoon, I listened to Ms. Debby's instructions and slowly stirred the solution, bending down to get a closer look to see if anything changed. My face was a breath away from the beaker as I mixed, and I slowly felt another presence warm mine and a face push itself forward to also view the changes in the solution. I glanced to my side and saw Will's face less than an inch away from mine, so close that I could feel his breath pushing away at my hair. His eyes widened at the solution– I quickly redirected my gaze and noticed the clear solution in the beaker suddenly changed into a deep and dark black. We simultaneously gasped and looked at each other, eyes wide and small awe-stricken smiles on both of our faces.

"Amazing job you two!" Ms. Debby clapped and the rest of the class followed suit.

I stood, breathless at the results of the experiment and suddenly finding the whole class's attention on us.

In my euphoria, I barely noticed Ms. Debby ask me a question. "So, Leila, what was the blah blah ion blah blah?"

I couldn't process the information. Not only did I not know what was ever going on in my science class, but I also paid no attention to her the whole period besides mixing the solutions mindlessly like a robot. I felt my face heat up, and I was keenly aware that a bright pink probably marred my cheeks as I watched the class's expectant faces waiting for me to answer the question.

"Ummm... well," I stuttered, deeply regretting volunteering to do the experiment as I watched the twenty pairs of eyes stare straight at me embarrassing myself.

I suddenly felt a warmth on my left side, and I noticed it was Will sidling up to me and leaning towards me. His lips, obscured by my face, went close to my ear and whispered the answer to the question.

Not understanding anything that came out of his mouth, I repeated his exact words. I gave a quick glance at him and his face revealed nothing, eyes bored and curls falling over his face, like always. I just hoped that I played it off as well as him and that no one noticed the exchange.

"Yes, correct!" Ms. Debby clapped, "That's a bit of an advanced answer for what we learned in class, but nonetheless right!" A small and knowing grin placed itself on her face as she took a long look at the space between Will and myself.

As I settled into my seat, I gave a glance to Will huddled on the other side of the classroom, his curly hair settling onto his face. Through his curls, his bright blue eyes made contact with my dark ones, and as a result I beamed at him.

"Thank you!" I mouthed, smiling wide.

A small smile rose to his face and he settled deeper into his seat, curls obscuring his face again and returning back to his natural state.

As I settled into my own cold seat, I thought that maybe Will wasn't so bad, and we could probably be good friends and play during recess together (in a mature non-cootie screaming way, of course).

Little did I know that I wouldn't see William until another ten years.